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Do you speak another language?

I

iMacZealot

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Mar 11, 2005
2,237
3
I'm assuming everybody here speaks English fluently.

I've taken a trimester of French, and that's about it so far. I want to be extremely proficient in it, so I will probably take it throughout college.



~*~*~I'm going to exercise my skill by translating my post:

(first sentence I haven't learnt that verb)

Je etudié le français. Je ne parle pas bien. Je veux pouvoir parler bien alors Je vais etudiér dans universitié.

Anybody care to tell me how I did?
 
Je parle un peu français.

I've taken a semester of French so far, and am not very good at right now. I plan on continuing with it throughout college, though.
 
I speak more than one language, living in a country with 11 official languages can be quite tricky but it's alright. I can't speak any African languages but I can speak Afrikaans.

And in Afrikaans:

Ek praat meer as een taal, as jy in 'n land bly waar daar 11 tale is kan dit 'n bietjie moelik wees maar dit is orrait. I kan nie eenige tale van Afrika praat nie maar ek kan Afrikaans praat.
 
I've got an A-Level in german, but I would hardly say i could fluently speak. Also living (and growing up) in wales, I know the basics in welsh, though never in my life have i ever needed to use it.
Mae'n gas gyda Cymraeg.
 
iMacZealot said:
Je etudié le français. Je ne parle pas bien. Je veux pouvoir parler bien alors Je vais etudiér dans universitié.

Anybody care to tell me how I did?
Click to expand...
"J'étudie le français, mais je ne parle pas très bien. Je vais à l'université pour l'apprendre mieux" would be more idiomatic.
 
skunk said:
"J'étudie le français, mais je ne parle pas très bien. Je vais à l'université pour l'apprendre mieux" would be more idiomatic.
Click to expand...

Ah, yes, those pesky accent marks, and I need to study my verbs (I've been taught apprendrer, but I clearly don't remember it.)

Je vais passer du examen vraiment mal.

I'm going to fail this final.
 
iMacZealot said:
Ah, yes, those pesky accent marks, and I need to study my verbs (I've been taught apprendrer, but I clearly don't remember it.)

Je vais passer du examen vraiment mal.
Click to expand...
It's "apprendre", and "passer" means to spend (time, etc), as in the English "pastime". To pass an exam is "gagner".
 
I took three high school years (six semesters) of Spanish and two college semesters of Latin and I don't know diddly in either. I've found English to be such a perfect language that I can't stand any other :cool:
 
(Latin)
German
French
The rudiments of Russian

oh, and Geordie, followed by beginner's Scottish :D
 
skunk said:
It's "apprendre", and "passer" means to spend (time, etc), as in the English "pastime". To pass an exam is "gagner".
Click to expand...

Apprendrer is the infinitive form, isn't it?

And I've been taught that it's "passe un examen", but my teacher is insane and reminds me of Samantha Brown, so I'm going to trust you.
 
Hi there.

I speak four languages, I am fluent in German and French.
My english is getting worse as time pases by and I hardly find an occasion to speak it. But, there's Macrumors to keep me on the page.

If you think you are going to fail a test. You could write.

Je n'ai pas assez révisé. ( I haven't done my homework properly)
J'ai peur que mon examen, devoir, va mal se passer. ( I fear my exam, test, is going to turn out to be a failure)

Again, my english is not so good.
Languages are fun tough. I would love to improve my italien wich is really really bad.
 
iMacZealot said:
Apprendrer is the infinitive form, isn't it?

And I've been taught that it's "passe un examen", but my teacher is insane and reminds me of Samantha Brown, so I'm going to trust you.
Click to expand...
"Passer un examen" is to sit an exam. "Réussir" or "gagner un examen" is to pass an exam. Even the French get this wrong, so does the Dashboard translator.
 
I played around with a Rossetta Stone demo (you can try it out on their website) and it's really fun to use, but I don't see how it could make you fluent as fast and easily as they say (they say something about the government using it to teach personnel foreign languages, so that tells you something about its effectiveness--probably the opposite of what they were getting at).

Of all the languages in the demo I'd have to say Portuguese (Brazilian) was the most fun, but it seems like there were inconsistencies with how they pronounced things, especially between the man and woman speakers. It got confusing.
 
I speak fluent English (native) and good French, and my Japanese is slowly overtaking my French. I hope to be fluent Japanese soon (few years).
 
I've been living in Spain for 20 years (I'm 23), but, oddly, I have some mild and weird French accent when I speak Spanish.

A home we've always spoken french 90% of the time, except with my father.

And some English, obviously.

I can also understand very well Catalan/Valencian (see later in the thread to learn more about it), and quite well Italian and Portuguese.

That's all for now.

For iMacZealot: a VERY good way of learning a language and getting rid of the kind of mistakes you make, is watching LOTS of episodes of Friends several times:
1st, in English, so you know what they're talking about.
2nd, in French, with English subtitles (depending on your level, you can skip this step)
3rd, in French, with French subtitles.

Unlike in a movie, you'll find everyday situations and vocabulary, they speak almost non-stop during the episodes, and it's funny, so it's not boring. If you have time, I'd suggest you watch two episodes a day, thru steps 1 and 2. It'll only be a matter of time.

I've never been in any English speaking country for more than a few hours, but my English is much better than what you'd expect, so I think for me it worked quite well!
 
I can speak Ukrainian fluently and used to be ok at German, having learnt it for six years in high school, but after two years of not speaking it most of its gone. Though I can't speak Russian or Polish I can usually understand a fair bit if I hear/read it as they're both similar to Ukrainian in a lot of ways.
 
I'd say quite fluently: three languages English, German, Japanese
good enough to survive: French (studied one semester in France)

took some Spanish classes in High School but forgot most of it unfortunately.
started learning Chinese but still very basic stuff...gotta find more time for it.
I have a Latinum (Latin) but I doubt Latin counts in this context...LOL
 
I'm fluent in both English and Welsh, and have a smattering of french although I can't speak it to save my life, I can read it and get the gist of what it's saying a lot of the time.
 
Juan Moro said:
I've been living in Spain for 20 years (I'm 23), but, oddly, I have some weird French accent when I speak Spanish.

A home we've always spoken french 90% of the time, except with my father.

And some English, obviously.

That's all for now. My sister (18) is learning Russian as a fourth language.

For iMacZealot: a VERY good way of learning a language and getting rid of the kind of mistakes you make, is watching LOTS of episodes of Friends several times:
1st, in English, so you know what they're talking about.
2nd, in French, with English subtitles (depending on your level, you can skip this step)
3rd, in French, with French subtitles.

Unlike in a movie, you'll find everyday situations and vocabulary, they speak almost non-stop during the episodes, and it's funny, so it's not boring. If you have time, I'd suggest you watch two episodes a day, thru steps 1 and 2. It'll only be a matter of time.

I've never been in any English speaking country for more than a few hours, but my English is much better than what you'd expect, so I think for me it worked quite well!
Click to expand...

I looked for Friends in French, but this is all that came up.


I also agree that my textbook is probably very cellophanic and prepackaged. Two of my sisters studied foreign languages throughout college (the older has graduated and is now fluent in French, the younger is a junior and studying Italian) and studied abroad as well. They've used it to complement their career choice, which I think I may do something similar with French...
 
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