[Penny]

It occoured to me today I only know how to speak English and a little bit of Maori. I couldn't be bothered taking french at school. I took Maori instead.

So how many languages can you speak and what are they?

[Sparklechick]

I can speak English fluently and I took Maori, French and Japanese at High School but was asked to leave Maori by the teacher (she didn't like white people learning her language), took French until 6th form (we didn't have a teacher capable of teaching 6th form French) and took Japanese through to 6th form (by correspondence).

I only remember a little of all three other languages now.

[Penny]

wow thats pretty good.

I took maori in 3rd form. I was stopped at 4th form becuase there were so many Maori kids in my class (that could speak it fluently!) that I got left behind and I hated it, the only lil white gal in the class. The teacher was quite good though.

I can speak a bit of Maori though becuase I have this large maori extended family I have always been involved with and my Dad taught me a bit.

[edshuck]

English, maybe. More like some form of Okie-Texican mixed with west coast hippie.

I was in Germany for three years. But that left long ago.

a tiny bit of Brazilian Portogese.

Just a small amount of Arabic.

Morgan and Briall speak, read and write Spanish and English.

Kim reads, writes and speaks German and English and somehow pulled a minor in German and Japanese. I do not know how.

[sal_b]

I speak English fluently and learnt German at High School through to the end of sixth form and then picked it up again at University for another year. I also did a semester of Samoan at University.
Unfortunately I don't use either of those languages much any more.

Had I finished my Arts degree my major would have been in Linguistics.

[NiteFenix]

I speak Afrikaans, English and a bit of Zulu.

[Penny]

ohhhh I wanna hear you speak Zulu Mr Fenix!

[Sparklechick]

Originally Posted by sal_b

I speak English fluently and learnt German at High School through to the end of sixth form and then picked it up again at University for another year. I also did a semester of Samoan at University.
Unfortunately I don't use either of those languages much any more.

Had I finished my Arts degree my major would have been in Linguistics.

Wow Sal .... those are two quite different languages to learn.

German is supposed to be pretty hard isn't it? Japanese was bloody hard. It was the writing that was the hardest to come to grips with I think, and learning it by correspondence was extremely difficult.

[Penny]

Thats pretty cool learnign Samoan.

I learnt a wee little bit of Fijian in my time, but I'm not sure what bits of what I learned really mean what I was told. I understand that when I was younger and my lovely fijian cousins were teaching me they might have thought it was funny to teach me some words and tell me their meaning was different my father thought it was funny to leave me believing it...

[edshuck]

With any language, use it or lose it seems to be the rule.

There is / was a guy named Adolf Bandolier who spoke several languages. Many years ago, his talent for language made him a temporary hero of mine.

I think somewhere I heard he was a bad guy and that turned him. But til then he was OK.

Speaking a persons language shows, to me, that there is some commonality of thought. Not necessarily agreement, but well, (I do not know how to continue this thought..;.sorry)

[sal_b]

Originally Posted by Sparklechick

Wow Sal .... those are two quite different languages to learn.

German is supposed to be pretty hard isn't it? Japanese was bloody hard. It was the writing that was the hardest to come to grips with I think, and learning it by correspondence was extremely difficult.

Yep German wasn't easy. Remembering what was what case, what order words should be written/spoken in etc..., the writing was the hardest to.


And Penny whislt Samoan was interesting, I found it harder than German, and I can relate to your experience with your fijian cousins teaching you the wrong meanings, I had a lot of Samoan friends that would do the same to me

[Penny]

I imagine it would be quite hard! Good on you for learning it. I find languages quite hard to pick up and admire people who can speak other languages.