How many languages do you speak?

[corie]

save up and soon and then you'll be parlez en francais !

[PublicImage]

I forgot almost everything I was taught in my French lessons at school. So I'm going to start another French course in September.

[Syd'sSexy]

I forgot almost everything I was taught in my French lessons at school. So I'm going to start another French course in September.

You'll be amazed that once you begin to study the language again, you will realise you truly haven't forgotten much at all.

[PublicImage]

There wasn't much to forget, really. They only taught us how to describe our homes and holidays, which is an utterly useless waste of time, especially for somebody who wants to live in France.

[Syd'sSexy]

There wasn't much to forget, really. They only taught us how to describe our homes and holidays, which is an utterly useless waste of time, especially for somebody who wants to live in France.

Oh, I was under the impression that you had studied the language for some time. I guess you will be starting from ground zero then.

[PublicImage]

I did, I studied it for at least three years. It's just that the syllabus seems to avoid teaching anything that would be useful in a real life conversation.

[snifferdog]

I forgot almost everything I was taught in my French lessons at school. So I'm going to start another French course in September.

You'll be amazed that once you begin to study the language again, you will realise you truly haven't forgotten much at all.

You're right about that. A few years ago I spent a week in Paris and was amazed at how much French I remembered from school. I thought I'd have forgotten it all but apparently not. Such is the enigma that is the human brain I s'pose

It all boils down to how it's taught in school though. In Ireland, it's compulsory to learn Irish in school unless you've lived outside the country for several years. The problem is we're not taught conversational Irish so after 13 years of full-time education you finish school having studied horrible novels and poems but incapable of holding much of a conversation with a native Irish speaker. On the other hand, most people take a language like French or German in secondary school and study it for 5 years. It's a more conversational approach and at the end you come out with a reasonable grasp of the language and more importantly, the skills to hold conversations in French.

[Syd'sSexy]

That is totally true snifferdog. One of the main problems in learning a language in school is that you are taught the most formal structures of the language. You are not exposed to any dialects, idioms or colloquialisms, which is unfortunate, because it doesn't prepare you for having even casual conversation in that language. The educational system gives you the basic foundation for the language, but there is no substitute for actually speaking it with true natives.

I found that through my seven years of French studies, that I was extremely competent at reading and writing the language, but unfortunately not an accomplished conversationalist. I had to read some pretty complex writings by Sartre and other authors in French and write essays. I always excelled at that, but speaking the language is another thing altogether. Now since I haven't been exposed to any of it for twenty some odd years, it would be interesting how much I would remember if I delved into studying it again.

[corie]

find some people and just speak . its like riding a bike it'll all come back to you . I studied french for more then 12 years , didnt use it for almost 15 and when I went to france It all came back to me. As long as it's used , brush the dust off the languge once in a while you'll be okay !

[orange floyd]

So if Flemish is rather like Dutch, is someone who speaks it as their mother tongue most like Dutch? I have always wondered about this language. I have a friend who went to Belgium and said that they spoke rather different French and English, but every once in a while she met someone who spoke Flemish and couldnt carry on any conversation.

[rememberaday]

4.

1. English (which I'm most confortable with. I think I'm pretty good at it. )
2. Hindi ( I make a few grammatical errors hehe)
3. Indonesian
4. An Indian Dialect, almost extinct , Konkani.

Oh, and non-existant German that I hope one day to master, and maybe perhaps a few others as well, such as Spanish, French and Dutch. Make that 8.

[thefinalcut]

3: Spanish, Italian (both native level) and a decent English.

Would love to learn Pharsi (the iranian language).

Cheers.

[moom]

3.
Russian and Estonian are native, and also English. Unfortunately, I don't speak much of the Georgian language, though I was born in that Caucasian republic (I always have to explain it's not the US state).

[rememberaday]

Gdhcghfrjvdugsjk.

Am I doing it right? Is this good Estonian (in the truest sense)?

[moom]

Yeah. Sure.