Do You Speak Any Languages Besides English (Including ASL/Foreign Sign Languages)

[rastahomie]

Oh I forgot I'm starting to learn hebrew. I know enough to get by in services but it is a hard language to learn for conversation or has been in my experience.

I read somewhere that, excluding "new" words and concepts, Hebrew is essentially the least-evolved language. That is to say, modern Hebrew is much closer to ancient Hebrew (to the extent that most modern Hebrew-speakers can get the gist of the original Old Testament) than, say modern Greek is to ancient Greek (most modern Greek-speakers can recognize maybe one word in ten or one word in twenty in Biblical Greek), or modern English ("I'll stop the world and melt with you..." Oops, sorry.) is to ancient English (once you get earlier that, say Shakespeare, older English is basically unintelligible to modern speakers).

Anyway: L'chiem!

 

[MrsDuck]

I took Spanish thru senior year of high school. My mom was and is still a Spanish teacher (she taught me Spanish 4). I am semi-fluent but definitely understand more than I can speak.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I can understand German better than I can speak it, but I can make myself understood for the most part. The more exposed to it - the better I am. Writing it, not so much.

Spanish - just what I've picked up - basically "how much" "where is..." and I can count.

Sign Language. I took classes in this years ago, so I only remember some of it. However, I've got the alphabet down pat. I can spell out anything.

 

[katie01]

My Spanish experience is almost word-for-word what yours is/was Rastahomie: four years in HS, but two years in college. I can also read it fairly well, I could speak or write some basic elementary sounding Spanish to get my point across. I also can't keep up too well in hearing it spoken, unless it's a slow song, where I have time to pick out each word. My DS is taking Spanish in high school now so I help him study and I seem to remember all of what he's learning in Spanish 2. I also volunteered for awhile teaching ESL to Spanish speakers, and was able to have a decent conversation with some of the women I tutored.

I also took ASL, in college. By the end of the class we had to prepare a long conversation and sign it back and forth with the professor, and I succesfully did that. I've forgotten most of it now but I think it would come back if I took another course. I've known the signed alphabet since I was young and can still spell words out in sign language.

That's about it. I know a handful of words in Mandarin and can also pick out words here and there from other Romance languages due to the Spanish. Medical Terminology class was useful too for learning Latin prefixes and suffixes

 

[FlightlessDuck]

How about C#, Visual Basic, HTML, or JavaScript?

Also: Je parle un petit peu français.

 

[Micca]

I am fluent in the language of love.

Seriously, I took German in high school for two years. I wanted to take a third year but there weren't enough students to make up a class. I chose German because my grandparents came from Germany and my dad & uncle used to speak German during famil get ytogethers. I figured they were talking about something risque so I wanted in on it. It was fun learning German because I could practice it with my dad around the house and knew a lot of words the other kids in class hadn't learned. I've forgotten most of it now since I haven't had anyone to practice with.

 

[Kitty 34]

Not fluent in any other language but did take Latin and Greek in school and loved both very much!

One of my DILs speaks Polish fluently and so my DS is learning that language. Even said his wedding vows in Polish which was cool.

 

[kimblebee]

Un petite peu

Man, autocorrect did not like that lol

 

[DawnM]

Spanish, I can understand but can't speak well.

But I know enough to understand what parents are asking and if the student is translating what i am saying correctly.

Swahili. I grew up speaking Swahili and I took 3 years of it in high school. But I have lost so much of it. I think because I just don't hear it anymore. However, this year, I have a student in my classes who understands Swahili, so i have been talking to her a bit and trying to remember bits and pieces.

 

[RedAngie]

I can read, speak, and understand European Spanish fairly well, but nowhere near fluently. When I lived in L.A. I picked up some California Spanish.

A few French words and phrases.

I have a vocabulary of maybe 100 Polish words, and two dozen phrases or sayings. Plus a fair amount of curse words and profane oaths.

 

[ronandannette]

I wish I could learn all of them. Unfortunately I've got no aptitude whatsoever for languages and I've got this weird thing where I'm extremely uncomfortable not being able to communicate with people. We're going to Europe (France, Spain and Italy) in a month and I'm actually having nightmares about the language issues.

 

[MamaLema]

Apart from the obvious English, I am fluent in Spanish and Polish. I am learning Mandarin now...it is hard!

 

[Domo]

Rudimentary French and German - GCSE level for both, A* in French and B in German. Haven't practiced them in a while though

I also speak Domo.

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

Several years of spanish.

But I find I am much more fluent In "tired and frustrated mom"

It's a common language im told and I appear to become more fluent late at night.....calling kids or spouse by wrong name

 

[xjillianpaige]

As a kid I was taught to read and write Hebrew but have forgotten all of it.

I took French throughout middle school, high school, and college. I can still read and write fairly well but speaking and understanding it spoken is abysmal.

I'm currently learning ASL and I'm doing all right.