There’s at least one person on here who appears fluent in English as a foreign language: @JessieAddick. Do you speak anything else?
i can get by in France and Germany but I’m far from fluent.
Apart from English, I also learned a bit of French a few years ago. My purpose was to be able to read news on French sites as I was very interested in French politics at the time. I didn't spend much time on learning how to speak fluently though. I listened to a lot of French songs and loved them.
I must say having learned both English and French, I think English is so much easier.
I'm learning Female. Apparently few people actually become fluent in Female and most end up attempting to get by with guesswork, with not very successful results.
I'm learning Female. Apparently few people actually become fluent in Female and most end up attempting to get by with guesswork, with not very successful results.
Of the four ways to utilize language (writing, reading, speaking, listening), the fact that you can take your time with writing/reading makes it many times easier than speaking/listening which happens in real-time. In Spanish I consider myself fluent in the former but not yet in the latter.
When listening in a foreign language (radio, podcasts etc.) I find it's crucial not to try to translate it to yourself back into English but just simply listen and soak up as much as you can.
I used to live and work in Austria. I figured the best way to speak fluent German was to live amongst native speakers, of which there were very few in Eltham at that time! Probably one of the worst ways of learning any language is to start with a grammar book. With a highly inflected language like German, this approach might put you off for ever. You pick up much more just speaking the lingo in everyday situations; however, beware because old and young will want to practise their English on you.
Low spot of my teaching career in Austria was phoning up my brother to be told that the Addicks had just lost 5-0 at Blackpool. Hence a phrase I repeated several times thereafter: Leider ist meine Mannschaft abgestiegen....sadly, we've been relegated...
My advice for anyone tackling a foreign language, be they of whatever age, is 'go for it'...
I'm learning Female. Apparently few people actually become fluent in Female and most end up attempting to get by with guesswork, with not very successful results.
I learn a word a day in femalian. Today's word is
FINE- Pronounced F I N E - Meaning = It's not okay and it's not fine.
Uses:
Male - Hello luv, is it okay for me to stay down the pub for another few hours?
Excellent spread of advice; just a plug for Langfocus channel on You Tube where you can hear the basics of many languages clearly explained by Paul. I teach English and French and recommend, for supplementary home study, Michel Thomas, all available free on You Tube (again) Of course nothing beats one to one contact with a native speaker who is prepared to offer help.
There should be a lot more focus on learning another language in schools in the UK. The Brits and Americans are so far behind the rest of the world for this and, although English is obviously the global language, there are many reasons to have at least some of another language - work opportunities, better experience when travelling and putting yourself more in the shoes of others. Plus there is some evidence that learning another language can prevent Alzheimer's. Generally it's well worth it and there should be more focus on it in schools plus encouraging adults to learn.
I have a basic command of the Spanish language. I can ask where things are, how people are, orders beer, read signs, talk about the weather etc. The only problem is when people talk back to me in Spanish, I haven’t got a clue what they’re talking about 😬
I can read French fluently -- novels, history books etc -- but, when I'm in France, if anyone speaks to me unexpectedly it flies straight over my head. For hearing / speaking I cope better in Italian.
At various periods in my life, I've been very fluent in English, French, Italian, German and Arabic. A moderate fluency in Spanish, Russian and Dutch/Flemish, together with some knowledge of dialects in German (Swiss-German) Italian (Lombardo/Ticinese) and Arabic (Egyptian, Syro-Lebanese, Gulf States) allows me to consider myself as having outstanding language skills. Travel and professional committments have also made me learn a bit of Mandarin, Portuguese and Turkish and having learnt how to correctly pronounce anything, there have been some embarrassing moments when I would give a false impression of fluency (Russian, Turkish) The key to learning a language is to discover the motivation which will make you put the often tedious effort of continuous practice. English is my mother tongue but I've once been told my pronounciation can be Arsene Wengerish.
BTW ..... trying to improve my French listening skills at home, I've been on Youtube watching French kids' cartoons (with subtitles in French only and without subtitles). You've got the picture and action unfolding before you, no English translation at all - which helps train my mind to think in French, rather than think in English first and try to translate in my head.
These cartoons are full of everyday colloquial words and phrases, with emphasis and expression. I've found it really beneficial.
I speak Danish (which is not pointless when you live in Denmark)
It was not until I moved to Sweden and learnt Swedish that I discovered that Danish is very different from Swedish. We were in Copenhagen years ago and my Swedish mate said he found it easier to speak English with a dane.
I'm learning the basics of written and spoken Spanish at the moment. It was challenging at 1st (I'm 29 and I didn't care about foreign languages when I was at school)
Just something I quite enjoy doing...in my free time.
I find it quite therapuatic and it is also now rather addictive.
I have a book....which also includes the spoken pronounciations.
My motivation to buy this book... Was originally just due to the fact that it was crossed down from £8.99, to £2.50. Little bargain.
The 2 main well known languages must be English and Spanish?
Spanish covers a huge chunk of the Americas, plus Spain itself. Percentage wise, globally....it must be pretty high up there....so makes it more worthwhile in my personal opinion.
I, perhaps, stupidly assume that Italian and Portuguese pretty much branch closely off from Spanish.
"Catalan" is all just rather closely connected?
Question is. Are there any Lifers that are particularly fluent in any other language? (Apart from English obviously)
I don't want any Roland, "huh" joke responses....and I don't want someone to say...
"There's already a thread on this mate" where they then copy and paste a thread from 2011.
Any fluent German, French, Spanish speakers etc?
Even rare pointless ones like "Danish" would be interesting to hear about.
I'm enjoying it.
Cheers 👍
I'm not sure this helps.
Before I went to language school over in Sweden, I was talking to an English guy who learnt the language. The best piece of advice he gave me was to forget the grammar(that would come) but be happy that you make yourself understood.
I used to live and work in Austria. I figured the best way to speak fluent German was to live amongst native speakers, of which there were very few in Eltham at that time! Probably one of the worst ways of learning any language is to start with a grammar book. With a highly inflected language like German, this approach might put you off for ever. You pick up much more just speaking the lingo in everyday situations; however, beware because old and young will want to practise their English on you.
Low spot of my teaching career in Austria was phoning up my brother to be told that the Addicks had just lost 5-0 at Blackpool. Hence a phrase I repeated several times thereafter: Leider ist meine Mannschaft abgestiegen....sadly, we've been relegated...
My advice for anyone tackling a foreign language, be they of whatever age, is 'go for it'...
German for women's football team? You'd hope it would be Frauschaft or Frauenschaft but sadly it's Mannschaft der Frauen.
I lived in Spain for a few years and picked up enough to understand and converse. I didnt use any books or have any classes. The best way for me was living and working with locals and not English people only. Watching crap spanish TV somehow odly helped also. I worked in Amsterdam but never managed to learn Dutch. I tried but found it too hard so gave up and relied on their ability to speak English, lazy and i regret i didnt try harder. My youngest son is 3 and a bit and he can understand his Italian grandad. The younger you learn the easier it is apparently.
I found the best way to learn was to suffer a life threatening illness in the chosen Country, picked it up in no time. I learnt numbers too from dosages and also calibre for rifles etc. It's amazing how you pick it up
There should be a lot more focus on learning another language in schools in the UK. The Brits and Americans are so far behind the rest of the world for this and, although English is obviously the global language, there are many reasons to have at least some of another language - work opportunities, better experience when travelling and putting yourself more in the shoes of others. Plus there is some evidence that learning another language can prevent Alzheimer's. Generally it's well worth it and there should be more focus on it in schools plus encouraging adults to learn.
Interesting that you include Americans, a huge number of Americans I have met whilst living abroad can speak at least one other language. They are light years ahead of us in that respect.
Comments
I must say having learned both English and French, I think English is so much easier.
Of the four ways to utilize language (writing, reading, speaking, listening), the fact that you can take your time with writing/reading makes it many times easier than speaking/listening which happens in real-time. In Spanish I consider myself fluent in the former but not yet in the latter.
When listening in a foreign language (radio, podcasts etc.) I find it's crucial not to try to translate it to yourself back into English but just simply listen and soak up as much as you can.
Low spot of my teaching career in Austria was phoning up my brother to be told that the Addicks had just lost 5-0 at Blackpool. Hence a phrase I repeated several times thereafter: Leider ist meine Mannschaft abgestiegen....sadly, we've been relegated...
My advice for anyone tackling a foreign language, be they of whatever age, is 'go for it'...
FINE - Pronounced F I N E - Meaning = It's not okay and it's not fine.
Uses:
Male - Hello luv, is it okay for me to stay down the pub for another few hours?
Female - Yes, that's FINE
myself as having outstanding language skills.
Travel and professional committments have also made me learn a bit of Mandarin, Portuguese and Turkish
and having learnt how to correctly pronounce anything, there have been some embarrassing moments when I would give a false impression of fluency (Russian, Turkish)
The key to learning a language is to discover the motivation which will make you put the often tedious
effort of continuous practice.
English is my mother tongue but I've once been told my pronounciation can be Arsene Wengerish.
These cartoons are full of everyday colloquial words and phrases, with emphasis and expression.
I've found it really beneficial.
My youngest son is 3 and a bit and he can understand his Italian grandad. The younger you learn the easier it is apparently.
I've had a few beers....I may need to use my Sherlock Holmes mind palace just to try and string a sentence together.
Ma llama dave2l.
3blokes es mi el padre.
Buenos Tardes usted encantado Charlton Life.
Yo tengo cero Espanol
Ok. That was a pathetic effort....and I need to keep trying.
I'm still currently in the word jumble process and still putting the pieces together. It's currently in the "I'm overwhelmed" section.
Sticking with it and look forward to doing it more so tomorrow!
Us Charlton lot are quite the sophisticated bunch arent we.
Reminds me of a Naked Gun quote:
Quentin Hapsburg:
You do speak French don't you?
Lt. Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen):
Unfortunately no, but I do kiss that way.
Used to be fluent in German, but that's 25 years ago, so all forgotten.