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How many languages do you speak?


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Back home, it's COMPULSORY to speak more than one language. That's one of the VERY FEW positive legacies colonialism left in Africa. ;)

I speak English and my language Luganda.

 

However, there are over 20 languages in my country alone!! :eek: This means I can understand a few other languages too.

Then we have Swahili (a mixture of Arabic and Bantu languages) which is widely spoken in East & Central Africa.

 

French and German are taught in school too. It's common to find people who can easily speak 6 local languages on top of the mandatory colonial English, French, Portugese, Afrikaaner or German (depending on which part of the African continent one is).

 

How many languages do you bredren/sistren speak? :)

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English, Spanish, Italian, a bit o' german, Some Chinese (mandarin), Latin, and the most important universal language of all.......................................................................MUSIC!(especially bass clef)
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I took three years of Japanese in high school.

 

I can't remember any of it...the only things I remember are "Where is the toilet" and "I lost my eggplant."

 

I've been meaning to take a trip there and lose a bunch of eggplants in hopes of re-learning the language.

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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

English, Spanish, Italian, a bit o' german, Some Chinese (mandarin), Latin, and the most important universal language of all.......................................................................MUSIC!(especially bass clef)

Damn! Thats impressive Tark. Wish I knew another language.

Together all sing their different songs in union - the Uni-verse.

My Current Project

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American English

Spanish

Mandarin Chinese

Enough Arabic to be vaguely misunderstood

A few words of Cantonese, Japanese, and Korean (I can, however, understand some Cantonese, as it and Mandarin are similar dialects)

I used to speak Latin, but all my ancient Roman friends moved.

 

"A language is just a dialect with an army and a navy."

 

I am also fluent in the phrases given by the Zompist Phrasebook .

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Italian (of course)

English (I hope)

French (need some more practice, though)

Spanish (enough for holidays)

A few words of German and Croatian.

 

It always surprises me how you foreigners treat Latin as a foreign language. In Italy, Latin is considered a "dead" language, because it's only written and not currently spoken, so we learn it in some schools and particular university faculties, but just for research or teaching purposes.

Anyway, I think it should be studied for at least one year in all schools, because it's our history.

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Who are we? People.

Where do we come from? Home.

Where are we going to? Home.

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English, French (rusty). As a young kid (14) I lived in Morocco, where some of the locals at the souk taught me greetings, numbers, and some curses in Ber Ber, long since forgotten. That was worth an etra 10-15% off the always negotiable prices in the souk. I became the go-to guy for the english speaking wives at the construction camp. Twice a week a Land Rover went into town and the ladies would give me money and a shopping list, keep the change. I was clearing 50 dirhams a trip, $10 US in those days. $20 a week was a lot of money in 1969, just for attempting to learn the local language. While waiting for the land Rover I would sit on the veranda of the Hotel EL-Mansoor and drink Phenix beer. Thoght I had this business of living all figured out. The women never could understand how I could make money and their groceries were still cheaper than they could buy them for. Listen to the geezer ramble on about his lost youth.

 

 

www.ethertonswitch.com

 

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Originally posted by Ninja:

[it always surprises me how you foreigners treat Latin as a foreign language. In Italy, Latin is considered a "dead" language, because it's only written and not currently spoken, so we learn it in some schools and particular university faculties, but just for research or teaching purposes.

Anyway, I think it should be studied for at least one year in all schools, because it's our history.[/QB]

I might be mistaken, but isn't the Swiss language Romanish (spelling correct??) very close to latin?

Steve Force,

Durham, North Carolina

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My Professional Websites

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I speak English (American English for those who are picky enough to make a distinction.)

 

I speak Italian, but it gets rustier and rustier as the days pass by. :(

 

I used to be pretty good at French, but it would be a stretch to say that I know it now.

 

I did study Latin in school, and to be honest, it was a great foundation for learning various modern Romance languages later on. We do use some Latin in our day-to-day speaking:

 

etc. is short for et cetera, meaning "and others"

 

per se roughly translates into "for itself"

 

And, of course, in the academic world we use terms like et al, ibid, op cit, and more.

 

Then there's all the Italian (and Latin?) used for music. For example:

largo

andante

allegro

piano, mezzo-piano, pianissimo

forte, mezzo-forte, fortissimo

legato

staccato

 

Peace.

--SW

spreadluv

 

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I speak a smidge of Spanish, and a tinier smidge of Korean.

I can read the Romance languages well enough due to their similitarities, always looking at newspapers from around the World.

 

I also parlez the language of love, but it's heavily accented. ;D

 

Peace,

 

wraub

 

I'm a lot more like I am now than I was when I got here.

 

 

 

 

 

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Originally posted by Gogrick:

None

 

I'm a mime!

Genius :D

 

Does music count as a language?
If so can i have binary, and delphi?
"i must've wrote 30 songs the first weekend i met my true love ... then she died and i got stuck with this b****" - Father of the Pride
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]"A language is just a dialect with an army and a navy."[/b]

 

Mr Wilburn, is this an original quote by you? Impressive and spot on. :thu:

 

Knowing my local languages does absolutely zilch for me in this New World Order. I mean, once I cross the the district, let alone the border, I'll be hard pressed to find 'language mates'. :eek:

I wish I could speak French or Spanish. I did some French in school but I didn't take it as seriously as I should have. Knowing many languages is such a great gift.

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english and [highschool] French I.

 

why hasnt anybody mentioned the language that we all speak? one of the two universal languages.....

 

:D:D:DMUSIC!!! :D:D:D

 

by the way, in case you didnt know, the other universal language is math

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The quote's a common saying among linguists. I'm not sure who originally said it. It's been credited to the Yiddish linguist Max Weinrich in its first documented form, but there's some debate over whether or not that is the actual source or if he was using someone else's words.

 

Linguistics is still unfortunately a field plagued by hobbyists and well-intentioned klutzes. The dialect quotation is well chosen, in my opinion, because it reminds us that the study still needs to be grounded in practicalities, social and political, but it shouldn't be confused with them. Noam Chomsky, for all his credentials, should have never been given a foothold in linguistics.

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Just boring ol' English. I studied Spanish in high school (4 years) and French in college (2 years), but I always struggled in those classes despite my best efforts. My brain just doesn't seem to work that way. I think the only way I'd ever be able to learn a foreign language would be if I actually moved somewhere where English wasn't an option.

 

If I had to choose one foreign language to attempt to become fluid in, I'd definitely go for Spanish.

 

You multi-language freaks of nature impress the hell out of me.

All your bass are belong to us!
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