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wo xuexi putonghua. wo shuo de BU hao. pimsleur is the best! screw all that book-learning stuff. no, i took like four semesters but got really bogged down with all the characters. i'm convinced it's better to speak first, then read/write for chinese.

― viborgu, Thursday, 22 September 2005 21:01 (eighteen years ago) link

wo shuo de BU hao

"I am not good"?

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 22 September 2005 21:04 (eighteen years ago) link

German, portuguese, and enough french to get me through a "Corto Maltese" comic book (but not a Verlaine poetry anthology)

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Thursday, 22 September 2005 22:32 (eighteen years ago) link

learning to read and write at the same time is the best way to learn

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 22 September 2005 23:59 (eighteen years ago) link

i'd recommend learning first how to write "one" in chinese

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 22 September 2005 23:59 (eighteen years ago) link

once you know the basics the whole written language is a breeze

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 23 September 2005 00:00 (eighteen years ago) link

I can read Proust in the original but the only thing I'm able to say I really speak, apart from my native English, is gibberish. BTW, I write it too.

― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 23 September 2005 04:19 (eighteen years ago) link

I spoke hebrew fluently as a child. Now, not so much.

― Sym Sym (sym), Friday, 23 September 2005 04:24 (eighteen years ago) link

I need help learning how to write -- the book/cd combo I have is NO help.

― Roxymuzak, Mrs. Carbohydrate (roxymuzak), Friday, 23 September 2005 15:48 (eighteen years ago) link

close enough, john.

viborgu, i've been curious about pimsleur & often tempted to buy it. i studied in college for two years & studied abroad for 6 months. that was approx. 5-6 years ago. what level should i start with?!

― kelsey (kelstarry), Friday, 23 September 2005 15:50 (eighteen years ago) link

SI YO SOY DANNY BONADUCE!

― Confounded (Confounded), Friday, 23 September 2005 18:03 (eighteen years ago) link

Where are all the gibberish speakers/writers?

― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 23 September 2005 18:04 (eighteen years ago) link

HI DERE, ¿ DE QUE EST ESTO?

― El (Ken L), Friday, 23 September 2005 18:09 (eighteen years ago) link

Χ ΔΕΡΕ! ΞΑΤ ΙΣ ΙΤ ΜΛΔΕ?

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 23 September 2005 18:46 (eighteen years ago) link

Faru ushku farmu mao
ee-i-ee-oh!

― Thea (Thea), Friday, 23 September 2005 18:54 (eighteen years ago) link

i meant

ee-i-ee-i-oh, dammit

― Thea (Thea), Friday, 23 September 2005 18:55 (eighteen years ago) link

I can read and write French, but I can't really converse in it. Books = easy. Talking to a person = I get way lost. I know a little bit of German- one of my coworkers from Munich was just here for a week, so I got a little bit of practice speaking it when our group went out drinking every night with him. Hmm, and I learned Latin in high school, but I'm sure that I've forgotten all of it.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2005/09/23/international/i171947D03.DTL

Half of Europe's Citizens Know 2 Languages
-
Friday, September 23, 2005

(09-23) 17:19 PDT BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) --

Half of European citizens speak a second language, according to a European Union survey released Friday.

The poll, conducted in June across Europe, found that tiny Luxembourg had the highest percentage of bilingual citizens, with 99 percent of those questioned saying they could master a conversation in a second language.

Hungary had the lowest number with 29 percent of its citizens able to speak another language. Britain was second last with 30 percent.

The survey also found that almost eight out of 10 students — ages 15-24 — can have a normal conversation in at least one foreign language.

In the United States, by contrast, 9 percent of Americans speak both their native language and another language fluently, according to a U.S. Senate resolution designating 2005 the "Year of Foreign Language Study."

In the European survey, English was identified by 34 percent of respondents as their second language, followed by German which was a second language for 12 percent, then French which was spoken as a second language by 11 percent, according to the survey....

― lyra (lyra), Saturday, 24 September 2005 00:29 (eighteen years ago) link

Mä puhun sujuvaa suomea ja englantia, hiukan huonompaa ruotsia (vaikka suoritinkin virkamiesruotsin kurssin yliopistolla viime vuonna), sekä jokseenkin huonoa saksaa ja espanjaa.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Saturday, 24 September 2005 09:55 (eighteen years ago) link

Jullie kunnen allemaal mijn kloten kussen. Eigenlijk niet want ik ben een vrouw.

Apparently the myth that Belgians can speak a lot of languages is not true. Ah well.

― nathalie, a bum like you (stevie nixed), Saturday, 24 September 2005 10:01 (eighteen years ago) link

Norwegian, obv; with that also comes understanding Danish and Swedish (I may possibly be able to speak them well enough to fool some Swedes I'm Danish and vice versa), plus English fluently. German to a decent degree, some reading abilities in French, Italian (maybe also Spanish?) Latin and (less so) Ancient Greek, especially if it's simply written and I have a dictionary at hand. Able to decipher katakana.

― OleM (OleM), Saturday, 24 September 2005 20:13 (eighteen years ago) link

Tuomas to what degree do Finns and Estonians understand each other?

― OleM (OleM), Saturday, 24 September 2005 20:15 (eighteen years ago) link

Isn't Finnish related to Hungarian?

― Teh HoBB (the pirate king), Saturday, 24 September 2005 20:29 (eighteen years ago) link

Is indeed. Like English to Romanian.

― OleM (OleM), Saturday, 24 September 2005 20:57 (eighteen years ago) link

(Though possibly a bit closer. Another question for Tuomas, I think.)

― OleM (OleM), Saturday, 24 September 2005 20:59 (eighteen years ago) link

Is indeed. Like English to Romanian.
English is a germanic language, and I thought that Romanian is a romance language (ie those two really aren't very similiar at all).

― lyra (lyra), Saturday, 24 September 2005 22:39 (eighteen years ago) link

Unless I'm not understanding your post at all, which is possible - I've taken way too much cold medicine this afternoon.

― lyra (lyra), Saturday, 24 September 2005 22:40 (eighteen years ago) link

You're right + wrong. The kinship between Finnish and Hungarian is they both belong to the Uralic family, while English and Romanian are both Indo-European. So on that evidence, it's about similar.

However, the subgroups and their possible similarities Finno-Ugric, Romance, Germanic obv complicates stuff (see parenthesised post).

― OleM (OleM), Saturday, 24 September 2005 22:50 (eighteen years ago) link

Nu stiu cite persoane ar vorbi Romana, Engleza, Maghiara si Finlandeza, in orice caz, socot ca similaritatile dintre Maghiara si Finlandeza sunt cam pe atit de pronuntate ca si cele dintre romana si Germana, cu exceptia faptului ca primele doua au o sistema structurala similara, ceea ce nu se poate spune cu desavirsire in privinta vocabularului.

― Jena (JenaP), Sunday, 25 September 2005 03:16 (eighteen years ago) link

i.e. pretty much what OleM said, in Romanian.

― Jena (JenaP), Sunday, 25 September 2005 03:17 (eighteen years ago) link

Ikke sant? Du veit nok mye mer om ungarsk enn jeg!

― OleM (OleM), Sunday, 25 September 2005 04:32 (eighteen years ago) link

ie if you're Romanian, you probably know a lot more about Hungarian than I do!

― OleM (OleM), Sunday, 25 September 2005 04:36 (eighteen years ago) link

correction: primele doua --> ultimele doua

OleM, on average, what percentage of Norwegians speak German? I can;t help but notice a striking similarity, at least in the last sentence there. And tell us more about katakana!

― Jena (JenaP), Sunday, 25 September 2005 04:54 (eighteen years ago) link

Selamat petang! Anda semua tentu tak faham bahasa ni.

― Roz (Roz), Sunday, 25 September 2005 07:03 (eighteen years ago) link

It hardly counts as a foreign language, but I'm tempted to try learning Welsh - do any ILXors speak it?

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Sunday, 25 September 2005 07:10 (eighteen years ago) link

Katakana = one of the three sets of characters used in Japanese, used mainly for transcribing Western words etc. Each character generally represents a syllable (a, e, i, o, u, ka, ke, ki, ko, ku, ta, te, chi, to, tsu etc etc). They are typically simple and angular, in contrast to the complex kanji (Chinese characters) and the simple but rounded hiragana (also syllabic, used for Japanese particles etc). If you have a Japanese import CD/record of a Western band, chances are the artist and titles are written in katakana.

― OleM (OleM), Sunday, 25 September 2005 14:00 (eighteen years ago) link

Will this work I wonder: ice cream = ƒAƒCƒXƒNƒŠ?[ƒ€ or something similar. A + i + su + ku + ri + vowel lengthener + mu.

― OleM (OleM), Sunday, 25 September 2005 14:07 (eighteen years ago) link

It didn't.

― OleM (OleM), Sunday, 25 September 2005 14:07 (eighteen years ago) link

Jullie kunnen allemaal mijn kloten kussen. Eigenlijk niet want ik ben een vrouw.

We shan't kiss your balls, m'lady.

I speak Dutch fluently. My passive command of German is good, but I get tongue-tied when I try to speak it because it's too similar to Dutch. I can make very very small talk in Spanish but wouldn't say I can speak it.

― Maria :D (Maria D.), Monday, 26 September 2005 00:56 (eighteen years ago) link

does ILX eat kanji characters?

(that's supposed to be book, one of very few that I know)

― lyra (lyra), Monday, 26 September 2005 01:07 (eighteen years ago) link

Argh, yes it does. Book is not a question mark, it looks like a little tent.

― lyra (lyra), Monday, 26 September 2005 01:08 (eighteen years ago) link

Oh and also add Icelandic to my "some reading capabilities" list.

― OleM (OleM), Monday, 26 September 2005 07:39 (eighteen years ago) link

Hoy, en esta isla, ha ocurrido un milagro: el verano se adelantó.

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 3 October 2005 13:55 (eighteen years ago) link

Det var engang tre bukker som skulle gå til seters og gjøre seg fete, og alle tre så hette de Bukken Bruse.

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 3 October 2005 13:57 (eighteen years ago) link

Doukipudonktan, se demanda Gabriel excédé.

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 3 October 2005 13:59 (eighteen years ago) link

one month passes...

the funny thing about this pimsleur business is that i have no idea how to write the french that i'm learning... i could probably figure it out reading it. but the cd's work great for basic conversational skills. i'm doing each lesson 2 or 3 times though, plus each lesson is half remedial anyway. once i'm done with this i'm probably going to get private tutelage though. then to craigslist i shall go for a french buddy.

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Friday, 4 November 2005 19:58 (eighteen years ago) link

I speak English and Dutch quite well

I'm such a liar.

― Nathalie, the Queen of Frock 'n' Fall (stevie nixed), Friday, 4 November 2005 20:03 (eighteen years ago) link

i'm an abuser of 'though'

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Friday, 4 November 2005 20:03 (eighteen years ago) link

five months pass...

I have still been working on Cantonese and am getting pretty ok, but I have no one to speak it to/with, so I don't know how well I am *really* doing.

I want to start a new language study but I'm torn between the following: Hindi, Farsi, Portuguese and Welsh.

I speak Dog and Plant.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Monday, 24 April 2006 14:16 (eighteen years ago) link

English, Dutch, German, French, and I can read Ancient Greek and Latin.

― Eva van Rein (Gaia1981), Monday, 24 April 2006 14:32 (eighteen years ago) link

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