Foreign languages - rate your skills

[Aberlour10]

No doubt, the members here have an "ocean" of knowledge in various disciplines. Just out of curiosity, what about foreign languages, which do you speak and how would you rate your skills?

 

1- like native

2- nearly like native

3- fluent

4- advanced

5- moderate

6- school basics

 

 

I start with >>>>

 

Polish - 1

German - 2

English- 5

Russian- 6

Dutch - 6

[kenberg]

Minnesotan 1

New Yorkese 4

Alabaman 6

 

The first time I was in Paris I spent the first day asking "Do you speak French?" "Non".

I decided ok, I did pass a written exam in this stuff for my Ph.D. so off to get a book and practice. My best was at a docking point for boats that took passengers down the Seine. There was just one sailor there and I managed to learn that the place was closed because the river was too high and they were hoping to open back up soon. On my last day there a car pulled up and a passenger shouted out to ask for directions. In a complete fit of overconfidence I started over to help and then realized that a. I don't know my way around Paris and b. I don't know French. I suggested that they ask someone else.

 

On the same trip I was (later) taking a train from Madrid back to Paris, and sharing a compartment with some folks just returning to Spain. This was a few years after Franco was kicked out and they had been in exile while Franco was still in charge. It was very very stilted Spanish but I was highly interested and they were tolerant so we had a good conversation.

 

I passed an exam in German also but I don't know Scheisse.

 

In a bar in Girona someone tried to teach me Catalan. Probably this doesn't count.

[aguahombre]

Before you take Ken to task for his choices ---English is a foreign language in the U.S.

[babalu1997]

Before you take Ken to task for his choices ---English is a foreign language in the U.S.

 

me speak english

 

once my boss said i spoke english as a second language like a native. that was because i made him pay me $20 to show him where ombudsman was in the dictionary.

 

i enjoy pointing out mistakes to the native: "Additional parking IN the rear". I cannot help it but wonder whose rear is being parked upon (or parked in)

 

i did try to pontificate in latin once to a cantakerous main bridge room expert. But he said my latin was worse than my bridge.

[onoway]

Seems to me there is one person who used to be.. maybe still is... on BBO who knew at least a phrase or two of something like 200 languages. I'd be hard pressed to name 200 languages.

 

At one time I could manage a conversation in Central American Spanish if nobody was fussy about tenses and syntax.

[gwnn]

Hungarian 1

Romanian 2

English 3

 

Icelandic 5

German 5

Dutch 5

Polish 6

 

Couldn't pick up a language properly since I was 10 :(

[Cascade]

Which languages are foreign?

 

English 1

American 2 (but i don't spell it so well)

French 6

Tongan 6

Maori 6

 

Although they are problem sub-basic.

 

I did some very basic German, Italian, Spanish etc 30 or so years ago.

[Fluffy]

I can understand portuguese, italian and maybe french if they speak very slow (just because they are related to spannish) but don´t think it qualifies as a 6 even, other than that some english and spannish

[helene_t]

Danish 1

English, Dutch 2

German 3-4

Esperanto 4

French 5

Russian 5-6

Spanish 6

 

I used to speak fluent German and French, and I was able to manage in Spanish, so I guess I could pick those languages up quickly. But it has been a while.

 

I can sorta manage in Swedish and don't have major problems in Norwegian. But when I speak those languages I basically just speak Danish while mixing it with the few words from Swedish/Norwegian that I am aware of. And try to avoid aspects of the Danish language that I know course problems for other Scandinavians.

 

My partner is Polish and I slowly get better in picking it up when she talks with her family. But I can't speak it at all.

 

When I was young I studied some other languages as well, especially Mandarin. But I only got to get a basic grasp of the grammar. My vocabulary never became large enough to use it for anything serious.

[BunnyGo]

English (American, but I watch a lot of British TV) 1

Hebrew 4

French 5-6 depending on how recently I've memorized vocabulary.

 

In general, I can pick up grammar and accents fairly quickly, but vocabulary eternally eludes me...this includes English.

 

At times I'd've rated my Hebrew as high as a 3, but spending time in an academic environment here has pointed out that I cannot hold particularly deep conversations in Hebrew.

[Oof Arted]

English

 

But proper English not like the @yanks' over the pond have done to it :rolleyes:

[aguahombre]

English

 

But proper English not like the @yanks' over the pond have done to it :rolleyes:

And yet you still consider it a foreign language to you? Proper English is truly a foreign language here, over the pond.

[Free]

1 West Flemish (Bruges area)

1 Dutch

3 English (except for the spelling of the word "awful", I always write it "aweful" for some reason)

4 German

4 French

6 Spanish

[ggwhiz]

English - 5

 

When I was in grade 4 my French teacher was a maternity leave replacement, a grandmother with a thick Scottish brogue. Toasted me for any other languages forever and English for years.

[Elianna]

English 1

Hebrew 3/5 (depends if we're discussing oral language, or require any literacy skills)

French 6

Spanish 6 (But I'm working on it)

Hungarian 7

Farsi 7

 

(I added some that I feel are even worse than sub-par, but I do have a passing familiarity with and have attempted to learn in the past.)

[gwnn]

respect for anyone who is above (below?) 8 in Hungarian, I say

[Aberlour10]

respect for anyone who is above (below?) 8 in Hungarian, I say

 

I spent a lot of time in Hungary in my youth, but what I have learned does not qualify me even for 9. Zeus & Co had to be drunken while they created Hungarian language at Olympus;-)

[Elianna]

respect for anyone who is above (below?) 8 in Hungarian, I say

 

What was good about learning Hungarian was that it was so different than all the other languages I've attempted to learn, so there wasn't going to be a case of my attempting to use vocab/grammar from a different language in it (like French and Spanish).

 

I started learning Hungarian because I studied abroad there. Now I would say that I can't speak it at all, but I can take a running stab at common phrases, know my numbers, and know how to say that I don't speak Hungarian, and speak a little Hungarian.

 

I could likely read a child's picture book. :)

 

But darned if I could pronounce the difference o or u with an umlaut over it correctly (sorry, don't have an appropriate keyboard).

[Gerben42]

Dutch 1

English 2

German 2

French 4

Afrikaans 5

Italian 6

Russian 6

[gwnn]

Hungarian 1

Romanian 2

English 32

Dutch 53

 

Icelandic 5

German 5

Italian 6

Polish 6

 

Couldn't pick up a language properly since I was 10 I'm awesome. B-)

FMP.

[Cyberyeti]

What was good about learning Hungarian was that it was so different than all the other languages I've attempted to learn, so there wasn't going to be a case of my attempting to use vocab/grammar from a different language in it (like French and Spanish).

 

I started learning Hungarian because I studied abroad there. Now I would say that I can't speak it at all, but I can take a running stab at common phrases, know my numbers, and know how to say that I don't speak Hungarian, and speak a little Hungarian.

 

I could likely read a child's picture book. :)

 

But darned if I could pronounce the difference o or u with an umlaut over it correctly (sorry, don't have an appropriate keyboard).

 

Been listening to a lot of Hungarian music lately so picking up a few words, the bit of pronounciation I haven't sussed is when an e with an accent on it is pronounced "ee" and when it's pronounced "ay" like a french e acute.

 

English 1

French 4-5

Spanish 5-6

German 6

[gwnn]

Been listening to a lot of Hungarian music lately so picking up a few words, the bit of pronounciation I haven't sussed is when an e with an accent on it is pronounced "ee" and when it's pronounced "ay" like a french e acute.

It's always the same sound really (<e:> as in hey - we even say hé!) but it might be something that depends on the surrounding letters. "ee" corresponds to í (<i:> as in heed: we have the word híd meaning a physical bridge). But I was trying to show the difference between é and í to a girlfriend a long time ago and she thought the two were nearly identical, so maybe I'm doing it wrong :P I think it's just a question of isolated sounds sometimes sounding weird.

 

As an aside, does anyone here watch Louie? The Hungarian girl in Season 4 has a marked American accent since that's where she grew up.

[Trinidad]

Hejsan allihopa!

 

C'est dommage que tous les forum posters boasting about their language skills write this på Engelska. Så är det inte möjligt för andra att bedöma om de verkligen talar dessa språk. Jag, däremot, kann das hier in sieben Sprachen schreiben und so können Sie genau sehen ob je puis parler mes langues étrangères. Ich möchte gerne een beetje bewijs zien voordat ik al die fantastische verhalen over buitenlandse talen geloof. Tot nu toe, je n'en crois rien du tout. Allors, quand vais je voir een peu de bevis? Jag väntar. Kiitos.

 

Mittlerweile denke ich das meine Liste etwa so aussieht:

 

Dutch: een

English: two

Swedish: två

French: trois

German: drei

 

Da zvidanya!

 

Rik

[gwnn]

Het Russisch telt niet als je geen cyrillisch gebruikt. Óman mín veit líka 'kiitos', það þýðir ekki að hún Finsk talar.

[akwoo]

Mein Deutsch ist sehr schlecht, et mon francais n'est que un peu meilleur.

 

I also speak Cantonese about as well as a native 8 year old, but I am illiterate. (I was as literate as an 8 year old when I was 8.)

 

English: 1

French: 4-5

German: 7-8

Cantonese: 3 (speaking), 9 (writing)