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Anyone Fluent in a Foreign Language?
Brookwood
Member, Moderator Posts: 13,723 ******
I've been too lazy to try to learn any but have always kind of admired those who could and did. Have had a few situations where it would have been really cool if I could have given back replies to some that I'm pretty sure were insulting me. 😁
Once in German and another time or two in Spanish. French is interesting when spoken by pretty women. That's my take on French.
Comments
Not fluent, but I was able to order lunch in Germany not too long ago. The girl taking my order assumed I spoke the language and asked me something I didn't understand because she was speaking so quickly. I started laughing and asked her to slow down. "Nicht zu schnell, bitte. Meine Deutsch ist nicht zu güt." I ended up with the sandwich I wanted. Und es war warmes.
My wife is fluent in Spanish and that comes in handy for sure. The German isn't nearly as useful.
🇺🇲 "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." - Thomas Jefferson 🇺🇲
Can't speak it but just about anywhere here English/Spanish on signage and packaging I try hard
Like Kevin, a bit of German, but nowhere near fluent.
Judging by what I see posted on the internet, two-thirds of Americans aren't even fluent in English.
😁 Bob
"Und es war warmes."
Does that mean " got her phone number"?
I used to have a pretty good grasp of Spanish in my working days. Now I barely have a grasp on English some days...
Pretty sure Owles is fluent in Yiddish .
I should know more of foreign languages. My wife is French and taught it for 35 years. She also taught Spanish so she is fluent in both plus some German and Italian.
It does amaze me when we travel to France and Spain and she feels right at home talking to everybody.
I speak enough to get what I need at the store and restaurant but not to carry on a full conversation.
I am a number person, numbers make sense to me, not to her, so we all have something we are good at.
I was in a Pakistani restaurant 2 days ago. I was checking out the cook, he looked more Mexican than Pakistani.
I said to him, "Creo que, no eres tu de Pakistan."
or, "Hey buddy you don't look Pakistani to me."
He smiled and looked at me in astonishment. A Gringo talking Spanish!
I said "De donde eres tu? De Mexico?"
"Where you from. Mexico?"
He said "Yo soy de Salvador."
A tiny central American country, El Salvador, most Gringos never heard of it. I went on to tell him in Spanish, that I had lived in the little town in El Salvador, La Libertad, where the Gringos go to surf in the Pacific Ocean. We had an animated 5-minute discussion in Spanish about his homeland.
He said "Yo vivo alli, muy arriba en las Montanas."
I speak GD&T.
Geometric Dimension & Tolerancing.
The international language of engineering & manufacturing.
I speak native Western North Carolina and it seems there are fewer of us every day.
He said "Yo vivo alli, muy arriba en las Montanas."
He said WHAT, about Montana???
rettypa efluentya inya igpa atinla.
And hillwilliam redneck.
Tried to learn German many years ago. Sprigen ze deuch? is about it.
Taco Bell limits my spanish along with taco Tuesday.
Wee...wee...manure...
I'm like Rocky, I can speak a little German, but would be totally lost over there. When my Dad was little the whole family spoke German. It wasn't until he was 4 years old that they spoke English in the house.
Joe
For being a so-called "trophy wife"........Trump's wife is said to be fluent in FIVE languages.
Bimbo????.........I think NOT! 😳
Klingon.
I speak a rare language that used to be used in the United States of America, English. Now with all the invaders coming in it is a dying language that might soon be gone, replaced with Spanish. Many invaders have been here for decades and do not speak one word of English.
It's funny. Many job announcements here have the requirement to be bilingual. For grins, I applied to one and checked the bilingual box. When they posed a question to me in Spanish, I told them (in German) that I didn't understand a fleeping word of what they said. They got all huffy and said I had lied about being bilingual. I then told then (in English) that they were morons for not specifying WHICH other language was required.
I agree that English is moribund. At least, correct English. When it is acceptable to say "Me and him did something" or "There is many ways to do this" or "It should of been done" then grammar is gone. Don't get me started on "It costs 4$" or "There are cat's and dog's here. "
Let's eat, Grandma!
Let's eat Grandma!
Commas save lives.
🇺🇲 "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." - Thomas Jefferson 🇺🇲
I can barely get by in German and Greek but in Germany everyone speaks better English than most Americans and with a neutral ascent. In the former East Germany it came in handy ordering food, directions etc but to carry on a conversation no.
Same with Greek but I used to listen to popular Greek music so my accent is very good which causes people to think I am fluent
Last time I came back from Germany customs asked if I was an American. I said Ja, ich bin Amerikaner
At the gun show when I hear people speaking a foreign language (Russian, German, Korean whatever) I yell at them and say "This is America, speak Spanish!!" They always get it and LOL
"Fools learn from their own mistakes. I learn from the mistakes of others"
Otto von Bismarck
While in the service, I became fluent in D.S. (Drill Seargent) It seem that isn't acceptable at Sunday school!! 🙊
Chalupa mi nintendo.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
4 years in Geneva Switzerland, speaking French when I was young. Speaking and reading . I still converse with my sisters on holidays.
Sometimes i can push myself to think in French.I can swear really well.8 Years In Germany in the Army. Average in lite conversation, shopping and ordering Food.
I have a gift for inflections and tone so I have "Daravish" David's Rubbish. Kind of like Jerry Lewis I can make it sound like any language
I spent 10 years working in Africa(7 years ago) and I was pretty good in Swahili. My Spanish is not too bad, I was stationed in Panama for 4 years and I spoke it to my guys who understood Portuguese when in the DR Congo. After all the time I spent in Iraq I never knew but a few words in Arabic.
Sadly if you don't use it you loose it and I have forgotten most of the Swahili I know. I do ok in spanish.
I got ++ in Vietnamese when I was there but couldn't match their high pitch language but got good enough to converse. Now days when I gamble in casino's ( which they flock to ) I often stun them by responding to their conversations not in Vietnamese but in English which bewilders them, they have a hard time figuring that out. 🤔
"Never do wrong to make a friend----or to keep one".....Robert E. Lee
I am as fluent in Urdu and Swahili as I am in Tagalog. Don't know nothin' about Sanskrit either.....
No. I have trouble speaking English. LOL. My sister Kathy on the other hand, is fluent in 7 different languages. She can speak both northern and southern Italian, German, Japanese, Mandurian Chinese, Spanish, and French. She learned most in Law school and High School. The Italian, she learned from my grandparents, as well as German from my Grandmother on my moms side of the family.
My wife speaks English as a second language, Dutch as her main language, and German .
Yonson is what The Swan called Jeremiah Johnson.
He didn't speak Flathead and she spoke no English.
He taught her one word.
"Fine Figure of a man."
Swan said "Yes."
"A mighty hunter!"
Swan said "Yes."
"Good" said Johnson. "That is all the English you need to know."
"Ya wanna mess around?" Nuff said.
I took Japanese for two years in college. I might remember enough now to ask where the bathroom is, but I wouldn't bet on it!
I'm fluent in;
Mechanic
Army
Prison Guard
DIYer
where I use to work was Japanese owned and they even offed classes over the years to learn Japanese
some co workers went to the classes and I had a boss who had married a Japanese lady and he could speak and write in there style of writing fluently . he use to say it was fun when he would go into a Japanese owned business and Suprise them when he would switch to there language.
I learned a dozen or so words and have long forgotten all of them
the department manager a true good old farm boy
told me once he had no interest this is America and that's all he needed to or was going to speak and anyone here in theis country should only speak English.
I spend a month or so in Japan and got a good feel of what its like to not understand a word of some one trying to talk to you
but I did fit in height wise LOL
and as been called out on here
my hillbonics show thru way to often
That's fairly common where she came from.
The old joke about if a man is fluent in 4 languages, he is an excellent linguist. If he knows three languages, he's good. If he knows two languages, he's not bad. If he knows one language, he's an American.
Actually, I've told that in Russia, and Russians laugh and says that knowing one language makes him a Russian.
Btw, I speak Russian fluently, and know enough in two or three other languages, that I wouldn't starve many places in the world.
My dad speaks Spanish well... Me no. I do speak fluent Woogie. When in doubt speak Woogie, Da woo woo da woo. Woogie is a Pug Doxie with a touch of Chihuahua 😉😎
"Independence Now, Independence Forever."
John Adams
Also fluent in Mechanic and DIYer, plus Gypo Logger.
spanish here
US, UK, and Australia. 3 vastly different versions of the English language. lets not even get into the Cajun [* *] version
i know some hand signs that are universal😮