Second & Third languages

[bongaroo]

I saw the same thing while in Europe, bongaroo.  Another thing I saw (which was very disheartening) was what seemed to be an American arrogance in the community that I lived in regarding language.  "We're Americans ~ speak English," without much effort on the part of the Americans to make an effort to speak the language of the country they were in at any time they were out & about.  I'm sure that was, at least in part, due to the fact that I was a child... Hopefully the adults in the community made more of an effort than what I saw in the children (teenagers).

And so many times here, I saw others speaking broken English (as their second language) suffer ridicule for having said something incorrectly.  I never did get that:  if they're smart enough to be speaking well enough in a second language for you to understand them, how does that make them worthy of ridicule? 

One of my kids speaks sign language (not "fluently"), but that's it. Now that the oldest is already a teen, I'm regretting not having learned/taught them a second or even third language yet.

While in Germany I met quite a few people who were able to help me with some basic German that spoke English themselves very well.  Many know a lot of English but wouldn't use it for fear of messing up and embarassing themselves.  Cultural differences.  The ones I spoke with had a great grasp on the language and helped me out a lot

[Nwbie]

Here's an area in education where the US really lags behind. I understand there maye geographic reaosns for this, perhaps, but the euro's really are way ahead of us in this area.(multi-lingual ed)

Heck - half the population needs to learn English - or do you not notice the first option when you make a call to an automated attendant is the choice for Spanish or English?


Newbs

[Gh0stFT]

Europe here

beside german, i speak & write in english & croatian (my parents roots are from croatia)
its very interesting that i started to learn english when i bought my first computer
around 1982, an ATARI 400, every manual & book was in english and ofcourse
the programing language BASIC. I had no choice,  learn english or never understand computers

This days i try to learn a little french, at work we have a few from france so i usualy start the day
with a "bonjour" when seeing them   but its a very very difficult language to learn if you ask me,
especialy talking, not so much the writing...n'est pas facile.
 

[moot]

but its a very very difficult language to learn if you ask me,
especialy talking, not so much the writing...n'est pas facile.

For every articulate frenchman, there was a wiry old lady teaching the hundreds of rules of first grade grammar and spelling and memorisation exercises for endless hours, with starchy manners and bare butt spankings, hand- and finger-whipping 30cm ruler and other sophisticated means of discipline.

[straffo]

For every articulate frenchman, there was a wiry old lady teaching the hundreds of rules of first grade grammar and spelling and memorisation exercises for endless hours, with starchy manners and bare butt spankings, hand- and finger-whipping 30cm ruler and other sophisticated means of discipline.

or Chuck Norris ?

[AWMac]

Ohhh Great, Just Thanx....

Having bad visions of Chuck Norris in a plaid skirt, white blouse and black shoes Catholic School girls uniform with knee high socks.

This is just wrong!

[moot]

or Chuck Norris ?

As a matter of fact, the CM2 teacher was a lot like that  He'd eye me constantly thinking I cheated to get 19-20/20's on every single dictation, and the one time I did it on purpose to screw with him, he put me up on a giant closet and shaked the thing till I fell off. Other bad students were hung to coat hangers by the back of their collars, etc.  He was a great sports teacher, though...  After the closet thing, I'd sandbag his fav students and beat em across the line at the last few moments

I was really proud of the flawless forgery I'd made during "correction" of that particular dictée, where only the last line was obviously botched and gave it away.. i.e. he was fooled and only caught me cause I let him.. IIRC a few years later, he was disqualified from teaching for favoritism.  Michel Doisneau was his name I think.

Here's the tall bastard :
http://image-parcours.linternaute.com/image/750/2/1508142353/439806.jpg

[Meatwad]

I tried that rosetta stone program and to me it is worthless in teaching a new language. I seen some software at best buy that teaches other languages that I might check into next time im there

[moot]

My father learned Russian, German and Japanese in a hurry, and still speaks them today.. I think the language program he used was called Assimil. 

[evenhaim]

my first langauge was hebrew
my second was spanish-
my third was english-
I can almost hold a conversation in arabic depending on the dailect i understand alot more.
 im learning french this summer.

My family speaks dutch,hebrew, arabic(alot) my grandparents rather watch arab tv station over hebrew
ladino(lost language) french(morracan dialect) some mandarin, polish, and alot of other languages, we are very multi-cultural.

[evenhaim]

Tried Farsi. That suk'd.

Mam di tomam tomchimigi! kubide

[Barnes828]

Ive been taking German for 3 years and i am skipping German 4 and taking Advanced Placement (college credit coarse) next year. I took a intro to Spanish class a couple years ago, I probably could have taken the placement test to get a credit but i forgot pretty much everything  I want to visit Germany and maybe Austria some time and put my german to the test. Ive been told the dialects are radically different between north and south.   

[Motherland]

I just finished German 1 with the highest grade in my class  (not that that's an accomplishment, in my class )

[lasersailor184]

I read and write german.  Not quite quick enough to speak it yet.

As for other languages?  I've been working hard, but I'm still unable to read english.  Speaking it and writing it aren't so bad.  The reading part is killing me though.

[Lusche]

its very interesting that i started to learn english when i bought my first computer
around 1982, an ATARI 400, every manual & book was in english and ofcourse
the programing language BASIC. I had no choice,  learn english or never understand computers

LOL.. it's almost the same here. I didn't really learn my English in school (I was a very bad student) , but my hobbies (computers and wargaming) forced me to read English all the time