Se habla ingles?

[hackthis_archive]

I had a dream last night that I had to make this poll. It's just for curiousity's sake, but you know me, I may try to pick your brains later if I want one of my characters to start cursing at people in Russian. Even though my keyboard isn't equipped for Russian.

ETA: I define 'speak' as some degree of fluency/proficency where you can a) carry on a conversation b) curse prolifically and summon a policeman in said language and/or c) survive if you are kidnapped, tied up, dropped off in that country with nothing but your name, and can communicate well enough with other people (without sign language) so you can get back home.

Too much Burn Notice what?

ETA 2: Yes, kids, I know that Scandinavian and Eastern European are regions and not languages, but in some instances you have to generalize because unless it's for a paper, I'm not listing 600 languages.

[Poll #1077017]

Comments

[raucousraven.livejournal.com]

Like several others up there, I am fluent in Canadian English and Quebecois French, both weird regional hybrids with their own quirks, terms and accents. I'm having a small but ongoing discussion about what to do should I start teaching French, because my current accent may not be Parisian enough to pass for "neutral." (My current solution is something along the lines of SEND ME TO PARIS FOR 3 MONTHS kthxbai! Hey, I can try...)

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

(My current solution is something along the lines of SEND ME TO PARIS FOR 3 MONTHS kthxbai! Hey, I can try...)

Sounds like a plan to me!

[artemis-rain.livejournal.com]

I can say "I am a pineapple" in about ten different languages. Does that count?

Yeah, it's a long story.

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

LOL.

[chinawolf.livejournal.com]

Unlike most people, I tend to be honest about my language skills in favour of exaggerating, so I only clicked German and English. I can also do what you said in your ETA in Chinese in French, but only just, and my proficiency in those languages is directly related to how much time I've recently spent there, so I would not dare to call myself trilingual or some such. But since I know a LOT of people who tell others that they can speak a language (or ten) because they know how to survive in the language (i.e. how to get a croissant or a plate of gongbao jiding), I thought I'd mention it.

[anatsuno.livejournal.com]

Ja, same for Ich. *g*

I'm bilingual in French (from France) and English (mostly US, but UK too), and I *used* to speak/read/write German. I can still understand some of it and reading is not too hard, depending, but I can't write it anymore and speaking will be at survival levels. My accent remained tiptop, but that's 'cause I have a good ear, mostly.

As a result of mostly learning through auditory stimulus, I have easily and quickly forgotten all the Ancient Greek I ever studied in school. And as a result of speaking French and English and some German, I can often decipher written Dutch somewhat (but neither parse it when I hear it nor speak or write it, of course).

[fivil.livejournal.com]

I'm fluent in Finnish and English. Finnish by the way is not Scandinavian (related to Estonian and Hungarian, actually!) but is an awesome cursing language. These will get you far -

perkele! / saatana! - literally mean devil, in use both mean "dammit!/goddammit!"
vittu - literally means female genitalia, in use means "fuck!" or "fucking" as in "Koska mä vittu rakastan sua!" - Because I fucking love you!
voi vittu - "oh fuck!"
haista vittu - literally means "smell cunt!", in use means "fuck you!" (I love my language)
painu vittuun - "fuck off". Literal meaning ..well, you may guess. ;)

I also have some skills in Swedish but Swedish curses are rather lame when compared to Finnish ones. When I apply for jobs I say I know German, too, because I studied it and should it help, I could brush up on my skills in it.

Because of my freakish interests, I can get the hang of some Hindi conversations (and know some curses in it!) and I'm supposed to be self-studying Korean.

[fivil.livejournal.com]

I can't believe I'm the only one to supply you with curses in my native tongue without even being ass.

I shall retreat back to the cave of embarrassment.

[jeannie81.livejournal.com]

I also speak ghanaian, that's where I'm from. And even though people usually only like to say nice things in ghanaian, here's how you pronounce idiot: krassiknee :)

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

Your icon is priceless. Now is that pronounced crass-eek-nee or cras-sik-nee?

[swizzasnake.livejournal.com]

Well I put bilingual for how many I can read/write/speak. I speak UK English and can read Latin. Yea, I know that's odd. :-)

[green-queen.livejournal.com]

I can get by in Japanese, but I can understand it better than I can speak it and can only read 2 alphabets out of 3, so I didn't count it. Language is tricky!

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

There are three alphabets in Japanese? I can't believe people think English is difficult. Wow.

[sanzina89.livejournal.com]

I can speak in Italian and try to speak in English. I don't if to say American English or British one, 'cause at school we have to study the second, but I see American tv shows ;)
Oh, I can read and translate Latin in Italian because Latin is a subject you study in many Italian high school^^

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

I think that makes you multi-ligual, darling :-)

[manynames.livejournal.com]

I can carry out a simple conversation in Welsh, but I'm not proficient enough anymore to be able to tick it in good faith!

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

Welsh! Love the Welsh!

[sparky77.livejournal.com]

I am all about the useless languages. I was almost a classics major until I came to my senses, but I studied Ancient Greek, Old English, and a form of Gaelic, but I never took Latin because my ancient Greek teacher hated Ancient Rome and I liked him, so I never bothered with the Latin. Also, I can swear a bit in Ancient Greek. It might possibly be the most useless thing I know how to do.

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

An Ancient Greece teacher who hated Ancient Rome. I am shocked I tell you. Shocked.

[smonsterbite.livejournal.com]

Speak fluently: English, Romanian (Moldovan dialect), French (may require a glass of red wine or two)
Read: above plus Italian and some Spanish
Tourist phrases/curse in: all of above plus German, Russian
Count to ten and invite someone to a movie, politely: Japanese

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

Okay, that's just damn impressive. You get a gold star.

[fatema.livejournal.com]

You forgot Bengali! And as for the cursing, hmmm... Shu-or. It means pig. It's a huge insult because most Bengalis are Muslim or Hindu and pork is forbidden. A pig is a huge sign of filthy habits and everything that goes against the Muslim/Hindu religions, so it's a very big insult.

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

I love learning new stuff, thanks!

[transtempts.livejournal.com]

Spanish and French - reading and speaking reasonably well. Spanish I use more, as I have to do translating for patients at times, and I listen to a lot of music in those languages, that's a good way to keep yourself used to the sounds of it.

German- I can handle basic questions and swear. Japanese and Russian, the same.

[aurora]

*is proud of language knowledge*

Also, the only Eastern European language I'm fluent in is Bulgarian.

[rhea-carlysse.livejournal.com]

I didn't click on cyberspeak, I am so smart.

Also, whoa, 35 people who speak Spanish, I'm not alone *_*

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

You are never alone ;-)

[pandorablu.livejournal.com]

So I speak/read/write English (America), English (The Queen's Version), as well as that silly one called Cyberspeak. Know enough Spanish to get myself in trouble (but not really enough to hold a fluent convo). Thanks to Firefly I know how to curse in Chinese semi-fluently, but that's about it. Also know some Elvish curses.

... why is it that you always learn the curses of a language first?

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

... why is it that you always learn the curses of a language first?

Because they're essential in any language darling. It's a memory priortization! Okay, you can't find the bathroom, but at least you can tell someone to go fuck themselves.

[overnighter.livejournal.com]

Hee. If you define it as actually speaking the language, I am hopeless, but if you are more creative in your definitions, I learned enough Gaelic to win a bar bet (and can basically introduce myself, order beer and tea, and curse colorfully), and spent a year learning way more rudimentary Russian than my total failure to speak it might suggest.

And while, after eight years of instruction, I would count myself as barely competent in Spanish, I do have a massive cholo glossary compiled, left over from an old work project. It's come in handy more than once, I must confess, in fic.

[rhovanhen.livejournal.com]

Chinese - It would be impossible to list more of the dialects and languages of China, but I picked Cantonese as the closest option for me. And as mentioned in other posts, nice definition of 'speak'. Could I hold a serious conversation with a college professor (or even a college student)? No. A friendly merchant or fellow cafe-goer? Probably.

(Off topic, but of possible interest - "Do You Speak American", a book on regional American English dialects.)

[vylit.livejournal.com]

I can converse in Spanish, and I can read it, but it's not the kind of Spanish that you'd talk in front of your mama.

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

Darlin' I'd be shocked if you could say anything clean in front of your mama ;-) Oh, wait, is that me?

[applegnat.livejournal.com]

Hi! I speak Marathi, Malayalam, and a bit of Tamil and Gujarati in addition to the stuff I checked in your poll.

I also read the Italian sports pages, so if you ever somehow have a burning desire to know what a spoon is doing on the football field, I might be able to help.

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

Dude, tell me all about the spoon ;-)

[skyearth85.livejournal.com]

I came here totally random, 'cause I read one of your fics ^^! (btw brava!)
Btw, I'm Italian, I speak not bad.. English-UK (they teach it here at school XD) BUT also my local language (which is a mixture from Italian-Venetian, Slovenian, German, plus Spanish and Greek words 'cause is a sea-zone in upper-Adriatic region).
BUT I don't check Latin and Ancient Greek, because yes, I can translated Caesar and Homer, but I can't speak more than some words in those languages. You know: dead languages are not very useful for conversation, so at school, we studied only translation from text (well, plus literature and similar things). I'm totally enable to create something with them.

[trinity_clare]

Hmm, I checked Spanish and French (along with English), but having learned both of those thoroughly I find myself able to read Italian, Portuguese, and Catalan pretty reliably, and have a decent shot at Latin.