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

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

Don't feel lame, just learn a new one! (That's my solution to everything).

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

LOL. Yes, quite, I concede I forgot that one too.

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

Dude, I did not know this. You learn something new everyday. Are the Spanish dialects significantly different? Or is it more a case of accents, slang and regionality?

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

I try ;-)

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

Oksy, you win a gold star, because that's damn awesome. I've always wanted to learn Gaelic, but the pronounciating slays me. I need someone to teach it to me.

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

I see I lose points for not breaking everything down. Ah, well, them's the breaks.

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

IMO, you get a lot more points for speaking something than reading and writing, because speaking a language is a practical matter. As long as you don't fucking forget to use it and then forget the entire language. Err, yeah, okay, my bad!

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

No, I am not going any further, because so far apparently there are about sixteen different kinds of English and French I've not covered, and trust me this was about general knowledge, and maybe finding someone to teach me Gaelic, nothing more ;-)

[ranalore.livejournal.com]

Hee! Well, I figured the reasoning was something like that, and I wasn't seriously suggesting you do it. If there's one thing I've learned as a military dependent moving around the country, it's that there are entirely too many ways to speak my native language to be listed in a poll with limited space. California alone would require every ticky box that ever was.

[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.

[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.

Re: In coherant English

[romancandles.livejournal.com]

Ah, I get it, I get it. I wasn't trying to start waves, I promise. Make waves. SURF.

[anatsuno.livejournal.com]

I never heard of Mirandese before (whee!), nor Gallaic (which immediately makes me think of "gallic" as in Gaul, ans thus makes me curious French-wise), but I know and can tell you that Castillan (what we usually call Spanish around the world) and Catalan are quite different. I had a few Catalan friends younger, and it wasn't the same language.

[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).

[oconel]

They're different languages and recognised legally as such. Catalan, Galician (never heard the term Gallaic) are similar to Spanish since their root is Latin; Basque, on the other hand, has no known origins.

[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]

But don't they mostly speak Hindi/Urdu in Mumbai?

[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.

[fivil.livejournal.com]

ASKED***

Wow, it is not a good day.

[ellecain.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Hindi is spoken a lot, but for most, it's a second language. They teach it in schools because it's the national language and most pick up by watching Bollywood films (which I'm guessing you're a fan of by your icon). :-) But the people who live in the state of Maharashtra speak Marathi as their mother tongue.

[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 :)

[fivil.livejournal.com]

I was under the impression that Mumbai was like a Hindi-speaking spot on the otherwise Marathi-speaking state. I do know they of course teach both at schools and outside Mumbai the state's main language is Marathi. And apparently Mumbai is also supposed to have a lot of people who moved from other states and speak languages like Tamil, Telugu as their first (I know some Mumbai-Tamils).

Regardless, thank you! Good to know. :)

[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. :-)

[isagel.livejournal.com]

Oh, I figured you didn't do it on purpose. It just felt so odd for me to click it, I felt compelled to blabber on about it.

[chinawolf.livejournal.com]

I can't help myself, it's really getting on my nerves that people keep saying they know, say, Latin, because they had a year or two in high school. Yes, I too had it for six years, it was my first foreign language and I can still read it reasonably okay twelve years after stopping, plus I remember 90% of the grammar, but I actually know NO ONE who can speak fluent Latin apart from church invocations etc.. But that's not speaking a language.

Not to diss anyone who answered this poll, but there is a difference between having learned a language at some point for a couple of years and actually speaking it. If I cannot at least follow a political discussion in a language (think: understanding the gist of what is going on in The West Wing without subtitles), I just cannot say I know a language. Then again that's just me, and my standards might just be too high.

Aujourd'hui, je vraiment écrirai cette lettre! *défait ses livres*