Other Languages You've Studied

[gmalivuk]

I also like to learn "I do not speak [language]" in as many languages as possible.

Translation of "I do not speak Croatian." in Croatian is "Ne govorim hrvatski."

Thanks, though I already had that one, actually.

[Philomid]

I also like to learn "I do not speak [language]" in as many languages as possible.

Translation of "I do not speak Croatian." in Croatian is "Ne govorim hrvatski."

Is there any correlation between "hrvatski" being close to your location of Hrvatska?

[gmalivuk]

I also like to learn "I do not speak [language]" in as many languages as possible.

Translation of "I do not speak Croatian." in Croatian is "Ne govorim hrvatski."

Is there any correlation between "hrvatski" being close to your location of Hrvatska?

Hint: it's the same correlation between "English" being close to some people's locations of "England"...

[Philomid]

Hint: it's the same correlation between "English" being close to some people's locations of "England"...

Wow. Now I feel stupid... I should seen that. That wasn't as bad as this time when I asked a friend what he was reading, and he said "Ulysses" by James Joyce, and I asked who the author was.

[ZLVT]

technically? 9.

Hungarian: since birth, fluent

Let's do a timeline of my formal education:

Primary
K- nil
yr1- french (forgotten)
yr2- nil
yr3- nil
yr4- Indonesian (forgotten)
yr5- Indonesian (forgotten)
yr6- nil
High school
yr7- (sem1) German (essensially worthless)
yr7- (sem2) French (forgotten)
yr8- Latin
yr9- Latin
yr10- Latin
yr11- Latin and Hungarian (Already fluent but I did formal study for my HSC)
yr12- Hungarian
UNI
1st sem- Classical Latin/Greek
2nd sem- nil
3rd sem- nil
4th sem- nil
5th sem- German, French, Persian

INFORMALLY: In the absence of a language to learn, I did Esperanto in sem 2, and started doing Dutch/Afrikaans towards the end of that (did a bit of afrikaans during sem 1 as well). Been working on my Dutch since then, with steady improvement in my German with which I can understand much of the German thread, but I can't formulate very well.

So, here's a table:

Code: Select all

Language  | formal edu (yrs) | informal edu (yrs)
English   | 16.0 | 17
Latin     | 04.5 | 00
Hungarian | 02.0 | 18
Indonesian| 02.0 | 00
French    | 01.5 | 00
German    | 00.5 | 08*
Anc. Greek| 00.5 | 00
Persian   | 00.25| 00
Dutch     | 00.0 | ~0.7**
Esperanto | 00.0 | ~0.5
Afrikaans | 00.0 | ~0.25**

*by yr 7 I could correct the teacher on a few points as she couldn't speak, and my mother was fluent, and being Hungarian it is commonly used in slang, so a few phrases are concicdered absolutly essencial, I've accellerated my learning lately but otherwise just general absorbtion of tid bits

**Studying one is like studying the other by proxy. So, I do them interchangeably, now I would say that I focus more on Dutch, but am learning both, mainly through on-line conversation.

I've now taken up German Persian and French at uni. I'll do 3 years of both German and French but maybe only a year of Persian.

[ZLVT]

I've studied Spanish for several years in high school and college and yet I still have little fluency outside the present tense.

In 2004, I spent four months studying abroad (and a broad) in Hungary. Here's everything you need to know:

bor - wine
sür - beer
vécé - bathroom
köszönöm - thank you

Bocanot, nem ertem. Csak kicsit beselek magyarul. - I'm sorry, I don't understand. I only speak a little Hungarian.

If you really want to insult someone, tell them, "kurva anyád" and start running.

even better is "a jó kurva anyád", sounds just that much nicer (lit. your good whore mother, but kurva can be used as the english "fucking" e.g. bedöglött a kurva kocsi - the fucking car died.)

beer is sör or sőr (I forget) but NOT sür, and wine is bór I think (I'm terrible with vowel length)

Bocánat, nem értem. Csak [egy] kicsit beszélek magyarul. - I'm sorry, I don't understand. I only speak a little Hungarian.

[hnooch]

beer is sör or sőr (I forget) but NOT sür, and wine is bór I think (I'm terrible with vowel length)

Bocánat, nem értem. Csak [egy] kicsit beszélek magyarul. - I'm sorry, I don't understand. I only speak a little Hungarian.

Bocsánat. Sör nagyon jó.

[ZLVT]

Hány magyar van még itt? Kezdjünk egy beszégetést?

[hnooch]

Magyar nem vagyok. Csak egy kicsit tudok érteni magyarul. Még kisebb tudok beszélni.

"I'm not Hungarian. I can only understand a little bit of Hungarian. I can speak even less."

(Did I get that right?)

[ZLVT]

Magyar nem vagyok. Csak egy kicsit tudok érteni magyarul. Még kisebb tudok beszélni.

"I'm not Hungarian. I can only understand a little bit of Hungarian. I can speak even less."

(Did I get that right?)

Ok, it's understandable but incorrect. The 1st word is emphasised, and you want to say that you are NOT magyar so it's "Nem vagyok magyar". Magyar nem vagyok is like "A Hungarian I certainly am not."

Kicsi is physically small. A small amount would be kevés as in few. so "Csak egy kicsit éretek magyaru*l" is passable but it would be better to say "Csak [egy] keveset értek magyarul". Or if you dont know much magyar, "Csak kevés magyart tudok"

And kisebb is in the nominative, but it is the object of the verb so it should be kisebbet, but again, use kevés.
"Még kevesebbet tudok beszélni" Alas, this seems wrong to me, Perhaps use "mondani" to say and not "beszélni" to speak.
"Még kevesebbet tudok mondani magyarul" GAAH! Somehting seems odd and I don't know what, I'll find out and get back to you later today.

*again, I'm poor with vowel lengths, but I think it may be long, I'll have to check.

[Quertle]

I've studied 3 languages: French, German and am currently studying Anglo Saxon. While the last is thoroughly worthless in any practical sense (unless I plan on relocating to rural areas of Frisia, in which case I'm covered!), it's really enjoyable and by far the best language I've tried. And yes, I do consider it to be another language (than modern English). I hope that isn't cheating, but if you try reading some, you'll see where I'm coming from!

[Supergrunch]

I've studied 3 languages: French, German and am currently studying Anglo Saxon. While the last is thoroughly worthless in any practical sense (unless I plan on relocating to rural areas of Frisia, in which case I'm covered!), it's really enjoyable and by far the best language I've tried. And yes, I do consider it to be another language (than modern English). I hope that isn't cheating, but if you try reading some, you'll see where I'm coming from!

Old English is linguistically considered to be a different language to modern English, whereas Middle English is considered a dialect. So yeah, Old English definitely counts.

[ZLVT]

I forgot to mention to Greg, in case it's not yet been said. I don't know Hungarian would be:

"Nem tudok magyarúl" (nɛm tudok mɑdjɑruːl) or "Nem beszélek magyarúl" (nɛm bɛselɛk mɑdjɑruːl) emphasis on the first sylable, vowels with accutes are long otherwise, short.

[existential_elevator]

I learned French, Spanish and German in school.
I just realised I should really change my vote above, since I have been trying to learn Swedish, but I've also been doing bits of Greek and Latin in university, and I do have some further intention of knowing my classical Greek a bit better [she says, eyeing up the "Learning Greek with Plato" book on her shelf]. I've tried to lean a little Welsh, too, though it's sadly only a few words. I also know a teeny tiny bit of Mandarin - enough to say hello and thank-you.
I haven't so much studied them, but I'd be able to tell if people were speaking Dutch or Italian. In theory I should also be able to identify Czech.

Back in school, we used to make up nonsense phrases in order to remember certain bits of vocabulary. One that sticks with me is from German - "Ich gehe am discoteck mit mein hund" [I appreciate that this is spelled horrifically, I am sorry. Trans. "I got to the disco with my dog".]

I'm also with Gmalivuk on learning how to say "I do not speak x" in plenty of different languages, although I definitely cannot match his number.

[beastie]

I've always found languages exciting...studied Spanish, Italian, French, I'd count Swedish/Norwegian/Danish into a similar category or just one and Dutch. Picking up others as I go, somewhat excited by Hungarian and Russian but not enough to study them :/

[daryuu]

I'm currently studying Japanese, though I've taken three years of french (I remember almost nothing) and some Old Norse (just barely started). I've been meaning to look into Chinese, Russian (thanks to Philomid for the link), and Esperanto, but I'll probably be a little slow to add them...

And just in case anyone's interested, http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/ is a pretty okay site for introducing yourself to Old Norse.

[ZLVT]

I've always found languages exciting...studied Spanish, Italian, French, I'd count Swedish/Norwegian/Danish into a similar category or just one and Dutch. Picking up others as I go, somewhat excited by Hungarian and Russian but not enough to study them :/

Hungarian is a mind fuck but Russian is easy. My parents both had to learn it during the soviet era and were fluent.

[Kamekai]

...does 1337-sp3ak count?

Eh, I'm taking German next year. Then Japanese at some point, and who knows from there.

[beastie]

I've always found languages exciting...studied Spanish, Italian, French, I'd count Swedish/Norwegian/Danish into a similar category or just one and Dutch. Picking up others as I go, somewhat excited by Hungarian and Russian but not enough to study them :/

Hungarian is a mind fuck but Russian is easy. My parents both had to learn it during the soviet era and were fluent.

Hungarian is tough as fuck because it's a Finno-Ugric language. It doesn't relate to anything I know..except maybe some Welsh words here and there. Finding Russian easy to speak and write if it makes any sense

[ZLVT]

I've always found languages exciting...studied Spanish, Italian, French, I'd count Swedish/Norwegian/Danish into a similar category or just one and Dutch. Picking up others as I go, somewhat excited by Hungarian and Russian but not enough to study them :/

Hungarian is a mind fuck but Russian is easy. My parents both had to learn it during the soviet era and were fluent.

Hungarian is tough as fuck because it's a Finno-Ugric language. It doesn't relate to anything I know..except maybe some Welsh words here and there. Finding Russian easy to speak and write if it makes any sense

Magyar took A LOT from slavic, turkish and germanic...and some Latin. Most of our grammar can be traced to one or more of those and in fact so can the vocabulary. In fact I've found we're really much simpler in many aspects that a lot of languages. Try it though, call me if you get stuck, I'm curious to see how far you get.
My dad said he knew 2 ppl who learnt it well (i.e. so well that he couldn't tell they weren't native). One was a Bulgar and the other was an american he heared on the radio who couldn't understand slang words.

dance - tanc
cake - torta

look familiar?

[beastie]

I'm half Romanian, half British. What are the odds?

cake - tort - torta ! we're getting there!

[ZLVT]

I meant German, cake is torte and dance is tanz (I think the spelling's right)

[Taliesin]

I am Estonian by birth. Had first touches with English around the age of four. (we had a Welsh family friend) Studied it in school too, so I could read novels by the age of 11. (I still have that Terry Pratchett novel somewhere)
Started learning German in school around the age of 12. I suspect my German was better then than now because then I used to watch cartoons from German canals.
French in secondary school. Am really not good at it.
Russian in university, took a few courses. At the end I was able to give a small monologue about who I am, what my hobbies are, my family etc. Not really much.
About one month ago I took an interest in Esperanto.
Oh yes, and I have been studying a little Java too. (the programming language)

The phrase "I don't speak Estonian" in Estonian is : "Ma ei räägi eesti keelt" Double vowels means that they are to be pronounced long. Ä is like Finnish ä, or in case you don't know, quite like the vowel in the word "hat".

[ZLVT]

About one month ago I took an interest in Esperanto.

You are about to embark upon a magical journey. Enjoy.

[Valian]

French - university (just finished my second year, about to go to France).
Italian - not brilliant, but competent. Going to Florence for a month this summer to brush up on it.
German - up to GCSE (much to the chagrin of my German family). I'm going to have to relearn it for the Ph.D. I plan to do, though.
Latin - bits and bobs.

I too have studied a bit of Esperanto - my secondary school was very enthusiastic about the language, and if you spoke it you got to go on EU-subsidised trips all around Europe (Paris for a night and Strasbourg for four nights = £50).

I plan to learn a few more languages, maybe a few middle-eastern ones, as I'm interested in doing a Ph.D. in History, concentrating on the Crusades.

Oh, and I also speak the binary language of moisture vaporizers. Well, technically, I speak that of binary load-lifters, but it's very similar to your moisture vaporizers.

[ZLVT]

HAHAHHA, next semester I'm taking Italian so (if all goes well) this will be my 10th non-English language, so I won't fit on the poll anymore ... for some reason this makes me feel like I have a large penis...hmm. perhaps make the 7-9 catgory a 7+ category. I can't tbe the only one in this position. Oh well, I can just discount the ones that were essencially worthless, this hsould bring me back down to 8.

[Jan]

Dutch: mothertounge
French: already 7 years for now, at least one to come
Latin: 1 year
Greek: 1 month
English: already 4 years for now, at least one to come
German: already 2 years for now, at least one to come
HTML: about 5 years, many to come
PHP: about 2 years, even more to come

[ZLVT]

Already has 1 l. Have you gone to the language introdutcion thread? I think there're other greek speakers.

[Klotz]

French, Hebrew, German, Latin
The latter two were by choice.

[Mercy]

Estonian since it's my primary language, Russian, German. Have a very passing idea of Finnish and Japanese, can't speak anything with any panash except for Estonian and English, though I comprehend Russian, Finnish and German well-enough when spoken in my general direction.

[asriel]

I studied French in middle and high school and Spanish briefly last summer, and Italian when I studied there this past semester. I also studied some Hebrew in high school (but barely remember any of it save the alphabet) and am currently learning Yiddish from my mom.

Preferisco l'italiano - è così facile e bellissimo anche.

I prefer Italian - it's fairly easy, and quite beautiful as well.

I meant German, cake is torte and dance is tanz (I think the spelling's right)

That's interesting; cake in Italian is torta while dance is danza. And Italian certainly isn't Germanic.

[ZLVT]

Magyar isn't even Indo European, beat that. But I dont think it was a latin root, seeing as they didn't even use k.

[poleboy]

Native: Danish

Studied:
English (9 years at least)
German (6 years)
French (2 years)
Latin (1 year, mostly theory)

Growing up in a very small country, I've been exposed to foreign media and languages all my life, mostly German and English. My English doesn't feel like it has improved significantly in years, so I think I've pretty much reached the limit of my potential in that language.
I can understand most German if it's not overly technical or ironic, but I don't speak it often enough to carry on a real conversation. My main problem here is a lack of vocabulary, I think.
My French is pathetic. The meaning I can gain from written French is most likely only derived from the fact that it is related to other languages that I know properly. It's more or less on a tourist level.
I had to take Latin for school (old rules which have now been revised). I only know a bit and it's only for giggles. Good for grammar though.
Scandinavian languages are rather similar, so I can talk reasonably well to people from Norway or Sweden. Don't ask me to speak Finnish or Icelandic though.

[defaultusername]

My native language is Swedish, and I have been studying English for 15 years. I also studied German in grades 6 through 10, though I was never any good at it, so that makes two languages except English.
"I don't speak Swedish" is "jag talar inte svenska" in Swedish.

To Poleboy: Icelandic is actually not that different from Danish, Swedish or Norwegian, at least not in written form. Finnish on the other hand doesn't even belong to the same family as the Scandinavic languages, so it's really no more similair to them that is, say, Japanese.

[ZLVT]

other than that icelandic conjugates verbs for all persons and numbers while D/N/S doesn't?

[defaultusername]

other than that icelandic conjugates verbs for all persons and numbers while D/N/S doesn't?

Be that as it may, I maintain that a D/N/S person could, with some difficulty, communicate rather effectivly with an Icelandic, all parties using natives tounges only.

[poleboy]

other than that icelandic conjugates verbs for all persons and numbers while D/N/S doesn't?

Be that as it may, I maintain that a D/N/S person could, with some difficulty, communicate rather effectivly with an Icelandic, all parties using natives tounges only.

I find that hard to believe. I have no real trouble understanding Swedish or Norwegian because both vocabulary and grammar are practically the same. The biggest hurdle for me is usually pronunciation. The Icelandic I have heard however, does not make even the slightest sense to me.

Also, what the hell is Finnish related to anyway? I want to say Russian, but I don't see any apparent similarities.

[steewi]

Also, what the hell is Finnish related to anyway? I want to say Russian, but I don't see any apparent similarities

Estonian and Saami are the closes, but Hungarian more distantly (and a few minority languages from north eastern Russia).

[defaultusername]

other than that icelandic conjugates verbs for all persons and numbers while D/N/S doesn't?

Be that as it may, I maintain that a D/N/S person could, with some difficulty, communicate rather effectivly with an Icelandic, all parties using natives tounges only.

I find that hard to believe. I have no real trouble understanding Swedish or Norwegian because both vocabulary and grammar are practically the same. The biggest hurdle for me is usually pronunciation. The Icelandic I have heard however, does not make even the slightest sense to me.

Also, what the hell is Finnish related to anyway? I want to say Russian, but I don't see any apparent similarities.

I know from experience that a Swedish person (me) can understand written Icelandic with no prior knowledge of the langauge. This leads me to believe that I could also understand spoken Icelandic to some extent, if the person speaking it spoke slowly.

[Plustax]

Spanish and Russian.

Kind of gave up on Spanish, but I'm still plugging away at Russian. Funny when things click. I want to learn French eventually.