Planet Rugby Forum

Do you speak a second, third or well, c'mon now, a fourth??!!!

What do you love about it? Do you get a chance to speak it often? And have you even became so good in your second or third language, that you've forgotten or mixed up words in your native tongue?

I speak English and Scottish Gaelic. My Gàidhlig isn't great, but I'm doing some refresher courses right now and trying to use it with the few pals I have that have it too. It was my grandfather's mother tongue, and I cannot believe he didn't think of speaking it to his son (my dad) as he didn't think he would need it in the big city or 'an tir mòr'.

I think most people in Scotland and polls back it up, do back Gaelic - the numbers are usually high 60s/70s if asked do you support promotion of Scottish Gaelic etc, yet there is a very vocal minority who'll say ''It was never spoken here'' which is pretty much untrue for everywhere barring the Northern Isles and swatches of Caithness. I enjoy trying to work out or that I understand the names of a lot of mountains, areas, hills, towns, rivers e.g Cairngorms is idiotmatic in that Cairn means stone/hill and gorm is blue yet its name in Gaelic is ''Monadh Ruadh'' Red Mountains.

I also enjoy I can understand/read a fair bit of Irish too. Especially Ulster or Donegal for listening/speaking ; but RTÈ I can pick up a fair bit of Irish and have an Irish pal that after a few drinks, we'll speak a hybrid Gaelige-Gàidhlig together.

If anyone is interested in learning a language or even a few words/phrases, go for it. The opportunitiesi available thanks to the net are insurmountable. Even wee apps like Duolingo (Scottish Gaelic coming soon for anyone interested) are great. I always try and learn a few words/phrases if I am going somewhere although I've often found in Benlux or Scandinavian - people are almost WTF, don't bother! Whilst I literally got invited back to a party in Bala by using a very broken ''sorry I don't speak much Welsh, but is it ok to talk English?'' when in the local post office/shop!

Anyhoos, love to hear some views on here.

Saw a great business card one time.

"By day, a gib plasterer. By night, a plastered gibberer!"

Wow, you are a rare breed. I had the impression that the celtic languages had almost died out. I speak 3, which is quite on the low side for South Africans!!

Nein

Tá gaeilge líofa agamsa.

Jeg taler rigtig godt Dansk

3 languages fluently, 1 at a decent level and 1 basic (still learning). I can read a few others, but I'm not going to pretend I speak all those languages.

In the Benelux and probably Scandinavia too, you'll find most people will speak 3 languages.

Going back to the Netherlands for a family visit next week with an English friend. Jumping between Dutch and English every few sentences should make for interesting switches in language...

The bilingual Welsh seem rather good at switching in between Welsh and English, but I guess that's how they've grown up.

Oûtrageous French aqcent reporting

Irish, French, Spanish and the language of dance.

English, I dabble in Welsh.

My wife says I do

I used to but 15 years in NZ has put paid to my Shona, although was pleasantly surprised how much I understood and could speak when I went back a year ago

Irish and French -used to be fairly fluent in both but lack of practice probably means I'd need conversational courses in both to reactivate the old verbosity.

English and American

I speak fluent southern building site French, now with an added sexy English accent after intensely studying Jane Berkin's stylee.

Enough French to have a short but pleasant conversation.

Given my job takes me abroad every other week, I've been learning to speak English as spoken by people to whom it is a second language, which was significantly harder than I expected it to be.

No, I did read a while back there's a good case for making sign language a universal second language for the population of the planet.

Thought it was quite a smart suggestion so might give it a go sometime.

4

Bit of German and French.

sonic_attack wrote:No, I did read a while back there's a good case for making sign language a universal second language for the population of the planet.

Thought it was quite a smart suggestion so might give it a go sometime.

I was stunned when I found out sign language wasn’t universal and they have different signs in each country. What a fail.

Horrible French (should be better given I took it in school from K-10; understand Euro better than I do Quebecois), and learning German (not going well).

DragsterDriver wrote:Bit of German and French.

sonic_attack wrote:No, I did read a while back there's a good case for making sign language a universal second language for the population of the planet.

Thought it was quite a smart suggestion so might give it a go sometime.

I was stunned when I found out sign language wasn’t universal and they have different signs in each country. What a fail.

Bugger. I obviously didn't investigate too hard but I hadn't considered that.

As a teenager I learned French via a set of 12 cassettes for basic conversational french. I went through 6 tapes and was confident. So I tested it out on a French mate and he couldn't understand me. I was so disappointed I gave up. Years later I found out my mate who was only French through his mother didnt actually understand french that well.

Seven, of which four fluently and the fifth was my best A Level. I can read most European languages too, to varying degrees.

I love lots of things about speaking them: surprising people, making them laugh in their own language, knowing what all the signs say, fitting in, being taken for a local, occasionally dreaming in another language, going out with foreign girls (not any more though), more recently teaching two of the languages to children.

It's wonderful. And it's weird - I sometimes have to remind myself of the things I take for granted about being able to understand other languages, but that aren't nornal for others. It took a trip to Japan recently for the latest reminder, and to Ukraine and Belarus for last year's... but even there I was trying to read everything I could work out despite the Cyrillic alphabet. It's fun!

8 or 9 fluently [/Globus]

sonic_attack wrote:

DragsterDriver wrote:Bit of German and French.

sonic_attack wrote:No, I did read a while back there's a good case for making sign language a universal second language for the population of the planet.

Thought it was quite a smart suggestion so might give it a go sometime.

I was stunned when I found out sign language wasn’t universal and they have different signs in each country. What a fail.

Bugger. I obviously didn't investigate too hard but I hadn't considered that.

My better half can sign, I couldn’t understand why she wasn’t conversing with a deaf guy in Spain until she explained seemed crazy to me.

I used to have good German, but it’s very rusty now.
I’d love to go back there for a few weeks as I think it would come roaring back with a bit of alcohol.

I found it interfered with my recall of Irish though. I don’t know how people manage to compartmentalize several languages.

On the support of the Irish / Scots Gaelic languages, the Canadians have a good idea.
All products are packaged with English on one side and French on the other.

In reality it’s just a sop for the whinging Quebecois, and generally a pain in the hole for everyone else, but it would do a lot to keep our native languages alive.

We’ve all learned the words, but most of us have forgotten the majority of them since school.
Daily reminders at the breakfast table or the shop would do a lot to revive it.

English and French, with ok Welsh. I have started learning Spanish, but wish to develop the Welsh (cymraeg) the most. About 50% of my family are Welsh speakers and it is infuriating I am so poor.

English and Polish

i speak tongues...

Samoan to a conversational and some formal level but not 100% fluent.

Lemoentjie wrote:Wow, you are a rare breed. I had the impression that the celtic languages had almost died out. I speak 3, which is quite on the low side for South Africans!!

The Annual Population Survey conducted by the Office for National Statistics for the year ending in March 2019 suggest that 896,900 Welsh residents (30 per cent) aged three or over in Wales were able to speak Welsh.

Welsh (Cymraeg) is also a growing language. You can expect that 30% to be increased year on year. The Welsh government put a shit tonne of money into the language, and there are 'Welsh school' options for pretty much anyone who wants their child to to be taught in the language.

English, Welsh fluently.

French rusty but conversationally.

Can get by in Spanish for meals, etc.

Learning Japanese

Python, Matlab, Visual Basic and an adequate level of SQL.

it's wonderful when regional languages fight back against their colonial oppressors.

i collect and peruse foreign dictionaries. portugeuse, spanish, french, german, italian, swedish and russian so far. wouldn't touch dutch with a 10ft bargepole though. danish maybe a 5ft pole.

Caley_Red wrote:Python, Matlab, Visual Basic and an adequate level of SQL.

In binary clicks?

Pat the Ex Mat wrote:

Caley_Red wrote:Python, Matlab, Visual Basic and an adequate level of SQL.

In binary clicks?

No, that's my Xhosa

Caley_Red wrote:

Pat the Ex Mat wrote:

Caley_Red wrote:Python, Matlab, Visual Basic and an adequate level of SQL.

In binary clicks?

No, that's my Xhosa

I still keep a pebble in my pocket to assist with Welsh

Caley_Red wrote:Python, Matlab, Visual Basic and an adequate level of SQL.

Speak Queenslander. Write Python, Go, Java, C, R.

Fluent in English and Japanese, used to be comfortable in conversational French but would neeed to live there for six months to a year to get thaat back.

Pat the Ex Mat wrote:

Caley_Red wrote:

Pat the Ex Mat wrote:

Caley_Red wrote:Python, Matlab, Visual Basic and an adequate level of SQL.

In binary clicks?

No, that's my Xhosa

I still keep a pebble in my pocket to assist with Welsh

There are other, more interesting ways to assist one's self with Welsh: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsto ... Welsh.html

English, Australian, New Zealand, American, Canadian Eng, South African Eng, Irish Eng, Welsh Eng, Scottish Eng, etc, etc