Do you speak a foreign language?

[Borg]

Am wondering how many on here speak a foreign language and if so...what would you consider your second language, or mos dominant language other than English?

I'm wanting to learn a new language..but, wonder if I can hack it.
(Russian)

[MarkGrace]

Pidgin

[BigFatMeanie]

Esperanto

[Katy Lied]

I speak 3 additional languages, all very poorly. Just well enough buy tomatoes at the market.

[RC Vikings]

Nyet

[PaloAltoCougar]

My mission German, though once very good, is a tad rusty. And yet I still get asked occasionally to "Say something in German!" I'm not proud of this, but my go-to response is the opening minute or so of "Eine Stimme Aus Dem Staube", the Church's 60s video "A Voice From the Dust."

[Borg]

Nyet

Really?

Katy - How may languages does it take to buy tomatoes?

[Clark Addison]

Thanks for asking. Yes, I actually speak Cantonese, which usually impresses people until they find out I learned it by being one of those obnoxious young men who tries to get them to talk about Joseph Smith.

I also speak a little Mandarin, with its laughably easy four tones.

[RC Vikings]

Really?

I struggle with English. I listen to Spanish tapes, my wife speaks Spanish, my youngest speaks Spanish, the other two guys in the office speak Spanish and I work at a potato warehouse where 99% of the employees speak Spanish yet about all I've learned over the years are various body parts and "me siento como mierda".

[Katy Lied]

Clark, I suspect that Chinese is easier for people with perfect or near perfect pitch. Perhaps you could prove me correct?

Borgey, it's easy to buy a tomato, it's harder to say "I don't care that I look like a rich American-- I'm not paying more than X roubles/lei/francs/yen."

[Blueintheface]

Spanish and currently I am able to use it everyday which is nice. Our company bought some real estate in Puerto Rico and for six months now I've been nearly completely immersed in it.

On a related topic, I had a co-worker tell me today that he is putting his 5 year old into a French immersion school which will require they speak only in French to him for the entire first year. Neither of them speak French.

[MarkGrace]

Spanish and currently I am able to use it everyday which is nice. Our company bought some real estate in Puerto Rico and for six months now I've been nearly completely immersed in it.

On a related topic, I had a co-worker tell me today that he is putting his 5 year old into a French immersion school which will require they speak only in French to him for the entire first year. Neither of them speak French.

As in the school will only speak to him in French for a year, or the parents have to? Gonna be kind of hard in their case. But most of the immersion programs I've heard about don't require anything from the parents.

[creekster]

I kind of speak French. Enough to make people in France think I am Quebecois, although people in Quebec think I am another awkward anglais who hates them. In fact, I am just somebody who lived in Belgium for a couple of years as a kid and served a mission in Quebec. I can, however, decline high-priced tomatoes with ease.

[Joe Public]

I kind of speak French. Enough to make people in France think I am Quebecois, although people in Quebec think I am another awkward anglais who hates them. In fact, I am just somebody who lived in Belgium for a couple of years as a kid and served a mission in Quebec. I can, however, decline high-priced tomatoes with ease.

Your comment reminds me of a story.

A guy I knew at school told me his father served a mission in Quebec. The father attended BYU after his mission, and he took some French classes for credit. The professor and all of his classmates learned in France. Apparently, the professor took no small delight in asking "When are you going to learn to speak French?" every time this guy's father participated in class discussion.

Is there some kind of cultural dynamic in play there? I assumed this guy's father was just a poor French speaker.

[creekster]

Your comment reminds me of a story.

A guy I knew at school told me his father served a mission in Quebec. The father attended BYU after his mission, and he took some French classes for credit. The professor and all of his classmates learned in France. Apparently, the professor took no small delight in asking "When are you going to learn to speak French?" every time this guy's father participated in class discussion.

Is there some kind of cultural dynamic in play there? I assumed this guy's father was just a poor French speaker.

You're asking me if the French take a chance to look down their noses at bad accents? Is the pope Argentinian?

But seriously, the difference between Québecois and French is sort of like the difference between upper class British English and American. I was once told by a Belgian that my Québécois-like-French sound like "French spoken by a Dutch camel" which made me wonder just how pervasive the problem of French speaking Dutch camels is. Of course most French think the Belgians speak Walloon, which is not French. The Belgians don't even get their numbers right!