Do you speak a foreign language?

[MarkGrace]

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.

Doesn't this happen in most languages? Those who learned in the originating country look down on everyone else? Spanish, English, French, etc.

[BigPiney]

The first time I heard a Quebecois speak, I thought they were American. The accent sounds like an american not even trying to put a French accent on it at all. That is not exactly it, but it is weird. I had been on my mission for 22 months at the time and I did not realize they were speaking french.

[Eddie]

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.

I have a co-worker who's son is in a Chinese immersion program. Half of the day they are in class with a Chinese speaking teacher who only speaks Chinese to them. The other half they are in with an English speaking teacher. From what I remember her telling it - they do a lot of the hard sciences in Chinese and then have English, spelling, writing, etc. in English. He's been in this classroom for 2-3 years now and actually does pretty well. Well...well enough that he can carry on a conversation with friends from the class while playing and without his Mom having a clue what they are talking about.

Doesn't this happen in most languages? Those who learned in the originating country look down on everyone else? Spanish, English, French, etc.

Yeah. I was on the phone with someone who spoke with a heavy Spanish accent once. She stopped me to clarify that she speaks Spanish from Spain. She isn't Hispanic or Latino. She told me that at least three times to make sure I got it.

[The_Douger]

Spanish.

It's been quite useful. I continue to use it every day at work.

[CardiacCoug]

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)

Russian is tough. Probably not gonna happen unless you can work on it 2 hours per day for the next year.

Sorry, just being honest.

[Clark Addison]

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."

I'm no expert, but based on my two years in HK and two and a half years teaching in the MTC, I would say that perfect pitch is not incredibly helpful; however, tone-deafness can be a definite hindrance.

One of the reasons perfect pitch may not be that helpful is that the tones are not set at absolute pitches. A high risking tone isn't always an F-sharp rising to a A-flat, or something like that. Even with the same person, the tones will vary based on many factors. I did know a few missionaries, though, who were so tone-deaf that they had a hard time forming a rising or falling tone, or telling the difference between a mid level tone and a high or low tone. These folks definitely struggled.

All of this applies to people learning to speak as a second language. Native speakers don't really have problems regardless of their level of tone-deafness.

[happyone]

Bad Japanese and even worse German

One of my brothers speaks 6 other than english - French, German, Russian, Ukrainian, Serbo Croatian, and Arabic. He was rated at 3 or better on a scale of 1-5 three being fluent, in four of them by the Army

[Pelado]

Castellano. Don't have much occasion to use it now.

[Surfah]

Spanish. I hardly use it anymore. When I was in the construction business it was helpful, but also a pain in the ass because everyone asked me to tell so and so this or that. I did a lot of translation and interpretation which sucked because it just added to my work with no compensation. But I have had little use for it over the last 6-7 years. It's a shame because I know I have lost a lot, especially in conversation. I am sure I could bang out all the charlas if I needed to, but my vocabulary has dwindled. I find myself saying como se dice more than I should.

[Moliere]

French, although I only use it when I swear and when I make crepes for breakfast and my kids make me say the prayer.

[Borg]

Russian is tough. Probably not gonna happen unless you can work on it 2 hours per day for the next year.
Sorry, just being honest.

That's pretty much what I heard as well. AND...if there is no one to speak to or use it with...it's gotta be next to impossible.

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."

That made me laugh! Yup..ya gotta know how to handle yourself when you're a rich, American hottie!

[Katy Lied]

Bad Japanese and even worse German

One of my brothers speaks 6 other than english - French, German, Russian, Ukrainian, Serbo Croatian, and Arabic. He was rated at 3 or better on a scale of 1-5 three being fluent, in four of them by the Army

Did your brother study at Monteray?

[Blueintheface]

Castellano. Don't have much occasion to use it now.

I even learned a little Catalan. Wow, what a weird language.

[wuapinmon]

I was reading about syntactic pleonasms* tonight, and I had the following thought, which I thought I'd share with yall.

Every language I have ever studied, observed, or read about defaults to the affirmative, meaning that all sentences indicate that an action or a state happens, exists, or is, and requires a negation to say that it does not, is not, or did not. If I say..."It rains in Iowa" we all understand it to mean that rain falls in Iowa. If I want to convey the meaning that it does not rain there, I have to negate the verb, "It does not rain in Iowa." All languages seem to default to the positive, to an affirmation of a statement. If I say something, it is understood to be a statement that it happened, unless negated.


I wonder if there is, or ever has been, a language that defaults to the negative, and requires an affirmative to cancel out the negative.


* I know [that] I can do it.
* I know I can do it.

Since [that] as a function word is optional, it's a syntactic pleonasm if you use it. A pleonasm is any word that is unnecessary, the favored term of linguists to avoid confusion with tautology or redundancy.

[All-American]

It's racist to call it foreign. Racist.