What languages can you read/speak?

tbirde56

Not neccesarily fluently.
I took Spanish in high school (mostly forgotten) and a couple quarters of Russian in college (didn't stick).
Because of the hobby though I can discern a lot of words in different languages that are used on coins as well as most numeral systems. Collecting has been the best teacher in that respect.

FC57Coins

I speak Spanish fluently - because of the latin roots of the words, I can discern a lot of words in French, Italian, Romanian, and other languages as well.

newbiecollector

I almost have english down. Tuff bein a Texan.....lol

cacheman

read, write, and comprehend very basically German and Russian.

AuldFartte

Are English and American two languages?

Some Spanish (from two years of it in High School) and, like tbirde said, I've picked up several other words or phrases because of coin collecting.

newsman

Other than English, I can understand and speak Arabic, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

Angielczyk

Hi

I speak English, Hebrew, French, Italian and have also ben known to talk a lot of Rubbish

Darkhorse

I know many German words, putting them together in sentences is a challenging though. I took French in school but I forget a lot of it, if not all. I had Greek friends in high school so I know a lot of Greek obscenities.

JadeRareCoin

English and Italian.

I also took 4 years of French with a 4.0 throughout, however that was years ago and it is mostly gone. I can still read French and comprehend most of it, but I would not attempt to speak French.

newsman

<< <i>I had Greek friends in high school so I know a lot of Greek obscenities. >>



So that's how you knew that word. I had three Greek fraternity brothers in college. Since nearly everything they said was either an obscenity or something related to sex or drinking, those are the only Greek words I know, too.

elverno

Since most Napoleonic references are in French I can read that fairly well, plus having Canadians on one side of the family meant multiple languages on cereal boxes as a kid. I can also winkle out the meaning of Italian, German and Spanish but my knowledge there is pretty limited to numismatic terms.

"But hey, I'm a 'Mercan, can't you foreigners speak a decent language?" I'm embarrassed to say that I heard that on the streets of Prague one day...

laurentyvan

Read, write, speak french only because I was born in France. I have no aptitude for languages which is ironic as my father could (can) do 9 languages in varying levels of proficiency.

CIVITAS

In addition to English, I can fake French and muddle my way throgh very basic Italian.

Shipcoin

Russian, Hebrew and English

Luvdawgs

I have some aptitude for languages. I took Spanish for six years in high school and college (4.0 average), and remember quite a bit. I get to use it frequently because there are many latinos in my area. I was thinking of being an interpreter at one time, and can speak, read and write it, but am a bit rusty and need to study more of the verbs.

Also had French for three years in high school and college (4.0 average), but don't remember quite as much of it, and need a refresher course...I would say
I am only on a beginner's level now.

I can read Hebrew fluently, write and speak what I'm reading, but only know the meaning of a few words.

I am fluent in shorthand...LOL It's like a foreign language I also know a few words in Italian, and can understand some Yiddish, but not speak much of it.

oldshep

pig latin
Shep

cladking

In addition to English, I was once pretty good in reading and writing Spanish. It would come back to me if I used it.

I was never able to speak or understand it though. I once had a brief one-sided conversation with a Spanish speaker who interrupted me to say "No hablo Ingles". That I understood.

Refrema

Other than English, the only Language I took in school was a semester of Spanish. I almost failed because I did not think it would be useful to me living in Iowa where I grew up.

Since then, I have lived in several countries, and traveled all over the world. I speak French, Norwegian, Danish, and understand Spanish, and Swedish. I can struggle with Italian and German.

I wish I had paid more attention to Languages in school.

Bob

shirohniichan

I kin reed, rite, and speek English reel good.

I speak, read, and write Japanese fluently, I still remember some of my 6 years of high school French, I remember a smattering of my high school German, and I remember some Latin from singing requia and using ecclesiastical Latin terms in my MA program. I wish I understood Russian, Taiwanese, Mandarin, and Korean, but I don't have the time to study them seriously (and there are no Taiwanese classes taught around here).

Luvdawgs

Shiroh - do you think your abillity to read, write and speak Japanese would help in learning the other languages you mentioned; i.e. are they similar gramatically, etc?

shirohniichan

<< <i>Shiroh - do you think your abillity to read, write and speak Japanese would help in learning the other languages you mentioned; i.e. are they similar gramatically, etc? >>



I think there are some commonalities with Korean (as well as Turkish, Finnish, and Hungarian), but the grammar of Chinese dialects is vastly different. I can understand some nouns in Taiwanese because they are pronounced similarly to their Japanese counterparts, but I couldn't string a sentence together.

Shipcoin

<<Shiroh - do you think your abillity to read, write and speak Japanese would help in learning the other languages you mentioned; i.e. are they similar gramatically, etc? >> --especially Russian ... just kidding, Susan

JadeRareCoin

I think there are some commonalities with Korean (as well as Turkish, Finnish, and Hungarian), but the grammar of Chinese dialects is vastly different.

Shiro, are you saying that Japanese has commonalities with Hungarian? I never would have thought that. Please expand on that thought as it is fascinating.

For those of you who speak more than 3 languages..........BRAVO. Absolutely fantastic.

Sylvestius

English.


I can read a little French, but not a great deal. The only language i do actually need is Latin, unfortunately i know very very little. I wish i'd been taught Latin.

Not interested in any others.

MSD61

I am good with:
Spanish, being raised in the Tampa Bay area it was easy I also used it in my career.

Some Greek, again one of the largest Greek communities is located in Tarpon Springs, Florida which was just north of me.

French, Thai, German, some Italian, some Russian, Polish (my wife's help).

Some Farsi, very little Hewbrew which is a kick in the pants seeing I worked with Israeli government folks when I was in government service.

Japanese (okay speaking, very poor writting)

My strongest languages are Spanish, German and Irish Geal

I am very impressed by the knowledge of languages on this forum. This makes us even cooler

agraded

I almost have english down. Tuff bein a Texan.....lol

I hear 'ya pard, I live in Washington now and I can't past the first sentence before I get "where are you from."

1jester

Jade, they say that Korean is related to Hungarian and Suomi (Finnish).

phut

Yankee, Californian, and a little Southern. Google translator does the rest.

coinrookie

I can read and write some basic words and sentences in French.

shirohniichan

Shiro, are you saying that Japanese has commonalities with Hungarian? I never would have thought that. Please expand on that thought as it is fascinating.

Japanese, Korean, Hungarian, Finnish, and Turkish are all part of the Altaic language family. Scholars believe they all originated in the Caucasus region.

cosmicdebris

Only the one.

wybrit

American English, British English (Cockney and Norfolk), Irish English, Spanish, some French. I can also read and understand some Greek though it's mostly because we used every letter of that alphabet for some parameter in engineering school. Used to have a Norfolk accent as a kid, but that subsided fast.

GDJMSP

English & Latin - workin on French & Dutch.

sumnom

Aside from English, I can read, write, and speak Korean. I have a fairly good reading knowledge of Japanese and Classical Chinese. I can fake my way through reading modern Chinese. And, if I am having a good day, I can read some Manchu with MUCH dictionary help.

lordmarcovan

English is my first language, despite being born in the South.

I'm fluent in basic conversational Spanish. I'm told my accent is very clean for a gringo, but I'm not so great with the verb tenses.

I can read a tiny smattering of French, but am helpless when it comes to pronunciation, there.

farthing

Lets see... Fortran, Cobol, Algol, C, C++


Four years of Russian in High School which is pretty much completely gone by now.
I can make my way through a menu in most European languages.
Got pretty good at reading and understanding Swedish and French from my travels, plus a little Dutch and some Spanish.
Since I pretty much butcher the English language you can forget about me ever being able to speak another language.

Askari

In grade school I became fluent in three dialects of Portuguese from living in the Azores, but from 5th grade on had no one to speak it with and pretty much lost it all by high school. Attending High School in the Pittsburgh melting pot, I picked up smatterings of Italian, Polish, Czech, Serbo-Croatian, and Yiddish, but most of all that has since been lost. I took Spanish in Jr. High and Sr. High and German in Sr. High and College. Until recent years, there wasn't much need for Spanish even here in North Texas, so it's grown rather rusty but is now making a little bit of a comeback. My German was fading away too, but numismatics helped bring it back, although my pronunciation and non-numismatic vocabulary are quite rusty. I also took a little bit of French in college, just to get the exposure and it's helped me with my medal collecting. During the Cold War, I taught myself to transliterate Cyrillic and learned enough technical and military Russian to get the general jist of what I was seeing. Fortunately, my German helped a lot there since a great deal of Russian technical and some military terminology was drawn from German. The German also helps when it comes to trying to figure out Scandinavian, Dutch or Flemish legends on medals and coins -- just like the Spanish/Portuguese helps with other Romance languages.

0john0

Ich lese wenig Deutsch aber spreche mehr.

syraq

<< <i>

<< <i>I had Greek friends in high school so I know a lot of Greek obscenities. >>



So that's how you knew that word. I had three Greek fraternity brothers in college. Since nearly everything they said was either an obscenity or something related to sex or drinking, those are the only Greek words I know, too. >>









I think Phil has had a similar seminar during his recent short stay in Athens.

Greek, French and English.

Will gladly understand most people,sign language incl., if I like them.

Darkhorse

<< <i>I think Phil has had a similar seminar during his recent short stay in Athens. >>



I'll say!

PuddlePirate

Do obscenities count

Read and write French, A good Verbal vocabulary in Portugese, some Arabic, Cubano Spanish (from Miami living), classical spanish (High school and college levels), Russian (more than I care to admit). I am currently learning Polish from my neighbor and having alot of laughs (generally at my expense), some Italian (enough so I don't have to pee in dark corners when visiting), my German is horrid but I can cuss well enough, enough Dutch to get by, a goodly amount of Japanese and Korean. I am brushing up my Latin and Greek although I must admit my Greek sounds better when I've been drinking and after all who speaks Latin Well anyway?
I also know pig latin (3 daughters what can I say, it was a matter of survival), and I can write backwards and read papers upside down (handy when you do those job interviews) I also can send/recieve 55 words per minute International Morse Code.

Oh I can write fluently in crayon and color inside the lines when I want to (I like greens the most).

Sylvestius

<< <i>American English, British English (Cockney and Norfolk), Irish English, Spanish, some French. I can also read and understand some Greek though it's mostly because we used every letter of that alphabet for some parameter in engineering school. Used to have a Norfolk accent as a kid, but that subsided fast. >>




Hmm i like Norfolk accents, and Essex accents too. Something about women with those accents purrr.

How are you with Yorkshire English though?

Sylvestius

<< <i>and I can write backwards >>




Are you left handed? (Cos i am and i can write backwards fairly well also).

danglen

I was the Spanish and Italian interpreter for the Commander Sixth Fleet from 1967 to 1969 and I can get into trouble (at least in my mind) in several other languages as well

satootoko

I can read Hebrew, and Japanese kana, but I understand virtually none of what I read in Hebrew and a little more in Japanese. My Yiddish comprehension is slight, and speech is non-existent. But, I do consider myself very fluent in both written and spoken American, and reasonably competent in written and spoken English.

Oh yeah, I can count to 100 in Spanish and German!

Puddle Pirate - very impressive. I seem to hit a wall around 40 wpm.

cladking

Jeeze. You guys are all impressive. It's most surprising there is so much linguistic
ability all in one place. Even the typical group of Europeans or Africans probably
wouldn't be so adept at so many languages. Perhaps it's one of the things that leads
Americans to collect world coins.

tbirde56

> Puddle Pirate - very impressive....

Yeah! I always had trouble staying in the lines!

wybrit

How are you with Yorkshire English though?

I haven't encountered a Yorkshire accent in a long time, so I wouldn't know at this point.

santelia

Wow! A very educated group!

For me, English, some Spanish, and fairly fluent in Italian, although I'm losing it fast.
This discussion reminds me of our honeymoon, where my wife and I were stranded in a train station at 1:00 am with a very drunk German student. He could speak five different languages (I think), but none of them were French, Spanish, Italian, or English. He thought this was hilarious! He was laughing so hard I really wanted to get the joke, but sign language and sketching really didn't get the point across.

Or maybe it was the booze...

One of my friends teaches English to the migrant farm workers. He speaks Spanish fluently, because he had the courage to take his high school Spanish into a house of nine Guatamalen farm workers. So much of learning another language is the courage to make a fool out of yourself by trying it. I still remember trying to buy deodorant in Italian and the clerk asking me if I wanted pills or suppositories...

Philip

<< <i>

<< <i>I think Phil has had a similar seminar during his recent short stay in Athens. >>



I'll say! >>



Sympozium

Sylvestius

<< <i>How are you with Yorkshire English though?

I haven't encountered a Yorkshire accent in a long time, so I wouldn't know at this point. >>




Eee narh as tha not? Well we shall 'ave to reintroduce thee to it i s'ppose.


Or you could just watch that film the Full Monty (i personally hated the film), but that was made in the city i live in, so they've got much the same accent as me.