Monday 24 June 2019

Languages.



Anyone who can speak more than two languages fluently has my admiration. Certain currently newsworthy political folk are impressively multi-lingual.

Boris Johnson is known for speaking Latin fluently, and he also speaks French and Italian. I also believe he SHOUTS in English.

Rory Stewart is probably the most talented. He speaks Dari (a form of Farsi), plus nine other non-specified languages.

Jeremy Hunt speaks Japanese, even though his wife is Chinese.

Corbyn speaks Spanish. Two of his three wives were Spanish speakers; one from Mexico, and one from Chili, so I suppose it was essential. His first one spoke English.

Trump, of course, struggles with just English.

The only language, other than French (and Latin) which I've attempted to learn, was Italian. I would spend hours trying to learn useful phrases, but after about ten minutes they'd evaporate. It was as if my brain refused to absorb them. However, when I learn new words in French; they usually stick without any problem.

I shan't be attempting to learn any other languages.


27 comments:

  1. I'm still learning new words in greek after 45 years. The Dutch are amazing. They all seem to speak at least 6 languages. The Dutch girls here speak greek fluently and with hardly any accent. Hats off to all those who can get their heads around foreign languages.

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    1. The Dutch all speak PERFECT English; usually far better than most natives. I wonder what their secret is?

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    2. I thought it was because they watched the British TV and without a finantial tribute to the BBC!

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    3. Where did that spelling come from?

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    4. Watching TV, and listening to Radio, is certainly a good way to learn a language.

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    5. My guide in Chernobyl said he learned English from films and tv. He said he had never been to university. He was fluent but used quite a lot of slang so perhaps he was telling the truth about the tv and films. I was never sure because he was such a joker.

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    6. Years ago in Brighton we used to take-in Language students. I always used to advise them to find an English Boy/Girlfriend.

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    7. My Dutch partner corrects my English!!! And my Danish (former) boss had perfect English. I think it comes from the TV and no dubbing. I love languages though. Will have a go at anything!

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  2. I remember learning English - I was born into a Welsh speaking family and had to learn English to go to school. My siblings and I ended up speaking English at home and, although we can still understand others, rarely speak Welsh ourselves. Unfortunately this is common in my part of Wales (south-west).

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    1. I would love to speak Welsh. Even being just one quarter Welsh, I'd still like to be able to say 'hello' etc. My mother's cousin Islwyn Ffowc-Elis was well known for writing only in Welsh, although his work is translated into several languages.

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  3. Yes, I have every respect for anyone who can speak another language. As you say, the Dutch are brilliant, and the Scandinavians too. Do they teach their lessons in English at school I wonder, is that why they're so good at it? They do in Bhutan, Bhutanese children are now taught totally in English and are really good although some of the older adults have difficulty with it having been taught in their native language.

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    1. I think the Danes were going to change their 'official' language to English.

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  4. I have a Japanese friend who married a Frenchman and lives in Spain. Her 9 year-old daughter speaks French, English, Spanish, Japanese and Catalan. My English is ok but a bit rusty.

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    1. My two oldest still speak both English and French. My youngest seems to speak German and Dutch.

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  5. I enjoyed languages at school and studied French, Spanish and Italian. I struggle, however, with the Germanic languages and couldn't get to grips with Greek on my recent visit as the alphabet was so unfamiliar. Goodness knows how I would get on with Chinese or Japanese.

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    1. On my last visit to Greece, I managed to learn how to say 'a bottle of Retsina please'. I can still remember how to say it.

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  6. I like listening to the Polish kids on the train. They speak in both English and Polish at the same time in the same sentence; or one may ask a question in English and another will answer in Polish and they will shout out to each other in a mixture of both. They are great fun to listen to. I started to learn the language because of them. I know words of greeting etc. I rarely see them now though because I am not using the early morning trains.

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    1. It's wonderful to hear children who are totally bi-lingual. I've encountered several Indian kids who were like that; you never knew what language would come out next.

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  7. Learning another language is easier/necessary when you need to communicate with people of different ethnicities on a regular basis. For most of us in the US, that is not the case and it is to our detriment that is so. I was taught Latin, French, and Spanish in school. I can’t speak any of them but can read Spanish and some French at my own pace which is slow.

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    1. There is this attitude in the UK that everyone speaks English, so why bother to learn any other language. I think this is a shame, as, apart from anything, it's great fun to speak other languages. I've been speaking French all morning.

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  8. I speak English - had 8 years of French in school and can manage for the basics. I also took German and was pleasantly surprised on a trip to Austria a couple of years ago that a lot of it came back to me when needed. At the moment I amuse myself by trying to learn Scottish Gaelic - I've been at it for years and it's still a struggle.
    I teach ESL students as a volunteer at my church and it truly makes me envious that so many of them are learning English as a third or even fourth language! I believe at last count there were over 130 different languages spoken in Toronto - and yes, the younger ones seem to switch back and forth between many different languages with such ease.

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    1. I learned French almost all through school, but left knowing plenty of vocabulary, but not too much grammar. Still, it stood me in good stead.

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  9. I guess you do French ok. My blogmate Gattina speaks English (because that is the language of blog and she knew it already), French (perhaps her natural language to communicate), German (she was born German and so speaks it), Italian (her husband is Italian and she had to learn) and a smattering of Dutch (her son is married to a Dutch woman and her grandson speaks Dutch). I feel at times I am not fluent in my own English language, so I admire anyone who has a grasp of more than one.

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  10. It amused me that at an English Pride Festival, a Spanish lad told Matt Lucas that he learnt to speak English by watching Little Britain. Lucas was horrified.

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    1. Yes, I'm OK in French. I'm not surprised that Lucas was shocked; not the best teacher.

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  11. I can speak English and.....cat. And that as they say is that!

    Jo in Auckland

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  12. My 'cat' is awful. Freddie never understood a word of it; or pretended not to.

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