What's new
By:
Filters
Christian Forums

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • Focus on the Family

    Strengthening families through biblical principles.

    Focus on the Family addresses the use of biblical principles in parenting and marriage to strengthen the family.

    Read daily articles from Focus on the Family in the Marriage and Parenting Resources forum.

  • Guest, Join Papa Zoom today for some uplifting biblical encouragement! --> Daily Verses

  • The Gospel of Jesus Christ

    Heard of "The Gospel"? Want to know more?

    There is salvation in no other, for there is not another name under heaven having been given among men, by which it behooves us to be saved."

    Read The Gospel Online.

What foreign languages do you know/are you interested in?

2024 Website Hosting Fees

Total amount
$1,048.00
Goal
$1,038.00
Donate View
cyberjosh

cyberjosh

Member
Simple title, simple topic. What languages do you know (partially or in entirety) or what languages are you interested in? Maybe also you could mention why you are interested in those languages if you like.

German

As for me I know some German (perhaps 20% at this point and growing). I am at about the A2/B1 level in German if that means anything to you (it is a public school language level classification). My reasons for being interested are varied, not the least because of the sound, its similarity to English (no really), and because of the sheer volume of writings that will become accessible to me once I can read it and speak it fluently. If you have any interest you can watch this terribly recorded video (I blame my laptop & the awful video codec) in which the audio slowly gets out of sync with the video as it goes along :): www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyh564zsJFE. I made that about a year ago so I'm further along now.

Norwegian/Danish

I know a little bit of Norwegian and Danish (maybe 10%, if that, I'll come back around to it after I finish German - which has lots of cognates with Scandinavian languages). This is because my family heritage is Norwegian-American which I mention a little here (website) and here (blog). I've, oddly enough, learned more Danish than Norwegian because I am obsessed with translating this family heirloom pulpit/postil book printed in 1758 (in Danish/Dano-Norwegian) that my grandparents have.

Spanish

Um... as for Spanish... I took one class in high school and two classes in college and all I know how to say is "No entiendo Español." Sad, I know, but I utterly lacked the interest and motiviation and they didn't teach German in either university I attended (What?!). I may, perhaps, one day return to Spanish but the outlook for me learning it is not looking great...

Biblical Hebrew & Greek

I probably know 5% of either of these languages, and have studied more New Testament Greek than Old Testament Hebrew. I can read both scripts with relative ease. I maybe know 100 words from each language, and sadly I had to quit my NT Greek class because of course load at another university years ago and so I only got through the nouns part. So I read "broken Greek", no verbs! It is my aim to learn at least one of these in entirety. Greek may be the easier of the two.

How about you?
 
Last edited:
Languages:

English ... American-style.
English ... Great Britain-style

Scots Gaelic
French ... I can read it (both high & low versions) without too much issue, but I cannot speak enough of it to follow a conversation any longer.

German ... a spattering
Chinese ... a spattering
Spanish ... enough to really make a mess of speaking it, but can order food without a problem
Italian ... a spattering ... enough to carry a easy-going conversation if the other speaker talks slowly
 
Last edited:
AirDancer said:
Languages:

English ... American-style.
English ... Great Britain-style

Scots Gaelic
French ... I can read it (both high & low versions) without too much issue, but I cannot speak enough of it to follow a conversation any longer.

German ... a spattering
Chinese ... a spattering
Spanish ... enough to really make a mess of speaking it, but can order food without a problem
Italian ... a spattering ... enough to carry a easy-going conversation if the other speaker talks slowly
Click to expand...

Nice!

Interesting you mention Scots. I had never heard of it by that name (I always just called everything spoken north of England "Scottish") until recently. I happened to be reading a book this week and in it there is a young woman living by herself except for one house maid from Scotland and the maid is trying to convince the woman to marry (who says "I don't know" about a marriage proposal) and says: "You ought to be married and have some bairns already. And still you dinna ken!".

Apparently this is Scots. I've heard "bairns" before but I thought it was older archaic English, nonetheless it still made sense. I've always liked that word. More challenging, and interesting, though was "dinna ken". I intuited that ken meant 'know' from my German knowledge (I made a whole blog post on the origins of that word-family & its cognates), and dinna I just had to say over and over until I realized it sounded like a slang version of "do not". So dinna ken = Scots for "don't know". I also saw in the book the expression "canna thole" = cannot endure it.

Although, you said Scots Gaelic. Maybe this is the other kind of "Scots": http://www.scotslanguage.com/books/view/2/.

Where do you live if you don't mind me asking? Did you pick up any of those by living in an area where it was spoken or did you just study them?

Slàinte!
Josh
 
Last edited:
There is Scottish as well. 'Bairns' (Scottish for babies) is still used in areas of Scotland. Scottish was the daily language of James VI of Scotland/James 1 of England, and he brought Scottish into the vernacular of English when he took the throne in 1604.

Scots Gaelic is part of the older Gaelic languages that are centuries old. Because of variations in the languages, Gaelic is subdivided into 3 categories: Scots Gaelic, Irish Gaelic and Manx, which was/is spoken on the Isle of Man.

Scots Gaelic was forbidden in Scotland after the loss of Bonnie Prince Charlie & Culloden in 1745. Those in the Highlands continued to speak the language, but obviously had to be careful. Over the decades, English was forced as the 'official' language, which meant that it was taught in schools. Children were discouraged to speak Scots Gaelic to the point of severe discipline. Naturally, that led to fewer and fewer young people who were willing to even learn the language.

Today, all 3 forms of Gaelic have been enjoying a renaissance. People around the world are learning their preferred form of Gaelic. There are online sites to facilitate learning how to write Gaelic...some sites will assist with speaking it. There are also courses, CDs, etc., available to help with the learning process. Best of all, if you live in a community with a university, there's a good chance one of the students may be prolific in speaking one or another form of Gaelic.

I live in Illinois, the Land of Lincoln, with the proud history of putting more governors & former governors in prison than any other state. Beyond that, I studied Scots Gaelic prior to a lengthy visit to Scotland. Since then, I have continued with the study, with assist from some lovely friends I made while in Scotland.
 
Awesome! Thanks for the history lesson!

So you live in that "longest of all states" huh? LOL. I just recently drove top to bottom and vice versa through Illinios from Alabama headed toward Wisconsin. It was a 5+ hour drive. Whew!

My whole family on my Dad's side is from Wisconsin (they moved down south mid-life - which makes me a transplanted northerner I suppose, although I was born down south) and on my Mom's side from northern Illinios. Those two states have a lot of history and ethnic diversity. Much to my delight in Wisconsin there is even a small Norwegian community and there is a Norwegian restaurant called the Norske Nook up there. Have you ever found a Scottish food place around where you live? Here is what wikipedia says Scottish cuisine looks like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_cuisine. :)

And that's great that you got to visit Scotland. I hope to go one day. My pastor just got back from a European missions summit in Scotland (apparently trying to spread evangelicalism more throughout Europe) and he enjoyed the trip and the history. He got to see some of the monuments dedicated to the Scottish Protestant martyrs while he was there as well.
 
There are Robert Burns Societies around the state, so every year, there are Robbie Burns dinners offered, which always include haggis. So much of Scots foods are already in our diets, from porridge to scones, complements of Scots through the centuries.

When you get the chance to travel there, go with a list of places you wish to visit, and allow yourself the time to take the journey at your leisure. You'll meet extraordinary people and see some of the world's most breath-taking vistas. In some of the areas, you'll be able to sense the history of the land. I recommend renting a car, so you can set your own course & time table. I also recommend you stop by a fish & chips place on Love Street in Paisley (down the street a few blocks from the Glasgow Airport) ... THE best fish & chips I found while over there. But then, the food was excellent everywhere I traveled. Just be warned that a full Scots breakfast is rather hefty in size & variety.

Where in Scotland did your pastor go for the summit?
 
Try the Doric dialect also, spoken in the north west of Scotland: almost incomprehensible to a standard English speaker.

Shetland, Orkney and Caithness used to speak a Scandinavian language Norn, centuries back, but records of it are only in writing now.
 
cyberjosh said:
Simple title, simple topic. What languages do you know (partially or in entirety) or what languages are you interested in? Maybe also you could mention why you are interested in those languages if you like.

German

As for me I know some German (perhaps 20% at this point and growing). I am at about the A2/B1 level in German if that means anything to you (it is a public school language level classification). My reasons for being interested are varied, not the least because of the sound, its similarity to English (no really), and because of the sheer volume of writings that will become accessible to me once I can read it and speak it fluently. If you have any interest you can watch this terribly recorded video (I blame my laptop & the awful video codec) in which the audio slowly gets out of sync with the video as it goes along :): www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyh564zsJFE. I made that about a year ago so I'm further along now.

Norwegian/Danish

I know a little bit of Norwegian and Danish (maybe 10%, if that, I'll come back around to it after I finish German - which has lots of cognates with Scandinavian languages). This is because my family heritage is Norwegian-American which I mention a little here (website) and here (blog). I've, oddly enough, learned more Danish than Norwegian because I am obsessed with translating this family heirloom pulpit/postil book printed in 1758 (in Danish/Dano-Norwegian) that my grandparents have.

Spanish

Um... as for Spanish... I took one class in high school and two classes in college and all I know how to say is "No entiendo Español." Sad, I know, but I utterly lacked the interest and motiviation and they didn't teach German in either university I attended (What?!). I may, perhaps, one day return to Spanish but the outlook for me learning it is not looking great...

Biblical Hebrew & Greek

I probably know 5% of either of these languages, and have studied more New Testament Greek than Old Testament Hebrew. I can read both scripts with relative ease. I maybe know 100 words from each language, and sadly I had to quit my NT Greek class because of course load at another university years ago and so I only got through the nouns part. So I read "broken Greek", no verbs! It is my aim to learn at least one of these in entirety. Greek may be the easier of the two.

How about you?
Click to expand...

The tongues of men and angels.


JLB
 
English - Australia (native)
English - British
English - American

Italian - only bits and pieces. Learnt it for 7 years in elementary school, but much of it is lost now. When I recently went to Italy, a good deal of it came back though.

German - a reasonable amount. I did German in high school for four years, and I did enjoy learning it. I found it easier to learn than Italian, and I much prefer the German culture. I recently went to Switzerland and Germany and finally was able to put my German to good use. I love that it has strict rules on language and it doesn't deviate from that. English must be so hard for those learning it not as their native language. Even learning as a native speaker, it doesn't really make sense. And I can confidently say that Australians have murdered the English language the most. Trust me, lol. But German's nice and ordered. Much easier!
 
Eora said:
English - Australia (native)
English - British
English - American

Italian - only bits and pieces. Learnt it for 7 years in elementary school, but much of it is lost now. When I recently went to Italy, a good deal of it came back though.

German - a reasonable amount. I did German in high school for four years, and I did enjoy learning it. I found it easier to learn than Italian, and I much prefer the German culture. I recently went to Switzerland and Germany and finally was able to put my German to good use. I love that it has strict rules on language and it doesn't deviate from that. English must be so hard for those learning it not as their native language. Even learning as a native speaker, it doesn't really make sense. And I can confidently say that Australians have murdered the English language the most. Trust me, lol. But German's nice and ordered. Much easier!
Click to expand...

Well, you guys in Australia can alwasys learn and speak German in the Barossa Valley of South Australia, right?
 
jasoncran said:
Eora, off topic but since we are mentioning cultures? do you aussies actually have Australian pines in that land of yours?
Click to expand...

Down Under, there are also all those Aboriginal languages such as Pitjantjatjara, spoken around Ayers Rock/Uluru... (Would love to go there some day...)
 
reba said:
Born in the USA and i aint got this one down..... :missyou
Click to expand...

Well, some States almost have Spanish as a second language.

Also, I was around St Albans, Vermont and around there some folks near the Quebec border speak French...

Up here we call Canada a mosaic. I think you guys call the US the Great Melting Pot...

Not just racially of course but linguistically...

Blessings.
 
Okay so I obviously speak English as my second language.

I also learned French at school (3rd language) and I was very fluent at it. But I don't dare speak it any more. After so many years of not practicing it I really got rusty. Oh well, I should practice it. Est-ce que quelqu'un veut parler francais avec moi?

Also I learned modern Greek (4th language?) because my parents dragged me there for every vacation, twice a year, so it made a lot of sense to start learning the language. Forgotten all of it since. I tried to refresh my knowledge of it some time this year but didn't get very far.

Had to take Latin at the university and loved it. I still understand it very well and can almost read it fluently, but I keep struggling with the grammar.

Recently I've been dreaming about learning Japanese. I'm into Japanese martial arts and history. But their letters look like they are impossible to learn. :-(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top