Languages [Archive] - The Warring States of NPF

batgirl

08-12-2010, 12:24 AM

Other than English, I speak both French and Hebrew extremely fluently. This meaning that I can read novels, write academic papers and hold long conversations in the aforementioned languages.

I learned French because I was born in Quebec and it's kind of a necessity to know to be able to do anything there from ordering food to ordering cable to getting a job.

I learned Hebrew because I'm Jewish and went to religious Jewish school from the age of 3-18.

As for languages I would like to learn, I feel like my job would be easier if I learned Spanish, as we do have patients who only speak it, but I know enough broken Spanish to get by. I would love to learn Japanese or Italian for funsies though.

Hanuman

08-12-2010, 12:32 AM

I want to say that I'm really glad to see you still around Batgirl, you're one of the posters who keeps this from being a lolwut forum. I'm also interested in Spanish and Japanese, Spanish and Mandarin being top of my list.

rawredy

08-12-2010, 12:41 AM

I don't speak any language other than English, though I'm extremely interested in learning Japanese or Finnish. I don't exactly know why I want to learn Finnish, other than I just happen to really like the language. Either that, or Swedish...

Nique

08-12-2010, 12:44 AM

English. Becuase I am lazy and never bothered to stick with any other languages.

But! I would like to learn American Sign Language - there is a large community of deaf people I would like to know better in my area. Spanish is just flat-out useful and would probably be pretty easy to pick up again. Hawaiian is on it's way to becoming a dead language and sounds awesome so I want to learn that, and my wife still understands Korean so we're thinking of trying to pick that up and make hilarious jokes in front of all our friends that they can't understand.

Jagos

08-12-2010, 12:46 AM

I speak English and Japanese. I'm teaching myself an Okinawan dialect (Uchi-na-Guchi) which is translating a Japanese book of Uchi na into English, then deciphering the difference.

I also want to learn Korean and Mandarin. I know, kill me now.

Fenris

08-12-2010, 12:47 AM

I speak the language of love.

Ladies.

POS Industries

08-12-2010, 12:48 AM

I communicate primarily through a combination of blood-curdling screeches and savage violence.

Nique

08-12-2010, 12:50 AM

I communicate primarily through a combination of blood-curdling screeches and savage violence.

...Dad?

katiuska

08-12-2010, 12:58 AM

I used to study Spanish, because my family is South American, but I'm ashamed to say I haven't practiced it in a long time. It's funny though, even though I've lost a lot of vocabulary, now that I'm older, I'm now magically able to understand people much better than I ever used to. I also picked up a few German phrases in HS which may or may not actually be correct because I learned them from my best friend, who was just learning the language.

I've become interested in Japanese in spite of myself, because its syntax is so different from English or Latin-based languages.

RickZarber

08-12-2010, 01:17 AM

I'm only fluent in English, but I took four years of German in high school, enough to hold a basic conversation. The grammar is still fully ingrained, but in the seven years since, I've forgotten most of the vocabulary.

I'd like to try to pick that up again some day.

I'd like to learn Japanese, Spanish, French, and Old English, but those are just pipe dreams. I know I don't have the sort of dedication it'd require to learn a new language at the moment.

EDIT: Oh, and Russian, 'cause Mauve listing it reminded me. I'd love to learn Russian.

Sithdarth

08-12-2010, 01:19 AM

After 4 years in high school and two in college I guess I should theoretically know French. I remember about enough to count to 999 and I can sing the alphabet song. I suppose I remember the odd phrase or two here and there but for a brief period of time I could actually carry on some sort of conversation at least well enough for an 84 on the regents.

Does mathematics count as a language? Cause I totally have a degree in that and everything.

I keep thinking I should learn Japanese but I've actually got a reason. You see the style of Karate I take is still headquartered in Japan. Eventually, if I stick with it and it has been a decade now so that is highly probable, I'm eventually going to end up in a position of responsibility. Which means several things, visiting various dojo in Japan, corresponding with Japanese officials, and hosting visitors from Japan. I'm sure a lot of that could potentially be done in English but I feel that knowing the language would probably make things much easier. It also seems that there exist a few books written entirely in Japanese that contain a veritable wealth of information from the founder himself.

mauve

08-12-2010, 01:35 AM

I speak a little Spanish, although not enough to have an intelligent conversation beyond "Hello, where is the library?" or what-have-you.

I also took some Old English classes in college and I remember a bit of that, but I've already forgotten a lot of the grammar and vocabulary. It's a pretty fun language, though, if a bit complicated. Words don't have to be in order in a sentance because they end in a suffix to denote what role it fills. Plus there's like ten words for "battle" and six billion for "man."

I'd love to learn Russian, Italian, French, German, Mandarin or Cantonese.... hell, anything that would enable me to travel around the world without relying on tour guides or stupid translation dictionaries.

Dead languages kick ass, and I'd like to learn Latin and go deeper into Old English.

I can also curse in Gaelic and French, although I don't think that counts........

bluestarultor

08-12-2010, 01:43 AM

I'm only fluent in English, but I took four years of German in high school, enough to hold a basic conversation. The grammar is still fully ingrained, but in the seven years since, I've forgotten most of the vocabulary.

I'm in the same boat with French. I used to be fluent and able to speak it without an accent due to having had early exposure as a kid. Now I still can with what I remember, but it takes more effort. Trying to read it from native speakers brings me literal physical pain.

Believe it or not, my first language was Italian, as I had an Italian babysitter, and I was quite fluent when I was small, much more so than in English. Don't remember a word of it, though.

I also know a ton of computer languages including Visual Basic, C#, C++, Java, Javascript, Actionscript 2 and 3 (Flash), PHP, and Perl to various extents if I scrape the rust off some of them, and of course HTML and CSS.

phil_

08-12-2010, 01:44 AM

I speak'a the English (like everyone here). I also speak enough Spanish to get by. I know a leetle Japanese; enough that I can read fan art and stuff. My kanji knowledge is less than that of a kindergartner, but I can speak and hear at, like, a first grade level.

...

What I'm saying is that I could survive there, but it wouldn't be comfortable. On the other hand:six billion for "man."So, a word for everyone! Brilliant! Truly, they were ahead of their times.

Archbio

08-12-2010, 01:48 AM

What, nobody here speaks Klingon?

pujwI'

Flarecobra

08-12-2010, 01:50 AM

English, with a smattering of German, Arabic, and Spanish, and I can recongize Russian, some Hebrew, Maori, and Japanese.

And just for kicks, learning a bit of Mandoloran. :P

Amake

08-12-2010, 02:09 AM

I'm fluent in English and Swedish and can carry light conversations in German. I know a few choice words in Finnish, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese and body language, and can usually work out the gist of a given message in most Germanic/Latin-based languages. Because I'm clever. I have a linguistic IQ tested to 158. And I've been too lazy to actually try to learn anything outside of the locally useful Swedish and English. Genius meets slacker.

I want to learn Tongue of the Sun and the Moon (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=1015.0). Doing languages one at a time is such a drag. :I

A Zarkin' Frood

08-12-2010, 02:22 AM

Aside from my mother tongue I speak a little English. It suffices to talk with you people here without being considered a total retard and makes me one of the most linguistically adept youtube commenters. Only I don't comment, which is what does the trick, I guess.

Some people keep calling me a lingo genius just because it took me next to no effort learn the English I know today but they're dumb, they don't know what they're talking about and that movies and the internet can teach you everything you desire.

I'm interested in Spanish, Japanese and all the sexy scandinavian languages.
You could say I know single words in Spanish and Japanese, a single norwegian word and a little Finnish profanity.

CelesJessa

08-12-2010, 02:42 AM

Fluent in English (is that really necessary to say?)

Good enough in Japanese to pass two 300-level language courses, as well as Japanese linguistics. (Three years in college)

Pretty basic German knowledge. (Three years in high school.)

I'd really like to learn Russian. And of course I know the random word here and there in other languages.

Melfice

08-12-2010, 02:55 AM

Dutch is my native language.
I speak and write fluent English.

I can make myself understood in German fairly well, as long as it doesn't involved pen and paper.

I can ask a Frenchman whether or not he speaks English, German or Dutch. And I can ask them where the tourist information centre is. Oh, and I can say that I lost my suitcase.

Why do I know these languages? Because Dutch and English were mandatory for the entire five year at high school. The other two were mandatory for either the first two or three years, after which you chose one to continue in. I chose German.

Shyria Dracnoir

08-12-2010, 03:20 AM

English is my main, I had Spanish instruction in elementary school (all gone now), French in middle and high school (also mostly gone), and I'm in the middle of learning Japanese.

Professor Smarmiarty

08-12-2010, 03:41 AM

I used to speak useful spanish but haven't done it long enough to be any good. I lived i Germany for a few months and learned no German and going to live in Paris for 2 months from October and probably won't learn any French- I'm not good at languages.

POS Industries

08-12-2010, 03:45 AM

What, nobody here speaks Klingon?

pujwI'
Honorless mongrel!

vo' nay' jIH jatlh neH teH vaj jat!

The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk

08-12-2010, 04:23 AM

What, nobody here speaks Klingon?

pujwI'

No, but I do have a basic knowledge of Goa'uld and I'd like to learn Ancient.

Also I can read Dwarvish runes.

Nikose Tyris

08-12-2010, 08:22 AM

I can read Tolkien Elvish, but there's not really enough there to have a full 'language'. Fun to play with!

I know some basic Klingon- enough to know that POS used a translator.

I know some Mando'a. Very little that makes any sense.

My native language is English, with a mild french accent.

I speak spot-phrases in French, but I have never been fluent in it.

I know a handful of phrases in Spanish, but I mispronounce EVERYTHING.

I know a tiny bit of german, and a tiny bit of dutch, thanks to knowing Meister and Melfice- and from working as German localisation. [I'm so, so sorry if you guys play a Tornado Outbreak game, or whatever the heck it was called...]

Edit: Like I can see you've put warrior tongue in there, but that's not really how you should have phrased it in Klingon... it comes across as "Warrior Mumble" in the way you've phrased it. I'm sorry!

A Zarkin' Frood

08-12-2010, 09:49 AM

and from working as German localisation. [I'm so, so sorry if you guys play a Tornado Outbreak game, or whatever the heck it was called...]

Oh, don't worry, I'm sure it's on par with the average German localization. Not having to put up with that is the main reason for knowing English over here.

The most horrible thing a localization can do is not to offer the possibility to switch to the original version. A startling amount of games do this. It's gotten better, but the issue is still there for a good deal of PC Games.

batgirl

08-12-2010, 10:14 AM

Speaking of dead languages, I can actually understand Yiddish pretty well. My parents and grandparents used to use it as their "secret" language so that we wouldn't know what they were talking about (usually something dirty or scandalous), but my sister had it as an elective in her high school and I used to read her lesson books.

Also the alphabet for Yiddish is the same alphabet that we use in Hebrew, so it's not so hard to pick up.

I can also read and write in Rashi, which is a written only language that is used in Bible and Tamudic commentary. It's fairly similar to Hebrew.

If people are interested, the Hebrew (the print style) alphabet looks like this (remember, in Hebrew we read right to left):
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/hebrewc.gif

Script style:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/images/hebrew/cursive.gif

And Rashi:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/images/hebrew/rashi.gif

Mannix

08-12-2010, 10:15 AM

I learned German in school though it's pretty rusted over and I'm picking up Korean by osmosis.

Melfice

08-12-2010, 10:52 AM

I know a tiny bit of german, and a tiny bit of dutch, thanks to knowing Meister and Melfice- and from working as German localisation.

... I taught you Dutch at some point?
When was that, and what was I on? :P

Inbred Chocobo

08-12-2010, 11:46 AM

RAWWWR RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWR AAAARRRRRRRR!!!!

RaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaWWWWWWWWWWWWWWwwwwwwRRRR RRRRR!!!!!

RAWR! Raaaaawwwwrr...

Rawr!*

*Hello my good fellows, I possess the ability to speak Tyranese, and dauble a little bit in Raptorian and French as I'm sure you could tell by my accent. Luckily for you more mammalian fellows I have a trained human ready to translate at my disposal.

I do hope to one day be able to speak snake, as that seems to drive all the female Tyrannosaurus's wild, but it is quite difficult to find a teacher and not eat him...

I think perhaps a good old fashion game of cricket will cheer me up. You fellows have a grand day.

Jagos

08-12-2010, 11:55 AM

I keep thinking I should learn Japanese but I've actually got a reason. You see the style of Karate I take is still headquartered in Japan. Eventually, if I stick with it and it has been a decade now so that is highly probable, I'm eventually going to end up in a position of responsibility. Which means several things, visiting various dojo in Japan, corresponding with Japanese officials, and hosting visitors from Japan. I'm sure a lot of that could potentially be done in English but I feel that knowing the language would probably make things much easier. It also seems that there exist a few books written entirely in Japanese that contain a veritable wealth of information from the founder himself.

IIRC, you take Goju-Ryu style, correct? Do you speak to the Okinawans or mainlanders?

POS Industries

08-12-2010, 01:32 PM

Like I can see you've put warrior tongue in there, but that's not really how you should have phrased it in Klingon... it comes across as "Warrior Mumble" in the way you've phrased it. I'm sorry!
The important thing to note here is that I'm the one that used a translator and didn't actually learn Klingon, so I still get to feel superior as a functioning member of society.

Anyway, for realz I took three semesters of French and failed to learn a damn thing.

Fenris

08-12-2010, 01:37 PM

I know some basic Klingon- enough to know that POS used a translator.

NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERD

Melfice

08-12-2010, 01:41 PM

Anyway, for realz I took three semesters of French and failed to learn a damn thing.

I'll one-up you.

I sucked at French for the mandatory years, and yet got a recommendation from my teacher to take the class as the choice.
All because I managed to bullshit my way through the understanding bit. I just listened or looked for any words that looked English, or even German or Dutch and guessed the rest of the sentence.

Same with German, except I was a little bit better, since German and Dutch sorta sound alike.

The Sevenshot Kid

08-12-2010, 01:57 PM

I'm a native English speaker and I know enough Spanish to order at my local Quiznos. I really want to learn German and Gaelic (or whatever the Irish language is called) so I can get a better feel for my roots.

POS Industries

08-12-2010, 02:01 PM

I know enough Spanish to order at my local Quiznos.
Wait, what?

A Zarkin' Frood

08-12-2010, 02:08 PM

Same with German, except I was a little bit better, since German and Dutch sorta sound alike.
I like to say one is the other translated into English and back with Google. Originally I said it as a joke, but I'm beginning to actually believe that.

Melfice

08-12-2010, 02:12 PM

I like to say one is the other translated into English and back with Google. Originally I said it as a joke, but I'm beginning to actually believe that.

Well, the Dutch language did contribute a bit to English, so that would be the reason for that, I guess.
Still, compare Nieder-Saksisch with the Twents dialect, and you'll find many things look and/or sound the same.

EDIT: At least, I think it's nieder-saksisch. If I even spelled it right. >__>

Shyria Dracnoir

08-12-2010, 03:42 PM

RAWWWR RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWR AAAARRRRRRRR!!!!

RaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaWWWWWWWWWWWWWWwwwwwwRRRR RRRRR!!!!!

RAWR! Raaaaawwwwrr...

Rawr!*

RAAAGHAGHH! RAH raawr raagh rrrrrrrrgh grrrrrwl RAAAR rrrrrrrreeeearrgh raaah rrrrh RAAAAAAAAAW! Raagh raagh RAAGH?

*Top shelf! It's been many a sorry day since I had the pleasure of conversing with a fellow conniseur of Franco-Ophidian languages (though I've been told my dialect skews more towards the Praries rather than Paris). I trust we can look forward to many a sophisticated conversation on the finer points of life and sport?

Archbio

08-12-2010, 04:18 PM

Wait, what?

The logical conclusion is that The Gunslinger lives in Mexico or Spain.

POS Industries

08-12-2010, 04:20 PM

The logical conclusion is that The Gunslinger lives in Mexico or Spain.
A logical conclusion indeed, except that his location is listed as California.

The Sevenshot Kid

08-12-2010, 04:24 PM

A logical conclusion indeed, except that his location is listed as California.

Another logical conclusion is that the employees at my local Quiznos are not good at speaking English. Of course, I do have a strong sense of Latin pride.

Archbio

08-12-2010, 04:30 PM

Highly illogical. Yet, fascinating.

As you can see, I am fluent in Vulcan.

Sithdarth

08-12-2010, 04:31 PM

IIRC, you take Goju-Ryu style, correct? Do you speak to the Okinawans or mainlanders?

It's actually a rather unknown style called Koei-Kan headquartered in/around Tokyo. The founder himself was from mainland Japan and founded the first dojo near Tokyo so as far as I know everyone is primarily mainlanders. I think I've said this before but the style itself is kind of strange because the founder was part of an old Samurai family so a lot of that philosophy as well as a little jujutsu. He also exchanged ideas with a couple of Chinese masters so some of that got incorporated as well. The style as a whole probably somewhat resembles the various Ryu styles but it really is off on its own.

Oh and I did know some D'ni for awhile but the language itself isn't actually complete. I could even write in it somewhat. I think I still might remember most of the numbers. It was a base 25 system which made it very interesting to work with.

The Sevenshot Kid

08-12-2010, 04:33 PM

Highly illogical. Yet, fascinating.

Have you ever tried ordering something in California without having to use a little Spanish? It's a pretty useful language.

Archbio

08-12-2010, 04:42 PM

Being in California is illogical.

Vulcan.

The Sevenshot Kid

08-12-2010, 04:54 PM

Being in California is illogical.

Vulcan.

Our girls are so hot they'll melt your popsicle.

California.

POS Industries

08-12-2010, 05:24 PM

Have you ever tried ordering something in California without having to use a little Spanish? It's a pretty useful language.
Yeah, bunches of times, but I lived in the shitty northern part.

Flarecobra

08-12-2010, 05:32 PM

Have you ever tried ordering something in California without having to use a little Spanish? It's a pretty useful language.

It's actually pretty easy to be honest.

Wigmund

08-12-2010, 05:42 PM

I speak English, mainly the Southern and Interior Highlands dialects, and I have some knowledge of Spanish from high school and am currently taking it in college. My mother did teach me some choice Cuban dialect Spanish phrases she picked up from when she lived in Key West.

I tried Russian my first semester, but decided I wanted something easy for my language credits so I fled to Spanish. If I go back over the materials I kept, I could probably read Russian Cyrillic again and speak some token phrases in it.

I really don't care for becoming fluent in any languages but I do enjoy learning about them (if you understand what I'm getting at). Becoming fluent is difficult and I'm lazy. Besides, most everyone else in the world speaks English better than I do.

CABAL49

08-12-2010, 05:55 PM

Like most Americans I grew up English only. I learned a lot of Spanish through working though. I can't write it, but I can speak it. I can hold conversations in German and write pretty well, as long as you can read my hand-writing. I was going to start learning Korean, but I couldn't bring my hungover self to wake up at 7 on a Saturday morning. So all I know is the alphabet and the word for shoes.

Next week I start learning Japanese. I would have preferred to learn Chinese but they only offer a year at my university and what the fuck am I suppose to do with that?

bluestarultor

08-12-2010, 06:48 PM

I would have preferred to learn Chinese but they only offer a year at my university and what the fuck am I suppose to do with that?

Learn that "Chinese" isn't actually a language? ;P

Doc ock rokc

08-12-2010, 07:28 PM

Yo hablo espanol... muy malo
I hate hate hate languages personally Because I even suck at my Native tongue (English). My handwriting Is Illegible. My mouth/Hands are too fast for my head and I use words My colleges Don't know or thing is outdated. however I can revel in the knowledge that, I can't spell worth shit!

The Sevenshot Kid

08-12-2010, 09:28 PM

"Yo quiero un BLT." That is all the Spanish that I use regularly but I could hold up a conversation in Spanglish.

Hatake Kakashi

08-13-2010, 04:47 AM

pujwI'

Weakling?

bIjatlhHa'chugh qaHoH

I still remember a bit of Korean from when I was teaching in one of their churches about... let's see, I'm 32.... 13 years ago. I'm currently studying conversational Japanese with Takeii Hiroyoshi-sensei to better prepare myself to move to Japan, but I still know only a tiny fraction of what I'll need to in order for that to happen.

Jagos

08-13-2010, 04:52 AM

Magic_Marker

08-13-2010, 11:04 AM

I know high school Spanish. And that's about it.

Any English I may speak is purely accidental.

Osterbaum

08-13-2010, 11:12 AM

Finnish and Spanish are my native languages. I also speak english on account of learning it since 3rd grade and (mostly) american movies & TV-shows. I speak some Japanese and Swedish. I have also studied German. I wish to expand my knowledge of German and Swedish, possibly Japanese aswell. Also hope to learn a few new languages eventually; having a hard time deciding which, but the list to choose from goes as follows (in no particular order): Portuguese, Italian, French and Russian.

Darth SS

08-13-2010, 05:14 PM

Given my birthplace of Swift Current Saskatchewan, it's pretty obvious that I'm a native English speaker. I'm also fluent in French due to so much time in french immersion, and because of my grandmother I can speak some very choppy hungarian.

From my martial arts instructors I can speak an eensy bit of Japanese and Hebrew, reading and writing is right out, and I can speak a couple phrases in Tagalog.

Someday I hope to able to speak Russian, mostly because I would love to train in sambo, and I'm hoping to learn German. This all begins with a 100 level german class next year, which I'm hoping should not be too hard.