Neighbour doesn’t speak English at home

Scottish Gaelic is similar to to Irish Gaelic afaik.
There is a thread on here where Irish Mumsnetters write their posts in the Irish language or like me, try to.
It’s in Craicnet.

I used to look after a UK based cat who only understood Italian. 'Dov'è la pallina??' was the main one to know - he sure loved chasing a ball.

I have to say I wouldn't have guessed that one!

Is it a Skye terrier?! As someone who's been trying unsuccessfully to learn Gaelic for years now, I take my bonaid off to her - it's not easy.

Duolingo does have a Finnish course now, albeit very small, that can give a starting point.

It's a dream of mine to learn Finnish. I love visiting Finland. But it definitely sounds like a difficult language to learn. Maybe someday. . .

It's not rude to ask her in conversation, no. People ask me all the time and I dont fint it rude.

If you're on otherwise friendly terms, then I'd say by all means ask!

Could it be something a bit more obscure like Farsi? I have an old university friend who looks as "English" as the next person, so I was surprised to hear her chatting away in a totally unfamiliar language on the phone one evening!

General Slavic - love it!

Finnish is pretty difficult to learn, as it's so different to other languages except Estonian. I'm not fluent but I manage fine with most conversations and reading.

My friends and I sometimes speak something we call "general Slavic." As we all speak various Slavic languages, we can communicate because of all the shared root words.

BTW I noticed that you mentioned living in Finland. Finnish is a language I would love to learn, but it is quite daunting even though I love learning languages.

This is actually more common than you’d think 😂

We fostered a husky/shepherd mix about 10 years ago. Shelter had said the owner who relinquished him had told them that the dog was trained in basic commands but they’d seen no evidence of it.
We later found out that the previous owner was Lithuanian. My exH googled the Lithuanian word for “sit” and as if by magic, the dog sat 😂😂😂
So for about 4 months, we were an English speaking family with a Lithuanian speaking dog 🤷🏻‍♀️😂

Well they are mutually intelligible so basically if you speak one, you speak them all so why not combine them and call them Scandinavian?

Clever cat

Haha! Dutch people living abroad are definitely the worst for this - I would know because I am one! Nearly everyone is expected to learn at least 1 foreign language in school (majority learn 2) because Dutch doesn't get you very far in the world. It's culturally expected that you should learn more than Dutch - otherwise you're deemed either a bit dim, or elderly.

In my experience they're not embarrassed to get it wrong, but they only know just about enough to pull it off. I speak Dutch and English fluently, but despite learning French, German and Spanish for 3-6 years in school, it's only enough for a holiday (ordering food, directions etc). Did a year or 2 of Latin and Ancient Greek too but let's not count those! I have done some casual courses/listened to a lot of Swedish, Italian, and Arabic, just for fun, plus a few words in Czech. I'm still shit at all of them!

So while I technically have some knowledge of 11ish languages, I only speak 2 fluently, 3 with hesitation, and 5+ barely.

Very pleased to hear to hear the dog speaks Scottish Gaelic - must try harder with my cats.

Gaelic Irish I would admire, but Gaelic Scottish, jeez, that's just so uncouth! ;)

Seriously, your neighbour & her dog sound very cool. You'll have to learn a few token Gaelic Scottish terms & phrases just to be neighbourly.

Or would that just be too 'Dutch'!? ;)

Boudeledidge?

😅 Those are all Scandinavian languages. But the other poster said she speaks "Scandinavian" which is not a language. I wondered if she meant a particular language or an invented mashup of several.

This is so funny, because it's so spot-on! I've known a few Dutch people and they're all fluently multi-lingual.

Come out of the womb tri-lingual 😂

Some people can speak dog. I am fluent in cat.

How fascinating! I love languages and, though I say it as shouldn’t, I’m pretty good at them. Pets aside, I pretty much always ask anyone I hear speaking something I don’t recognise what the language is - I think they’re flattered that I’m interested in their culture,
The most bizarre situation I ever came across was in a healthcare setting. A nurse who was Romanian was speaking to a patient who was also Romanian and didn’t speak English that well in English. In think she was explaining something about a new drug he was being put on and, when I asked why they weren’t speaking Romanian, she said it was because others around might object!

I chatted to woman for years on the school run without realising until she mentioned it that she was Swedish. I also knew a Dutch woman whose English was flawless. Wonder if she is from either of those countries?

Which one is your mothertongue?

Well I lost the bet

My bet is on Esperanto