Can you speak another language?

[peebles32]

I hate going abroad and not been able to speak the languages I feel so ignorant. I can speak Spanish reasonably well as lived there for a while.
However, when I go to other countries I feel so ignorant and always try to learn a little.
I am quite passionate about languages and find it hard to understand why people don't make more of an effort!
I don't like to presume everyone will speak English. However, my DP could not care less and does not see why he should try!

Basic French, German, Dutch, Italian and Spanish. Better Latin. Tiny bit of Polish. Some Russian.

I'm more confident listening and reading/writing than speaking. My 5 year old has better spoken Russian than I do.

Also this:

I always learn how to say hello, goodbye, please, thank you and help in whichever country I’m in. I make my children learn those five words too.

Another one for Romance languages so French and Spanish decent, can read an Italian newspaper ditto Catalan. Still trying to find an ancient Greek or Roman for a bit of conversation. I think it's hugely worth being able to speak a language and read a bit of its papers/literature, but I agree with a pp who said even a few words shows willing. I think it's a patterning brain that helps the basic linguist like me. I'd love to have learnt a non-European language. But eg where I was brought up there were three national languages with English being the ahem lingua franca, and a few languages that didn't make it to national status.

How/when did you learn them?

My DS told me recently that he is positively living for the moment a Spanish person asks him what he has in his pencil case.....

Two other languages.

No, much to my shame. But I always give it a try, and where I go in Spain, other than restaurants, the locals do not speak English. I can make myself understood well enough in shops (asking for X amount of ham or cheese for example), but every time I vow to study up the next time! I'm doing Duolingo but still.
I do remember going to a petrol station and using a phrase book asking the attendant to fill it up, and he laughed and told me the real way people ask! He appreciated the effort though (can't remember what the phrase was either).

I can speak and understand a few like French, Spanish and Italian. Not fluent, but enough.

However, I am absolutely stumped by the difference between Spanish and Portuguese, the latter I just cannot get at all, and I don't know why!

I love learning languages and having a go while in the country.
Am fluent in German (lived here 15 years)
Enough French to have a long conversation
Can get by in Spanish, Italian and Gaelic
Basic Russian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian

Got a few words of Czech, Albanian and Cantonese as well. Got lots of international friends to practice with. 😊

I wish! I’ve been trying to learn french for about 25 years and I’m still intermediate.
children and DH are awful too - in fact they let DS2 drop french for GCSE as he wouldn’t have passed. DS got a 4 for french even with a lot of coaching and he got 8&9s in the rest.

I get confused when switching between different languages? How on earth do you do it and not mingle them together?

Can speak lrish fluently which l love but rarely get to use it. Can read French but speak it poorly as years since l learnt it. Would love to speak Spanish but l seem to find languages so difficult although other learning is easy for me. Always had a block. Was working with some Ukrainian children recently and amazed at their ability to jump from Ukrainian to Russian to English without any bother.
As lrish people we seem to be poor at languages counting on everyone else to speak English to us.

Ha ha. My son is the same. He has just done gcse spanish and can talk about his school and homeless people but think he would panic if anyone asked him what he wanted to drink!

Almost fluent in French
Very good grasp of spoken Russian and Ukrainian
I can read Russian and Ukrainian quite well

No but I wish I could, can get by with very basic French.

Genuinely impressed. I speak several languages and learn new ones as a hobby but I can not understand people from Glasgow.

German and french degree. Very rusty speech but ok reading and listening.
Learning Italian at the moment and really enjoying it. A lot of similarities to french.
In the past have been interested in learning polish because the consonant combinations like sz and cz fascinated me but that was extremely difficult and back in the day learnt russian for a bit at night school.

I am often embarrassed and ashamed of the UK's teaching of languages! I went into a shop in Gibraltar a few years ago and the owner switched effortlessly between several languages!

I've O level Latin and German, A level Spanish and degree level French but it's been a long time! I do make an effort to communicate in French or Spanish when I am in the country, and it's always appreciated (but wholly unexpected!)

DC1 is a MFL teacher. On our recent visit to Spain, people were so impressed with their level of Spanish, but they were pissed off because they kept speaking to them in English!

Basic French and German (O Level)
Some Spanish, Swedish and Esperanto.

I’m doing Duolingo daily, and vary my language each week.

Yes, I speak two other languages well - one very fluently (from a country where I lived for quite a long time) and the other reasonably fluently (DH's mother tongue).

I have studied a further six languages to varying degrees - did GCSE/A-level qualifications in 3. Studied another when living abroad, and used to speak it very well but have forgotten a lot now. Then two more which I studied to a more basic level for at least 2 years each - I could probably still cope with very basic conversations but not much more.

And then I have various smatterings of other random languages picked up from duolingo or similar, as and when I have fancied it!! I love language learning and always try to learn a bit when I go somewhere.

I like Latin, but not sure I prefer any others. That said I would like to be multi linguistic but it's the time and effort spent learning them, that is the pickle.

Yes myself and DC's are all fluent in our native language as well as English. DH doesn't speak out native language so English is our first language at home.

I also speak fluent Spanish and tourist level French and Italian. I am also trying to learn Turkish at the moment, although I find learning a new language is far more challenging the older I get.

I’ve tried Scottish Gaelic, Spanish, Italian, French and Japanese on Duolingo. Spanish was the most successful but really not good, think I got to around a 100 day streak 😂.

im currently trying Arabic. It’s difficult but I’m learning like ten letters at the moment and I can identify them and he sound most if the time. My step mum speaks Arabic fluently as a second language. That’s why I’m learning.

Some French. I didn't realise how rusty though until I did some Duolingo.

Basic German, I could introduce myself, order a cuppa talk about my family etc in Norwegian and also the same in Polish but able to carry out slightly more of a conversation. In hindsight I should be able to speak fluent Polish. I'm half Polish but never spoke the language until recently when I started learning on Duolingo. I never realised how hard it actually is. I can also speak very basic Spanish ie good morning, good afternoon, goodnight, hello, please thank you and goodbye and can speak some Japanese too although aside two Japanese words I cannot read it unless it's written in actual words. I enjoy the challenge of learning a new language

Yes English is my 2nd language native is Danish. Though these days I speak better English than Danish. I also understand Swedish and Norwegian and used to be solid in German but not so much German anymore though I think I would pick it up soon again.