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!

I'm not English / British, but I speak English as well as my mother tongue.

Fluent French
Good reading German though not good at speaking
GCSE level Spanish
Latin
Ancient Greek

Competent German and semi-fluent Dutch. I say semi because I lived there for nearly 9 years and moved back to Aus 7 years ago and haven’t used it since. (Except to put a rude Dutch woman in her place at my work. That was rather gratifying.)

Yes. Fluent in 4 languages (one of them is my native one).

I am often embarrassed and ashamed of the UK's teaching of languages!

Don't worry, it's quite common in many bigger countries. I'm currently in France and they only start with first foreign language in college - and even then, the level is generally so basic that many high school graduates still don't speak a word. I think it's such a shame, kids are like sponges and learn language super fast when given a decent chance. Where I'm from, most kids start with languages in kindergarten, and it is mandatory to teach at least 2 foreign languages in primary school.

I can speak Italian as I lived in Italy for a number of years in my youth and had an Italian boyfriend who didn’t speak any English.

I speak Finnish, not fluently but enough to get by in day to day life if I have to (I find most Finns will speak English to me though, so I usually don't have to, which hasn't helped my learning!)

I don't really remember any of my Spanish or German from school, but I'm doing French on duolingo now and some of it is coming back to me but I only know enough for useful tourist phrases and suchlike, could not hold a conversation.

I speak French. UK born but because of dad’s job, lived and schooled in France.

Whenever l’m elsewhere, l always think it’s polite to ask “do you speak English” rather than assume.

Yes! I teach several (French, German and Spanish) and can dpeak a bit of Italian. I'm learning Japanese, but it's very hard and slow going!

French and German I learned to higher level at school. I can still speak a bit in both, and understand written french and German a bit more. I don't count higher Latin as it isn't spoken but it does help to decode other romance languages at times. Italian I did as an evening class for interest but I can't say much as I haven't used it. Russian I also did as an evening class and used it to communicate in St. Petersburg and Moscow but I haven't used it for a while and I am very rusty. My most recent language is Spanish and I could hold short conversations on holiday which pleased me very much. I love languages.

Latin is very helpful as it makes the grammar and vocab for a lot of European languages easier.

I'm English, monolingual upbringing, did French GCSE and can still read it quite well and can get by conversationally if people speak slowly.

Did one year of German at school - can ask directions and order cake!

I manage as a tourist in both Spanish and Italian (although I get mixed up between the two if I'm out of practice!), so polite greetings, directions, ordering food, passing the time of day etc.

Used to be good at Kiswahili - not fluent but conversational - from working in East Africa, but out of practice now.

Can manage polite greetings/ food and drink in Arabic and Thai, but can't read either script.

I'm better at reading and listening to languages than I am at remembering what to say in response. DH is the other way around, so when we travel together, we often end up in three-way conversations where I listen and translate then he responds!

Russian, and was astonished by just how useful that was all over Europe. The number of people who couldn't speak English but could speak Russian so I was able to chat to them was mind boggling!

Fluent French (I have dual nationality) and basic Italian and Spanish.

Three languages here, DH three and the children are being raised bilingually. Which is exhausting but when it starts to come right it’s quite amazing. My toddler son now shouts an enthusiastic “Nyet!” when we try feed him porridge 🤦‍♀️

I'm fluent in Italian and have decent French (degree in French and lived there for a while). I can understand a lot of Spanish too. I love languages. Kids are bilingual English and Italian as DH is Italian. I've read that speaking different languages is very good for the brain and can help lessen the risk of dementia too. DH and I flip between English and Italian, sometimes both in one conversation.

I speak fluent Afrikaans, as in native level fluent.

I went to an afrikaans speaking boarding school when we lived in SA, and you either learned the language or you didn’t get along, so I learned the language. So much so that I was the one chosen to read the intro to the constitution on republic day (it was a long time ago) in Afrikaans. I was the only child there who came from the UK.

It’s not of huge worth to me here, but it does amuse me when I hear people having conversations in Afrikaans which I understand every word of, including the woman I heard having a row with her husband on the phone on a train once. It was the kind of row you would only have if you thought no-one could understand. It initially caught my attention because she was speaking Afrikaans, and then she proceeded to tell her husband what a shit husband he was, how bad he was in bed etc….

Stick with it @TheWayTheLightFalls . Such a huge advantage to the kids.

Yes I speak French and Italian fluently (did a degree in them) and a bit of Spanish - can read it better than speak it, which I did up to GCSE (and it's quite similar to Italian). I can only say a few words in German and would like to learn it properly and improve my Spanish.

French and Spanish, fluently. I went to Greece a few years back and learnt some polite basics, but I found it really frustrating not to be able to communicate effectively.

Was brought up bilingual Welsh and English. Can speak a little French and Italian.

Very rusty A level German.
A little French. At various times I’ve tried learning bits of other languages here or there (Portuguese, Mandarin, Spanish, Latin, Welsh, Dutch) but I’ve never really stuck to them for long enough for them to stick. I love languages but tend to bounce from one to the next.
Like others I always try to learn the tourist basics- hello, please, thank you, excuse me, ordering food and drink, asking where the toilet is etc. wherever I go and sometimes a bit more of the language but I tend to forget them after the holiday and move onto the next one. I’ve now been learning Japanese for about a year and a half and am happy with the progress I’ve made. I’m hoping that if I continue to stick with it I’ll get to a stage of being conversational, even if fluency is out of reach.

I can speak and write Spanish and French.

Spanish is my stronger language - even if I haven't spoken it for ages, my brain flicks a switch when I'm in the country and surrounded by people speaking it everywhere. It's really the only way to learn a language properly.

i keep it up by reading and listening to Radio Madrid! I used to go to Spanish club each week, which was really enjoyable, I need to resume that as it helped with grammar.

Every now and again, I dream in the language, really weird!

reading books and poetry (Isabelle Allende, Garcia Lorca - Gabriel Garcia Marquez challenged my comprehension to its limit I will admit)

I know a few words and phrases in Hebrew, phonetically, the Hebrew character set is a whole other ballgame!