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!

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

I always think the usefulness of Latin is a bit overstated in this respect tbh, even though I did Latin up to A Level myself. I don't think it's inherently any more useful than learning another European language would be in helping with other European languages.

i think part of the reason it gives such a grounding in grammar is that in Latin lessons you're able to devote such a lot of time to grammar, because you don't have to do listening or speaking!

English

welsh is my first language

Yes, several. IMO, British people need to make more of an effort to at least try a few phrases when they travel abroad.

I speak French and Spanish to a decent level.
I understand some German and Italian but cannot speak them
I absolutely adore languages and have recently booked to take an advanced French language course in Lyon in October

GCSE French, Arabic, Urdu and Bengali

Turkish, reasonable French, a little German and Spanish.

Yes, all major Western European languages apart from French and Dutch. Use them at work every day and write in them.

I'm fluent in Italian and can get by in French and Spanish.

French is my mother tongue (as in, it’s what my mum speaks to me) but even still I struggle to write it, and am not bilingual. I don’t speak it to anyone other than mum and when we are on holiday. Kids sometimes use it with their grandmother. My sister and I were raised in the UK. She now lives in Paris and is ‘properly’ bilingual. I also speak Spanish (badly) and German (A-level but quite badly.) DH is bilingual in Italian.

Not speaking the language has never put me off visiting a destination. Although Russia outside big cities felt quite tricky at times.

Yes, French. My grandparents are from Provence.

I always try learn a few bits wherever I go. Please, thank you, toilet, coffee, exit.

But realitically, ive been all over the world, sometimes stopping in a country for 4 days, to never return. I'm not going to learn the language. Then more recently i havent left the uk for a good 10 years.

I have a decent bash at french, a gcse style bash at german and even lower level spanish. Thats plenty considering i have spent 7 days of my 46 years in spain.

So German and English? Or do you also speak Luxembourgish and Romansh?

’Major’ Western European languages. So those with 10M+ speakers, unfortunately not the smaller ones.

Yes, I do. It's a shame that other languages are deprioritised in anglophone nations. Multilingualism is the norm from a global perspective.

Yes that's what made me hesitate about the two I mentioned. I'm guessing you must be including more countries than I'd expect in your definition of western Europe then, otherwise it would just be German if you don't include French and Dutch?

If you divide Europe into just east and west, not into a number of regions, Spain, Portugal and Italy stay on the west side.

Of course there are many geographical and cultural classifications that are used. Forgive my ignorance, I’m simplifying and using the approach many businesses use, where the five major countries and a few of the others that border them with developed economies and established capitalist systems are classed as ‘Western Europe’. I do appreciate other approaches also exist

Thanks for this. I was being more literal so was wondering about the other languages. Makes more sense with your explanation.

I could speak Maltese as a child- barely a word now. Shameful.😢

ha I studied latin for awhile, and greek which was harder. Now it's chinese. I mostly work and speak English so it's hard to commit to a full language immersion unless you're in school or something; living in other countries doesn't help if you work online and have no friends... :)