How many languages you know?
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French and English (smattering of other languages)
I speak, read and write French and English.
Have some basic recognition in German. Also some recognition vocabulary in Dutch (my sister is Dutch and her son tends to speak Dutch to me because he finds it difficult to believe that my sister and I don't speak the same languages.) After I'm around it for a couple of weeks, I do much better than I expect to.
Can read Spanish fairly well and can follow some TV programs, etc. Live Spanish is sometimes harder (depends where people are from). I find Mexican Spanish fairly easy to follow but New York Puerto Rican is very difficult to follow. If Spanish speakers are from Spain, they are easier for me to understand, and of course if they speak Catalan (not Spanish), then we understand each other. Again, if I'm around Spanish-speaking people, it seems to "come back."
If I listen carefully, I can often make sense of Italian. My great-grandmother and other members of my family spoke Italian (although none were Italian) so I guess some of it sunk in at some subconscious level. Also, used to see lots of Italian movies as a kid.
I need to learn some Portugese as that is the common "second language" around here. It would be nice to know enough to "get by."
Have some basic recognition in German. Also some recognition vocabulary in Dutch (my sister is Dutch and her son tends to speak Dutch to me because he finds it difficult to believe that my sister and I don't speak the same languages.) After I'm around it for a couple of weeks, I do much better than I expect to.
Can read Spanish fairly well and can follow some TV programs, etc. Live Spanish is sometimes harder (depends where people are from). I find Mexican Spanish fairly easy to follow but New York Puerto Rican is very difficult to follow. If Spanish speakers are from Spain, they are easier for me to understand, and of course if they speak Catalan (not Spanish), then we understand each other. Again, if I'm around Spanish-speaking people, it seems to "come back."
If I listen carefully, I can often make sense of Italian. My great-grandmother and other members of my family spoke Italian (although none were Italian) so I guess some of it sunk in at some subconscious level. Also, used to see lots of Italian movies as a kid.
I need to learn some Portugese as that is the common "second language" around here. It would be nice to know enough to "get by."
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- weathermom
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I also have understood Italian, though I have never studied it. My grandmother was Italian and I must have absorbed a little somewhere along the way. I have been in Italy twice, and both times have understood things when spoken to, and was surprised to find that I did. These were isolated instances, I certainly didn't understand everything! I wish I had had the opportunity to learn the language. I wish I had a language to pass along to my children.
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- streetsoldier
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- george_r_1961
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I took French in my fresman year in HS..nearly 30 years ago; unfortunatley I remember very little. I speak and understand a little German and Italian. Thats abnout it 

Last edited by george_r_1961 on Thu Jan 20, 2005 10:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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- HurricaneGirl
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