Wish I had Spanish. Was just thinking about this today.

I took a few years of French in high school and a few semesters of German in college, but have retained only 50% or so of it (and that’s being generous). I just never really had the opportunity to use French with any regularity. And as the saying goes, “Use it or lose it!”

In addition to American (and possibly Canadian) English, I speak German, Italian, Spanish, and a bit of French, in that order of fluency. I took a year of Russian, but that is not enough to become fluent. I can speak enough French to get what I need when traveling, but I have a difficult time understanding what is being spoken to me, although I have no trouble reading it.

For me, the only way to learn a language is to have an in-person teacher, and I prefer a classroom setting, as opposed to a private tutor.

I've only had one semester of conversational Spanish, which I took at City College in San Francisco (Adult Education at night), but this course was rather intensive, and nothing was written - it was all oral, which forced me to speak it properly. Spanish is probably the easiest language to learn because it is so regular, and it is also easy to find native speakers to practice with.

After I had one semester of Spanish, I spent extensive amounts of time in Mexico, up to two months at a time each winter when I lived in San Francisco. This allowed me to get practical experience speaking Spanish, but I never learned all the past tenses of the verbs I used, but then I did not talk about the past all that much. I could carry on good conversations at parties, however, and that was one of my main goals at the time.

I would like to learn Portuguese and have been to Brazil with a friend who owns property there, but I was completely dependent on him for communication. I can read a fair amount of Portuguese, just from knowing Spanish, Italian, and French, but that does not mean that I can pronounce it. I think it sounds very beautiful, and I loved the Brazilian people, but I think it is a difficult language to learn, and it is also difficult to find a class here.

When I was taking conversational Spanish at City College, I decided since I was already going to the campus, I might as well take conversational French, although I had already had French in college. I wanted to take French there to improve my conversational French, and so I would get to campus and hour early, go to Spanish lab for half an hour, then French lab for half an hour, then French class for one hour, and finally Spanish class for one hour. On my way home on the K Ingleside Streetcar, I sat next to a young woman from Paris in my Spanish class who lived a block and an half from me, and we would practice Spanish together. She refused to speak French with me because she said I had a horrible American accent. Anyway, I guess I picked up a French accent from her because when I went to Mexico, everyone thought I was from France, even though my French is horrible. Everyone understood me, but they would ask me if I preferred to speak French. No one thought I was American, which I found a bit surprising.

People in Italy could not tell where I was from either, and so I guess I do not have the typical American accent when I speak Italian. I learned Italian when I went back to university in my 30s, and it was very easy for me, since I already knew Spanish by then. I took 10 hours of Italian and would have taken more if I could have gotten my first teacher again. I loved her because she almost never spoke English to the class and taught us the way I guess she would teach an infant or children. The next teacher I had always translated everything she said into English, which I found extremely tedious, and so I dropped that class. My niece has taught English in Korea, and she speak no Korean at all, and I think this is the best way to learn a language.

I can read several although not in depth but having taken Spanish, German, and now French what I hear and pronounce is apparently not what is being said. Been that way since grade school although the hearing tests are fine.

I majored in languages in college. I wouldn’t say I’m fluent at this point in anything but English because I don’t have as many occasions to use them. When I worked in a hotel with a lot of Spanish-speaking employees, and when we had a Spanish-speaking housekeeper, I got pretty fluid. When I spend time in France and Switzerland, my French improves. But when I spend time with Québecois, I don’t dare speak French. My DSIL made fun of me when I said something in French, and now I don’t even try, although I will text her in French. (Btw, she and her family are very careful not to use a Québecois accent.)

One summer in high school I decided I’d learn Japanese. My dad had a “teach yourself” book from his time there after the war, so I used that. Of course, I didn’t know anyone else who spoke Japanese! But I learned enough concepts that later a Japanese friend and I translated a book that she could read to our kids‘ second grade class.

Now, I’d like to learn Italian because I think it would be fairly easy on top of French and Spanish.

And, I’d like to learn Danish. My family came from Denmark, and I know some people who speak it. We have some ephemera in Danish I’d like to be able to identify. I had two years of German and can kind of pick out Dutch, and I know a little bit of Danish, so I might give that a try.

I don’t have any interest in learning another alphabet or writing system anymore. So Hebrew, Greek (though I know the Greek letters), Japanese, no. My brother lives in Thailand and I look at the writing and it is incredibly beautiful but I just don’t think my brain is flexible enough anymore!

I started earlier this year, learning Spanish. I am using Duolingo, and have a streak of 160 days going. I need to practice actually speaking, which I could with my next door neighbor, except COVID. But I think its going well, and hopefully I can make myself understood when we are able to travel.

order of ability, from best to worst

French - advanced intermediate. I'm very capable reading, listening, speaking (have done business meetings and negotiations in French) but I'm not culturally fluent (because I wasn't born and raised there nor had a French parent). I lived there for nearly 3 years and submerged myself as much as I could. It's rusty but comes back quick. 5 years of formal education and a lot of immersion

German - Advanced beginner, also rusty. I can understand much of what I hear, can read much of what I see, have had many philosophical and political conversations in German and could do so now with a bit of refreshing. 3 years of formal study and a fair amount of immersion.

Spanish - Greater than 50% comprehension, I can usually understand and express myself comfortably. Self-taught, plenty of opportunities to talk to native speakers where I live.

Dutch - The pronunciation is very, very different from German, they're not siblings but they are cousins. Some words are similar, some very different. Expressions can be quite different. At one point many centuries ago older forms of Dutch and English had a common ancestor in the Germanic language family (this is probably an oversimplification) so between familiarity with German and English, and add in repeatedly practicing Dutch pronunciation, I can say enough to make people smile and certainly understand me in many different contexts beyond tourism. But just like people in Scandinavia, the Dutch are very proficient English speakers (needed by those in countries where the indigenous language is not widely studied outside the borders when it resides) and so the ability to speak some Dutch helps to provide a warm welcome and encourage friendliness but adds nothing to getting along.

I thought about 6 months ago it would be worthwhile to study to enhance my capabilities in both Spanish and Dutch but haven't yet done so. If you find a good source, please share it.

As I mentioned in a thread I think sometime in the last month, there is such a thing as learning how to learn a language. Because of that, learning a second language is usually much easier than the first, even if the two are not in the same language group. The biggest obstacle Americans face is that instruction ABOUT the English language in the US is pretty poor. Without a firm grasp of tenses, parts of speech and other essential elements of grammar, it can be very difficult to grasp what these things are in another language when the student doesn't know them in their own language. Want a quick self-check? What's the pluperfect tense? What's a declension?

Oh, I forgot that I want to learn American Sign Language. I’ve always been interested, ever since grade school when we had several hearing-impaired children in our school. I used to make a point of watching children’s television shows that had ASL (I remember the Q words from Sesame Street!). I really wished I knew it when I worked at amusement parks in the summers. When I worked in Special Recreation the association offered ASL classes, but they were at 6pm on a weeknight and my kids were in school and my husband traveled, so it was too hard for me to get to the classes on time, on a regular basis.

Hmm, I think I have a site where they teach a sign or concept every day, I think I’ll go check that out.

I envy those of you who can speak another language. I tried!

I know enough Spanish to read signs, menus etc.

Bees, you brought back memories. Years ago I worked with people with a variety of disabilities. I took a class in Braille and the instructor said right off that by the end of the course only a few of you will remain. She was right. It was hard! But, I realized that I just wanted to have an understanding of how Braille worked and I accomplished that.

I also took an ASL course. I never became fluent but could communicate on a basic level to get a point across.

Keep us updated on your progress.

Elmer, you are so right that we don’t learn ABOUT English here! Didn’t you find that you learned more about English when you studied another language? My sons were lucky, they both had Latin in elementary school, one in middle school, and one used a great program for elementary LA that included Latin. So they know more. Even before they studied other languages.

"Didn’t you find that you learned more about English when you studied another language?"

Yes, of course. Very much so.

We took all of our kids on several trips to Europe before the eldest was out of high school. On one such trip, we were in Paris and a daughter (who was studying French in school) asked me to accompany her to the post office for stamps to mail cards to her friends at home. I went along with her but stopped on the sidewalk.

"Aren't you coming in?"

"No"

"How am I going to get the right stamps?"

"You had the post office chapter quiz a month ago, we practiced it two days when I was driving you to school. You know what you need to know. Go in and open your mouth. A reminder, postcard is carte postale."

"That's not fair"

"I'll wait here".

She came out a few minutes later excited and with a big grin on her face

"How did it go?"

"THEY UNDERSTOOD ME!! I got what I wanted! The woman asked me where I was from and wished me a pleasant visit to Paris !"

"Of course they understood you, what did you expect? You knew what to say. When you want to convey a thought or ask something, just talk".

It was her first but not her last experience. One summer in grad school, she had an internship that was spent about 60% in the UK, 40% in France. She refreshed herself with French and was very confident being there on her own (not in a big city) and using it.

The morale of the story is to learn a language, you need to use it and not be reluctant to make mistakes. People are flattered when a foreigner has spent time to study their language, they're almost always very patient and supportive.

Fluent in English and German, middling in Spanish (I can read and understand (provided they speak slowly enough) more than I can speak) and rusty in French. I am currently working on my French via Duolingo, but have been too lazy since the holidays.

I am German from Russia on both sides. I can speak some. I took a year of it in HS but it was high German and we spoke low German, My DH never spoke English when he started the first grade. He also is a GFR,

I used to be pretty fluent in Spanish but lost it all to Chemotherapy. It is strange but I lost Chemistry the same way. DH is fluent in German and can read and understand all sorts of European languages. He can read and make sense of most of the Scandinavian languages plus French, Spanish and Italian. I dont see why the last three but we watch a lot of programing from those countries and he plainly understands way beyond the subtitles that I need. I can understand sufficient German due to him get about but Austrian German is pretty unintelligible. I suppose Dutch would be the same. He minored in Dutch and has an educated opinion about the differences. What ever, he can get around and make himself understood most places in Europe. Useful guy.

I am bilingual in English and Hebrew, with, once upon a time, a certain strength in Arabic as well. DH is trilingual in all three. Between us we studied (in high school and college) Latin, German, Russian, French, and Spanish, following those with the above-mentioned Semitic languages in grad school. We both had very enjoyable careers with the American military, teaching our languages and the cultures of those countries. Foreign language is almost an organizing principle in our home!

I had a powerhouse Latin teacher for all four years of high school who instilled the language into my fairly receptive brain and in doing so, set me up for the further language learning that ultimately became a career. I was that nerdy girl who walked around with her Latin book working on translations. Little did I realize then just how useful it would be!

I only had one semester of Latin in college, but I did find it helpful. However, Russian was more difficult because the grammar was even more complex than Latin.

When I first went to Mexico City, I did not know much Spanish (this was before my Spanish class), but I was able to ask questions although I might not understand the answers. Therefore I always carried a pencil and paper with me, and when I asked questions of strangers (usually directions) and could not understand their answers, I would say "Escribelo por favor," which was one of the first sentences I learned in Spanish. I could always understand what they wrote down.

Later, one year when I was visiting friends in Mexico City, President and Rosalyn Carter happened to visit DF while I was there, and I watched Rosalyn on Mexican TV with my friends. Rosalyn spoke a bit of Spanish, but she said to her interviewer, "Hablo mas que entiendo," and my friend José said, "That's not news - we knew that already." Most people would say "Entiendo mas que hablo," but when I first went to Mexico, I could speak better than I could understand, and so what she said made some sense to me.

I was a linguistics major as an undergraduate - the study of language. Generic in a way, syntax, etc...I ended up with 30 hours of German because my uncle lived in Germany and I wanted to move there and teach English as a foreign language. But sadly they wanted British English taught in their schools.

All of my husband's European NATO colleagues speak English with a British accent.

Then we moved to the Netherlands for my husband's work and I studied Dutch. Pronunciation, as Elmer says, is very different from German but many words are easy if you know German. There's a joke about Dutch: "It's not a language, it's a throat disease ". I had a hard time when we went to Germany not to use the Dutch pronunciations of words...

My DH learned French as a young child because his parents spoke it at home and so did the nuns who taught him in grammar school. So he soaked it up and is fluent but lacking vocabulary. We get along fine in France. I know the words on the menus and he can pronounce them! Spanish is totally out of our league, except I am conversant in culinary Spanish and Portuguese...

seagrass

I've always wanted to be bilingual, but at this point I don't want it enough to put the necessary focus and work into it. I tutored Spanish in high school, and some years later started learning Greek when I worked for a Greek ship owner. I have a good ear for languages, and was told I sounded as though I'd just arrived from Athens. To this day I enjoy engaging Greek waiters, etc., in conversation, even knowing I'll soon run out of words.

My grandmother lived with us when I was a child, and she taught me how to ask for foods at the table in French. She was the daughter of Scottish immigrants, but she was creative and curious---an opera singer who loved learning new things. In her sixties, she took up French and became the first American-born Life Member of the French Institute in NYC.

I didn't keep up with the Greek, nor any language other than English because I had no one to talk to in this rural area. If I were starting today it would be different though. Several of my friends speak French and/or Spanish, and in fact before the pandemic they and others met bi-weekly for "French lunch" and "Spanish lunch." Beesneeds, maybe you could find something like that to tap into.

I'm so envious of all of you. I took French in both high school and college, but struggled to learn it, particularly the spoken language. So fast forward to my early 20's when I was tested for dyslexia - primarily auditory, in my case - and that answered a lot of questions. I am being generous to suggest my skills are on par with an 18 month old!

1929, you learned English. I'll bet with perhaps more effort than others may need (to overcome your particular challengers) you could still learn another language too. If it's something you really want to do.

Developing a reasonable capability with a new language is like in a video game, warping into a new world otherwise barred to entry for others. It provides an immersion into things new and often unexpected. It provides profound experiences and understandings of those different people, places and cultures that those who don't have that language capability will never experience or know they are missing.

It's not about ordering lunch in a restaurant or reading store signs. It's about talking with people in their own language (which for most is how they can best express themselves), learning about them, talking about current events and local places or whatever is on their mind. It's about listening (eavesdropping, when done politely is a form of people watching) to conversations when out in public, on public transportation or in a cafe. And more.

With those experiences and insights, you'll undestand others much better and you'll understand yourself and your own place in the world better too. You'll be changed and never again the same. Changed for the better, of course. Am I passionate about this or what?

Do it!

1000 likes ^^^^

Thank you Zalco, it is something I'm very passionate about. I take from your kind comment that you too may have capabilities beyond English and have also had such experiences as I (poorly) tried to describe.

Thanks Elmer. Reading & spelling in English hasn't always been easy either.

It is the one life goal that has totally alluded me. Every time I'm in a French-speaking country, I do try. Tahiti was the easiest for me to understand folks and (no surprise) Quebec was the most difficult. It varies every time I'm in Paris.

I'll share my experiences in those same places, it may shed light for you. In reverse order:

Parisians talk fast. Faster typically than encountered in most (but not all) other regions. It's as if a result of too much caffeine. But as with our own counterpart, NY, not everyone in Paris is a Parisian. Ask a fast talker politely to speak more slowly and most of the time they will. Just like in NY, some people are harried and harassed by the huge city experiences and not always as friendly as others. But far more nice people than not, ESPECIALLY when you speak to them in French, it's a recognized and appreciated compliment you've made an effort to converse in THEIR language.

French speaking Swiss tend to speak more slowly, so too do French speaking Belgians.

An interesting thing to see - look on Youtube for speeches or interviews with French politicians. Not so much Macron, but find a speech by De Gaulle or older politicians. They speak VERY slowly. Same is true to an extent with local newscasts.

I've been to Quebec a number of times and have enjoyed it, both in the cities and in the country. They have words and expressions that differ from standard modern French. There is a local accent that to my ear makes people sound like Gomer Pyle imitators, very back-woodsy and unworldly. Sometimes hard to follow. Many Quebecois speak standard French too, especially the better educated ones and in Montreal. They like Americans, better than they like anglophile Canadians, and most should always be friendly when you let them know you're not Canadian.

Tahiti - beautiful place. Sunshine attitudes and vibe, things are slowed down. People speak more slowly there than elsewhere.

Bonne chance!

Merci.

Elmer, you are pretty unfailingly generous with your time and knowledge. I really appreciate your presence here.

Elmer, I love your description of Quebecois french as being Gomer Pyle like. I learned to speak this at a young age and, as you would imagine, my high school french class was torture. I was told I sounded like an old cow. I would never attempt teaching anything, I don't have the patience,

Spanish, A speech therapist I know who has a special interest in multilingualism explained to me that babies hear thousands and thousands of hours of speech before they produce any themselves. In light of that insight, it occurs to me that it makes sense to avail ourselves of lots of media in our target language. French films and series have been discussed here before, but I think music is important too because it is repetitive and catchy and helps us learn vocabulary, pronunciation and syntax. Apple Music, and other streaming services, no doubt, have French playlists. Find songs you like and print out the lyrics and soon you will be singing along and building some scaffolding on which to learn more of the language.

This song is practically an alternative French national anthem. Interestingly, the artist, a pillar of French music from the 60s and 70s was an American who found himself in France due to his film director father running afoul of the House Committee on Un American Activities.

Zalco, I'm undeserving of your generous kindness. Thank you so much for your complimentary thoughts. I like your perspectives too and wonder how you have time with the busy family situation you've described having.

I have an excuse, my kids are now adults and are long out on their own.. I wish I had less time to be generous with. That's coming, I'm hopeful we're all more than halfway down the path to a return to normalcy.

I never knew that about Dassin. Very interesting and death at an early age, I didn't know that either. Another death too young, like Claude Francois.

"Elmer, I love your description of Quebecois french as being Gomer Pyle like"

I've only had 4 or 5 visits, including Q City. i do have a neighbor from Q City. Besides the differences in word usage (and the locals do understand standard French even if not used as a first choice), it just seems hillbilly-like to me, as a parallel. It's not really a backwoods accent but the traditional Quebecois is many centuries old and hasn't evolved in parallel with standard French as spoken in Europe. If we listened today to to 17th century English, it would sound odd too.