Can you speak any language/s

[mikeitup]

I can speak Cantonese with the ability and vocabulary of a five year old. My French counting is better then my Chinese counting.

I am trying to learn cantonese and can count to 20 at present.
I have a Pimsleur course and my cuz in HK does give me some pointers.
He found it hilarious when I mispronounced the number nine

 

[ComedyPilot]

German, a bit of Dutch, Arabic and Greek.


And English.

 

[eldudino]

Are we talking fluently (colloquially) or being able to tell someone what you had for breakfast and which sports your brother likes (go for tennis, it's the same in most European languages )?

 

[Headgardener]

I know a couple of words in gaelic and a bit of welsh does that count.

 

[dan_bo]

ou'est le Jambon?

Sur le table!

 

[Speicher]

Looks great!
Unfortunately I can only say "Eric has a fine view over the lake" in Swedish

In Icelandic, I know two words: Horse's mane and waterfall, and yes you can get them both into one sentence.

I also know the Icelandic for dog, farmer and river, but that's another story!

 

[Unkraut]

Looks great!
Unfortunately I can only say "Eric has a fine view over the lake" in Swedish

That's better than me. The only Swedish word I know is 'abba'.

Going back to your Cornish cheese for a moment, as it is matured in tin mines, couldn't claim it is 'the only cheese that comes to you tinned, nature's way'?

 

[Arch]

That's better than me. The only Swedish word I know is 'abba'.

Going back to your Cornish cheese for a moment, as it is matured in tin mines, couldn't claim it is 'the only cheese that comes to you tinned, nature's way'?

Noted! Tinned cheese though, that sounds like the worst excess of US 'cuisine'...

I have a few words of Swedish too, now I think about it - 'thank you', and 'fish fingers'.

When I shared a house with Carwash, he was learning Swedish, and once asked me "Shall we have a cup of tea?" (in Swedish), and I knew what he meant, but whether it was a grasp of the language, or the intonation and the fact that it 4ish and time for a little something, I don't know...

Thinking about it, I could probably decipher a basic manu in more languages - at least enough to know what's in a dish, if not how cooked. French, certainly, Italian, some Scandinavian, a little Spanish or German, odds and ends of Hindi (or whichever language it generally is on Indian restaurant menus - things like aloo, saag, bindi, murgh). No Chinese, now I think of it, maybe because their menus always use all English?

 

[rich p]

In Swedish, I know two words: Horse's mane and waterfall, and yes you can get them both into one sentence.

I know that in Spanish! What a remarkable coincidence

 

[beanzontoast]

A smattering of French is all I have. I have been to France once, where I bravely bought a hat (which I still have: I generally introduce it with the proud words: "I bought this hat in France!") as well as some postage stamps for my postcards home. It was nerve wracking standing in a queue until it was my turn to speak, but I felt relieved to have survived with dignity intact.

 

[Arch]

A smattering of French is all I have. I have been to France once, where I bravely bought a hat (which I still have: I generally introduce it with the proud words: "I bought this hat in France!") as well as some postage stamps for my postcards home. It was nerve wracking standing in a queue until it was my turn to speak, but I felt relieved to have survived with dignity intact.

"Ah, bonjour madam. Je voudrais des timbres for le carte postal pour Angleterre s'il vous plais, et cet chapeau...." (genders may be all to cock)

Must have been an interesting and varied shop...

One of the more helpful things my friend told me was not to get too hung up on the gender thing - mostly you just say l' rather than le or la, and people will know what you mean....

I find I can speak to them ok, it's understanding the reply where I fall down, unless they talk as if I'm an idiot.

 

[Arch]

When we were there last summer, my friends had a lunch party at the house, and invited their neighbours. Yvonne and I made the food, which included a bean salad - a big tin of mixed pulses, with a tomato and herb sauce. We did the old joke about "what's this?" "it's bean salad" "I don't care what it's been, I want to know what it is now..." And then wondered how you'd explain that joke to someone in French. I think we just about sorted it, but never felt confident enough to actually inflict it on any French people.

 

[radger]

I can speak a bit of French, and read it, but I can't write it. According to some of my (French) friends I do a good French accent when I speak it.
All I can remember from GCSE German is how to ask if there is a castle nearby, so I wouldn't claim to be able to speak it.

 

[Fnaar]

We did the old joke about "what's this?" "it's bean salad" "I don't care what it's been, I want to know what it is now..."

My family avoid making things with beans just so that I can't use this line yet again.
I remember seeing Benny Hill in Spanish once. The 'joke' in English was a play on words between "can of peas" and "canapes" (OK, that's French, but you get the drift) so the victim receives a can of peas instead of the snackette he was expecting. In Spanish, of course "una lata de guisantes" rather loses the joke (which wasn't that funny in English anyway)

 

[MickL]

School boy French, German, Klingon and Little Japanese and trying to learn Mandarin