Languages - any one speak any novelty languages?

[biggs682]

i speak best digestive language every morning about 6.30 when i carry 2 mugs up the stairs with a digestive in my mouth , and always ask the other half if she is of with it still in my mouth !

does that count ?

 

[matthat]

When away with the scouts yrs ago we met some polish scouts and 1 of them spoke Russian as did one of my leaders. So it went polish to Russian to English. Both were rusty at Russian so took about ten minutes for a basic conversation.

 

[Tim Hall]

Polari?

Ooh! Isn't 'ee bold!

 

[byegad]

Lovely Riah though!

 

[robjh]

it has sort of drimbled.

With 'drimbled', I think maybe you speak a variety of English I haven't come across yet

Interesting about Gorani though - I had heard of it, but with my very basic level of Serbian/Croatian I wasn't up to spotting different dialects. I think of my ability in these languages as a sort of 'mixed south Slavic soup'.

 

[Boris Bajic]

With 'drimbled', I think maybe you speak a variety of English I haven't come across yet

Interesting about Gorani though - I had heard of it, but with my very basic level of Serbian/Croatian I wasn't up to spotting different dialects. I think of my ability in these languages as a sort of 'mixed south Slavic soup'.

The verb 'drimble' is no longer much escalpulated in a strictly linguistically preaxulated sense, but still holds some empastual verimacity as a carrier of corbic meaning. It is a null vixcentior, not unlike some other transic verbs.

On the Gorani, I think you have it right. I was drawn to their seemingly incongruous culture as a people located where Albanians tended to be Muslim and Slavs tended to be Orthodox (or at least Christian). They have a Slavic language, full of Turkish and Albanian influence, a Muslim faith (sort of and broadly) and in some ways a lifestyle and social code not unlike that found in Geg Albanian culture.

 

[Rasmus]

Danish is my mother tongue, and I do quite well at Swedish and Norwegian, too. My German is decent but on decline as I don't get a lot of chance to practice these days. I have a small combined knowledge of Spanish, French and Italian.

Currently on a long-term hobby project on Japanese, focusing on learning the Kanji.

 

[donnydave]

Are we talking about speaking a foreign language with an accent because that is quite a novelty.

Originally I was just curious what range of languages people on here spoke, but accents and people's success/failures trying to use different languages is interesting too. I go to the US a lot for work and loads of people ask if I'm from New Zealand and its not just my northern accent, their ears just aren't tuned to our regional accents. It seems that if you don't talk like the quintessential BBC newsreader then your not English, so you must be from another English speaking country.

The French guy at work, if he just starts talking French with no warning I have absolutely no idea what he is on about, my brain and ears just aren't ready for it. When he repeats it at exactly the same speed I can understand. Another one was trying to order a burger without cheese in Portuguese, I knew for certain that "sem queijo" was the way to go but they did not understand at all. Later on when started having proper lessons my laughed at me for saying "sem" with an "m", apparently you say "seng"

 

[Boris Bajic]

I keep hearing people around me speak Corporate (shudder) . I hope I never master that one.

There is much to recommend Corporate as a language. I am still on the nursery slopes of a steep learning curve in that tongue, but it features prominently in a basket of key skills that I am hoping very much to lay out as my key deliverables in a wide-ranging strategy encompassing an holistic move forward as we seek further positively-vectored growth in this new and unfolding, enriched customer environment.

To think otherwise would be suicide in today's fast-moving business environment. I think it is a lesson you need very much to take on board.

 

[London Female]

I speak French with an American accent.

This is my problem. Doesn't matter which language I have tried, I speak them all with a London accent. A few years ago I thought I would try sign language instead but that is much harder than it looks, I may give that a go again though.

 

[vernon]

This is my problem. Doesn't matter which language I have tried, I speak them all with a London accent. A few years ago I thought I would try sign language instead but that is much harder than it looks, I may give that a go again though.

But I'm not American!

 

[London Female]

But I'm not American!

When I lived in Berlin I remember talking to a group of Germans who all spoke English with a slight American accent, they all worked at the American base.

 

[Maz]

I use Spanish at work.

I can speak it more or less to a "conversational" level, with the occasional "No lo capté, ¿me lo podrías repetir, por favor?" used when I don't understand what was said (this normally results in the person I'm speaking to trying to say it in English, which isn't what I want!).

To improve my listening skills, I write transcripts of Spanish podcasts. I then get them corrected by native speakers.

 

[laurence]

i know basic sign language (level 1 BSL).

i can also speak a few words of Polish, Romanian and Basque. i do 'cycling french' reasonably well, but everyday stuff i'm not so hot on.

i know enough (Brasilian) Portuguese to tell someone i can't speak portuguese.

 

[Maz]

Some years ago I studied British Sign Language, got to level 2. It's mostly fallen out of my head now, but I think with a refresher it would come back.

Pardon my ignorance, but I take it sign language is not universal, right? e.g. Is the UK/English sign for water the same as the French sign for the same word?
I wonder how well an English person and a French person (for example) are able to converse via sign language.