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Topic: What languages do you speak ?  (Read 3622 times)

Offline black_keys

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What languages do you speak ?
on: May 18, 2012, 07:14:26 AM
Simple question , what Languages do you speak  :)

Offline brianvds

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Re: What languages do you speak ?
Reply #1 on: May 19, 2012, 06:21:32 PM
Afrikaans, which is my mother tongue, and English. I can also read and understand Dutch because it is so closely related to my mother tongue, but wouldn't trust my ability to speak anything but an absurd parody of it. :-)

Offline austinarg

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Re: What languages do you speak ?
Reply #2 on: May 19, 2012, 10:26:57 PM
Spanish and English. Although the term "speak" might be deceitful, since I can't remember the last time I actually had a conversation in English.

I also want to learn French and Italian  8)
“Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.” - Thelonious Monk

Offline musikalischer_wirbelwind_280

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Re: What languages do you speak ?
Reply #3 on: May 20, 2012, 04:36:09 PM
Spanish, which is my mother tongue, English, French and Portuguese, and studying some more :) Russian included, though my Russian so far is more or less crappy  :P since I took it up only a couple of months ago ;)

Regards,
Musikalischer Wirbelwind

Offline j_menz

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Re: What languages do you speak ?
Reply #4 on: May 21, 2012, 12:51:27 AM
English only.  :-[
"What the world needs is more geniuses with humility. There are so few of us left" -- Oscar Levant

Offline costicina

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Re: What languages do you speak ?
Reply #5 on: May 21, 2012, 06:13:12 AM
Italian, my mother tongue, English and German. I could add the dialect of Sardynia. It's considered a language of its own. A German linguist, Wagner, published even a ponderous dictionary. It's very different from Italian, and sounds beautifully...but of course I'm biased  ;)

Offline pianoyutube

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Re: What languages do you speak ?
Reply #6 on: May 21, 2012, 07:24:11 AM
Catalan, Spanish and English.

Offline black_keys

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Re: What languages do you speak ?
Reply #7 on: May 21, 2012, 07:44:47 AM
Arabic , French , and I learned English from the internet    ;D

Offline 49410enrique

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Re: What languages do you speak ?
Reply #8 on: May 22, 2012, 01:55:36 PM
i speak english, spanish, and the ecclectic and funny but honestly descriptive engrish

Offline austinarg

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Re: What languages do you speak ?
Reply #9 on: May 22, 2012, 02:02:44 PM
i speak english, spanish, and the ecclectic and funny but honestly descriptive engrish


Well, cows CAN feel cold sometimes...  ;D
“Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.” - Thelonious Monk

Offline 49410enrique

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Re: What languages do you speak ?
Reply #10 on: May 22, 2012, 02:09:34 PM
Well, cows CAN feel cold sometimes...  ;D
i don't wanna know what they call their thongs. or mens items...

Offline thorn

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Re: What languages do you speak ?
Reply #11 on: June 08, 2012, 11:23:11 PM
English, Japanese and French.

Pictures like the one above give me a lot of confidence when making English-Japanese mistakes; at least mine aren't publicly available xD

Though Chinese is even worse!

Offline zzivauri

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Re: What languages do you speak ?
Reply #12 on: June 08, 2012, 11:52:45 PM
 ;D ;D  Oh, enrique, oh thorn, I am laughing so hard.  I used to live in Japan (Kyoto, 6 and a half years) and by the way I do speak fluently-but not read- Japanese, and I speak some French, and English.  But when I lived in Japan sometimes the funny English was just killing.  For instance- In Gion, in the 'pleasure district' was a club where obviously they wanted to give couples a romantic hideaway, discreet and secret.  So they , bless their hearts, got out their dictionaries and found the perfect name.  Are you ready?  It was called, 'Secrete'.

Offline zzivauri

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Re: What languages do you speak ?
Reply #13 on: June 09, 2012, 12:30:24 AM
    And for the non-native English speakers out there, I will inform you that the word 'secrete' has nothing to do with secrets, rather, it refers to the exudation (ha! Love this word...) -refers to :o the creation and release of body fluids.

Offline thorn

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Re: What languages do you speak ?
Reply #14 on: June 09, 2012, 12:36:31 AM
Haha! Bless them xD

I would say it's strange you say you can speak fluent Japanese but not read it, but I am the exact opposite and it's quite interesting to come across someone the same (but different). Put a Japanese newspaper in front of me and I can read it, put a Japanese speaking person in front of me and I'd struggle to say anything outside of tourist level Japanese.

It's really interesting how language learning works. I'm guessing when you lived in Japan, all emphasis was on being able to actually communicate (as naturally it would be), whereas learning it outside the country itself I have focused on the written language because it's not spoken here.

Offline rachmaninoff_forever

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Re: What languages do you speak ?
Reply #15 on: June 09, 2012, 10:41:13 PM
Mandarin Chinese
Avar
Czech
Hungarian
Spanglish
Spanish
English
Assamese
Hupa
Luo
German
Kven
Kikuyu
Serbo-Croatian

and 37 more

EDIT:

Just kidding!  I can only speak English, Spanish (somewhat), and music!
I can read and write Spanish as fluently as I can English, except when I speak it, I sound like a loser...
Live large, die large.  Leave a giant coffin.

Offline jollisg

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Re: What languages do you speak ?
Reply #16 on: June 10, 2012, 03:22:36 AM
My native language is swedish, but I can speak english and (a little bit) german too.

Offline zzivauri

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Re: What languages do you speak ?
Reply #17 on: June 10, 2012, 03:51:08 AM
Haha! Bless them xD

I would say it's strange you say you can speak fluent Japanese but not read it, but I am the exact opposite and it's quite interesting to come across someone the same (but different). Put a Japanese newspaper in front of me and I can read it, put a Japanese speaking person in front of me and I'd struggle to say anything outside of tourist level Japanese.

It's really interesting how language learning works. I'm guessing when you lived in Japan, all emphasis was on being able to actually communicate (as naturally it would be), whereas learning it outside the country itself I have focused on the written language because it's not spoken here.
             Yes, I was studying Nihon Buyo, Japanese dance, shamisen, tea ceremony, etc. while teaching English- my husband was doing the Zen thing in temples- is that funny?  No time to study reading and writing, but it's a shame.  I suggest a Vulcan mind meld between you and I , that would work!  You'd be dancing around the house in a kimono, Might be quite amusing!

Offline piano_vs_science

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Re: What languages do you speak ?
Reply #18 on: June 10, 2012, 04:49:26 AM
ní hào wo shì zhōng guó rén!!! ;D
"e^ix=cosx+isinx"
Leonhard Euler

Offline fftransform

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Re: What languages do you speak ?
Reply #19 on: June 10, 2012, 05:17:30 AM
English and Italian.  But I can read mathematical papers in a large number of other languages: French, Russian, German, Dutch, Finnish, Czech and Hungarian.  I am working on Arabic atm, because there are a lot of logicians working in Iran atm.

Offline novembers_chopin

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Re: What languages do you speak ?
Reply #20 on: June 14, 2012, 11:48:21 AM
English and Cantonese, although have dabbled in a bit of French and Japanese. I would love to learn to speak Mandarin.

Offline ferdinand_

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Re: What languages do you speak ?
Reply #21 on: June 14, 2012, 01:44:22 PM
I speak English and German (both perfect, sometimes  ;D), and also a bit French.I don't like that language, so maybe I will learn Spanish.

Offline iansinclair

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Re: What languages do you speak ?
Reply #22 on: June 15, 2012, 01:16:36 AM
English (if you class Americanese as English  :)), French after a fashion... I can read and understand old and middle English (not the same as modern English at all), Latin, Scots, and a little Old Norse.
Ian

Offline m1469

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Re: What languages do you speak ?
Reply #23 on: June 16, 2012, 06:38:43 PM
Well, English (a native language for me), Spanish (though it's been quite awhile and I was never fully fluent (though I started thinking in Spanish), I can understand quite a bit still upon listening and reading), then I constantly sing in German, Italian, and French (and need to translate and learn the script in spoken language) and can gain quite a working sense of those languages in relation to my arias/songs.  And, one night, years ago, while I was at a singing workshop in this gorgeous home which felt like being in Europe, I dreamt fully, clearly, and completely in Italian all night long as if from another life.  I understood everything in my dream and was fully fluent in my dream ... does any of that count for anything?  ;D  And, last but not least, Music.

ALSO, sometimes I've just had the inexplicable physical and emotional urge to speak in these languages, for some reasons.  As though speaking in English just isn't expressive enough for me and I need one of these others to more fully express my thoughts and feelings.  And, I think since I am heading to Italy so soon, I am getting the urge to think and speak in Italian as though it's a natural thing for me.  I don't know why!  But, it's just an instinct and an urge that want to take shape more than it is an actual ability ... right now.
"The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving"  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

Offline gitaristica

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Re: What languages do you speak ?
Reply #24 on: July 09, 2012, 12:42:47 PM
Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin, English, a bit of Magyar. I could just say Serbo-Croatian, English and Magyar, but classifying those languages as Serbo-Croatian is a very unfashionable thing to do right now. But it's the same language. (My grammar teacher would kill me for stating such a thing, it's considered as heresy among Croatian patriots.)
"Among God's creatures two, the dog and the guitar, have taken all the sizes and all the shapes, in order not to be separated from man."~Andres Segovia

Offline pianotrio

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Re: What languages do you speak ?
Reply #25 on: July 09, 2012, 01:42:46 PM
Hi, my mother tongue is Finnish but I work, play, think & dream in English these days. 

In addition, French (improving), German (rusty), Swedish (ditto only more), and a little Italian, Spanish and Greek. Actually I can read those much better than I can speak.

Nice to see piano people are such a multi-lingual, multi-cultural bunch  :)
"An intellectual snob is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture and not think of The Lone Ranger."
- Dan Rather

"Who needs religion when you have Beethoven."
-?

Offline williampiano

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Re: What languages do you speak ?
Reply #26 on: July 09, 2012, 06:28:47 PM
I only speak English... and Music too I suppose, because many consider that a language.
Ha! I feel stupid compared to the rest of you though, but thankfully I'm taking Spanish next year, so I'll finally understand another language.

Offline musicalpoet23

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Re: What languages do you speak ?
Reply #27 on: July 12, 2012, 04:15:09 AM
English, Arabic, Spanish, and Music :)
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