which foreign language would you like to speak as well as your first language?

[opinionista]

I like the English language. However, the pronunciation kills me. It is so confusing sometimes! I can never tell the difference between pronouncing ship, sheep, cheap or chip, for example. They all sound the same to me! I thought it was due to my hearing disability but it turns out to be a problem most native Spanish speakers have, since we have only five sounds for vowels and the 'sh' doesn't exist. We definitely keep it simple when it comes to the pronunciation, though the grammar is another story. English grammar is far easier.

[Mikaela]

Hmmm....

English, definitely. I write it better than I speak it, and would love to become truly fluent in spoken English.

I've also let my French and German slip to a point where I understand but can't very well speak or write them anymore.  I seriously ought to remedy that.

But when all was said and done, I chose Spanish for the poll. Of the languages I'm likely to come into contact with it's the largest and fastest growing one, and used by and in many different nations.

[Dagi]

 

Susie, you are fluent, and more than this!

[Jeff Wrangler]

I just went with "Other" because I'd like to be fluent in German, my ancestral tongue.

Actually, what I really wish I could speak would be Pennsylvania German. My grandmother tried to teach me a few phrases when I was a very small boy, but they didn't stick. My father can't speak the dialect either, so in our family, the ability has died out with my grandmother.

Pennsylvania German is a dialect of Middle High German derived from the language as spoken in southwestern Germany, the area from which most of the ancestors of the Pennsylvania Germans immigrated to Pennsylvania. After 300 years in Pennsylvania, the dialect has been heavily influenced my English.

I had a real Eureka! moment related to his in college many years ago. My German professor mentioned that in Schwaben (Swabia), people use schwetzen (sp?) as the verb to speak, instead of the "correct" High German schprechen. Schwetzen is used for to speak in Pennsylvania German.

[belbbmfan]

I had a real Eureka! moment related to his in college many years ago. My German professor mentioned that in Schwaben (Swabia), people use schwetzen (sp?) as the verb to speak, instead of the "correct" High German schprechen. Schwetzen is used for to speak in Pennsylvania German.

In Dutch, which is closely related to German, 'chatting' is called 'zwetsen', but in the sense of 'bragging, boasting'. 'Wat een gezwets!' = 'That's rubbish'
 

[j.U.d.E.]

Hebrew and/or Arabic.

I've tried Herbrew (long time ago) and I'm following classes in Arabic. Tough to learn!

Hebrew was/is easier! Prefer it over Arabic.

[serious crayons]

I have to take the opportunity to say how impressed I am by the English skills of the non-native English speakers on this board. It is very rare for me to see anything written here that would tip me off that the poster's first language is not English (I mean simply in terms of language, of course, not content).

I'm so impressed because I think it is very hard to learn languages fluently. I took French for years in school -- and got mostly A's! -- yet cannot fluently read a French magazine or hold a normal conversation with a French person.

Maybe it helps that English is spoken so prevalently in Europe? I'm always amazed whenever I go there how easy it is to get by with just English. I don't like to do it (when I went to Italy I learned some very, very basic Italian), but plenty of people do.

[David In Indy]

We were in a restaurant in Paris several years ago, and two women sitting near to us were talking to the waiter about what they wanted to order.  They made no attempt whatsoever to speak in French, they just spouted off in English.  The waiter looked after them but was very standoffish and unpleasant towards them.  We, on the other hand, sat there with our French phrase book and did our best to order what we thought were steaks.  The waiter smirked at our feeble attempts, but he corrected us, and was lovely and friendly.

No matter how rubbish you are, it's always worth making an effort .... and it can be good fun! 

Susie

I love to try and speak different languages when I'm in other countries. I normally make a total ass out of myself when I do it, but it sure is fun! 

[David In Indy]

Oh dear Gary, I deliberately missed that part out. "Yes" they were Americans ..... but Brits are just as bad, believe me!!  In fact we're worse because we speak really really slowly and loudly and use wild hand movements to make ourselves understood!!

Susie

Alex has knocked me upside my head with HIS wild hand movements! 

I didn't just say that!

Did I just say that? 

[Dagi]

We were in a restaurant in Paris several years ago, and two women sitting near to us were talking to the waiter about what they wanted to order.  They made no attempt whatsoever to speak in French, they just spouted off in English.  The waiter looked after them but was very standoffish and unpleasant towards them.  We, on the other hand, sat there with our French phrase book and did our best to order what we thought were steaks.  The waiter smirked at our feeble attempts, but he corrected us, and was lovely and friendly.

No matter how rubbish you are, it's always worth making an effort .... and it can be good fun! 

Susie

Yeah, I´m having so much fun here! And when I´m in Italy, I use my three words Italian, and in Finland my threes words Finnish (in fact I´m even able to count from one to ten in Finnish ) and the effect is always the same! Faces brighten up, and people start communicating in every imaginable way! It is fun. Communication is so wonderful!