Author Topic: which foreign language would you like to speak as well as your first language?  (Read 17456 times)

Offline ifyoucantfixit

  • BetterMost 5000+ Posts Club
  • *******
  • Posts: 8,049




          Me personally I would like to speak Chinese or Japanese, but I think in all practicality
Spanish is a better choice, simply because of the growth of people that speak that language..It is not going to be very long until we will have about 1/3 of our citizens speaking spanish..
I know enough of it to get the jist of a conversation, and i can read a bit more, but I need to be more fluent myself.  My grandaughter has an affinity for language.  She speaks french and she knows latin, and is now teaching herself spanish..Of course as well as english..
         It will always be a help in whatever line of work she finally settles on..



     Beautiful mind

Offline dot-matrix

  • BetterMost 5000+ Posts Club
  • *******
  • Posts: 9,865
  • www.maleimagegallery.com ~Come Join Us~
Hey Dottie, das habe ich gar nicht gewusst! Ich werde in Zukunft ein bisschen Deutsch mit Dir sprechen, okay? I love Spanish, too, but I think I lost it. Yesterday a Latinamerican friend replied to a message I had sent him in 2002, and I had difficulties reading my own letter from back then... :(

OK, I got the part that said you're going to speak German to me in future.  Aller, den ich zu dem sagen kann, ist ich versucht aber keine Versprechungen und kein Lachen an meiner schrecklichen Grammatik und Rechtschreibung.  ;)  :laugh: I tried to write an e-mail to Sharon using the translation software on my husbands computer to help me and it was a disaster ::) we both laughed.
Life is not a dress rehearsal

Offline ednbarby

  • BetterMost Supporter!
  • BetterMost 1000+ Posts Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 3,586
For me, it's Spanish.  I live in South Florida and work with many Spanish-speaking people.  I'd love to know what they're talking about in the break room.  It's probably just the same mundane stuff we talk about in English, but it sounds so much more exotic coming from them.  I always marvel at how well they've mastered both languages, too.  English is so difficult to learn - having a five-year-old and teaching him to read and write will tell you that like nothing else.
No more beans!

Offline David In Indy

  • BetterMost Supporter!
  • Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 18,447
  • You've Got Male
For me, it's Spanish.  I live in South Florida and work with many Spanish-speaking people.  I'd love to know what they're talking about in the break room.  It's probably just the same mundane stuff we talk about in English, but it sounds so much more exotic coming from them.  I always marvel at how well they've mastered both languages, too.  English is so difficult to learn - having a five-year-old and teaching him to read and write will tell you that like nothing else.


It's so good to see you back again Barb! I miss you like hell when you're not here!  :)
Dogs have owners. Cats have staff.

Offline Lynne

  • BetterMost Supporter
  • BetterMost Moderator
  • BetterMost 5000+ Posts Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 9,291
  • "The world's always ending." --Ianto Jones
    • Elizabeth Warren for Massachusetts
I'm going to pick Gaelic...because it's a language of my ancestors and it's used less and less frequently as I understand it - I hate to think of how quickly so many languages are dying, daily from what I read.

Besides, it's romantic and I like the words I already know like a ghra and Shanachie and Slainte;)
"Laß sein. Laß sein."

Dagi

  • Guest
OK, I got the part that said you're going to speak German to me in future.  Aller, den ich zu dem sagen kann, ist ich versucht aber keine Versprechungen und kein Lachen an meiner schrecklichen Grammatik und Rechtschreibung.  ;)  :laugh: I tried to write an e-mail to Sharon using the translation software on my husbands computer to help me and it was a disaster ::) we both laughed.

Hey Dottie!

The first part of the sentence meant that I didn´t know you are talking a little German! And I would be the last one to laugh about  someone speaking a foreign language...hey, I don´t want people to laugh about me here either! (Apart from really funny mistakes. ;D).

Yeah, translation software does funny things, and not only Bablefish!

Love,
Dagi

Offline Penthesilea

  • Town Administration
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 14,745
English. I love the English language. I remember my very first English lesson at school like it was yesterday. It was almost like an epiphany to me. It was so easy, I had a feeling like I already knew everything the teacher showed us. Of course it was the teacher's proficiency which made it so easy for me. For our very first lesson, she draw little pics/icons of nouns which are the same or very similar in German and English on the blackboard. For example finger, ring, house/Haus, hand, mouse/Maus and so on. I knew from the very first lesson that this was what I wanted to do, what I wanted to learn, and learn it well.
It showed I have a talent for it and I did learn it well, but since I've never lived in an English speaking country I'm still not as good as I'd like to be.

On a more practical note, it would be more reasonable to choose another language than English. I already am able to communicate in English, but I'm not able to do so in a third language. My second choice would be Spanish.

Offline ednbarby

  • BetterMost Supporter!
  • BetterMost 1000+ Posts Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 3,586
It's so good to see you back again Barb! I miss you like hell when you're not here!  :)

:Blushing:

Wow.  That just made my day, David.  Nobody misses me like that anymore.  Or so I thought.  :)

 :-*
No more beans!

Offline Ellemeno

  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • ********
  • Posts: 15,367
but since I've never lived in an English speaking country...


For four effin days you did, Chrissi!  :-*


I picked French.  I used to speak pretty good French.  I can communicate at a basic level in German, Spanish, Italian and American Sign Language.


Offline delalluvia

  • BetterMost 5000+ Posts Club
  • *******
  • Posts: 8,289
  • "Truth is an iron bride"
English is my first language, Spanish a kinda half-ass 2nd, so in a 3rd language, probably French.  I love the way French sounds - while I was in Paris, I got the impression that I might pick it up fairly quickly if I stayed long enough.

Though actually, I always dreamed about being fluent in many languages, not just the Romance languages.