If you had to learn a new language....

Spanish, so i could understand what the missus was saying about me to her friends. :lol:
 
Italian, the roman dialect in particular.

So I could understand what my partner was discussing with our daughter :D

I did french, german and even a teensy bit of russian when I was younger (mostly forgotten), how would I know I'd end up with a roman? :bonk:
 
Flash In The Pan said:
To be fair, you can get by in most countries (on holiday at any rate) if you know how to say "one beer, please" in the local tongue :naughty:
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Probably true, but I think it's rude not to learn the very basics. When I went to Andorra a few weeks back I did learn the really basic stuff in their language (bon dia, si us plau, gracies, bona tarda, bona nit etc) even though I knew they'd all speak Spanish (as I do to a level!) because it is their language. And not to use it would seem a little rude in my opinion.
 
Bengali (Calcutta style) so I can understand the juicy gossip and bitching that my wife, mother-in-law and sister-in-law all share!

Shame I am really useless at learning languages really!
 
PsiFox said:
The roots of English as I remember it are actually Germanic in origin.

One of the Saxon dialects eventually dominated

From wiki
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True, but there is a still a Latin influence, probably reinforced by Norman French, and Danish played a role too. It could very easily have become our national language and, AFAIK, wasn't too far from some of the Saxon dialects.
 
I learnt passable Thai but as Im back in the UK its slowly getting eroded. Sure it will all come back when we go back one day.
 
I'd love to learn Spanish and all the Eastern European ones, but I'm most annoyed I never carried on with French in school as I was actually rather good at it. All forgotten now of course!
 
PsiFox said:
The roots of English as I remember it are actually Germanic in origin.

One of the Saxon dialects eventually dominated

From wiki
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Yes, English is primarily Germanic. But a huge amount of English words are nevertheless of Latin origin. That's why I said it has "many etymological roots in Latin" and not "English is a romance language".

Hell, I'd go so far as to say that almost every English sentence has at least one word rooted in Latin.
 
onona said:
Yes, English is primarily Germanic. But a huge amount of English words are nevertheless of Latin origin. That's why I said it has "many etymological roots in Latin" and not "English is a romance language".

Hell, I'd go so far as to say that almost every English sentence has at least one word rooted in Latin.
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Yep, although it is right that aenglish was a saxon import - there was already a whole population here speaking celtic (essentially welsh) and/or romano british - celtic influenced by latin

and the saxon invasion wasnt a one battle and over job, it dragged on for 100s of years with plenty of opportunity for the two sides to intermingle - so by the time the saxons essentially dominated saxon english here would have been considerably more latin influenced than saxon from the tribes east of teutoberger wald.

added to which the normans (despite having norse routes) would have spoken french which is a latin influenced language , and the church would have been totally latin dominated.

add to that years of later imigration and english exploits over seas and you have one of the most *******ised languages on the planet with influences and words from every corner of the globe.

(edit - Damn swear filter , how come you can write Arse which is a swear word, but you can't write bas.tardized which isnt )
 
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I'd go for german. Already know a bit.
 
Personal I'd go for Spanish, but for children Chinese is an absolute must, they will be the world power of the future and if you really want to get on in business you'll do much better speaking Chinese.

Second would be Spanish because I believe more country's speak Spanish as a first language than any other
 
I'd go for Scottish. Just so I can understand a friend of mine, rather than just agreeing with him and politely nodding, because I haven't got a clue what he's just said.
 
munch said:
I have never understood why everyone in the world isn't taught an "international language" like Esperanto. That way we would all be able to talk to each. Just think all the problems that could solve.
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We already have an international language, it's called English! ;)
 
I have a book on python somewhere. It's in the pile with loads of other languages I couldn't be bothered to learn...
 
Nope. I have no books on recursion... would never know when I had bought enough ;)
 
Icelandic...it sounds like a mix of Elvish and Klingon.

The language hasn't changed much in 1000 years and is the virtually the same as spoken by the Vikings. I love seeing where words were derived from and so many came from Norse.

I did try learning Icelandic but I'm afraid din't give it much effort.
 
Lester said:
I'd go for Scottish. Just so I can understand a friend of mine, rather than just agreeing with him and politely nodding, because I haven't got a clue what he's just said.
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:lol::lol:

It gets easier the longer your around people talking it.


I know a quite a bit of gaelic as im from the western isles where its pretty well used.

I guess for me id like to know spanish. :)
 
Lester said:
We already have an international language, it's called English! ;)
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Not quite. A frenchman, of all people, coined the phrase Globish. It's basically a simplified version of English consisting of around 1500 words, which is enough to communicate and get your point across.

It's not all good news for us mother tongue English speakers though. He found that he was more understandable than native English speakers when speaking to other people who had another language as their mother tongue.

For example:-

English - "I wonder if it would be possible to tell me where the toilet is please"

Globish - "Toilet please"

Makes sense to a certain degree.
 
Two years ago I actually heard someone say "I find that if I speak English, with a Spanish accent I am understood". Stupid mare.
 
Ricardodaforce said:
Two years ago I actually heard someone say "I find that if I speak English, with a Spanish accent I am understood". Stupid mare.
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LOL - did she also found it helpful to shout and speak slowly (and complain about "bloody foreigners"
 
big soft moose said:
LOL - did she also found it helpful to shout and speak slowly (and complain about "bloody foreigners"
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She was in my first Spanish class with me and frequently complained that Spanish was "stupid". She subsequently gained notoriety during a group night out when she asked the waiter for a glasso of vino. Adding an "o" to English words and thinking you are speaking Spanish is THE big sin :lol::lol::lol::lol:
 
ahh so she was talking out of her arso :lol:
 
I'd be happy enough to be able to speak fluent french. I just seem to get a mental block when trying to remember any of it. Really annoys me.
So, if anyone knows of a way to teach a 50yr old French, I'd be interested. I genuinely do just get a total mental block when trying. It's like the filing cabinet drawer is full and I can't cram any more in. :bang:


Kev.
 
kevshore said:
I'd be happy enough to be able to speak fluent french. I just seem to get a mental block when trying to remember any of it. Really annoys me.
So, if anyone knows of a way to teach a 50yr old French, I'd be interested. I genuinely do just get a total mental block when trying. It's like the filing cabinet drawer is full and I can't cram any more in. :bang:


Kev.
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Have you tried the Michel Thomas method? His Spanish courses really helped me at the beginning despite his terrible accent and the fact he teaches South American Spanish!
 
Ricardodaforce said:
Bryan did you know there are some differences between Spanish Spanish and the various versions in Latin America, than can be very embarrassing?
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Isn't one of them around the verb 'coger'? So in Spanish you'd use coger to say you were catching the bus... but in Mexico it would end up with you saying that you were going to f!ck a bus?:lol:
 
lazer chikkin said:
Isn't one of them around the verb 'coger'? So in Spanish you'd use coger to say you were catching the bus... but in Mexico it would end up with you saying that you were going to f!ck a bus?:lol:
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That was exactly what I had in mind!!!
 
Thought about it now, maybe not Italian but Danish instead, then |i could understand what Lund and co are saying without subtitles.
 
Ricardodaforce said:
That was exactly what I had in mind!!!
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When I did a Spanish course this made me laugh so much, and make f!ck a bus my favourite swear work for about a month.

There's some other stuff that's a bit more obscure than that, like slang for female parts, but we haven't even standardised that in the UK regions :lol:
 
lazer chikkin said:
When I did a Spanish course this made me laugh so much, and make f!ck a bus my favourite swear work for about a month.

There's some other stuff that's a bit more obscure than that, like slang for female parts, but we haven't even standardised that in the UK regions :lol:
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I've seen travel brochures for South America that, on the advice page, recommend the use of tomar in place of coger.
 
swag72 said:
It seems to work for the Mayor of New York, Have you seen his twitter feed? http://BANNED/#!/elbloombito

For me it would be spanish - I try, I go to classes, but it's just so damn tricky!
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One bit of advice I'd give any British person that moves to Spain is DO NOT SOCIALISE OR MIX WITH OTHER BRITISH PEOPLE. It will hinder the integration and learning of the language. I made a decision not to live in an area where there are Brits and honestly feel it has been a huge help.
 
I don't live in an area where there are many brits - Also, very little english is spoken around here, so it's either spanish or nothing. Definitely helps to focus the mind!!!

Barring an interpretor for the Doctor (she will not see you if you can't speak with her) we've got by on our spanish. The spanish have been brilliant and they help you when you have a go and are utterly brilliant. I often got told my spanish is 'muy bien', when really it's crap, but I think they appreciate that I have a go and a good old laugh when it all goes wrong!!
 
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