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Post by onlyMark on Nov 12, 2015 18:46:27 GMT
My Spanish has improved considerably in the last few years. Unfortunately only for building terms. If you want something building, I'm your man. If you want anything else then I'm no good.
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Post by breeze on Nov 12, 2015 20:10:30 GMT
I can make myself understood in my native English, French, Spanish, and Italian.
French is the hardest for me. My French is always at its peak on the plane going to France. It is fantastique sur l'avion, entre mon mari et moi. After we land, my ability to speak and comprehend takes a sharp nosedive.
I have been trying to learn French for years. I'm not that good, but even so I use my embarrassing French quite a bit in France, because I have lots to say and I just plow ahead. Such polite people, such patience and kindness. Every one who listens to me could qualify for the diplomatic corps.
I would make better progress if I could decide what's more important--to learn verb tenses or get the genders of nouns right.
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Post by htmb on Nov 12, 2015 22:52:25 GMT
I can relate to everything you said, breeze, though I'm sure my ability to speak and understand French is not nearly as developed as yours.
I'm always searching for words in English. Certainly my French is dramatically worse. Last summer I had to explain my symptoms to the non-English speaking clerk at the emergency opthomology clinic in Paris. I couldn't remember how to say I was seeing black spots so I said I was seeing "small flies." She smiled nicely, but I think she got the gist of what I was trying to tell her. Nice woman. I appreciated her patience.
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Post by fumobici on Nov 13, 2015 3:52:51 GMT
I would make better progress if I could decide what's more important--to learn verb tenses or get the genders of nouns right. Verb conjugations are, in my opinion, vastly more important than noun genders for being understood--the worst thing about forgetting a noun gender isn't the article but the pronunciation of the modifying adjectives. Indefinite articles in French can be cheated just using an "n" sound and la and le are close enough to register, but getting verbs wrong *really* messes with the meaning of what you want to say. If you absolutely must cheat with verbs, just stick to one of the common past tenses and aller for the future for everything (or even use the present for both!) and use the indicative even where the subjunctive or imperative is correct. You can also form questions by using the present indicative with voice inflection so you don't need to make the "est-ce que", inversion decision on the fly. It will all sound *terrible* but at least you are likely to be understood.
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Post by breeze on Nov 13, 2015 12:43:34 GMT
htmb, you play French connection, which is more than I would attempt.
What you say makes sense, fumobici. However, I just picked up my Bescherelle Poche and counted 97 forms for 88 verbs. It makes me wish for an eidetic memory.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 13, 2015 12:53:43 GMT
I fumbled for a long time before I got my French verbs right.
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Post by htmb on Nov 13, 2015 13:26:01 GMT
Breeze, much of the time I'm looking up words and the correct spelling. It's been a good way to increase my vocabulary, and I find I have to use my dictionary app just a little less than I did when we first started the game.
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Post by mossie on Nov 14, 2015 20:09:15 GMT
I had a very good French teacher at school, and some of it still floats to the surface today, some 70 years on. But I cannot really hold any prolonged conversation, luckily most French people I come into contact rapidly tire of trying to understand my mangled French and retreat into English of a much higher standard.
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Post by whatagain on Nov 15, 2015 20:48:38 GMT
I'm Belgian. So for us it is easy to learn several languages, we're a trilingual country, therefore have a lot of opportunities. Actually everybody I know (know, not meet) in Belgium speaks at least 2 languages, most of them fluently.
So I learnt some Dutch at school as second language (however starting when 13 years old, thus bad accent... and ended up speaking Flemish after spending my military duty in a flemish unti) then English, as everybody. Then I learnt some German, that is a mix of flemish english french and some german.
Outside of these languages, I started learning Spanish (very easy for us but I have not much opportunity to practice, neither Italian). I also speak at least 35 words of polish, including 'betoniarka' and about 10 of chinese.
I fully agree that the verbs are so much more important.
My children have learnt 2 languages with a much better accent, at 17 and 14, and the last one counts in Dutch and in English, at 5. (does it show that I'm proud of my daughters ?).
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Post by htmb on Nov 15, 2015 21:06:09 GMT
You should be very proud of your daughters!!!
I'm always very envious of those who speak several languages. Quite ashamed of myself, too. I grew up speaking only Englsh, but took two years of required Spanish classes in high school. It didn't come easy and was a struggle back then. I'm just not very good at remembering without constant reinforcement.
Later, I took a year (3 university quarters) of Spanish in college, but it was written only, not conversational. I did very well and asked university officials if, since I was a liberal arts major, I could take another year of conversational Spanish. They said I could, but those idiots would only allow me credit for one of the two years. Of course, they would have been happy to take two years worth of my money.
For a good while, I spoke enough Spanish to get by and it helped me when I traveled to Spain in my twenties. Like many things, if you don't use a language, you forget all but the basics. I hardly remember any Spanish now. For the past few years I've been able to pick up a little French. Some of it has stuck in my feeble brain, but it's been very slow going.
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Post by mossie on Nov 16, 2015 17:32:40 GMT
Don't grow up htmb, as we age learning becomes progressively harder and is not retained very well.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 16, 2015 18:35:28 GMT
Well, just saw this thread, and voted for three, although it would be more correct to answer four. I lived in Germany for four years as a child and picked up a little, and I can still recite word for word the monologue from Brecht's Die Heilige Johanna der Schlachthöfe I had to learn at theatre school.
Native English. French immersion school when we moved to Germany in Grade 3 (confusing times, yes). Ballet class every Saturday in Strasbourg in French. Continued with my French studies (non-immersion) as best I could upon return to Canada in Grade 6 because there was no école bilingue or anything like it in our small town. Devoured Paris Match in French lab like a fiend. Took Italian by correspondance in high school. One year college French then theatre school and a complete breakdown of any language study, I just tried to survive as best I could by watching lots of foreign films.
First made it to Paris at age 26, struggled but got by. Moved to London, then went to Rome as an English teacher. In Italian I can buy train tickets and order in restaurants and also complain vociferously if I'm cheated of my change at a kiosk. All my students wanted to do was speak English with me. My roomate was a multilingual Belgian and we mostly spoke English. When I came down with mono the Italian doctor and I conversed in French.
I've joined a French conversation group in Seattle, but I haven't been since summer (they're mostly 25 years younger than me and like to take a lot of selfies). My accent isn't bad - I have a good ear and in my work I need a lot of accents. I mostly get into trouble in France and Italy when starting a conversation and get a flood of language back at me. I can read French well (although the literary tenses cause me grief); I can understand spoken Italian quite well for some bizarre reason.
When I'm old enough to attend university for free, I'm going for a double major in French and English Dramatic Literature.
I always swore that if I ever was pregnant I would learn Russian and the piano. I am childless.
My superhero power would be being able to converse with anyone or anything, including all animals.
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