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Languages meme
Oct. 16th, 2022 09:47 pm1. How many languages do you speak?
One, English.
I failed first year French (lowest mark in the class) in secondary school, so I was in the group that they sent off to do Economics + Government and Politics instead of another language. When it came to O-Level, I failed French so badly - they wouldn't let me give it up - that it doesn't appear on the certificate as either a 'fail' or a 'poor fail'.
Having said that, I was able scrape by when on holiday in France and Germany with JA. It helps that more French people admit to knowing English than in the past, but obviously some of it did get through even if I never get to use almost the only phrase I remember from five years of lessons: "C'est la comble!" ("that's the last straw") because it sounded like "womble".
I was also able, with pre-Google Translate computer help, to translate the rules of a couple of games from German and there used to be a French wargames magazine where I could get 90+% of the rules of the game in each issue by knowing the field and the way that they'd nicked various terms from English games.
Oh and Forth, Pascal, and various other computer languages, but none of those seem to count for this.
2. What is your mother tongue?
English.
In terms of accent, the Leamington Spa accent is almost exactly RP. I used to be able to go 'that's Coventry, that's Stratford, that's Rugby..' etc, but I don't think I can any more.
3. What is a language that you would like to learn and why?
Oh, all of them if it could be done 'as if by magic'. None of them if it means the incredibly hard work I find it to do it the old fashioned way.
4. Does it bother you when people speak a language you don't know in front of you? Why or why not?
Oh FFS. I would be genuinely shocked if anyone I knew here was.
I am not quite at the point where I would be trying the phone's live translate - I did try it on some of the spoken '1980s Italian radio DJ' bits of the wonderful Auto Radio recently, and it got some of it but not enough to make me go 'Oh, this would let me eavesdrop..'
5. Speak to me.
Say please..
One, English.
I failed first year French (lowest mark in the class) in secondary school, so I was in the group that they sent off to do Economics + Government and Politics instead of another language. When it came to O-Level, I failed French so badly - they wouldn't let me give it up - that it doesn't appear on the certificate as either a 'fail' or a 'poor fail'.
Having said that, I was able scrape by when on holiday in France and Germany with JA. It helps that more French people admit to knowing English than in the past, but obviously some of it did get through even if I never get to use almost the only phrase I remember from five years of lessons: "C'est la comble!" ("that's the last straw") because it sounded like "womble".
I was also able, with pre-Google Translate computer help, to translate the rules of a couple of games from German and there used to be a French wargames magazine where I could get 90+% of the rules of the game in each issue by knowing the field and the way that they'd nicked various terms from English games.
Oh and Forth, Pascal, and various other computer languages, but none of those seem to count for this.
2. What is your mother tongue?
English.
In terms of accent, the Leamington Spa accent is almost exactly RP. I used to be able to go 'that's Coventry, that's Stratford, that's Rugby..' etc, but I don't think I can any more.
3. What is a language that you would like to learn and why?
Oh, all of them if it could be done 'as if by magic'. None of them if it means the incredibly hard work I find it to do it the old fashioned way.
4. Does it bother you when people speak a language you don't know in front of you? Why or why not?
Oh FFS. I would be genuinely shocked if anyone I knew here was.
I am not quite at the point where I would be trying the phone's live translate - I did try it on some of the spoken '1980s Italian radio DJ' bits of the wonderful Auto Radio recently, and it got some of it but not enough to make me go 'Oh, this would let me eavesdrop..'
5. Speak to me.
Say please..