Foreign languages

[superfrank]

I myself studied Irish, Spanish and German.

I'm fluent in Irish. I went to all-Irish school for 14 years. It only comes in handy when you happen to meet someone else who speaks Irish and the two of yez can yak away, feeling like outsiders. I don't recall "learning" it. We were not allowed to speak English so Irish just came to us eventually.

I studied German for six years in primary and secondary and I hated it. I found it a very difficult language to learn and something about the pronounciation puts me off the language. I still remember very basic bits but whenever I've been in Germany, I haven't used it.

I love Spanish. I studied it in secondary and I'm lucky enough to continue studying it in college. I find it a very easy language to learn and I find it very useful, even here. It's easy to learn the pronounciation and I find it very easy to speak with Spaniards or native-speakers.

So what about the rest of yez? What other languages can you speak? Which do you find theasiest to learn?

I'm eagerly awaiting osarusan's reply (hopefully).

[osarusan]

Just for you Superfrank!

English - Fluent
Irish - Basic
German - Basic (used to be half decent, but never spoke a word since the leaving cert) (der die das - just shoot me)
Japanese - Advanced (Speaking) Intermediate (Reading) Lower Intermediate (Writing)

Japanese is relatively easy to learn to speak, but truly brutal to learn to write.


As a language teacher, I've learned that the difficulty in learning a language relates mainly to two things - irregularities and unfamiliar tenses. As an example, Japanese students simply cannot understand any perfect tense because they don't exist in Japanese (nor does the future tense, surprisingly).

If I had a yen for every time I'd heard a student say "go to shopping", I'd be a rich man.

[Sheridan]

The only foreign language I can speak or understand to a very high level is Irish, due to my schooling (trust me, nothing could be more foreign to a person of sensibility.) I don't speak it though, I'm sure you're all familiar with the old definition of a gentleman as one who can play the bagpipes, but doesn't.

My German's okay, I'd love to be fluent as I adore the language. Picked most of it up through Brecht in my teens. Easy-peasy to learn the basics if you speak English.

Don't like Southern European languages as I find them vulgar, excluding Italian.

[jebus]

English, Irish and basic French (speaking) for myself, although I'd probably need a quick refresher course on both Irish and French due to lack of use in recent years

[Eire06]

Are you all Irish?

If so, Irish is not considered a Foreign language to you as it is Irelands native language.

[inexile]

irish would be almost fluent, really adore the language and studied it in third level.
french is intermediate level and spanish the same, i could understand more than i can speak but i do ok.
also have a bit of polish but just enough to get through the preliminaries and a very small bit extra :):)

[superfrank]

I'm not from the Gaeltacht. The only reason my Irish is any good is because I went to all-Irish school for 14 years.

English is my native language. Irish is an official language but I've never heard anyone in Bray speaking it outside the school walls. The case is the same in most of the country.

[gustavo]

English fluent and Irish and French fairly fluent , didnt know Irish was a foreign language till I saw this thread

[paul_oshea]

speak basic french, well enough to get round and stuff. I should be better considering my father used to teach french.....and spent many of my summer holidays in france.

Was terrible at Irish but would have liked to have been good.

[Block G Raptor]

Languages were never my thing. But I can get by on holiday in Spanish, Portugese and Italian

[tricky_colour]

I did 'O' level French and German and scraped a pass in both, pretty much hated both, especially having to do the German in just 2 years with a female
concentration camp officer as a teacher :eek:
I also did Latin for 2 years untill I could drop it, it was as hard a buggery
for example they don't have 'articles'
eg "Veni, Vidi, Vici"
Means "I came I saw I conquered"
The 'I' somehow is rolled into the verb - nasty stuff ;) and it gets worse :rolleyes:

I didn't like the langauages at the time, especially trying to speak them but I now find it interesting to try and read posts in foreign lanuages on the web, for example comments on utube. Usually I can have a half decent guess at what people are saying from context and because a lot of languages have similar roots, it works for languages I never learned, eg Portugese or Spanish.

There was an interesting bit on 'countdown' today about the word 'ambitious' which actually comes from the latin verb to walk, amble being the english version, so an ambitious person would do a lot of walking around. I suppose it might be called 'networking' these days.

I expect the web/internet will have a massive effect on the ability of 'foreigners' to speak English because it is a 'common language' and you can change country at the click of a button.

[Flawless]

Fluent English and Irish, Went to a Gaelscoil Mysellf and had 2 fluent speaking parents. Learned french ad German at school, German I dropped after Junior Cert,but kept French on And got a B in my leaving Cert Higher Level. Currently Learning Spanish, find it the easiest to pick up of all the languages ive tried, but being fairly fluent in French there are similarities that help. Would love to have a go at Japanese or Chinese, had a couple of Chinese lads in my college class try to teach me before, but i think a lot got lost in translation!!!:D

[Flawless]

I also did Latin for 2 years untill I could drop it, it was as hard a buggery
for example they don't have 'articles'
eg "Veni, Vidi, Vici"
Means "I came I saw I conquered"
The 'I' somehow is rolled into the verb - nasty stuff ;) and it gets worse :rolleyes:

A bit like spanish maybe, were the "O" represent ing I is at the end of the word ie: Tengo - I have, Vengo - I come?

Or maybe not at all!!! lol

[Pauro 76]

Learnt French and German at school. was quite good at German, but had to drop it as i couldnt do just German, had to do French PLUS German. Didnt want to study the extra subject. Irish, id love to speak fluently but can get by.

[OwlsFan]

Are you all Irish?

If so, Irish is not considered a Foreign language to you as it is Irelands native language.

I agree. How can you describe Irish as "a foreign language" :confused: A language other than English perhaps but not "foreign".

Das kann Ich nicht verstehen!

[noby]

Put me in the 'Irish isn't a foreign language' camp. Maybe a 'second language' would be a better thread title, assuming we all have a basic grasp of English (some more basic than others).
The last few years I've been speaking a little more Irish at home; trying to use the language for yourself, speaking to other Irish speakers is a world away from what was attempted in school.
Other than that, when I've gone on holidays I've tried to learn the basic please and thank you stuff in Greek and Spanish, and, hopefully, French this year.

[jebus]

Are you all Irish?

If so, Irish is not considered a Foreign language to you as it is Irelands native language.

True but when 90+% of the population can't speak it then I think it's worth bragging about it when you can

[Maz]

English - Fluent
Irish - Advanced
French and Spanish - Basic from Junior and Leaving Cert

[noby]

True but when 90+% of the population can't speak it then I think it's worth bragging about it when you can


I'm not sure of the source for your statistic, but yes it is worth bragging about. It's the Foreign bit that Eire06 was pointing out.

[jebus]

I'm not sure of the source for your statistic, but yes it is worth bragging about. It's the Foreign bit that Eire06 was pointing out.

Just my own assumpation, I think one in ten people in Ireland at best can claim they can speak Irish to a high standard, could be wrong but that's my own experience

[noby]

Well, the census will tell you.
It depends on your definition of high standard, but I would say it's more like 90% of the population don't speak it, but a large % of these would have a basic knowledge.

[Rocky77]

English - questionable :p
Irish - good enough
German - not hectic, but I can get my point across.

[willymccann]

English Fluent - although this is questionable after about 4 pints, were the lads have a habit of telling me I start speaking Willish - and only the barmen can understand that languauge

did German for 5 years, but failed the GCSE, but that was a long time ago and I'd struggle now

did Irish, Latin and Spanish for two years at school and was truely awful at them. Would love to be fluent in Irish, but just wouldn't be arsed trying to learn a language nowadays

[pete]

Fluent in English although others may disagree. Did French at school (can't remember much) & did Spanish (not a great language) for a year at college (choice was beginners Spanish/Italian or Intermediate French).

I think the census figure for Irish is a complete joke. Unless you can hold a conversation you are not fluent.

[DmanDmythDledge]

Knowledge of the Irish language is pretty good but wouldn't be able to have a fluent conservation as I don't have enough practise speaking it and would pause a good bit.

Doing German too and hate it. Only would be basic at it. Don't understand the need for 7/8 different words for "the". Wish I could have done Spanish.

[ifk101]

Fluent in English and Swedish.
Understand Danish and Norwegian from the Swedish.

[DaveyCakes]

English - Fluent (allegedly)
French - Leaving Cert (although very out of practice)
German - Basic conversational level
Russian - very basic
Irish - pretty bad

[pineapple stu]

English - duh.
Irish - reasonably well; reading and writing would be a lot better than listening and speaking.
German - was fairly fluent; it's now very rusty.
Did Latin at school; good fun.
Like to pick up a few words for Ireland away trips; can order beer in Slovakian, Faroese, Norwegian and Montenegrin (or "mother tongue", as they call it)

Curiously, in seven years in employment, the language I've used second most often is Irish. The idea that foreign languages are absolutely imperative to learn in school is nonsense. They're good to have, but everyone speaks English.

[Soper]

I speak Welsh very well, and Polish to a conversational level.

[pete]

Curiously, in seven years in employment, the language I've used second most often is Irish. The idea that foreign languages are absolutely imperative to learn in school is nonsense. They're good to have, but everyone speaks English.

I would never saying having foreign languages is a bad thing but English is the world language & usage is only going to be come more common.

When I was at school choice was French or German. Do schools offer more choices now? handy for holidays but from a career point of view they not the best languages. Spanish or Chinese would be much more useful.

[DaveyCakes]

I would never saying having foreign languages is a bad thing but English is the world language & usage is only going to be come more common.

When I was at school choice was French or German. Do schools offer more choices now? handy for holidays but from a career point of view they not the best languages. Spanish or Chinese would be much more useful.

German is the most widely spoken mother tongue in the EU and is widely spoken across eastern Europe

[blobbyblob]

Well, the census will tell you.
It depends on your definition of high standard, but I would say it's more like 90% of the population don't speak it, but a large % of these would have a basic knowledge.

http://beyond2020.cso.ie/Census/TableViewer/tableView.aspx?ReportId=10396


35% of those who have completed their FT education claim to speak Irish.

I use it regularly in work with a few friends informally.

[joe_barry80]

I can speak German to a good standard.

[Terry]

The only foreign language I speak fluently is english. I also have basic German, Spanish, French and Italian, well enough to get by on holidays anyway as someone else said.

[dfx-]

English - pretty fluent
Irish - pretty good
French - ok
German - strong - love the language
Afrikaans - very basic

[Sheridan]

The only foreign language I speak fluently is english.
Fair play, your English is pretty good for someone who learned it as a second language.

[Terry]

thanks ?

[Réiteoir]

English - fluent
Irish - currently topping up my learning of it - so basic atm
Norwegian - Reading: Very good, Speaking: Good - also topping up my learning of it
French - fairly good
Basque - thinking of learning it :D

[dcfcsteve]

The only foreign language I can speak or understand to a very high level is Irish, due to my schooling (trust me, nothing could be more foreign to a person of sensibility.) I don't speak it though, I'm sure you're all familiar with the old definition of a gentleman as one who can play the bagpipes, but doesn't.

Don't like Southern European languages as I find them vulgar, excluding Italian.

I won't claim to have held you in the highest esteem Sheridan, based on a range of your previous posts.

But on the basis of the two rather ignorant comments above, you've slipped even further in my estimations, if that is possible....! :eek:

[SÓC]

Had English and Irish all the way up and use both every day

French to a fairly decent standard but not quite 100%

Basic German

Spanish - very basic and generally only the swearwords

Basic Welsh - Learning Welsh was made much harder for me by already having Irish IMO although others will disagree. There are many "false friends" and things that initially seem similar but in the end are totally different the urú/treglad especially. This summer I will be spending a few hours a week trying to improve my Welsh to a better standard

[Poor Student]

I have basic Slovenian and basic Serbian/Croatian. There's also some fragments of Latin and French left in there somewhere from my education.

[ollie]

Irish is my first language. Very very basic french...