Gtky: languages?

NKF312 · February 2014

Do you speak any other languages? If yes, which, and how did you learn? What about dh? Will you be teaching lo?

NKF312 · February 2014

I speak Greek, and Spanish ( and very little mandarin).. Greek learned from family, since birth.. Spanish I took in school, and had a babysitting job with a family from Mexico, so they helped me practice all the time, I think that really helped me become fluent. The best is when you go to the markets in Athens, there are a lot of people from South America selling goods, so you get people speaking a mix of Greek/Spanish

Dh speaks Spanish and a little Yiddish/Hebrew

Sending daughter to Greek School and Hebrew school.. Poor girl

martyn17 · February 2014

I studied abroad in El Salvador and still work in the Dominican Republic occasionally. My Spanish isn't as good as it used to be, but its OK.

[Deleted User] · February 2014

My parents wanted to teach DD polish. I don't think it will happen now, which I am totally cool with. They forced me to learn it an I hated it. I still refuse to speak it. So english it is.:)

valstulas · February 2014

I took French in school and my entire family is Franco-American. I retained hardly any of it. My grandmother would be so disappointed in me.

I also took Koine (Ancient) Greek when I was going to my Christian liberal arts school. I was just beginning to get the hang of it when I got expelled.

NKF312 · February 2014

valstulas said:

I took French in school and my entire family is Franco-American. I retained hardly any of it. My grandmother would be so disappointed in me. I also took Koine (Ancient) Greek when I was going to my Christian liberal arts school. I was just beginning to get the hang of it when I got expelled.

Ancient Greek? Very cool!

NKF312 · February 2014

My parents wanted to teach DD polish. I don't think it will happen now, which I am totally cool with. They forced me to learn it an I hated it. I still refuse to speak it. So english it is.:)

I lived in an all Polish neighborhood in Chicago, would of been a good language to know

my neighbor tried to teach me but I never caught on

valstulas · February 2014

@robynloureed I was partying with some of my housemates who were underage. We decided to take a drive out to the lake on campus to go for a swim. It was dark and I didn't notice the posted sign that said no cars allowed on the dirt road, so I turned on it and got pulled over. I had a ton of empty cans in the backseat and even though I was below the legal limit, my underage passengers weren't. So I got put on disciplinary probation.

A few months later a female housemate and I messed around. I told the wrong person about it, it got reported, and I got expelled. We have a behavioral code that I'd signed. She didn't get expelled, though. I always attributed it to her parents paid OOP and I was there on FA and scholarships.

No education for poor people

Pink724 · February 2014

I took many years of French in school, and can read and hear it pretty well. I can speak enough of it to get by, but only conversational when drunk (while visiting Paris in college I had an entire conversation with some natives after consuming several bottles of wine about how much I hated George Bush).

LO and I are doing the Little Pim French books/DVDs and we both are enjoying them.

reallylongusername · February 2014

some Spanish, A.S.L., French and Farsi
learned Spanish from 6th-10th grades and minored in it in college
took at least a couple A.S.L. classes during the summer when I was younger
learned French off of my brother who chose it as his language in grade school
learned some Farsi from an app. on d.h.'s tablet

Already been teaching d.d. some of all of these.

e.t.a.: D.h. tries all of these, but his memory and pronunciation (for A.S.L., his accuracy) aren't too good.

reallylongusername · February 2014

valstulas said:

We have a behavioral code that I'd signed.

What'd the code say?

reallylongusername · February 2014

Pink724 said:

I took many years of French in school, and can read and hear it pretty well. I can speak enough of it to get by, but only conversational when drunk (while visiting Paris in college I had an entire conversation with some natives after consuming several bottles of wine about how much I hated George Bush)

L.o.l., d.h. was the best in French I've ever heard him in France in Disney when he had had some wine.

lancomechica · February 2014

I speak English and took French in high school. Remember hardly anything. I am trying to learn some Amharic and know a few words.

My husband speaks Amharic, French and English.

I would love LO to learn Amharic, French and Spanish. We bought him the little Pim French learning set already.

NKF312 · February 2014

lancomechica said:

I speak English and took French in high school. Remember hardly anything. I am trying to learn some Amharic and know a few words. My husband speaks Amharic, French and English. I would love LO to learn Amharic, French and Spanish. We bought him the little Pim French learning set already.

We have a lot of Ethiopian families at our church, and the kids try to teach lo Amharic already lol.. They could be teaching her bad words for all I know.. Not that she comprehends she just smiles

MagickalNarwhal · February 2014

I was fluent in French after taking it for 6 years in school but it's all but faded now. I took Spanish for a while and was conversational but again it's faded by now. I want to send my kids to an immersion school for Spanish.

valstulas · February 2014

TTCFeb2011+2IVFsPg said:

valstulas said:

We have a behavioral code that I'd signed.

What'd the code say?

A lot. But it definitely had rules about consuming alcohol on campus, obeying state and federal laws (including furnishing to minors), and engaging in sexual activity on campus. I knew that I was in violation of the behavioral code at the time.

MagickalNarwhal · February 2014

Also, our french exchange student told us this joke:

What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Trilingual

What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual

What do you call someone who speaks one language? American

Obviously not true across the board but still kinda funny

reallylongusername · February 2014

valstulas said:

valstulas said:

We have a behavioral code that I'd signed.

What'd the code say?
A lot. But it definitely had rules about consuming alcohol on campus, obeying state and federal laws (including furnishing to minors), and engaging in sexual activity on campus. I knew that I was in violation of the behavioral code at the time.

O, okay. I wasn't sure if it was that you did stuff w/a girl, or just engaged in sexual activity in general.

fabk · February 2014

A will have to take french until Gr 9 (I think, at least that is when we stopped). I don't remember much of it. I can read french okay, and do know some phrases but am far from fluent. Hopefully languages will come easy to him.

stephyfaith · February 2014

I'm mostly still fluent in German from when I lived overseas as a kid. I took French but retained very little of it. I'd like to teach DD German but I honestly doubt it will happen.

@valstulas which school did you get kicked out of?

valstulas · February 2014

@stephyfaith Gordon College in Wenham, MA.

To this day I would not be allowed to visit the campus. All my sinnin' would poison the well.

LauraB1016 · February 2014

DH and I both took foreign language in high school but can't speak or read a lick of it. Hoping some foreign language will stick with Allison.

[Deleted User] · February 2014

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valstulas · February 2014

Yup, @mermomo5. I should have gone to Endicot.

queenbone · February 2014

I took 4 yrs of Spanish in HS. I took an Italian class when I studied abroad in fLorence, but only learned enough so I could buy food/get around town. The Spanish background helped with that since there are a lot of similarities between the two. I've never been fluent in Spanish though because I'm too shy to practice.

KTZ17 · February 2014

We speak Spanish to DD. DH is from Argentina and I learned Spanish through a dual language program in middle school. I also studied abroad in Spain & majored in Spanish in college. That being said, it's sometimes an effort to speak Spanish to her. I don't know words for some random stuff and have to ask DH. Stuff like gums and pinch. Random, not regularly used words. I also don't really know kids' songs in Spanish. I'm worried she won't speak it because I sometimes speak English to her. DH is very good about only speaking Spanish to her, though.

[Deleted User] · February 2014

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theuntaggablek · February 2014

I speak/read French OK. I took it through high school and 2 years in college.

I am stronger in Indonesian, which I learned living there doing study abroad. It's super easy: no verb tenses, no plurals (just double the word). Totally fun.

I like studying language and think everybody should try to learn >1. My kids will do it. DH doesn't like to study language, but knows some German, Latin, and Spanish. I think studying music really helped me with pronunciation and will force my boys to do that, too.

lrichmond86 · February 2014

I took up to AP French 5 in high school and could speak conversationally. Unfortunately that's a distant memory now.

Mommy1stTimer · February 2014

DH & I both took 4 years of HS French, but neither of us retained too much. We are going to have my graduate soccer players teach LO Spanish. I can read Hebrew perfectly, but only know what a little bit actually means.

Sstragar · February 2014

Took French all through high school and I retained absolutely none, except the ABCs. I wish I would have studied Spanish instead.

littlelegslo · February 2014

DH speaks English and Japanese. I speak English and I'm okay with Spanish and very little Japanese. My MIL only speaks in Japanese to baby H =; and he'll go to Japanese preschool where they speak 60-40 so I'll only have to teach him Spanish I'm sure.

[Deleted User] · February 2014

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PrimRoseMama · February 2014

I speak French & English.
Some basic Spanish.
Some basic Italian.
Minimal Arabic/Farsii

H knows some basic Mandarin.

We are just trying to get English to work right now (DD is in speech therapy). Once we get good communication with it then some French & Mandarin.

maryoosa · February 2014

I used to be fluent in Italian- I'm not anymore. Learned from family and weekend Italian school as a kid and in high school. And I used to be able to speak Japanese---not anymore. Learned because I was an exchange student in middle school. And I can read French but it's embarrassing to even try to speak it. So, LO will go to Italian school eventually.

FancyFrenchie · February 2014

KTZ17 said:
We speak Spanish to DD. DH is from Argentina and I learned Spanish through a dual language program in middle school. I also studied abroad in Spain & majored in Spanish in college. That being said, it's sometimes an effort to speak Spanish to her. I don't know words for some random stuff and have to ask DH. Stuff like gums and pinch. Random, not regularly used words. I also don't really know kids' songs in Spanish. I'm worried she won't speak it because I sometimes speak English to her. DH is very good about only speaking Spanish to her, though.

She will definitely speak it.
With DS1, I spoke English to him since he was born (we live in Mexico) and DH usually Spanish but sometimes English. He's 3.5 now and fully bilingual. I'm also starting to teach him more French. I am fluent in all 3 languages and want the kids to be at least bilingual, if not trilingual.

KTZ17 · February 2014

I hope so, @fancyfrenchie! DH & I speak English to each other, so that's my other concern. Since you're in Mexico, the language around your DS is Spanish, but our DD will be in daycare & school in English, plus my parents speak English to her. My in laws only know Spanish though, so I'm hoping that will help.

NKF312 · February 2014

collers4 said:

I speak Greek, and Spanish ( and very little mandarin).. Greek learned from family, since birth.. Spanish I took in school, and had a babysitting job with a family from Mexico, so they helped me practice all the time, I think that really helped me become fluent. The best is when you go to the markets in Athens, there are a lot of people from South America selling goods, so you get people speaking a mix of Greek/Spanish
Dh speaks Spanish and a little Yiddish/Hebrew
Sending daughter to Greek School and Hebrew school.. Poor girl
I'm jealous that you can speak Greek! I'm half Greek but my mom never taught me the language. She was always super weird about it and to this day won't speak it unless directly to a relative in Greece. When I went there a few summers ago with my DH, my relatives were all bummed that I couldn't speak the language.

Is she from Greece? A lot of people ( my dad included) had such pride in being American, andwere embarrassed to be immigrants. You should take some classes (since as a mom you have so much free time lol)

NKF312 · February 2014

lwrightenator said:

I'm pretty conversational in Spanish and used to be relatively okay at Portuguese (Brazilian), but never as good as Spanish. I went to a bilingual (Spanish) school as a child, learned Spanish in school, and volunteered for several summers in latin america.

DH is fluent in Chinese.

I hope LO learns Spanish and Chinese. Those seem like useful languages to know in the future...

That's a great combo of languages, I think mandarin is a great business language, wish I knew more, I just find tone-al languages sodifficult

chiboo9 · February 2014

I'm fluent in 3 languages: English, Tagalog (Filipino national language), and Kampampangan (Filipino regional dialect). Spanish is very easy for me to pick up since it's fairly similar to Tagalog. I can usually listen to people speaking Spanish and get the gist of the conversation. I listen to Spanish radio stations a lot and try to figure out what they're saying.

DH only speaks English. He took Spanish for 4 years during high school so he understands the basic. When we were only dating, I didn't know that he started learning Tagalog on the side. He started saying greetings out of nowhere and I think I fell in love with him even more that day. He also wanted to learn so he can listen in on my family gatherings. Too bad we speak the other dialect. Hahah.

I'd love for LO to learn. But right now, I'm not sure which dialect to go. The national or the regional. I say words in both dialects here and there.

spb27 · February 2014

I speak English. At least 15 years worth if Hebrew classes and it's I can't speak fluently. That's how horrible at languages I am. I can read and write Hebrew and I understand better than I speak it. I also took Spanish in high school for 2 years and don't remember much now.
DH is a bit better at Hebrew.

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