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Will.
Joined: 02 May 2003
Posts: 783
Location: London Uk
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 Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 7:56 pm Post subject: Just showing off. |
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Fluently conversant in 4 or 5
Highly literate in three.
Capable of muttering coherent phrases competently in at least a dozen others
In how many languages can you say 'One more beer please'
I was past 40 when I learnt my last language and it was quite easy i still use it and am frequently complimented so age seems to hold no bearing on my ability |
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Sweetsee
Joined: 11 Jun 2004
Posts: 2302
Location: ) is everything
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| Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 12:20 am Post subject: |
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Japanese-conversational
French-same
German-some
Spanish-more than a little
Swedish-greeting
Thai-very little but more than most
English-American
Sign-the finger, peace, bs, chaka bra, love, good, bad, so-so, power, peace but screw you anyway,
Enjoy,
s |
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GambateBingBangBOOM
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
Posts: 2021
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 3:17 am Post subject: |
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If I were to go back to a French speaking environment, then my French would become fluent again in a short, short time. As it is, I haven't really used it other than the odd movie and newspapers in a little over three years.
My Japanese is intermediate- I can get by most of the time, but speaking listening (especially listening) only.
My German is sort of intermediate but hasn't been used in a long time so it's more or less back to the basic level. |
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wildchild
Joined: 14 Nov 2005
Posts: 519
Location: Puebla 2009 - 2010
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| Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 7:07 am Post subject: |
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Spanish - everyone laughs behind my back
French - everyone laughs behind my back
insert language here - everyone laughs behind my back
Why can't I just sound more like them?
Or is it...
Why can't they just sound more like me?
Maybe, just maybe, if I pay a few lots of money to a language school, I will come out sounding just like them?
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Deicide
Joined: 29 Jul 2006
Posts: 1005
Location: Caput Imperii Americani
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| Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 11:51 am Post subject: |
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| Teacher in Rome wrote: |
Fluent in "standard" Italian, but not in dialect, which is what most people seem to speak around here.
I was peeved that my fluency in Italian came with the price of losing my previous fluency in French. Not only that, I have lost my almost native-speaker French accent, and acquired an Italian one. How did that happen? (And I haven't managed a native-speaker accent when I speak Italian, so the trade-off isn't fair...)
Do you think that we lose our ability to acquire fluency as we get older? Or is it linguistically impossible to have fluency in more than one related language, assuming you haven't been brought up in these languages? |
Not necessarily; of course language learning becomes more difficult as we get older but it is very much an individual thing...technically speaking anything over 12 is pretty old to be learning a language.... |
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SueH
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Posts: 1022
Location: Northern Italy
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| Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 12:15 pm Post subject: |
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| Teacher in Rome wrote: |
Fluent in "standard" Italian, but not in dialect, which is what most people seem to speak around here.
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You should hear the Patois round here, a Franco-Provencal dialect which varies every few miles up and down the valley.
My childhood Italian is coming back strongly after some months here, so I can say I'm fluently inaccurate in Italian.
I can also bluff well in French (the other official local language) as my accent isn't too bad. (Does anyone else from the UK ever wonder why the politician and musician Ted Heath had such an excruciatingly bad French accent)?
Holiday and skiing German, but no Spanish as I've never been anywhere that speaks it, although I could always understand a lot of what my Spanish students were saying.
PS: Sickbag - I thought you spoke fluent 'Mush'? |
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basiltherat
Joined: 04 Oct 2003
Posts: 952
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| Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 12:23 pm Post subject: |
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malay / indonesian. basically bi-lingual
basil  |
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dmb
Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Posts: 8397
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| Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 12:28 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| .technically speaking anything over 12 is pretty old to be learning a language.. |
mentally speaking?
If this was true I'd be out of a job. |
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Deicide
Joined: 29 Jul 2006
Posts: 1005
Location: Caput Imperii Americani
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| Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 12:35 pm Post subject: |
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| dmb wrote: |
| Quote: |
| .technically speaking anything over 12 is pretty old to be learning a language.. |
mentally speaking?
If this was true I'd be out of a job. |
Cognitively speaking; the brain's plasticity with regards to language diminishes dramatically at approximately this age. This is why the vast majority of adult learners have so many problems with native like mastery of foreign tongues. The best age to learn a language is still when you are torn forth from your mother's womb...and the next few years... |
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wildchild
Joined: 14 Nov 2005
Posts: 519
Location: Puebla 2009 - 2010
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| Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 4:04 pm Post subject: |
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Deicide said:
| Quote: |
| The best age to learn a language is still when you are torn forth from your mother's womb...and the next few years... |
If you want to sound and act exactly like them, learn it early. If you don't really care to sound and act exactly like them, learn it whenever.  |
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sallycat
Joined: 11 Mar 2006
Posts: 303
Location: behind you. BOO!
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| Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2006 7:22 am Post subject: |
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high intermediate in japanese
basic maaori |
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Sweetsee
Joined: 11 Jun 2004
Posts: 2302
Location: ) is everything
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| Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2006 7:25 am Post subject: |
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| Fluent in Eubonics. |
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sallycat
Joined: 11 Mar 2006
Posts: 303
Location: behind you. BOO!
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| Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2006 7:31 am Post subject: |
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| but not ebonics, bubonics or euphonics? |
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Sweetsee
Joined: 11 Jun 2004
Posts: 2302
Location: ) is everything
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| Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2006 8:17 am Post subject: |
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Did I mess that up? 
Is it Ebonics? |
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Henry_Cowell
Joined: 27 May 2005
Posts: 3352
Location: Berkeley
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| Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2006 5:25 pm Post subject: |
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In order of acquisition/study:
American English (L1)
Hebrew
French
Indonesian
Balinese
Javanese; Old Javanese (which is sort of like knowing medieval Latin )
Dutch
Malay |
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