Can you speak another language?

sorry if theres already a thread on this, but i did a search and nothing came up and i couldnt be bothered to search through 90pgs of all the threads lol!

after watching interviews of footballers while euro 2008 was on and with the tennis players now wimbledon is on, me and my mum were laughing at one of the tennis players the other day cos what he said didnt make grammatical sense but afterwards it got me thinking that i shouldnt really be laughing cos his english was pretty good and i understood what he was trying to say. and also i know some people on these boards english isnt their first language and im amazed cos i know i wouldnt be able to go on a nonenglish board cos i wouldnt have a clue what was being said!

so anyway just wondered how many of you can speak a different language :)

I know a bit of Welsh, can understand it more than I can speak it though. Some phrases and words in French and Italian. And some words in Slovakian.

no i cantm i know a few frenech words that i can remember from school but thats about it and i can count to ten in german! god knows why that stuck with me

and i know a few words of spanish thanks to DORA the explorer :lol:

I speak German fluently and a little Spanish, I keep forgetting it when I am not in Spain because I don't use it. Used to speak French fluently but lost all of that because I never used it once I left school. I am quite good at learning other languages, I just have to keep on using what I have learnt before I forget it all. :lol:

I'm like that! :p I have to be in the country to learn it and textbooks don't do it for me I can't learn that way...

I can say a few words, yes, no, count to ten, in french and spanish (I can also ask for the bill in spanish :p) I know more words in polish, and I understand it a bit. I can also swear in french, spanish and polish. Always useful :lol:

My dad used to live in Denmark and he learnt the language by watching subtitled english films.

Im awful, I only know a few words in french and German

I know a few words in French, Spanish and Greek but only to get me by if I'm on holiday. I learnt some Latin at school but haven't used it in (cough, cough years) I would have loved to learn Gaelic at school but it was never offered, which was a shame.

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Originally Posted by Chloe O'brien

I know a few words in French, Spanish and Greek but only to get me by if I'm on holiday. I learnt some Latin at school but haven't used it in (cough, cough years) I would have loved to learn Gaelic at school but it was never offered, which was a shame.

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WOW! Latin

id love to be able to speak another language properly, i think its really impressive when someone can have a proper conversation in a language which isnt their first language. i learnt french for 5yrs and im no where near fluent but i can speak enough to get around while in france, like i understand directions and stuff in restaurants like food and the bill and i can count to 100 which is always useful for money and can say other simple things but i couldnt have a conversation with a french person. i learnt german for 2yrs and all i can do is count to about 30, know a few foods and say words like yes no please thankyou etc. i learnt a bit of italien before i went there last year but only really basic stuff. one of my old teachers at school was dutch and she could speak 4 languages fluently which i thought was pretty impressive!

I can speak some Welsh (which is actually shocking considering I live in Wales but our school scrapped the Welsh course I wanted to take! :() I can also speak a bit of Spanish,French,German and Italian... not alot though. Just liek asking for a beer and counting and stuff :D

Welsh is so difficult, i tried but only managed to pick up a few words whilst at uni.

I can speak German enough to get by on holiday and i was actually surprised how much i can remember from GCSE.

Oh and i can say a few phrases in Irish as my family tried to teach me. I learned the numbers 1 - 10 at three o clock in the morning when i was about 8 or 9 and my aunties were drunk. But in all fairness i still remember them.

I'd love to learn Welsh!

I can speak quite fluently in French & Spanish :D

I know a bit of French, Spanish and German.. probably not enough to get by on holiday any more as I gave foreign languages up when I started GCSE two years ago.

I know a few chinese words and phrases from working in a casino a few years ago but most of them are swear words.

Ooo you'll have to share! :D hehe

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Originally Posted by Kim

I know a bit of French, Spanish and German.. probably not enough to get by on holiday any more as I gave foreign languages up when I started GCSE two years ago.

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when i did gcse we had to do a foreign language :( i think it changed 2yrs later

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Originally Posted by Kim

I know a bit of French, Spanish and German.. probably not enough to get by on holiday any more as I gave foreign languages up when I started GCSE two years ago.

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My school forgot to put french on our timetable in year 9 so we only had spanish for a choice if we wanted to do language for GCSE.

Languages wasn't a requirement in our school too.

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Originally Posted by StarsOfCCTV

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Originally Posted by Kim

I know a bit of French, Spanish and German.. probably not enough to get by on holiday any more as I gave foreign languages up when I started GCSE two years ago.

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My school forgot to put french on our timetable in year 9 so we only had spanish for a choice if we wanted to do language for GCSE.

Languages wasn't a requirement in our school too.

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thats stupid, how can you forget lol?! when i was in year 9 picking my options it was compulsory by law you had to take a language (like you have to take english, maths etc). 2 years later when my sis was choosing her options the law had just changed that it wasnt compulsory to take a language but the school still made them take one

I think it is important to learn at least another language these days, with travelling abroad and lots of people going to live in another country and working there, it is a great help.

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Originally Posted by StarsOfCCTV

Languages wasn't a requirement in our school too.

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They were in ours which I think is good and important, although I just think they way they do it isnt very good

Know a bit of german from school but can hardly remember any of it now, only the basic phrases.

In our school when it came to picking options for GCSE only 6 people wanted to take Welsh (me being one) and 8 people wanted to take Spanish.
In the end they scrapped the Welsh course and made RE the extra compulsory subject... I can see why and that but I dunno.. I think Welsh should have been compulsory mainly because we live in Wales and it would have made it easier to get a job if we could all speak some sort of language but English

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Originally Posted by Kirsty :]

In our school when it came to picking options for GCSE only 6 people wanted to take Welsh (me being one) and 8 people wanted to take Spanish.
In the end they scrapped the Welsh course and made RE the extra compulsory subject... I can see why and that but I dunno.. I think Welsh should have been compulsory mainly because we live in Wales and it would have made it easier to get a job if we could all speak some sort of language but English

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I agree with you. It would also stop another language becoming extinct which I think is a shame. Although I sooooooo love the Welsh accent when English is spoken. :wub:

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Originally Posted by Perdita

I think it is important to learn at least another language these days, with travelling abroad and lots of people going to live in another country and working there, it is a great help.

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yeh i think its good to learn another language and as i said in previous posts cos the majority of english people cant speak another language fluently it always impresses me when someone can. however i didnt like the way it was compulsory for me to take a language at gsce 1) cos it meant i couldnt take all the other options i wanted to do, and 2) cos i feel that i didnt actually learn much more than i had already learnt the previous 3yrs, it was more about trying to pass the exams and knowing the bare minimum which you could use to pass than it was teaching you how to speak the language so you could use it in everyday conversation, well thats what i felt anyway. i think it would have been better to not have to do it as a compulsory gcse but to have a lesson of your chosen language a week to teach us how to speak the language properly instead of the stupid pse lesson we had to do which was a complete waste of time!

Developed a new language watching Wimbledon today but that language does not get taught at school and the parents won't approve :lol:

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Originally Posted by Perdita

Developed a new language watching Wimbledon today but that language does not get taught at school and the parents won't approve :lol:

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what nadal said?

Haha well if you class that as an actual language I'm sure I'm fluent in it... especially when angry.

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Originally Posted by Abbie

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Originally Posted by StarsOfCCTV

Languages wasn't a requirement in our school too.

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They were in ours which I think is good and important, although I just think they way they do it isnt very good

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My Marley is 9 and she get's taught french once a week at school. They also have a french club that runs two days a week after-school. Marley used to go to it in p1 for a while. I think it's great if lauguages are taught at primary schools we never got taught French until we went to high school.

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Originally Posted by Chloe O'brien

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Originally Posted by Abbie

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Originally Posted by StarsOfCCTV

Languages wasn't a requirement in our school too.

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They were in ours which I think is good and important, although I just think they way they do it isnt very good

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My Marley is 9 and she get's taught french once a week at school. They also have a french club that runs two days a week after-school. Marley used to go to it in p1 for a while. I think it's great if lauguages are taught at primary schools we never got taught French until we went to high school.

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i never really learnt french at primary school, we had a few lessons in the last few months of year 6 i think as a fun subject cos we had done our SATS and there wasnt really anything else we needed to do, didnt learn it properly though til year 7. i think now though primary schools are teaching the kids french, my little cousin is 8 and shes been learning french at school for a few years now and shes quite good at it. i think it probably all depends though whether the primary school has enough teachers who can speak french or another language

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Originally Posted by Chloe O'brien

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Originally Posted by Abbie

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Originally Posted by StarsOfCCTV

Languages wasn't a requirement in our school too.

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They were in ours which I think is good and important, although I just think they way they do it isnt very good

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My Marley is 9 and she get's taught french once a week at school. They also have a french club that runs two days a week after-school. Marley used to go to it in p1 for a while. I think it's great if lauguages are taught at primary schools we never got taught French until we went to high school.

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Same here, just in high school, but I think it should start in Primary school, we would pick it up better then

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Originally Posted by Abbie

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Originally Posted by Chloe O'brien

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Originally Posted by Abbie

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Originally Posted by StarsOfCCTV

Languages wasn't a requirement in our school too.

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They were in ours which I think is good and important, although I just think they way they do it isnt very good

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My Marley is 9 and she get's taught french once a week at school. They also have a french club that runs two days a week after-school. Marley used to go to it in p1 for a while. I think it's great if lauguages are taught at primary schools we never got taught French until we went to high school.

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Same here, just in high school, but I think it should start in Primary school, we would pick it up better then

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i think all primary schools should start teaching another language maybe a year after the kids have started? i know most other european countries teach their kids engish from a really early age. and they do say kids learn stuff better when theyre younger

I agree, especially if languages are to be made compulsory again at GCSE. My old French teacher told us that she believed that they would be when she told us it wasn't the law for us to do a language at GCSE. They say that you pick things up more easily at an easy age, so it makes sense to start it as early as possible, and the students should also be more open minded to learning a new language. With more years of experience behind them before starting GCSE, they should have more confidence with it and so it could help to keep the level of uptake of languages at GCSE high if it remains optional.

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Originally Posted by Perdita

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Originally Posted by Kirsty :]

In our school when it came to picking options for GCSE only 6 people wanted to take Welsh (me being one) and 8 people wanted to take Spanish.
In the end they scrapped the Welsh course and made RE the extra compulsory subject... I can see why and that but I dunno.. I think Welsh should have been compulsory mainly because we live in Wales and it would have made it easier to get a job if we could all speak some sort of language but English

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I agree with you. It would also stop another language becoming extinct which I think is a shame. Although I sooooooo love the Welsh accent when English is spoken. :wub:

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+1
I absolutely LOVE Welsh accents! It's amazing! My Dad laughs at me for it though... hehe

They teach French in Primary schools here too now.
Work experience was embarrasing... 6 year olds know more Welsh than I do! How shocking is that? I think in the summer I'm going to get myself to an evening course and get some sort of qualification in Welsh. :)

I can speak French and German (and English!) fluently, a bit of Hungarian. I'd love to learn welsh!

I think languages should be made compulsory again, because like I think it's Perdita said, we all travel a lot nowadays, so it's just common sense to!

We have around 300 motor vehicle apprentices attending the college from all over scotland. They come to college 1 week a month for 3 years then the rest of the time they are in their garages working. We have a number of lads who come down from the Western Isles such as Stornoway. We have a management Agent to acts as a liasison officer between the college and the apprentices employer. The lady who phones has a lovely Gaelic accent when she talks.

I can speak German. Not fluently but enough to read and understand and communicate. Haven't spoken it since I did my GCSE in 2006.

I think it's a lot easier to learn a language in a country where it is spoken as opposed to learning it in a classroom where a lot of the students probably won't use it outside school.

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Originally Posted by Abigail

I think it's a lot easier to learn a language in a country where it is spoken as opposed to learning it in a classroom where a lot of the students probably won't use it outside school.

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i agree, i think it would force you to learn it too pretty quickly cos id hate to be in a country where i didnt understand the language lol!

Usually people in other countries are grateful you make the effort even if you don't know much of the language...Like when your in a shop just point to things they'll tell you what they are :p

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Originally Posted by Kirsty :]

They teach French in Primary schools here too now.
Work experience was embarrasing... 6 year olds know more Welsh than I do! How shocking is that? I think in the summer I'm going to get myself to an evening course and get some sort of qualification in Welsh. :)

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Then you can come and give us some lessons :D
hehe
I just love the Welsh language, I don't know why but I just think it's fab!

Ooh and to add to my knowing French, I know alllll Celine's french songs off by heart! <-- Yep, I really am that sad..