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View Full Version : Parlez-vous français?



Laddy
12-07-2012, 09:22 PM
Do you speak a second or third language? And if so, what are they and do you speak them well?

I speak French on a fairly basic level, and I am starting Arabic next semester.

Jinx
12-07-2012, 10:11 PM
Oui, je parle un peu du francais.

Peegee
12-07-2012, 10:16 PM
I speak a fair bit of Cantonese. Very few EoFFers have heard me speak it though. I'm thinking....two of them have.

edit: oh yeah 3.

Raistlin
12-07-2012, 10:39 PM
I can speak basic Spanish. I used to be better, but I haven't used it regularly in many years.

Bunny
12-07-2012, 10:41 PM
I speak English and Idiot.

There is some overlap.

kotora
12-08-2012, 12:12 AM
Can read and listen and understand decently Spanish, Portuguese, French Ukrainian and some Russian. Reading/understanding a language is much easier than speaking it because that's just a matter of practical experience - you gotta do it a lot or you'll never get good at it. Can't learn it from a book.

As for being able to speak fluently it's just English, Dutch, Polish and some German (though the grammar is way off it's enough to make myself understandable in conversation). Planning to improve my Russian in the coming year.

Mercen-X
12-08-2012, 12:48 AM
Name a language and I'll speak it horribly. I can kind of read German, French, Cantonese, Japanese, and Tagalog. My dad is trying to teach us Tagalog because my Filipina mother is too lazy to learn on her own and my grandma won't teach us. My dad also tries to teach us German. I want to learn French better because of my cousin (formerly disowned by my uncle who now claims that was never the case because he wants to appear to be a better person, though who the f he's trying to convince is a mystery to us all). I used Pimsleur in an attempt to learn Catonese because I liked Cassandra from Wayne's World (though I later realized Tia Carrere was neither Cantonese nor spoke it fluently). I figured out that there's no going wrong with speaking Mandarin... if you learn it.

Aside from what I know and don't know, I usually just use Google Translate so I come off sounding like a tourist instead of a compelte idiot.

Araciel
12-08-2012, 01:42 AM
Used to speak some French.... Haven't in years so I have to say no.


Also I wanna hear MikeChan China

Pike
12-08-2012, 01:53 AM
Everybody go make fun of MILF for speaking ESTONIAN of all things :eyebrow:

Sephex
12-08-2012, 01:53 AM
HO HO HO LE CHEESEBREAD AND ZE STRIPPED SHIRTS

Jinx
12-08-2012, 02:14 AM
Everybody go make fun of MILF for speaking ESTONIAN of all things :eyebrow:

kiir :flirt:

Clo
12-08-2012, 02:17 AM
I am well versed and up to date in ebonics.

Hollycat
12-08-2012, 02:20 AM
I speak American, English, Texan, and Canadian.

41-Inches-Wide
12-08-2012, 02:58 AM
I am fluent in English.

rubah
12-08-2012, 03:37 AM
I'm getting a pretty good reading ability of spanish and portuguese from work.

I Took the Red Pill
12-08-2012, 04:12 AM
I'm not fluent in Spanish, but confident that I could carry on a conversation with a native speaker as long as it's too complex. I can also speak enough Mandarin to get me food and handjobs, and in conversation with a Chinese person I can usually figure out what they're saying by being mindful of context and body language.

NorthernChaosGod
12-08-2012, 04:13 AM
I speak Spanish. :p

Jiro
12-08-2012, 09:09 AM
XRZ-jLOrFfk

Rantz
12-08-2012, 09:24 AM
Fluent Swedish and English. I can understand Norwegian well enough, and Danish to a lesser extent, from their proximity to Swedish. I know some basic French although I've lost much of it due to disuse. Very basic tourist Spanish. Fluent in 1337 and pig latin.

Pike
12-08-2012, 10:57 AM
I'm one of those unfortunate souls who learned the foundation of a bunch of languages and never progressed beyond that.

I took a couple of years of German lessons as a kid. You'd think this would make me fluent, cause you know how kids are with languages, but all it did was give me a thick German accent anytime I try to speak any non-English language.

I took a couple of years of Spanish in high school. I got okay at it because Spanish is the easiest language in the world, but as soon as I was out of high school I forgot all of it.

I took a couple of years of Japanese in college. It was mostly a painful experience, but at least I can read hiragana and katakana now.

Any time I try to speak any of the above three languages it turns into an unholy mishmash of the said three languages, usually with a German accent.

Yar
12-08-2012, 12:07 PM
We have this thread a lot :D

Obviously I speak English.

I can speak Japanese quite well; not perfect, but I am living fairly comfortably in Japan right now and I have had no trouble making friends. I still make errors every so often, but that is how you learn!

I can read French and can speak and understand a little tiny bit of it when it's spoken. :p

I'm starting to pick up random Chinese phrases from my friends. I have NO idea how to write them, in pinyin or hanzi. Sometimes I can understand written Chinese just by virtue of kanji that I know, but I have no idea how to read it out loud.


I want to learn Portuguese so much. :(

Quindiana Jones
12-08-2012, 12:58 PM
Well, I live in Paris...

...so, no. :/

Arizona Lively
12-08-2012, 07:38 PM
Ich kann Deutsch sprechen.
Je peux comprendre les gens parlant français.
El español es fácil también.
Ek kan woorde in Afrikaans doen.
Mi povas diri stuff en Esperanto.
Nederlands is soort verschillend.
Và bây giờ tôi đang khoe với người Việt.

その後、再び、あなたが知っているすべてのために、私はトランスレータを使用してごまかしています。ハ!

Aerith's Knight
12-08-2012, 08:11 PM
Ich kann Deutsch sprechen.
Je peux comprendre les gens parlant français.
El español es fácil también.
Ek kan woorde in Afrikaans doen.
Mi povas diri stuff en Esperanto.
Nederlands is soort verschillend.
Và bây giờ tôi đang khoe với người Việt.

その後、再び、あなたが知っているすべてのために、私はトランスレータを使用してごまかしています。ハ!

Je kan ook gewoon zeggen dat je geen Nederlands kan.

Translation: It didn't even make a lick of sense in Dutch. What you said is literally translated: "Dutch is a kind of different."

Figuratively it means even less. Nice try on the translator though.



As for being able to speak fluently it's just English, Dutch, Polish and some German (though the grammar is way off it's enough to make myself understandable in conversation). Planning to improve my Russian in the coming year.

The previous post pushes me to say: Prove it.

=============================

I know Dutch and English fluently, Passable German, very little french, pretty good in American Sign Language, and a smattering of Japanese and Spanish words. Mostly to get foreign colleagues to bring me tea.

Aulayna
12-09-2012, 12:07 AM
Non, je ne sais pas Francias.

Shorty
12-09-2012, 01:19 AM
My swedish has not progressed since the last time we had this thread.

Faris
12-09-2012, 04:25 PM
Some french. I always say Mon francais c'est pas tres bien, but the frenchies are all convinced that I'm bilingual which is a good thing because around here they will have a trout fit if you don't know any french.

Shiny
12-09-2012, 06:02 PM
I'm not fluent in Spanish, but can carry on a conversation in it and understand others. I can also read it pretty well. However, many people assume I'm fluent in it. I've had people come up to me asking for directions in Spanish, so now I'm trying to practice my Spanish more so I don't sound like a weirdo trying to speak Spanish.

Pike
12-14-2012, 05:11 PM
As for being able to speak fluently it's just English, Dutch, Polish and some German (though the grammar is way off it's enough to make myself understandable in conversation). Planning to improve my Russian in the coming year.

The previous post pushes me to say: Prove it.

Seeing as he's from the Netherlands... :p

Futan
12-14-2012, 05:16 PM
Is incoherent a language? I'd say I'm fluent in that.

The Summoner of Leviathan
12-14-2012, 06:41 PM
I am fluent in English. I have near fluent understanding of French unless they are like super Quebecois or Acadien. My French would be better but I rarely use it despite living in Quebec, learning the language since I was 4-5, and having a French Canadian grandmother. Also, Quebec's official language is French and has actual "language police" (this is more for businesses and such, but yeah they still do). And there was bulltrout that some transit works after the PQ won the election started to refuse serving people in English. Despite all this, I can communicate my points in French and pretty much if I am not too self-conscious talk about anything, as long as I can remember the vocab. I forget random words sometimes, like grapefruit is always pamplemousse in my mind.

I know a smattering of Japanese that I mostly lost but I can still read kana with a few kanji.

KentaRawr!
12-14-2012, 10:09 PM
I studied Latin when I was 12, but I forgot all of it. I learned a bit of Spanish when I was even younger, but I forgot most of that. I studied Japanese in Highschool, but I forgot most of that, too. Right now I'm studying French, though. :P

Denmark
12-14-2012, 11:46 PM
I'm pretty good at Java and C

I took 3 years of German in high school and promptly forgot most of it. I know probably horrendously-grammared tourist Spanish. I might be able to read things in Italian and I could try French but it has too many unnecessary letters.

Watashi wa genki desu. Arigato! ☆⌒(*^∇゜)v

Jiro
12-15-2012, 05:03 AM
I love the suspicion of kotora. Makes me giggle with mirth and merriment.

Citizen Bleys
12-15-2012, 07:15 PM
Everybody go make fun of MILF for speaking ESTONIAN of all things :eyebrow:

Estonia has more wonderful toys than Batman. I'd love to be able to speak Estonian.

In faith, I speak Shakespearean English.

rubah
12-15-2012, 07:55 PM
I'm starting to pick up random Chinese phrases from my friends. I have NO idea how to write them, in pinyin or hanzi. Sometimes I can understand written Chinese just by virtue of kanji that I know, but I have no idea how to read it out loud.


take the on-yomi and put a chinese gloss on it. 8D

kotora
12-15-2012, 08:12 PM
I love the suspicion of kotora. Makes me giggle with mirth and merriment.

Being suspected of shit has been a daily part of my life since I shaved my head :cry:

Madame Adequate
12-15-2012, 08:13 PM
Everybody go make fun of MILF for speaking ESTONIAN of all things :eyebrow:

Estonia has more wonderful toys than Batman. I'd love to be able to speak Estonian.

No you wouldn't.

Laddy
12-16-2012, 04:56 AM
Post a Vocaroos of people speaking their respective languages. Now. :colbert:

Citizen Bleys
12-16-2012, 05:44 AM
Post a Vocaroos of people speaking their respective languages. Now. :colbert:

I'm tempted to actually do this when I'm not at work...

EDIT: Done. (http://vocaroo.com/i/s1DrWkFm75xG)

TRANSLATIONS:
French: I don't know why you are an arsehole, but then again, I don't give a smurf.
German: I have a lobster in my underpants
Glaswegian: ???
Japanise: Shit! It's the cops!
Ukrainian: Honestly it's funnier if you don't understand
Shakespearean: Segment from Two Gentlemen of Lebowski

Laddy
12-17-2012, 05:23 AM
Hey guys, this is me speaking French terribly into a Rock Band microphone. I didn't have to confidence to say anything too complex at the risk of looking stupid, so I say pretty much what you think I'm saying. :p

Anywhere, here (http://vocaroo.com/i/s0DuvSjWpW4l) it is.

TrollHunter
12-17-2012, 05:51 AM
Taking my french 2 final tomorrow
I'm praying that I can have the luck to pass the damn thing.
I HATE FRENCH.

Banendet
12-17-2012, 12:33 PM
thanks for this post its very nice

Yar
12-17-2012, 05:04 PM
I have picked up a few books in Japanese during my stay here. I am still not at the level where I can read through unassisted, but with a dictionary for some words I still don't know, I can read without too much trouble. It's been helping me pick up more vocabulary. :D

I met a kid here who wants me to help him with English, except all he seems to know (or care about) is swear words. What a potty mouth! :p How many swear words do you know in a foreign language?

Citizen Bleys
12-17-2012, 05:05 PM
Merde!

Laddy
12-17-2012, 05:16 PM
Merde!
Truite!

Tigmafuzz
12-17-2012, 05:26 PM
thanks for this post its very nice

What a polite bot! Can we keep him? I promise I'll feed him and walk him everyday!

yukina
12-18-2012, 02:03 AM
I've been fluent in both Tagalog and English since I was a kid. Japanese, I can understand at an extremely atomic level so long as they don't talk too fast. :)) I also have a bit of Greek in my vocab somewhere because of my parents (who keep on swearing in Greek while driving, haha). My father tried teaching me a couple of years ago but it never stuck.

I'm mighty interested in studying French and German though :)