How many of you...

>I was born and raised in Germany, English is my second
>language. It is getting harder and harder for me though to
>speak German, my DH is American, kids don't speak much German
>and most of my friends are American.
>
>I took 8 years of French in high school, French and English
>actually were my majors, but my French is pretty rusty now
>:)
>
>My Mom is from Sweden, when she is mad at me she usually yells
>at me in Swedish, so I understand and speak the not so nice
>words }( I can follow a slow conversation and can read books
>in Swedish. Speaking it is a totally different story though
>:)
>
>Wow, Carolyn you took German in highschool?? It's a difficult
>language to learn!!! Just be patient and try to talk and
>listen to native speakers, all over sudden it will click and
>you'll be fluent. Are you living in Germany now?
>
>Good luck!
>
>Carola

Carola, yes I took it in high school (as well as in elementary school). I was born in Germany as well and lived most of my life here until I was 10 or so. We lived on a military base though, so it was easy not to be immersed. And so I forgot much of what I previously learned. Now that we are living here again (Heidelberg area), I'm determined to learn it....again.:) It's a hard language for sure. That's so cool that you speak so many languages! You must have a knack for it. I've noticed many Germans here speak 2 or more languages.

Carolyn :)
 
I speak English, but I ain’t be good at it. Arabic, a little Farsi, a little French, a little Spanish, Pig Latin, and I’m fluent in Okie. :)

Where is the bathroom:
Arabic: Ain Alha maam
Farsi: Mos’ta’rah kojast
French: Ou’ sont les Toilettes
Spanish: Donde esta el bano
Pig Latin: hereway is hetay athroombay
Okie: Wer’s ur pisser
 
I'm a professional Arabic, French, Spanish translator. I can also understand, but not really speak, Portuguese, Italian, and Papiamentu (what they speak in Aruba).

I learned Arabic as an adult, and I find that the best way to learn is immersion. I speak French because I went to a French missionary school while I lived in Djibouti for four years... I'm telling you--immersion! Within 3 months, we were speaking and functioning like pros... it's sink or swim!

I haven't done a lot with the Rosetta Stone software yet, but I'm actually set up to try it in the next few weeks. I'm going to test it for the languages I already know, and then take it for a test drive on a few languages I'd like to get better at, namely Persian/Farsi (what they speak in Iran).
 
wow, so many intelligent Cathe fans! I took 2 years of German in high school and three years in college. It was pretty intense in college, our whole last year the classes were taught "in German" only. Alas, I don't remember much since then. I believe you have to really work and work at a second language to retain it. Kind of like muscles?!

Sally
 
i speak english, hebrew and yiddish. yiddish is sort of a german dialect. it originated in eastern europe. decided to learn spanish a few years ago. i understand better than i speak, but it helped a lot when i went to visit my friend in argentina this summer.

suri
 
I took 4-5 yrs of Spanish, and can speak it a little. I also took a semester of German in college and can remember even less! Imagine going from Spanish 403 to German 101 back to back! My professer would ask me a question in German (and I'd understand it) and I would respond in Spanish!!!

I know a sprinkling of Polish as my grandparents-in-law are from Poland.

My MIL speaks English, Polish, Russian, Czech, and German!!! I think that English was her 5th language!!
 
<<Where is the bathroom:
Arabic: Ain Alha maam
Farsi: Mos’ta’rah kojast
French: Ou’ sont les Toilettes
Spanish: Donde esta el bano
Pig Latin: hereway is hetay athroombay
Okie: Wer’s ur pisser>>

It's always good to know that no matter where you are you can get to the can, um, the pisser.
 
Well, my Hungarian is perfect, since I'm Hungarian -- born and raised in Budapest.
In school during the communist years we were forced to learn Russian, like it or not for 8 years. I still understand some of it and know the letters but can't really speak it.
Later on I choose French and studied some Italian on my own -- that was a lot of fun. Last came English.
 
Ooh, sorry to interrupt this thread for a moment, but I just have to say I visited Budapest for the first time last summer and fell in love with it. Absolutely wonderful, gorgeous city!

~Cathy :)
 
>Hallo Carola,
>wie kannst du deine Muttersprache verlernen? Auch wenn ich 20
>Jahre in Amerika leben wuerde, deutsch ist und bleibt meine
>Muttersprache! Du hast doch noch eine Mutter die in
>Deutschland lebt?
>Mein Sohn (18) will kein deutsch sprechen, aber er kann
>deutsch wenn er will! Meine Tochter (21) spricht fluent
>Deutsch und Englisch! Da mein Mann ja in der Army ist, bin ich
>auch nur unter Amerikanern aber spreche noch wie zuvor
>Deutsch! Mach mir keine Angst das ich mein Deutsch in ein paar
>Jahre verliere!
>Ich lese auch taeglich die deutsche Zeitung im Internet!
>
>
>Viele Gruesse
>Belinda

Belinda,

I have no idea! It just is harder for me now to express myself in German. Even when I talk to my parents, I sometimes can't remember the German word/expression for something. My Mom and some of my German friends say that I even have an American accent when I speak German now, how weird is that???

Some of my clients are German and I have the hardest time to explain real estate terms to them in German. Must be progressing age :)

My DH asks me to check on his grammar and spelling - and he is American!!!

I have been living in the US for 11 years now and I haven't been back to Germany in 10 years.
I do read German on the Internet frequently, but I just don't speak much German anymore.

My Mom is really upset about this, she thinks I am too americanized and I am forgetting my heritage.


But then again most people here don't guess that I am from Germany either, I mostly get British, Irish or Scandinavian.
It maybe because I was exposed to English at a young age, my best friend in elementary school was a girl from the UK, and she didn't speak a word German when I met her. My Mom was talking Swedish all the time when I was a child and living in Munich, I had to constantly switch from High German to Bavarian dialect (and I think you can count Bavarian dialect as a language :) ) to Swedish to English.

I just think you forget, if you don't practise, it happened to me with French, I was fluent in my late teens and early twenties, now - let's not even talk about this :+

Part of me feels bad about not keeping my heritage alive, BUT, I really love America and the people here (well, most of them :) ). I call America home, I am just waiting for the INS to finally approve my American citizenship. There is no way I would EVER go back to Germany.

Carola
 
how can you forget your native language? Even If I live 20 years in America, and my native language remains German! Nevertheless you have another mother who still live in Germany?

My son (18) does not want to speak German, but he can speak German if he wants! My daughter (21) speaks fluent German and English! Since my man is in the Army, I am also only among Americans however speak like still before German! I fear I might lose my German in a few years !????
I also read the daily German newspaper in the InterNet!

Belinda, Wie tat ich?

:)
 
Hey Bill,
That was great! Just one thing: she said, "Don't scare me that I'll lose my German in a few years!"

It's cool that we have so many folks here who speak German, including Cathe.

Tschuess!
~Cathy :)
 
Kathryn,
I just saw the most interesting interview the other day on a Spanish language station. A Mexican talk show host was interviewing Sophia Loren in Spanish while Sophia was answering in Italian. It took a few minutes for me to realize I understood most of what Sophia was saying. I was tripping out! I grew up speaking spanish so I understood the talk show host perfectly....however, I thought that Loren's responses were odd and couldn't put my finger on it. It also took a while before I realized it was Sophia Loren. I guess Spanish and Italian are closer than I thought.

dmd :)
 
DMD,
That's true...When I was in HS & college, I worked for an Italian couple at their bakery, and the owners were always able to converse with our Spanish-speaking customers. I wish I had learned Spanish, too, growing up.

~Cathy :)

>Kathryn,
>I just saw the most interesting interview the other day on a
>Spanish language station. A Mexican talk show host was
>interviewing Sophia Loren in Spanish while Sophia was
>answering in Italian. It took a few minutes for me to realize
>I understood most of what Sophia was saying. I was tripping
>out! I grew up speaking spanish so I understood the talk show
>host perfectly....however, I thought that Loren's responses
>were odd and couldn't put my finger on it. It also took a
>while before I realized it was Sophia Loren. I guess Spanish
>and Italian are closer than I thought.
>
> dmd :)
 
Hi there,

I grew up speaking Portuguese, so I can also understand, but not really speak, Spanish. I speak a little French left over from 4 years in high school. Right now in my spare time (I just had a baby, what spare time?!?!?!?!) I'm trying to learn Mandarin




cristina
 
I am fluent in English and Spanish, having lived in Costa Rica for one year and Argentina for 7. My kids grew up in both countries and are bilingual. Rosetta Stone is one piece of software that I recommend, but am not familiar with everything else that is out there.
 
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