Languages spoken by forum members

[GWRjake]

Thought it might be interesting to see where this goes. Not necessarily fluent by any means but a decent grasp. I'll start us off with German.

 

[GaryMcEwan]

I did Dutch during High School and actually stuck with it so I can almost speak fluently in 'Nederlandse'.

 

[RichmondCommu]

Since discovering that I had a half German / half English son some years a go my German has come on leaps and bounds! Before that I had a grasp of the German language but little more than that. I can also speak and understand French to a limited degree i.e. holiday stuff.

 

[headshot119]

I can speak Welsh in conversation, not great at writing it though.

 

[GrimsbyPacer]

I know quite alot of Greek due to family ties. A Greek sister inlaw, and Greek-Sudanese mother inlaw and their relations.
I also understand and can speak the Scots language fully.
I am currently trying to learn Klingon, which is very hard.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I can get by in French when I'm over in Paris, but I'm not fluent in it by any means.

 

[DarloRich]

i barely speak English..............

 

[Henbury Loop]

I can speak reasonably fluent Hungarian.

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

I can do a little in French and German, for travelling around and food/drink.

I should have liked to have done more with languages, but when I was at school we only did French. It's ok in the classroom, but when you speak it over there and they reply, it's usually so fast that one can't follow it.

We also were taught about odd tenses, PluPerfect, past participle, etc in French, but had little idea of how to understand it as we did not do that in our English lessons.

Any German I do speak/know is self taught and in someways I find that easier than French.

If at least you show willing by starting off a conversation/question in the local language, the local people appreciate it I think, before often replying in perfect English.

 

[Springs Branch]

My wife is Italian and I worked for some years in northern Italy, so I'm pretty good in that language, written & spoken.

I also work for a multinational company based in Germany and travel to HQ there regularly, so have basic travel & business German, but not fluent.

 

[atillathehunn]

English from English parents and schooling, Dutch from living in the Netherlands. Swahili from living in Kenya.
French from school.
Arabic some fluency from living in the Middle East.

 

[northwichcat]

I learnt French up to GCSE standard at school. I've also learnt some Spanish, a bit of Italian and a few words/phrases in German and Portuguese. I can also recognise the few words in Gaelic which can be frequently seen in Ireland like An Lár on road signs and the front of buses, meaning city centre.

 

[eastwestdivide]

Passing knowledge of Estuary, and can understand various varieties of Yorkshire (usually), although I occasionally have communications problems with the other half.
Joking aside, French/Italian/German pretty well, and from them, I can recognise maybe 75% of written Dutch and Spanish. I've twice been asked by Germans if I was Dutch or English, so my accent must put them off the scent!
Plus, every single time I go abroad, I'm asked for directions by some random stranger. I must look like I know what I'm doing (clever trick if you can manage it). Even funnier, a couple of times I actually knew where the random stranger wanted to go!

 

[northwichcat]

Plus, every single time I go abroad, I'm asked for directions by some random stranger. I must look like I know what I'm doing (clever trick if you can manage it).

That's happened to me in some European countries but not in places where locals have much darker skin than British people e.g. it's happened in Berlin and Paris but not in Rome or Lisbon.

 

[flymo]

English and Geordie of course Learned French (hated it) and German (loved it) at school and used German more than French since then (35 years ago..... hock: ). Now living in Asia so picked up a bit of functional Cantonese in the last 22 years (reading, writing and speaking Chinese), married to a Filipina for 20 years so a smattering of naughty words in Tagalog. A few words of other Asian languages but nothing worth speaking of if you pardon the pun.

 

[EssexGonzo]

Fluent in French and Italian (as is my wife who lived in both places) although Italians know I'm English before I open my mouth apparently. The men think my wife's from Naples from her accent and true to the stereotype ask her on a regular basis why she doesn't ditch the Inglese for a proper Italian man.

And I can make myself understood in "Northern" due to my wife's family being from Bolton and my own family living in Leeds.

 

[DarloRich]

English and Geordie of course Learned French (hated it) and German (loved it) at school and used German more than French since then (35 years ago..... hock: ). Now living in Asia so picked up a bit of functional Cantonese in the last 22 years (reading, writing and speaking Chinese), married to a Filipina for 20 years so a smattering of naughty words in Tagalog. A few words of other Asian languages but nothing worth speaking of if you pardon the pun.

i was unaware one was allowed to include Geordie. In that case i can claim English, Geordie, Makem and Smoggie

"I'm propa radgie. Some gadgie dunched me motor so I stotted a brick at his"

How, man, divvin' twock me kets!

"I'm gannin' on the hoy in the Toon the neet like man, ganna get maaahrtal

"Dee as a ya telt, man, and gerrup the dancers."

and my favorite of all time: "howay, man, woman, man!"

 

[HMS Ark Royal]

I speak English, French, German, Korean, Russian, Japanese, Lithuanian, Polish, Arabic, American and Klingon

 

[alex17595]

Hault auf Verlangen is about as far as it gets for me

 

[Crossover]

English, Yorkshire and sarcasm

I studied French for 5 years at school and hardly used it, and studied German for a year and have used it far more. I can understand and speak odd bits of French and German, and also know odd words of Welsh

 

[WestCoast]

Always liked languages really.

I'm fluentish in German, it's a secondary part of my degree and I lived in Munich last year - I also understand Bavarian now . They often think I'm a native until the second or third sentence when they notice I've used the wrong gender for a noun or something...:roll:

I can understand quite a bit of Dutch (I mainly deduce it from English and German) and can speak on a very basic level. I used to study French, so I can get by in that too. My parents live in Spain, I can ask for things at the market but not much else...

Czech is probably the most obscure one, I worked in Prague for a few weeks and picked up the (very) basics. Odd words in Welsh and Irish from trips there.

Even more exotically, I'm a native Lancashire speaker and competent in Brummie and Glaswegian...

 

[Liam]

I speak English, a little German and I'm learning Spanish at the moment.

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

I understand of course Geordie, but what part are Makem and Smoggie from?

I did hear that people in the North of England and Scotland can learn to speak the Nordic, Dutch & German languages quite easily.

 

[richw]

English, basic German, basic Spanish.

I thought I knew French, I ordered a meal in what I thought was perfect French whilst staying in Vendee, until my wife said she was impressed with my near perfect Spanish although reminding me I was in France.

 

[krus_aragon]

Fluent in Welsh and English. French learnt to GCSE grade, kept up-to-date with serving tourists at work and reading the occasional newspaper. Some words of Greek, Latin and Irish, and more than I'd expect of Cornish (being closely related to Welsh).

My Father-in-law is proud to state that he's fluent in three languages: English, Rubbish and Gibberish!

 

[maniacmartin]

Basic German from school that I'm forgetting over time.

Working at an company headquarted in USA, I notice my English is drifting towards U.S. English too

 

[fowler9]

Spanish I can hold a conversation in but I'm not fluent. French I can get by pretty well in. Polish, Czech, German and Italian I can get by with the basics. Also recently managed to learn enough Estonian to be polite which I was proud of. My Polish is improving the most at the moment. I love languages. Wish I had studied them at Uni instead of engineering.

 

[ainsworth74]

I understand of course Geordie, but what part are Makem and Smoggie from?

Sunderland and Middlesbrough respectively.

 

[CC 72100]

Fluent French, very high level Spanish and intermediate Portuguese here.

Could probably read and get the gist of a fair bit of Italian as a result; my Italian attempts at telling an elderly couple that their train was broken did the trick a few weeks back, even if it wasn't quite accurate (I do not know how to explain a Track Circuit Failure in Italian!)

 

[Groningen]

Dutch, German and English; and more i do not need.