Languages spoken by forum members

[martinsh]

And thanks for reminding me, my stock of Latvian ale is running low.

Can you recommend a source ? Can only find it in the odd Eastern European shop

 

[Donny Dave]

Eastern European shops are likely to be your best bet I'm afraid. It all depends on where you live though as to how many you find and what beer and ales they have in stock.

I'm very lucky in that respect as the part of Scunthorpe I live in has a lot of migrants from Eastern Europe, so there's a fair few shops that have opened to cater for them.

 

[Spamcan81]

Can speak both French and German. Not fluent in either but can handle everyday situations reasonably comfortably and can more than hold my own if the conversation turns to railways.
Trips to Cuba, Poland and China taught me how to order beer in those languages.

 

[leightonbd]

I can speak reasonably fluent Hungarian.

Nagyon jol. En is. Budapesten laktom, 1990-tol 1992-ig.


(Trawled all back through the thread thinking: no one will have put Hungarian. But good to see. Apologies for lack of accents above. May I ask where your Hungarian came from? Mine is 'robust' rather than fluent).

 

[Class172]

Ne. Mans "partneris" ir Amerikaniete. Bet tetim bija Latvietis. Esmu dzimis un pieaugijis Anglijā un pirma braukŝana uz Latviju man nesaprot neviena varda Latviski.

Man ļoti patik trolejbusi un Latvieŝu alu un edieni.

Disregarding the obvious 'country' cues, I surprised myself then by managing to understand most of that, despite having never studied any language like it.

Other than English, my main knowledge is in French, which I did to A* at GCSE, so is still useful. I also have studied Spanish to a lesser extent and Latin, which I have found very useful for other languages due to its far reaching influence; I can understand a fair bit of Romainian (reading only) because of this.

Through trips to Wales, especially to strong Welsh-speaking areas such Ceredigion and Gwynedd, I have picked up various words. I decided this year how to attempt to learn how to pronounce the darn words correctly; it then becomes rather amusing when you hear people failing to pronounce names!

 

[coupwotcoup]

French - just enough to get by on trains and in shops/bars.
Spanish - not too bad but get completely frustrated when they start speaking in mixed tongues, ie Catala and Castellano.
(PS, I only go to NE Spain)

 

[HowardGWR]

I've recently started to read in German. As I am fluent in Dutch (although I am English and only had French O level, I lived in Amsterdam and environs for 15 years), I naturally had a key to some similar vocabulary and idioms, often spelt differently (although watch out for homonyms!). I decide to do what I did when I originally learned Dutch. I began with newspapers (now online of course). It's best to start with a tabloid, to start to get a hang of idiom and simple vocabulary. Then, progress to broadsheet and then to technical articles, in our case rail magazine articles, of course. You still won't be able to converse and neither will you be able to understand the spoken word, but you will be able to get this passive ability to understand notices and so on when travelling. I can now read German newspapers fairly successfully, occasionally pressing the translate button. For instance the Berlin Tagespiegel (Daily Mirror) has most interesting articles about Berlin's history and lots about rail and tram developments there. Berlin is a hive of development since reunification.

Hope that is useful advice.

 

[GaryMcEwan]

I've recently started to read in German. As I am fluent in Dutch (although I am English and only had French O level, I lived in Amsterdam and environs for 15 years), I naturally had a key to some similar vocabulary and idioms, often spelt differently (although watch out for homonyms!). I decide to do what I did when I originally learned Dutch. I began with newspapers (now online of course). It's best to start with a tabloid, to start to get a hang of idiom and simple vocabulary. Then, progress to broadsheet and then to technical articles, in our case rail magazine articles, of course. You still won't be able to converse and neither will you be able to understand the spoken word, but you will be able to get this passive ability to understand notices and so on when travelling. I can now read German newspapers fairly successfully, occasionally pressing the translate button. For instance the Berlin Tagespiegel (Daily Mirror) has most interesting articles about Berlin's history and lots about rail and tram developments there. Berlin is a hive of development since reunification.

Hope that is useful advice.

Ik heb van Nederlandse op middelbare school voor 4 jaar en geplakt met het. Vaker wel dan niet, gewoon mijn woordenschat om vers te houden kijken ik vaak RTL Nieuws en het NOS Journaal.

 

[coupwotcoup]

Ik heb van Nederlandse op middelbare school voor 4 jaar en geplakt met het. Vaker wel dan niet, gewoon mijn woordenschat om vers te houden kijken ik vaak RTL Nieuws en het NOS Journaal.

That's easy enough for you to say......