What language and why?

Reading that I can hear you Alpin. In fact it’s easier to read that listen to. It amuses me when rbb put subtitles on interviews with southerners.

Listening to the French election results this morning I’m beginning to think my German might come in handy one day.

 plus not many people in France speak English.

Might be you? I’ve done a lot of time in France, quite often very rural or isolated (dossing down in someones spare room for a month) and almost everyone i dealt with had at least a little bit of English, probably ~50% were conversational plus, and that was 30 years ago. I learnt a bit of french while i was there and that (miraculously) unlocked the rest of their english language skills. Similar when racing in the Belgium and Holland etc.

and it isn’t helped by not really being taught English properly (what is a past participle?).

Same, I didn’t even get taught verbs/nouns/sentence structure properly. Had to teach myself once i got to Uni and was trying to work out how to work a computer properly.

I should really learn Swedish though, i’ve been here nearly 2 decades…

Doesn’t help that English is spoken fluently by 90% of the population (a lot speak English better than some of the actual English). Same as up there as well, many Swedes speak multiple languages as it’s a country with a lot of recent immigration. Have many colleagues and friends who speak 3 or 4 languages fluently and the same again at least to survival level.

I have some Italian from when I did an Erasmus exchange many years ago. I struggle to recall any of it nowadays, we went to Sardinia (Sardegna) on holiday a couple of years ago, I had come CDs in the car for several months before I went. I was ok but after a week of struggling, I was burnt out.

I also Have half descent spoken French, wife is French so we do speak in a mixed English/French language at home. I can’t read or write it though. I should do better.

I also Have half descent spoken French,

How’s your English?

How’s your English?

Seemingly on downward spiral

my wife did an intense year of chinese at uni before switching to french and german. We met in greece where she was living for a year learning the language and teaching at a uni, before she came away with me to Istanbul for a few months, where I was working. So she’s got a few to a middling level. Whereas I, in contrast, did russian and french to o’level (they were like harder gcses). I’ve zilcho russian left but I guess the cyrilic alphabet going in at formative age means I don’t find it hard to read greek words. I don’t know what many of them, mean mind you. My turkish was fast because it had to be for living there day to day, but very shallow as in I could read headlines and first lines maybe in the newspaper, but then got lost. It’s gone now bar phrases.

I’ve just about got some tourist Spanish, which given the number of times I’ve visited the place is embarrassing. French is what I’ve most of. I can manage day to day talking to people and read very slowly a newspaper article, and just about watch telly with french subtitles turned on (it’s a hard language to catch on the ear I think). But in spite of the fact my wife is far far better, when it comes to talking to the airbnb owners or whoever, I’d say I do more than half and am actually pretty good at picking up what’s going on, and then bludgeoning through with ungrammatical confidence. Same as in english really,  Wish I’d done german rather than russian, as I’d have had chance to use it and probably actually have a useful language.

French , there is a bakers in the village where I go snowboarding every year. The baker doesn’t speak any English and he seems like he might be an interesting guy to have a conversation with .

not many people in France speak English.

A couple of people saying this is not so, well, maybe not in general, all I can say is that in my experience (visiting Bretagne & Alsace) it is the case! Also had (bilingual 😉) French people telling me the same, and that they think it’s a French “thing” to not speak any other language, possibly out of some misplaced nationalist pride or something.

*Gallic shrug*

I’d like to be able to speak German as it was my mother’s first language, though she never taught us any when growing up unfortunately so I can’t even string a sentence together. I’d also like to be better at French, I can get by and my nephews are French so be good to be able to speak to them, though their English is also perfect.

My youngest nephew is also half Korean, English dad (my brother) and two half brothers who are the French ones above. He’s just had to spend a month in Korea with his mum and he’s now fluent (for his age) in three languages.

It’s amazing how much a young brain can just soak up languages.

Fast Show Greek, so I can sound more authentic ordering baclava and pastries in Crete this summer

Wish I could do more but am a typical Brit and know next to nothing, and it isn’t helped by not really being taught English properly (what is a past participle?).

That reminds me. I’ve told this tale before, but in French lessons the teacher often talked about things like the “pluperfect tense.” It confused the crap out of us. It was years after I’d left academia that it dawned on me, a) these were terms also applicable to English rather than exclusively a French thing like trying to remember the gender of a table, and b) he probably assumed that we knew these terms from English lessons and he believed he was being helpful rather than giving us yet more stuff to learn. Plot twist: our English teacher for one year was his wife.

I find that quite often as well. English is pretty much a generic European language now. And most Europeans speak far better English than English people can speak their language!

One thing I’ve noticed in recent times is a marked uptick in Asian families using English as a first language. Back when I was at school the kids of Pakistani migrant descent would exclusively talk in Urdu(I think?) when conversing between themselves.  Today it’s far less common, I’ll see families in supermarkets all chatting away in English.

I don’t quite know what to think about that. On the one hand it’s great that they’re getting fluent in the language of the country where they live and it’s inclusive rather than exclusive, on the other is it cultural erosion? I assume that most if not all are at least bilingual?

I assume that most if not all are at least bilingual?

I theory, probably. My wife is bilingual in English and Scottish Gaelic but a conversation with her brother (and her mother before she died) would see her listening in Gaelic and speaking in English. Her brother and mother would both speak in English if I was there though.

… thinking about it a bit more,

Talking in their ‘home’ tongue seems to be the near-exclusive domain of middle-aged and older males.  Very common with taxi drivers.  I used to hear the couple rowing* next door, he’d shout at her in a language I couldn’t understand and she’d scream back at him in English.  The yoots all talk in English.

(* – arguing, that is, they didn’t have a canoe that I was aware of)

Spanish I think.

My French is OK (ish) I can have a convo about basic stuff (slowly) I can read pretty well, and I can write pretty well – just had an email back and forth with a woman from Vinci (the toll road operators) about a refund, and I’m pretty sure I’m getting some money back. If I get a small statue of the Eiffel tower and instructions for making custard in the post, I might have to reappraise…

I dunno if I could converse with her about it at a speed I’d be happy with.

@SaxonRider No, by all means be that guy. I keep being reminded by Duolingo that Finland is not part of Scandinavia, but it is easier for me to include them in the example because of the superficial similarity. I’m nearly at the end of the course and it is still a difficult language. At least with Swedish I can talk that daily at work and even have a practice with Norwegian if I feel like visiting friends around the corner. Finnish? Nope. No one nearby.

Context is everything I find. If I’m in a restaurant and they ask me what I want to drink I’ve already constructed my answers in French in my head. But if he or she asked me about what tyre pressure I ran I’d be stumped.

rowing* (* – arguing, that is, they didn’t have a canoe that I was aware of)

That would paddling if they were canoeing I believe.

 I keep being reminded by Duolingo

I’m confused with Duolingo. Both my wife and I have been using it on and off, and she’s on a ‘more a year daily streak’ and yet she doesn’t fell like she’s actually improved or that it would help her to speak or write, and TBH I feel the same. I can’t help thinking that’s its an elaborate user generated avant-garde Art Project run by a scheming art school undergrad.

 I used to hear the couple rowing* next door, he’d shout at her in a language I couldn’t understand and she’d scream back at him in English.

When we moved into our house, Mr Hussain next door always used Urdu to tell his eldest off.

Sixteen years later, his youngest gets all her bollockings in English.