What languages do you all know?

[Mr. Tee]

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Thai and Spanish. But according to the MCAT verbal, I don't know English 😛

 

[hardy]

That's wrong. "Hochdeutsch" is the standardized version of German that speakers of all dialects can understand. Because "hoch" means high, this is a common confusion. The term in English "High German" refers to German spoken in the Alpine regions i.e. Austria, Lichtenstein, Switzerland, Southern Germany. In contrast, Low German is the dialect spoken in Northern Germany and the eastern part of the Netherlands.

I guess we are both right:
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=high+german&db=*

However, in common usage I have never heard anybody use high German in order to refer to anything but standard German.

 

[PlasticMan]

wow, there are so many talented people in this thread. how do you learn a language past childhood?

Take classes in it, use it as much as possible day to day when u run into people such as friends speaking the language (for spanish, this is quite easy to do in the U.S.), after you have a grip on the basics and can understand a little bit go spend some time in a country using that language (this part helps greatly).

Oh yeah, as for myself: English, Spanish and starting to learn a little Ilonggo(a dialect of Visayan) and Tagalog.

 

[tomorrowgirl99]

english and yoruba

 

[Tiagao]

Spanish and Portuguese

 

[annamoo]

I have never looked in a book to see what people who write dictionaries call what, all I know is that people in the Austrian Alpine province of Tirol where I live (and all over Austria and Switzerland, from the friends I have living here who are from all over) that High German in English and Hochdeutsch in German are taken to mean the same thing: standard WRITTEN German that everyone understands, and the highest "Queen's English" of SPOKEN German that is really only spoken in Hannover, which none of them speak, but can all read (but can't really write well unless they went to university), and dialect, which is everything else, although there are different ones.

The dialects are called by their provinces, and within the provinces there are valleys, and within the valleys people from different villages can sometimes hardly understand each other, they have different words for stuff. So where I live, it might seem insane, but its true: Someone who lives an hour away form me cannot understand someone else from 20 minutes in the opposite direction, although they are all in the same province...its because of the mountains, people are isolated if they live far up, and can't get off their mountain for 5 months a year at least bc of the snow, unless they have a 4 wheel drive...

interesting stuff if you are a lover of languages, and fascinating when you learn the dialect where you live and hilarous when you understand the Austrians better than the German tourists on the ski bus!!

 

[tennisguy896]

English, Mandarin, Spanish

 

[SuziQ]

Some French and American Sign Language from high school, Spanish from college...hopefully one will come in handy someday even though I'm not fluent in any of them!

 

[UMP]

yeah, damn, I go to school in Chicago, and I swear I hear so much Polish wherever I go!

english, polish, german... want to stay in areas with lots of Poles so: Chicago, Detroit, Great Lakes states in general. Seems like there are a lot in upstate New York and PA. Also heard connecticut had plenty of us. So that narrows it down just a tad bit. Being near a large Polish community is essential to me.

 

[leesh]

English and Korean

 

[sga814]

Foul English, Russian, Spanish, German, and some Romanian profanity... oh yeah, and some Polish profanity (is useful in Chicago)

 

[beng]

English, Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Armenian, Hebrew, some Yiddish, French, and a word or two in Spanish... family loved to move when I was young

Let's trace..

English - I live in America
Russian - Father
Ukrainian - Mother and Grandparents
Bulgarian and Armenian - Living with aunts and uncles
Hebrew- Moved to Israel when I was 2
Yiddish - Grandma
French - School
Spanish - Barely a few words

 

[deleted50541]

Spanish and Japanese.

I've been really lazy though about keeping up my vocabulary. I have little trouble watching spanish language tv or reading medical journals in spanish, but often times I feel flustered when I try to speak it.

But if I had to, I could survive in a spanish country without using english.

Both my parents speak French and English fluently, having lived in French speaking countries. But I honestly have no idea what the hell they're talking about if they start up in French.

 

[oxeye]

Yeah, I'm obviously fluent in English. 😉

I could probably speak enough German to not feel completely lost if I ever visited Germany (4 years in HS but not even close to fluent or even competent, LOL). This will not be helpful in the area I live in.

I'm picking up quite a bit of "pelvic Spanish" as an MFM here calls it. I could ask Spanish-speaking pregnant patients if they are bleeding, leaking, or contracting and if they have any questions but I wouldn't understand their response. Again, this won't exactly be helpful!

I would like to learn some real Spanish at some point.

 

[snowkhat]

English, Spanish (a few words in Catalan, as well), Vietnamese (1 college course and month abroad), and a bit of French & Italian.

Vale, vale! Ben, ben! Da phai.

 

[Chronic Student]

Pretty good English

Medical Spanish (Just spent three months in the south of Texas, 50 ft. from the border).

I know enough Thai and French to get myself in trouble.

However, I am most fluent in BS!

-Mike

 

[kasha]

hebrew

 

[notdeadyet]

Irish (aka Gaelic), but only so-so...

 

[docknyn]

English

Swahili

French- un peu

Spanish (thank you california)

luhya (a bantu dialect)
👍 👍 👍 👍 👍

 

[butmylipshurtrealbad]

Flemish

Pretty good Spanish

learning a lot of ASL at my current job
🙂

My parents are fluent in Flemish/Dutch, German, and French.....they make me jealous...I really wish I could speak French

 

[91946]

English, Vietnamese

 

[chris03333]

Yes, my father is Hungarian. I only know a couple of words though. 🙁

Me too... 🙁

 

[Camel]

English and Arabic. I used to know Italian, but my parents let me forget it (and I've never forgiven them). I wanted to learn Hebrew and Spanish, but as I hit adolescence I realized that I am terrible at learning languages. Fin.

 

[QuacksterVu]

English, Vietnamese, Spanish and a little bit of American Sign Language, but that's getting rusty.

 

[naijaMD]

Ok, my turn.

Spanish and Igbo, my parents' native tongue. Nice to see some other Naija folks up here reppin' their languages! 👍

 

[lookslikerain]

I am so impressed by all the languages that SDNers speak! I love languages...I speak (in order of fluency) English, Spanish, Hindi, and I can read Arabic. I learned to speak Japanese when I lived in Japan a long time ago, but I've forgotten it all, unfortunately. 😳

 

[omgwtfbbq?]

ASL for me

I can also give some great insults in Latin... what good 2 years of that did me! ha!