I took three years of French in high school. I also know a few works of Spanish from watching Sesame Street as a kid, taking a summer school Spanish class when I was going into 2nd grade, and the required term of 7th grade Spanish. I understand a bit of German, but my spoken German is horrible. And besides "babushka" and "deduska", I know a few Russian words, most of them obscene. I can recognize Greek letters. I know some Italian, mostly musical terminology. And I read read music pretty well.
Yes...si...da...oui..es-yah..... some kids and I had a crazy language that was so good, we had to re-invent it each time we used it. yellfess...ja...sim
Yes, it's a very useful skill. What really bothers me, however, are people who claim to know Spanish, for example, but when you talk to them they speak extremely poorly. Just because you can ask where the bathroom is doesn't mean you know the language.
I wish there had been a choice for SORT OF. In high school, I took three years of French. I was always a straight A student, and I did get A's in my French class, but it seems as though learning a foreign language is my brain's Achille's Heel. I can speak just enough Francais, Espanol and Deutche to [barely!] get by, and a rudimentary knowledge of other languages is useful when reading, but all of those verb conjugations and crap never fail to elude me.
My french is reasonably good, I speak a little spanish too. I also make the effort to learn the basics when I visit any new country as I think it's ignorant not to
American English and some German. I suppose over the years I would have been fluent, but when you have no one to speak the language with, then you forget a lot.
When I was an electrician at an automaker, I had a black supervisor who could speak the language. Often, he would hear me say, "Gutes Essen, lange Schlafen und kein Arbeiten." (Good food, a long nap and no work.) -OR- "Ich bin langsam aber sicher." (I am slow but sure.) We got along great as he had impeccable people skills and a kind heart.
Danke mein Freund hoffe ich einen guten Tag haben wird.
I dab into Russian,Portuguese,Albanian,S... and Italian too.
I can do this in Spanish, some German, and a little Italian too... : )
blessings to all
and may all be well with you ^_^
yellfess...ja...sim
When I was an electrician at an automaker, I had a black supervisor who could speak the language. Often, he would hear me say, "Gutes Essen, lange Schlafen und kein Arbeiten." (Good food, a long nap and no work.) -OR- "Ich bin langsam aber sicher." (I am slow but sure.) We got along great as he had impeccable people skills and a kind heart.