How many languages do you speak?

singleagain

Sun, Jun 28 2020, 8:14 pm

shaqued_almond wrote:

practice makes perfect. Smile

Yes, but the way ppl make fun of non native speakers, combined with my anxiety... It's way too scary to contemplate. So I just listen to my mom talk Hebrew/ watch Hebrew tv clips and asks her questions.

amother

Ruby

Sun, Jun 28 2020, 8:42 pm

Chickensoupprof wrote:

Dutch (native) English (kinda fluent) German (it's ok) Lubavitch Yiddish (good enough) I forgot all the French... Don't speak Ivrit, however every Israeli is always assuming that I speak it... In Chassidic neighborhoods they immediately start of in Yiddish with me even though I wear a fall... I can order things in yiddish though

Lubavitch Yiddish- is that like Likkutei Sichos Yiddish?

amother

Sun, Jun 28 2020, 8:54 pm

amother [ Lime ] wrote:

Hey OP, are you a fellow Montrealer? You're proficient in the same 4 languages as many of us. English, French, Yiddish and Hebrew.

Yup!

amother

Chartreuse

Sun, Jun 28 2020, 8:56 pm

English
Hebrew- not fluent-I cannot read a newspaper with no nikudot, but I can navigate directions, order food, and watch srugim without subtitles.
Spanish-just enough to converse with my patients-I know food, body parts, family members and other basic things. I am less successful with my cleaning lady but I think she doesn't want to understand me.

I do not speak or understand a word of Yiddish. I speak/understanding about 20 words in German-mostly random nouns /food. My grandparents were Yekke and firmly felt that we are in America and we speak English.

Saralle

Sun, Jun 28 2020, 9:22 pm

Yiddish and English
Hebrew I can read because I can do that at my own pace. I can understand American's speak Hebrew, and I can even understand my Hungarian grandmother speak Hebrew, but I get lost when Israelis speak Hebrew.

watergirl

Sun, Jun 28 2020, 9:24 pm

singleagain wrote:

I'm jealous. I only speak English. I can understand some Hebrew. But not when it's too fast or too technical. And I'm way to embarrassed to speak it.

Yup. Me too. I can understand spoken hebrew very very well but I cant speak it. Also some ASL.

amother

Apricot

Sun, Jun 28 2020, 10:42 pm

Hey OP, are you a fellow Montrealer? You're proficient in the same 4 languages as many of us. English, French, Yiddish and Hebrew.

Yup! Hi[quote]
Bonsoir Montreal fellow Montrealer here
German, Swiss German, French, English, some Yiddiah. Some Italian

amother

Jetblack

Sun, Jun 28 2020, 11:40 pm

Spanish - Mom's side
Austrian German - Dad's side
German
English
Hebrew
Russian
Took Chinese in college
Tiny bit of French and Armenian

mazal555

Sun, Jun 28 2020, 11:44 pm

Fluent Hebrew English
Used to speak but very rusty Spanish, French
Somewhat proficient Ladino
Read Portuguese
A Little Arabic (Egyptian Arabic, Libyan, and some Darija (Moroccan))

I feel like I can understand some Yiddish though because it sounds a lot like English to me. And Italian because it's close to Spanish and Ladino. But maybe because I speak/spoke more than one romance language so that helps?

I'd really like to improve my Arabic and learn Turkish and Farsi

Blessing1

Sun, Jun 28 2020, 11:50 pm

Yiddish and English.
I understand a little Hungarian because my grandmothers from my mom's and dad's side still talk Hungarian to their kids.

Zehava

Mon, Jun 29 2020, 12:02 am

amother [ Black ] wrote:

I think antwepians speak the most languages. We graduate school speaking 5 languages

1. Flemish / dutch
2. French
3 .english
4 . Hebrew
5. Yidish
I also learned Spanish in school but only remember a bit as I never really used it
And years ago they also taught German

Girls maybe. But not even. Most Antwerp women I know don’t speak a word of French not much Hebrew.

Zehava

Mon, Jun 29 2020, 12:05 am

Yiddish English Hebrew
Understand Dutch and German pretty well
A smattering of words in Spanish, russian, Arabic, Thai... probably some more that I forgot

mommy3b2c

Mon, Jun 29 2020, 12:30 am

penguin wrote:

Q. What do you call a person who speaks three languages?
A. Trilingual. (Or polyglot)

Q. What do you call a person who speaks two languages?
A. Bilingual.

Q. What do you call a person who speaks one language?
A. British.(Or American… depends where the joke is being told.)

That’s me. I only speak English.

saltandvinegar

Mon, Jun 29 2020, 1:27 am

english and hebrew. Speak to hubby and in laws in hebrew, and english to my parents Smile

Wish I could speak arabic or italian! Sounds so cool to my ears

amother

Dodgerblue

Mon, Jun 29 2020, 3:06 am

I'm fluent in english Italian and hebrew. I know quite a few words in Yiddish and my friend speaks to her kids French so I've picked up alot on that also.

Scotty

Mon, Jun 29 2020, 3:10 am

Whoa I’m so jealous!

English (fluent)
Hebrew (can understand 75%, can speak fluent accent but limping vocabulary - but I don’t mind being corrected and if I’m lucky enough to be in Israel for over a week I start thinking in Hebrew, but I haven’t been for well over a decade so...)
Yiddish - can only understand my grandparents, and then never the punchline only the lead-up. And anything that’s not Galician (hello yekkishe accent) throws me off.

Other languages - just the accents. Somehow that comes first. A smattering of Spanish and Russian, some conceptual understanding of patterning in other languages.

I dream of speaking many, though evidently not passionately enough to keep at it until I do.

amother

Mon, Jun 29 2020, 3:26 am

My mom speaks 7!! languages fluently.
Hebrew, English, Yiddish, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Flemish.
She lived around the world while growing up, and she has a knack for languages.