Foreign languages (sign or oral)

[fulminty]

Understandable that you find Catalan challenging, since it's a hybrid of Spanish and French. Still, props to you for actually learning such a language. How did you manage it in such a short time?


Ah, takes me back to when I tried learning Cantonese and Japanese when I previously lived in Hong Kong, but fell short too. They're both tonal languages which definitely are not my suit.

So, in order to compensate more for your difficulty with phonics, you relied on sight-reading and writing. If I too have the same difficulty in listening and speaking, would you suggest that I do the same with French, as it's a Romance language?

My alma mater offered a condensed/accelerated year of Catalan for people with several years of study with another Romance language. The lecturer was a native speaker from Barcelona, and the class was taught almost exclusively in Catalan (the less effective "Lets talk about the names of colors in Spanish" approach). I didn't take the whole year simply because my schedule didn't leave room for it 2nd semester. The only particular difficulties I remember are that Catalan had a touch of French's penchant for unpredictable silent letters, and accent marks that went both directions (ouverta i tancada) over vowels except A (à only).

 

[fulminty]

I've always had an interest in word origins, so this was a strategy that played on a strength. But doubtless, cognates make things a bit easier for language learners, and knowing how filial languages changed from ancestral roots (like Romance languages/Latin) can help a Spanish speaker wring some meaning from French. As it is, I've got a few Harry Potters in French, and I've made modest headway whenever I leaf through those copies.

 

[RisinDragon]

In Middle School I took Spanish. I got an A+ for Spanish, but was a downfall for me English I got an F in. hahaha

Mother - 'How can you fail English!'
Me - 'Spanish, you are actually learning how to speak it, unlike ENGLISH. English you got writing, reading, spelling, paragraph structures, etc etc. Nothing like learning a FOREIGN LANGUAGE!!'

Yeah mother wasn't happy. But I actually liked Spanish, it was fun.

When I was even younger, 4years old or so. I used to go to a speech therapist 5 days a week. On top of teaching me how to speak English, she was also teaching me French. Used to go to my grandmother and speak French and she loved it. My mother hated it, thinks I'll struggle with English too much to be able to learn another language. Wish she'd leave it alone.

To bad I don't remember either languages. I hardly ever used it.

 

[Lukin]

Lukin, if you do indeed speak Czech and not just write it, props to you for taking on what you call a challenge of a language. How did your experiences in Spanish, German or Chinese classes go? German and Chinese are known for being tonal languages and they can be especially difficult for us who aren't naturally acquainted with phonics, or even in general.

Your fancy way, hmm... I'm guessing it seems intensive. Does it involve lot of reading and trying to sound out every word until you get it right?

Nah, thank god i dont speak Czech lol. It can be weird because some words are said without a vowel.

Spanish was good. Pretty easier to talk in than English in my opinion. German also easy- I have the perfect European voice for 'R' letter, been like that since when I was kid.

Chinese writing class was interesting. Wish i could be more fluent in though, and its easier to remember via read than write.

 

[Lukin]

Have you seen how many foreign languages that have influenced English today?

Could be an analogue of how Proto-Indo-European languages influenced each other and Sanskrit is one of them.

I'm aware of Indo-European languages, yeah. In fact I'm reading Indo-European as Mythology and Science by Stefan Arvidsson right now

Hmm, the wiki didn't mention Czech influences of English language heh. They are robot, golem, pistol (yup- Czech invented the early version of gun), etc.

The link didn't mention the origin, but thought I'd throw that down. English is originally a West Germanic language.

 

[Lukin]

The link didn't mention the origin, but thought I'd throw that down. English is originally a West Germanic language.

I thought of this hilarious map from Anglophobic website.

 

[ecp]

Hi all,

I am curious as to whether any of you, signers or oralists, know any other language besides your native language? If so, what are your reasons for learning it? Is it because of the changing economies in today's world, or an appreciation for languages? For example if you only know ASL and you want to go to France, where people use the French Sign Language (LFS).

For oralists especially as I am one myself, do you feel you have benefitted from speaking a foreign language (not only written), or do you often have difficulties in particular because of your deafness and, if at any at all, limited speech ability?

Personally I am one to enjoy languages and wanting to learn more French as I have been entertaining the possibility of living in France someday. I appreciate any perspectives on this matter about languages.

Aside from ASL, I know Latin and Ancient Greek (as in I can read and write in both languages).
I took classes in Italian (my Latin teacher from HS taught it) and Gaelic (my family is Irish) and achieved basic conversational competency in each.

Back when I was little and had much more hearing my parents were so happy that I was learning ASL. They didn't know I would have genetic recessive progressive hearing loss but they encouraged me to play with English, ASL, and any other language I encountered.

I can understand some Spanish and French (like every 8 words) just based on spoken words. If I'm forced to read a foregin Romance language I can do pretty well.
I can speak about 5 words of Spanish and like 3 of French.
Im sure my English pronunciation isn't much better than my Spanish or French...