What Language

[THE PILGRIM]

Just a quick reminder, you want to learn to speak some language that somebody else speaks.
Otherwise you'll be like The guy who has the only walkie-talkie in the world.

 

[eveled]

I had a Grandfather that came over from Germany in the 1740s and it is written in our family history that after he got her he wouldn't speak German anymore. He said he wasn't in Germany anymore and wasn't going to speak the language. It makes sense to me. Larry

My Grandmother said the same thing, and gets mad at others who don't speak english. The older immigrants are different than the ones today.

 

[zzzippper]

Spanish. Not because of everything being in Spanish today but because knowing Spanish you can get around in S. America, Brazil, Italy, Romania, Moldova, Portugal, and to some extent French. All are based on Latin and knowing one will get you by in any of those countries.

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Brazil? That's Portugese dude.

 

[zzzippper]

Just a quick reminder, you want to learn to speak some language that somebody else speaks.
Otherwise you'll be like The guy who has the only walkie-talkie in the world.

Maybe. But I still think it would be cool to know Latin. Of all though I'd like to know my wife's language, tagalog.

 

[kozmic]

Yiddish of course.

 

[Trooperdan]

Most of us already know a lot of Yiddish words and don't even realize it!

 

[Cyrano]

My Grandmother said the same thing, and gets mad at others who don't speak english. The older immigrants are different than the ones today.

My grandfather was from what is now Macedonia, in the Balkans, his native language was Serbo-Croat. He spoke English at home in New York. Often the kids (my mother, and uncles) would ask him what 's the word for this or that. Sometime he'd tell them, sometimes he'd say: "You don't want to know. You don't understand how well of you have it here". My mother repeated this story to me several times.

 

[Lil' LadySmith]

American Sign Language, everybody else should be able to speak english. Plus I think it would come in handy if my kids knew it too.

I'd love to relearn ASL! I use to be fluent as a kid/teenager and it came in quite handy. Unfortunately after moving away from my mom I ended up with no one to sign to on a regular basis and forgot a lot.

We would use it when we wanted a private conversation in a full room or when the surroundings weren't good for vocals (noisy, lots of conversations, etc.). Was a lot of fun and kept me current. She use to work at a deaf school and since I knew the language I would help her out with things after I graduated high school. I was generally the only one who could actually "talk" to deaf customers in my early jobs which they greatly appreciated.

Now I wish I could relearn it and have some co-workers learn it too. Be a lot easier to communicate in a noisy shop!

 

[Old TexMex]

Mandarin......

 

[Smoke]

I used to work with a group of Deaf guys and I got very fluent in ASL but I left that job and I lost it. I'd like to learn it again

 

[Kinman]

I took a couple years of German in high school and it helped when I got stationed over there years later...very few Germans speak academic German or Hoch Deutsch which is what they teach you in school...you are far better off with any language learning it by immersion...sink or swim.
With the local changing demographics if I had to do it over again I would like to have learned Spanish...its a beautiful language and not as complicated as English without all the different meanings for one word...like the English word "see".
I got a great deal on Rosetta Stone Spanish and did OK in the beginning and then got lost due to problems with Window's 8 and the online classes...it was just a pipe dream anyway.
I envy people with a second language and am always astounded to hear someone start rattling away in either their Mother tongue or a language they learned to speak as a second language.
I've learned enough to stay out of trouble and how to ask for the caboon and dos cerversas por favor.
My father in law learned Japanese from his Japanese girlfriend....later when he was trying to impress his Japanese friends and bosses with his new found skills he remembered their quizzical looks and smirks off the side of their mouths...what he didn't know was that there is feminine Japanese and masculine Japanese...according to my father in law it is all in the inflection or how you emphasize what you are trying to say...not that all Japanese men try to sound like samurai warriors but thats kind of the drift...so here was my father in law a captain of an American President Lines container ship coming across like a nancy...there were quite a few laughs over the sake over that one.

 

[quneur]

The Hawai'ian language. If only to learn the history. Other language would be Mandarin (Cantonese maybe).

And for the nerd in me, Klingon; only because you can say that you learned it.

 

[Arik]

Brazil? That's Portugese dude.

Yes it is. I mentioned Portuguese as well. And it's Spanish like, to the point of a considerable degree of mutual interchangeability

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[islamoradamark]

always wanted to learn chinese so i could order in restaurant so i donnt have to say i want 69

 

[Arik]

always wanted to learn chinese so i could order in restaurant so i donnt have to say i want 69

If you want 69 you need to visit a different type of establishment [emoji41][emoji48]

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[Smoke]

This is a semi side note to this discussion but our daughter married into a Mexican family and became fluent in Spanish. She learned to speak, read and write Spanish to the point that she can pass for a native. She actually lived in Mexico for a few years and most of her friends down there didn't know she was an American.

So anyway she moved back to Co Springs and through her involvement with her children's education started interpreting for other Spanish speaking parents at the school.

She did this so frequently that the school created a position for her as a liaison between the Spanish speaking parents and the school.

While doing that job she made her self useful around the school and took on other tasks and learned other skills and got offered a position as a secretary. Long story short from there she has moved up to the position of executive secretary to the Principal with prospects for advancement into an administrative position in the district.

All without a high school diploma or any formal training as a secretary.

And she never would have got her foot in the door had she not been bi-lingual.

 

[Bkreutz]

I was a service manager at a dealership and one day one of my service advisers came into my office and said he had a problem. He had a customer that didn't speak English and since I knew some Vietnamese maybe I could help. I told him I'd be happy to but didn't think the phrase "Freeze or I'll blow your head off", or "How much for all night" would be appropriate. Those are the only two phrases a 19 year old needed in a combat zone. The look on his face was priceless.

 

[Nico Testosteros]

A English friend of my moms, Joan, married an American GI from the Rio Grande Valley. She moved over here from England before he got out of the Army and for some months lived with his mom, who only spoke Spanish. My moms friend picked it up. Many years later she was in line and ordering at Lubys when one of the serrvers muttered something about her in Spanish. That server was really surprised when Joan was able to tell the manager exactly what had been said.

I'd settle for being able to speak with an English accent again. I deliberately lost it in kindergarten, I believe, in an attempt to fit in.

 

[GKC]

I have little ability when it comes to language skills. I took Spanish and Latin in high school, and didn't retain much if any of it. I took German in college, because it was required for my major (biology and chemistry.) I didn't retain much of it either...and those two semesters of German and two semesters of Algebra were the only four C's I made in college.

My middle son has an amazing talent for languages. He took German in all four years of high school, and took first place at state competitions each year. Since then, he has taught himself Spanish, German, Japanese, Mandarin, and is working on learning an Arabic dialect. I begged him to consider enlisting in the military where they would have made him an interpreter, but he didn't want to go in the service. He doesn't use his gift in any way, except to communicate with Spanish-speaking employees and customers where he works (Starbucks.)

I wish I spoke Spanish...while I don't agree with the things taking place in our country today, there is no doubt that it would be a benefit to know the language.

 

[XD40inTX]

I once did a contract assignment in the American office of a German company. Most of the engineers were German, and they would speak to each other in German. Sometimes they would say something, then laugh, then look at me. That led me to suspect they were talking about me.

I had a good friend who spoke fluent German, so I had him teach me a sentence. They were just sounds to me but I rehearsed them until I could say them almost perfectly.

The last day of my assignment I was about to walk out the door. I stopped, looked back at the Germans, and in what sounded like almost perfect German said, "Be careful what you say in front of strangers."

That was almost 40 years ago but I can still remember the shocked look on their faces.