tm prompt 283: What languages do you speak?
Fluently, enough to get by, or just enough to blackmail someone in? What the hell, I'll answer all of them.
Starting from when I learned them, since that's probably the simplest: English -- and British English, since they are different languages; some German -- enough to insult people in, if nothing else; 'alphabet soup' -- as I tend to call the various military jargons; enough Korean to get by, and enough Vietnamese to get directions, intimidate people, and barter. I know Swahili, Afrikaans, and Bantu well enough to hold a conversation in them, though I tend to keep those fairly under wraps -- so interesting what people will say when they think you don't understand them.
I also speak ASL. To, I assume, no-one's surprise.
Then there's Russian, which I speak fairly fluently, enough French to know when I've pissed a woman off seriously -- and to talk my way out of it; some Japanese and some Khmer -- I'm told my accent still needs work in the second. My Spanish is good enough to get me by almost anywhere they speak it, and I'm picking up Mandarin and Han Chinese both pretty rapidly, these days. Not sure I'm ever going to get the hang of writing them, though.
What?
Picking up the local language is a good trick to have, in my business.
Word count: 224
Starting from when I learned them, since that's probably the simplest: English -- and British English, since they are different languages; some German -- enough to insult people in, if nothing else; 'alphabet soup' -- as I tend to call the various military jargons; enough Korean to get by, and enough Vietnamese to get directions, intimidate people, and barter. I know Swahili, Afrikaans, and Bantu well enough to hold a conversation in them, though I tend to keep those fairly under wraps -- so interesting what people will say when they think you don't understand them.
I also speak ASL. To, I assume, no-one's surprise.
Then there's Russian, which I speak fairly fluently, enough French to know when I've pissed a woman off seriously -- and to talk my way out of it; some Japanese and some Khmer -- I'm told my accent still needs work in the second. My Spanish is good enough to get me by almost anywhere they speak it, and I'm picking up Mandarin and Han Chinese both pretty rapidly, these days. Not sure I'm ever going to get the hang of writing them, though.
What?
Picking up the local language is a good trick to have, in my business.
Word count: 224