The Friday Five for January 26, 2018

[spikesgirl58]

tediousandbrief posted in thefridayfive

Comments

[maju01]

1. After your first language, what language would you most like to learn? (Say first language too) I don't have a burning desire to learn another language at this point but Spanish would be very useful here.

2. Does your country have a second language? What is it? No second official language, although many different languages are spoken in Australia.

3. How many languages can you count to 5 in? To 10 in? List them. English, Indonesian, French, German.

4. What is the first overseas country you visited? And from where? (ie/ timbuctoo to mars) Indonesia, from Australia (so only about a four hour flight).

5. What country do you most want to visit? And why? I'd love to visit France and Italy because they are old and Switzerland because of its mountains and the Scandinavian countries just because. And all of them because they are countries I've never been to.

[spikesgirl58]

Why did I think you'd been to France. That's interesting.

[meathiel]

1. My first language is German, I think my English is quite good and I speak a bit of Spanish and French as well. I'd love to learn Irish.

2. Nope. Not an official one at least.

3. German, English, Spanish, French, Italian

4. Germany - Frankfurt - to USA - NYC.

5. New Zealand ... LotR afficionado here!!!

[spikesgirl58]

New Zealand is so wonderful. I can't say enough great things about it. I hope you get there!

[hypatia_66]

1. My mother tongue is English. I've actively studied about eight languages, and while I can carry on a limited conversation in French, I can only really read moderately fluently in French, Spanish and Italian. So I'd like to be better at those.

2. There are numerous languages spoken in the UK, including English, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, and Scots, as well as all the languages of immigrants.

3. Eight: French, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, modern Greek, Russian, Mandarin Chinese.

4. France, from England.

5. Eire, maybe. Or Croatia.

[spikesgirl58]

We're doing Croatia this summer. Should I send you a postcard?

Wow, Mandarin Chinese? I'm impressed.

[hypatia_66]

I used to work at York University where staff were allowed to make free use of the Language Teaching Centre. So I did two years each of Russian and Chinese. Enough to read Pushkin in parallel text, and for a while to get something from a text in Chinese characters. No longer, of course - you have to keep in practice - but my Chinese teacher, who came from Xi'an, lived with us for nearly a year after the Tian an Men Square massacre, so I could chat a bit in Chinese by the time she finally went home.

I'd love to get a postcard from Croatia - or at least a photo on here.

[spikesgirl58]

When I was working for our local college, I could take free classes, but the language classes were five days a week and I couldn't afford to take that much time off. Sigh...

[gevr]

1. After your first language, what language would you most like to learn? (Say first language too) my first language is Dutch. I speak English, French, German and some Spanish
2. Does your country have a second language? What is it? my country has three official languages : Dutch - French and German
3. How many languages can you count to 5 in? To 10 in? List them. Dutch - French - English - Spanish - Italian
4. What is the first overseas country you visited? And from where? (ie/ timbuctoo to mars) The UK from Belgium (just over an hour by boat)
5. What country do you most want to visit? And why? Australia, just because ...

[spikesgirl58]

You speak English really well, in fact.

Australia is such an incredible country. You'd love it!

[gevr]

thank you, I seem to have a knack for languages. and I've always worked in international companies where English was the main language

[spikesgirl58]

I wish they were easier for me. I was learning Italian, but gave it up after a while. I can't get the similarities between in and Spanish out of my head. I thought it would make it easier but it doesn't.

[ragnarok_08]

1. My first language is English. I have learned Japanese and Italian enough to get around. Perhaps I'll have to brush up in more Japanese.

2. I live in the United States; we have a lot of languages.

3. English, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish.

4. I've been to London, Rome, Paris, and Wales.

5. I would love to go to Japan, China, Ireland, Spain, and maybe visit London and Italy again.

[spikesgirl58]

Did you like Wales? We're talking about going back next year.

[ragnarok_08]

I really did, and I would love to go there again :)

[spikesgirl58]

Us, too. Did you visit Portmeirion?