Languages

Lalla salama annodomini

I liked Classics at school and took them as far as first year at University before I decided to specialise in English. Anglo Saxon came quite easily though I don't remember much of it now. And, of course, I now wish I'd spent my years at uni studying living languages, but made up some time with OU French courses. A Swahili course was put on for our staff in Kenya, along with the boys' staff, but it ended up with only one student - me! The grammar was easy, though completely different from our Indo-European languages. Mostly we used so-called 'kitchen' Swahili - ie. paying scant attention to grammatical accuracy.

Mishap I also took French German and Latin at my grammar school. I dropped German in third year but carried on with the other two. I certainly can't speak much French (and my accent is appalling) but I can understand a fair bit of written French.

I was once rather humiliated in an hotel in Paris by a male receptionist not understandiing my hesitant attempts to speak French and demanding loudly that I SPEAK ENGLISH! My brother lives in France and I'm afraid I just ask him to translate for me.

I did French, German and Latin at school - and loved them. I do not get the chance to use them much now (especially the Latin!) but never regret learning them. When we go to France every few years it is a real joy that the language comes back to me quite quickly and I get a great sense of satisfaction from that.

It is a long time since I have been to a German speaking country, I love the poetry of the language and it adds a further dimansion to my enjoyment of Lieder.

And the Latin was wonderful as I was able to teach my children the derivation of many words - I wish very much that I had done Greek too.

Keep it up, Granjura - your expertise saves me a lot of trouble!

Languages fascinate me, love them. I speak French and English totally fluently, German fluently too, but do not get much opportunity to practise, so getting a bit rusty, and was studying for Italian A'Level when we left the UK. Sadly only beginner classes for Italian in the area here, but I think I will try to go for a full-immersion intensive course when we are in Tuscany for 2 weeks next September.

My ambition was always to learn a language with a totally different alphabet and system, like Arabic, Mandarin or Urdu - but not sure I've got it in me. Perhaps will achieve some sort of oral effectiveness if Greatnan takes me snorkelling in Egypt again! Swiss German is a dialect I never learnt. It is like treble Dutch and very gutteral - and my parents hated it with a vengeance, lol. But it is really funny, so I think I'll try to learn some of it asap.

Hi I have been learning Urdu for some years now, it is a fascinating language, the script for me, is like looking at a beautiful painting, i never tire of reading it, can't always understand the context of what i am reading, but i like to continue as it does something for me. Watching films in that language helps a lot but most times i have to put subtitles on to get the gist of the story.One happy Gran.

Buongiorno come est sta? DH and I a learning Italian conversation (holiday in Tuscany in Sept) via the BBC course and the help of a retired tteacher friend who is fluent. There is a Facebook page too. I think this is a very economical and enjoyable way to learn. Ciao!

I thought I'd revive this thread. I love languages - did three at school - French Latin and German, and am still fairly fluent though rusty in German, 'cos I lived a year and a bit in Vienna as a young 'un. German pronunciation is easy when you're a Northerner like me. All the flat vowels are great for German. Not so good for French though!!

I am in a writers' group at our local U3A, but I've noticed the language tuition seems quite academic and in depth. The languages are taught by native speakers and usually have one or two other native speakers in the group, to help things along. We have Indonesian, German, French and Spanish at three levels each.

I would love to learn Russian or Cantonese (I have a Cantonese/Australian DIL) but they are not offered right now.

I feel it is a dreadful waste when languages are not offered to little kids at Junior school. At that age, ie from 5 upwards, they are very receptive, and if the immersion method is used they soon pick it up. Knowing a foreign language is very good for the brain - and in later life it helps ward off dementia. And of course it helps you with your own language, especially with the grammar. It makes you realise how language works.

I'm back on the Welsh again - and have tentatively used a few words when I've been in Cardiff much to the amusement of the recipients. As well as Rosetta Stone I'm following the excellent videos and tutorials on The Welsh Challenge [BBC Wales] and watch a bit of S4C. It's gratifying when you can understand a few words. Childrens programmes are good for language absorption as well as are adverts - but there aren't many Welsh ads.

Ariadne- To speak a language properly you would have had to have learned it at as child or spent at least some months in the country. My daughter learned Spanish, she met a boy at a harvest camp from Madrid. She stayed with his family for 6 weeks and later went to a language course in Tarragona.
What really got her going was when she fell asleep on a beach and got badly sunburned and landed up in a Spanish hospital. She had to speak Spanish all the time and that fixed it.

I am not so keen on u3a courses but you can be lucky.

U3A is a year old in our community and has over 300 members, almost all of whom have already renewed their membership. I'm jointly running a creative writing group. We've had some really interesting writing - some of it publishable - and we are steadily increasing our membership. I'm also a member of the theatre visits group which goes regularly to the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. I was hoping that someone would come forward to run a French Conversation group, but nothing so far. I'm looking forward to a residential course on creative writing at Myerscough College in April - the tutor is Maggie Smith who did a web chat with us not so long ago. So, all things considered, I think the U3A has done a good deal to broaden my horizons in the past year!

Thank you, seventimesfive! I think I'll make it a project for when we've moved; I am definitely interested.

My ex-pat forum has many requests to know the names of English speaking doctors, dentists, garages, hairdressers, vets, etc. I am amazed that anyone would go to live in a different country without a smattering of the language. There seems to be a belief that all foreigners speak English! Nobody in my little village in the Pyrenees spoke English, which was excellent for me.
I worked in Brussels for a year and I also had the experience of coming across Flemish people who refused to admit they understood French, but were happy to speak English.

Ariadne The U3A (University of the Third Age) is for people who have retired (no age limit) and who still want to use their brains. There is a joining fee and then you can attend as many classes as you wish and/or offer to run courses in which you have a particular interest or expertise. I joined when I was living in Cambridge and there was a huge range of courses, some of which were held in people's homes and others in halls, rooms etc. Over 3 years I went to 20th Century poetry, classical sculpture, classical music, jazz, a book club, and probably several others I have forgotten. I enjoyed them all but the quality did vary depending on those presenting the course. There were plenty of language courses at various levels from beginners to studying a novel in French with no English spoken in the class. There were also walking groups, yoga groups and politics groups, in fact, just about everything anyone could be interested in! I would recommend that you give it a look if there is one in your area as you will find interesting and lively people in my experience. Good luck!

My French is still good, amazing really. I studied it to "A" Level and was taught in the most boring way imaginable, with lots of rote learning, vocab tests etc. but my goodness, it has stuck in my brain - a subjunctive will emerge quite naturally!

I would like to speak another rlanguage; I can get by in Spanish and Italian, because I have a Classics background, but want to speak them properly.

Tell me about U3A, someone! Please.

We use one interpreter. Her French is worse than mine, apparently she also interprets Spanish. I speak no Spanish and I could work out what she was saying. It was so English!

Being bilingual is a thing which makes you feel good about yourself and you take up and understand a second culture, but you need to be young and motivated. I am now reviving my school French although I don't find it as easy to pronounce as German. I thoroughly enjoy the lessons which are not for senior citizens but for all ages and we have some interesting people in the class.

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Yes - so much depends on the teaching. It is my experience here, that French is usually taught in a 100% French speaking environment. Even the 'housekeeping' matters, such as what homework is due when, is handled in French.

The German course was not so absolute - the lecturer would sometimes use English, and the contrast made me realise that the French system was was better.

I'd try italian again if you can, Annobel. Many years ago I gave up Italian at night school for the same reasons - badly taught, too much English and too slow. To be fair, it was too slow for me because like you, I knew some Latin. The language sounds so lovely though, it would be great to be able to speak it.

I tried an Italian class - evenings at the local high school - but it was so badly taught that for the first time in my life I dropped out. I was finding it easy because I have reasonable French and can get by in Spanish and because I have a good grounding in Latin. But the class was at the pace of the slowest and the teacher (Italian) insisted on teaching it in English. I qualified in ESOL and was used to teaching English in English and saw no reason for not teaching Italian in Italian! Anyway, I would still love to learn Italian which sounds such a musical language and is not specially difficult.

We should all be learning a foreign language, and/or thinking in and using whatever other languages we know, because it can ward off dementia. Honest!

Research has shown that bilingual/multilingual people are less likely to get dementia because of the effect that thinking in different languages has on the brain.

Because of this I make a point of thinking in German or reading French, because the thought of getting dementia is just too awful to contemplate.

When my U3A puts on a Spanish class I think I'll join. It should be fairly easy as I got O level Latin as well.

I really should learn Cantonese (the Chinese they speak in Hong Kong among other places) because one DiL is Cantonese Australian, but I don't think I'm up to such a complicated language. Anyway, my U3A doesn't teach it, as well as the fact that it is tonal and I'm a bit deaf. (That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!)

madrid, you might find that your local U3A has a Spanish course that would suit you.

I moved to France 8 years ago, with little French, not having studied it at school. However, my husband is fluent, which is great. He also has a firm grounding in Latin, which he considers vitally important in learning languages. I firmly believe that to learn a language well, you can't beat 'total integration'.
My husband teaches French to the English community, and is aware of the difference in those who learnt whilst young, and those, like myself, who try to pick it up later in life!

A good friend of mine comes from Shetland, and finds she has an affinity with the Scandinavian languages.

My walking group consists of American, German, Shetland (Scottish), French , English and Finnish. We all talk in English!

There is a god! ;)