Are you bilingual or attempting to be?

• Automatik

  

  Just curious if any of our members can speak another language, or are currently learning? Share your stories, how you learned, what you're using now.
  
  I've been casually learning Spanish for the past two years. I go through periods of really being into it and then I quit and forget. I used Duolingo the entire time.
  
  Lately I've ramped it up and began using Pimsleur. MUCH better than Duolingo, useful right from the start. I'm considering taking a class during the winter. I'm not sure if I would be into that after work, but looking into options. I really regret not giving a shit about learning another language when I was in school.
• Laley23

  

  My wife speaks fluent Spanish. Majored in it, then taught it at the high school level directly out of college before switching careers. Also lived in Barcelona for 6 months and Buenos Aires for 4 months.
  
  I was close to fluent in French. Took it from 1st grade through senior year. Tested out in college and never kept up. Was in France for about 3 weeks this summer and a lot came back. Was able to speak and understand just fine and didn't have to resort to too many generic phrases or hand motions.
• Automatik

  

  It's nice to be able to talk/text with someone regularly. The girl I'm currently seeing is fluent, but she's from Venezuela. Their style of Spanish fucking crazy and it just messes me up even more. I live in a Hispanic neighborhood, but it's a lot of Spanglish, so what I'm hearing is all over the place. It's frustrating at times.
  
  I took 2 years of French in high school, that's it. Went to Paris last year, was ok for the most part, but also lost at times. :laugh:
• TBone14

  

  Automatik;1878853 wrote:Just curious if any of our members can speak another language, or are currently learning? Share your stories, how you learned, what you're using now.
  
  I've been casually learning Spanish for the past two years. I go through periods of really being into it and then I quit and forget. I used Duolingo the entire time.
  
  Lately I've ramped it up and began using Pimsleur. MUCH better than Duolingo, useful right from the start. I'm considering taking a class during the winter. I'm not sure if I would be into that after work, but looking into options. I really regret not giving a shit about learning another language when I was in school.

  I agree with you about regretting not giving a shit about learning another language. Spanish or Mandarin would be such a huge advantage in the job market.
• queencitybuckeye

  Took four years of Spanish in high school, and a couple of units at a university in Mexico as an exchange student. I remember enough words to have a basic conversation although I'm sure I butcher the verb tenses.
• Fab4Runner

  

  I took four years of Spanish in high school and was pretty good and reading and writing it by the end. Actually speaking Spanish? Not really even close. Seemed to be a trend with this teacher. My brother tested into an upper level course his first year of college, and when the teacher spoke only Spanish the first day he had to drop it.
  
  I do wish I had continued with it, and would love to learn it now. If/when I have kids, I hope to find a way for them to learn it while they are young. My sister in law is Russian and is teaching my niece at the same time she is learning to speak English.
• Automatik

  

  TBone14;1878859 wrote:I agree with you about regretting not giving a shit about learning another language. Spanish or Mandarin would be such a huge advantage in the job market.

  Mandarin, probably. I don't think so for Spanish. I read an article in the past saying the ROI on becoming fluent in Spanish wasn't worth it. I'll try to find it, it was interesting.
  
  
  I also attempted to learn some Danish with Rosetta Stone years ago. Gave up real quick, it's very difficult.
• justincredible

  

  I took a few years of Spanish in high school but really don't remember much. I'd love to learn another language but I'm not sure I'm ready for the time commitment.
• Commander of Awesome

  

  Took 2 yrs of Spanish in Middle school, 3 yrs in HS, and 4 semesters in college. Don't remember shit. Total waste of my time actually, and buthurt it was a requirement.
• Iliketurtles

  

  I took 2 years of Spanish in high school because it was required. Biggest class waste of time I feel like and even if I cared really don't feel like I would have learned much because the teacher was shit.
  
  I would love to learn it now though.
• Automatik

  

  Commander of Awesome;1878881 wrote:Took 2 yrs of Spanish in Middle school, 3 yrs in HS, and 4 semesters in college. Don't remember shit. Total waste of my time actually, and buthurt it was a requirement.

  I was also butthurt it was required in college. I changed majors during my soph year to one that required 4 quarters of a language. I knew I'd struggle mightily if took French, so I went with ASL. It was actually a lot of fun, but I lost it all. Looking back, shoulda toughed it out and went with French.
• vball10set

  Took Latin in hs, but didn't think it was worth a shit until I started to learn Italian some years back--it really helped. I can speak enough to be dangerous, but wouldn't consider myself fluent by any means.
• cat_lover

  I'm not fluent by any means but I speak German well enough to hold casual conversations. I took German for three years in high school and took it for 2 years in college but I learned the most from being around German-Americans all of my life.
• QuakerOats

  Had 3 years of German in high school, then a quarter or two in college. Never was fluent; remember certain words and phrases nowadays.
• GOONx19

  

  I am conversational in Catalan. We had a foreign exchange student for a year when I was a freshman in HS. We’ve kept in touch and I made an effort to learn it after my first visit to Spain in 11th grade. Have been back several times and stay with her family, most of whom know only basic English.
• gut

  No hablo espanol.
• kizer permanente

  I can understand someone speaking Spanish, but I struggle thru it while speaking.
• Zunardo

  From the National Lampoon funny pages sometime in the late 1970's, a young couple on their first date at a restaurant, trying to get to know one another:
  
  She: "Are you bi-lingual?"
  He: "No, I'm straight!"
  
  Yeah, that was a bad pun. Not conversant beyond English and Hillbilly, but I know a few polite common phrases in several other languages.
  
  Took 2 years of German and 1 year of Spanish in high school. I have an aunt from Germany, so took it mostly because of her, than Spanish because I heard it was "easier" (it was).
  
  Took one quarter of Spanish at Ohio State six years later. Learned more in ten weeks there then I did in one year in high school.
  
  Because of my heritage, I signed up for Polish 101 at Ohio State - had to drop it after four weeks. Incredibly difficult for me to grasp, but I can still say "That is a waste basket" after all these years, plus a few other words and phrases. When Robert Warzycha of the Columbus Crew moved his family here from Poland, I happened to tutor at his daughter's elementary school. She didn't know much English, and she was so shy she wouldn't respond to me when I tried out all ten sentences in Polish that I know. So much for thinking globally. She was adorable, although painfully shy and still not adjusted to life in the U.S.
  
  Marty Eggleston, the basketball coach for Lorain County College, is a very interesting guy - he's one of a select group of black Americans to play pro basketball in Poland. I saw him over the winter and just threw out "Jak sie masz" - he just looked at me and ripped through about two paragraphs in Polish. He lost me right after the initial "Dobrze".
  
  I used to work in the training room with a Chinese lady who'd emigrated from Hong Kong when she was five. She taught me that "Joe Sun" (phonetically spelled) served as "hello" in Hong Kong. One day we had a new trainee named Tim Lee, Asian descent, who had a very thick accent. I asked my co-worker if he was probably Chinese and would understand that. She said if he was Chinese he would, but that Lee was also a popular Korean name, so no way to tell without asking.
  
  Next day when this guy came in, I took a chance and said, "Joe Sun!" while waving to him. He shook his head no, pointed to himself and said, "Tim Lee. Tim Lee."
• Ironman92

  

  Mi vaca es su casa
• Belly35

  

  My grandparents aunt and mom was Croatian I understand some thing that are being said but I can't speak it at all
  Took Spanish in high school again I can understand what maybe being said but I can't speak it much
  I do know some Vietnamese but I really have to listen closely to understand the conversation and I can speak it a little ... Just enough to get me in trouble or get boom boom
• kizer permanente

  Ironman92;1878922 wrote:Mi vaca es su casa

  Can I really live in your cow? Thanks lol
• FatHobbit

  

  I took a year of Spanish and a year of French in high school. I took 4 quarters of Spanish in college. I've tried talking to people in Spanish but it was a no go.
  
  My wife is German and she is teaching our kids German. Their German is at least as good as their English. I took a couple of continuing ed German classes at OSU and i was very good in those classes, but when i talk to actual Germans I'm not very good at all. In groups i get completely lost...
• isadore

  From reading the thread most of you are monolingual, a few are bilingual, a couple are trilingual, how many are cunnilingual?
• BRF

  

  One regret in my life is not learning another language. I would have liked to be an interpreter. Interpreters are great helpers in life.
  
  I speak some German.
• gut

  BRF;1878954 wrote:One regret in my life is not learning another language. I would have liked to be an interpreter. Interpreters are great helpers in life.

  Years ago, when I was in Italy, we had an ex-pat giving us one of the local tours. I believe she lived there like 6 months out of the year, retired maybe early 60's....I thought that would be a really cool thing to be able to do.
  
  No idea what her cut of the money was, or what the tourist season is like, but 25-30 people in the group I thought it must be decent supplemental income to do that 3-4 times a week for a few hours.