Do you speak other languages besides English

[Unkotare]

Japanese is hard. I've tried.

Every language is hard. Every language is easy.

 

[Crepitus]

Every language is hard. Every language is easy.

I speak some of several languages. Fluent in Afrikaans, moderately ok in Spanish, can get buy in German (mostly because of the Afrikaans), Japanese is hard.

 

[Unkotare]

Every language is hard. Every language is easy.

^

 

[braalian]

Every language is hard. Every language is easy.

Some are harder than others, depending on your native language.

Romance languages are at least slightly easier for English speakers because they use the Latin alphabet and there’s numerous cognates.

I believe the CIA even ranks foreign languages on how difficult they are for their (English speaking) operatives to learn and how long it ought to take to learn them

 

[braalian]

If someone is interested in Japan and its culture this would make them more motivated to learn the language and thus, for them, it might seem easier to learn than another language more closely related to English. But that’s all subjective.

But languages like French are objectively easier due to having the same alphabet, relatively similar grammar (at least compared to Japanese), and a huge percentage of the words between the two languages are cognates.

According to the CIA, languages like French and Spanish are “Category 1” languages, or the easiest….. and languages like Japanese and Arabic are “Category 4”

https://www.state.gov/foreign-language-training/

 

[frigidweirdo]

I speak Spanish to a level where I can have a conversation and all that. I speak German to the point where I can read stuff, but I've probably forgotten a lot of it. And I speak Chinese to a level where I can't understand most of what people say, but I can make myself understood, some of the time.

 

[Zebra]

I speak some of several languages. Fluent in Afrikaans, moderately ok in Spanish, can get buy in German (mostly because of the Afrikaans), Japanese is hard.

I can understand Afrikaans

 

[Crepitus]

I can understand Afrikaans

Ek het vir tien jaar aan en af in suid-afrika gewoon.

I'm not great at spelling it.

Or Spanish either for that matter.

Hey, I'm a bilingual illiterate!

 

[Zebra]

Ek het vir tien jaar aan en af in suid-afrika gewoon.

I'm not great at spelling it.

Or Spanish either for that matter.

Hey, I'm a bilingual illiterate!

I see …

Du hast 14 Jahre an oder in einem af in Süd Afrika gewohnt!

What is af?

 

[Crepitus]

I see …

Du hast 14 Jahre an oder in einem af in Süd Afrika gewohnt!

What is af?

Ten, not 14, and af = off/down.

Syntax is almost certainly wrong in detail though.

 

[LeroyDumonde]

Kolibris kennen die Worte einfach nicht.

Laut lachen.

 

[Zebra]

No italian or greek

 

[initforme]

I know 3 languages. No reason not to learn others.

 

[Unkotare]

I know 3 languages. No reason not to learn others.

Would the world be better if we had more languages?

 

[braalian]

No italian or greek

I’m surprised someone here actually speaks Latin.

 

[Unkotare]

I’m surprised someone here actually speaks Latin.

No one does. Not as a first language.

 

[braalian]

No one does. Not as a first language.

At least one person here says that they do. At best, they can read and write it

No one living has ever heard Latin spoken as it was spoken before it died

 

[Zebra]

At least one person here says that they do. At best, they can read and write it

No one living has ever heard Latin spoken as it was spoken before it died

Nonsense

It never died

It lived on in the Catholic church, where it developed ….

In various nations differently

 

[braalian]

Nonsense

It never died

It lived on in the Catholic church, where it developed ….

In various nations differently

It was resurrected by the church centuries after the spoken language died out

And even then, I doubt many in the Vatican spoke Latin in their day to day conversations with one another. It was solely used for religious ceremonies and as linguia Franca for academic writings

And I believe French rather quickly replaced Latin as the lingua Franca for academic types across Europe

No one knows what true native Latin actually sounded like because of course no recording possibly exists

 

[Unkotare]

Nonsense

It never died

It lived on in the Catholic church, where it developed ….

In various nations differently

Yeah, not really.