Can you speak any languages?

[Fan of Big Tone]

I can speak a little French, I can understand a lot of written French but that’s about all.

Whilst on holiday in France last week I did a bit of fishing and a young Dutch boy and his Dad came fishing too, the father kept himself to himself but the boy who was 10 years old was very friendly and came to talk to me, he spoke very good English and told me his name was Max, he’d learnt English at school, he was a lovely lad, he asked me if I could speak Dutch when I said I couldn’t he told me how to say hello, goodbye and count up to ten, then he said “there you are now you can speak some Dutch”. He headed off and left his dad fishing, I tried to tell his Dad that he should be very proud of his clever son but I don’t think his command of English was as good.

It got me thinking how many 10 year old English kids could converse with a foreigner in their language? Not many I’ll bet.

 

[upthepies]

I can speak French quite well, along with Polish and German.

[Fan of Big Tone]

1 minute ago, upthepies said:

I can speak French quite well, along with Polish and German.

Blooming eck, we have a multi liguist amongst us, respect @upthepies 

[TheSkipper]

I learned French, Spanish, German and Italian at school but its all very basic a part from Spanish where I can speak to locals [I go there on holiday a lot anywho].

[Fan of Big Tone]

2 minutes ago, TheSkipper said:

I learned French, Spanish, German and Italian at school but its all very basic a part from Spanish where I can speak to locals [I go there on holiday a lot anywho].

Wow that’s impressive, you lot are all putting me to shame with my smattering of French. 

I reckon if you could live in a country for a while you’d soon pick up the language, I’ve always dreamt of living in France but I don’t suppose it’ll ever happen, too many ties here and they don’t drink proper beer.

[super_ram]

1 hour ago, Fan of Big Tone said:

I can speak a little French, I can understand a lot of written French but that’s about all.

Whilst on holiday in France last week I did a bit of fishing and a young Dutch boy and his Dad came fishing too, the father kept himself to himself but the boy who was 10 years old was very friendly and came to talk to me, he spoke very good English and told me his name was Max, he’d learnt English at school, he was a lovely lad, he asked me if I could speak Dutch when I said I couldn’t he told me how to say hello, goodbye and count up to ten, then he said “there you are now you can speak some Dutch”. He headed off and left his dad fishing, I tried to tell his Dad that he should be very proud of his clever son but I don’t think his command of English was as good.

It got me thinking how many 10 year old English kids could converse with a foreigner in their language? Not many I’ll bet.

 

I took French for a couple of years at school but hated it and dropped the subject as soon I  could.The French teacher was a proper Francophile and she was forever banging on about how everything French was far better than what we had -Their food,railway system,schools etc etc You may recall a post I made quite a while back.I'd spoken to her in my usual broad Derbyshire accent(tha knows) and her response was -"How am I supposed to teach you to speak French when you can't even speak English"Anyway that was nearly 50 years ago and I'm nowhere near as bad as Del Boy.

[Fan of Big Tone]

7 hours ago, super_ram said:

I took French for a couple of years at school but hated it and dropped the subject as soon I  could.The French teacher was a proper Francophile and she was forever banging on about how everything French was far better than what we had -Their food,railway system,schools etc etc You may recall a post I made quite a while back.I'd spoken to her in my usual broad Derbyshire accent(tha knows) and her response was -"How am I supposed to teach you to speak French when you can't even speak English"Anyway that was nearly 50 years ago and I'm nowhere near as bad as Del Boy.

Haha, mange tout Rodney, mange tout. 

[Piethagoram]

My dog speaks Spanish, because he's my espanol

Yo hablo espanol tambien

[Magic magpie]

I’m still struggling with English 😂

[ScottyP]

No, just English but I can understand Welsh where I have family from but speaking is a different thing. 

[liampie]

i can speak very basic spanish too

[Chris]

I used to be able to speak some German and Italian but I've forgotten it since leaving school, French is something that I can get by but I probably sound like a child when I speak it. I haven't had much use for it, though I would like to pick up Italian again.

In the past I used a free site which helped teach you languages and that was enjoyable until work took over.

[SouthwestPIE]

I dont speak any other languages than English.

[super_ram]

3 hours ago, ScottyP said:

No, just English but I can understand Welsh where I have family from but speaking is a different thing. 

Iechyd da @ScottyP

[CliftonMagpie]

I have never bothered to learn any other languages which seems a shame now that I have left school/college.

With so much of the world speaking English, it would be uber cool to say hello to a native in say China and understand them.

[Magic magpie]

7 hours ago, Chris said:

I used to be able to speak some German and Italian but I've forgotten it since leaving school, French is something that I can get by but I probably sound like a child when I speak it. I haven't had much use for it, though I would like to pick up Italian again.

In the past I used a free site which helped teach you languages and that was enjoyable until work took over.

I learned a bit of French and German at school like you but I left school and stoped.