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Do you speak any other languages?

Mara
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Post by Mara » Thu September 4th, 2008, 10:16 am

[quote=""sweetpotatoboy""]I'm told that Swedish is relatively easy for an English speaker to learn as the syntax is very similar, i.e. you can pretty much translate word for word as you go through a sentence, rather than worrying about word order etc. Though the vocabulary is quite different. (I've picked up a bit of Swedish, mainly through pop songs.)[/quote]

I was a bit shocked by the pronunciation - quite different to the other languages I've learnt. But you can see some similarities in words to English which makes it a little easier. Using songs to learn a language is a good idea. I was thinking of buying CDs of the Abba ladies which are sung in Swedish. :eek:

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pat
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Post by pat » Thu September 4th, 2008, 11:11 am

I can speak French enough to get by with, making myself known at the supermarket to get the right money and such. We also got good at reading the local paper, mainly to find out the results of Le Tour when we were there!
A good book and a good coffee, what more can anyone want? xx

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Telynor
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Post by Telynor » Fri September 5th, 2008, 6:01 am

I've learned a variety of languages, always finding them interesting -- Latin, French, Russian, Hebrew, and some Spanish. Enough to get around, and get meals; I just wish that I could use them more often.

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Spitfire
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Post by Spitfire » Fri September 5th, 2008, 3:21 pm

[quote=""Ash""]>(who was accidentally adopted out at birth to a couple from Costa Rica. She was supposed to be placed in a foster care program, but her mom didn't speak enough english to understand at the time)

Oh my god. Someone needs to write a book about that poor woman's life![/quote]

I know this is going a little off the language topic. But my husband's grandmother's story and that of his aunt and mom is pretty amazing. The reason why his grandmother was putting her children in foster care, was because she had moderately advanced MS at the time and knew she couldn't care for them on her own. But she still wanted contact with her children. So her first daughter was accidentally adopted at birth (because of the language barrier) but my husbands mom was placed in foster care. She made sure she understood the second time around what was happening. So it was my mother-in-law's lifetime wish, to find her sister. It wasn't until 1998 that the adoption privacy laws had changed and we were able to locate her. She and her sister were reunited that same year. Unfortunately my mother-in-law was now in advanced stages of MS and bed bound in a nursing home at this time. But she was fully cognisant of who her sister was. Brought tears to all of our eyes. My Mother-in-law passed away 3 years hence, but it is so nice to now have a flesh and blood auntie not to mention all the cousins part of our lives now. The closeness we all feel despite the language barrier, attests to the power of kinship...we are blessed!
Only the pure of heart can make good soup. - Beethoven

Ash
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Post by Ash » Sat September 6th, 2008, 2:17 am

Thanks for sharing that!

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Divia
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Post by Divia » Mon September 8th, 2008, 2:40 am

I failed french in HS, attempted Italian, but was eh. I'm giong to try and learn Italian using the Rosetta Stone program. My father speaks Italian but wont teach me. Lame!
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Telynor
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Post by Telynor » Mon September 8th, 2008, 9:51 pm

I'm curious -- has anyone tried the Rosetta Stone programs?

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Divia
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Post by Divia » Mon September 8th, 2008, 10:24 pm

[quote=""Telynor""]I'm curious -- has anyone tried the Rosetta Stone programs?[/quote]

I'll let you iknow if they work ;) Thankfully I am getting mine from a friend since htey are wicked expensive. My mom who is an elem teacher says they are good cause they teach us to learn a differen language like we learned English, with pictures.

We'll see if that theory is true or not. Anyway, I hear you have to devote 1/2 an hour a day to the program in order for it to work.
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MLE (Emily Cotton)
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Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
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Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Mon September 8th, 2008, 10:46 pm

My friend (she of the 12 adopted Ethiopian kids) used them with the latter half of their kids, and she swears by them. I know Matt now speaks pretty good Arabic courtesy of those programs. But all of her kids spoke at least two languages when they got here, except the baby (who is now 13 and doing fine in Spanish). Besides the Arabic, she has them in Spanish, German and English.

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Divia
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Post by Divia » Mon September 8th, 2008, 10:50 pm

If it works then I'm so getting the others int he series
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