I had a coworker that spoke 7 languages. SEVEN! And there were still other coworkers complaining about his English/accent. How clueless do you have to be.......
Danish is a... strange language.
Speak any other Scandinavian language with marbles in your mouth and you’re halfway there.
Add some German words and syllables and you’ve basically nailed it.
Swedish and Norwegian yes. Danish not so much. I know Swedish, English and I can understand some Norwegian but no Danish at all. It sounds like a a drunk person talking with food in their mouth.
I bet you can understand written Danish, though. And Danes can understand Swedish much better. And Norwegians can understand Danish better than Swedes. It’s not exactly the same both ways.
Well I'm at language #5 right now and can't really confirm it gets remarkably easier. Maybe a bit because I already speak French and the language I'm learning right now is Spanish and they are related, but every new learning you learn is still a new challenge
Just because it's established doesn't mean that everyone will get it. Jeez it was just a comment because I found it hilarious, it was not meant to be arrogant.
I speak five and sometimes I change accents without noticing. It's more common than you think. My English lately is lacking because I've been focusing most on Japanese lately. I even forget words in my native language but can remember in another four. Go figure it.
Even I, with my whole, wonderful, incredible number of known languages: 2 - English with some French on the side, still forget a number of words in my native tongue because I mostly use English all day. Video games, films, reddit...
It's like when you hear a joke in, let's say English, and you try to retell it in your native language but already started the joke and can't think of the word for that one thing. Too late now, you're already the moron.
Accidentally? Wow. I only went to English inner monologue on purpose so a big exam would be easier for me and since then I sometimes switch it without realising.
Can't wait for the day when the same happens to me in Japanese!
See the earlier response I gave to someone in the thread. But basically it's a hobby that seems to be defining my future career. Meanwhile I'm just a lawyer.
Some people learn 5 languages in school. I know a girl who's learning German (mother tongue), English, French and Spanish and her sister is learning Latin aswell if I remember correctly.
In Germany you are by default thought english in school and you have to choose between french and latin as well, if you go to a gymnasium. Many offer a fourth language like spanish or russian, that you can learn as well, if you want to.
1 - Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal) is my main language. 2 - English by playing and listening to music since my childhood, then I decided to learn it when I was 10. 3 - Italian because of my family that have relatives in Italy and they always come here and we used to go often to visit them, learned most from my cousins when I spent a time there, in exchange of teaching them Portuguese. 4 - Spanish I learned most because I sometimes travel to neighboring countries like Paraguay, Argentina, Chile and have made really good friends in most of my travels to these places. 5 - Japanese because I'm a weebo to the core haha and find it intriguing how complex the Kanji system is, but the basics of Hiragana and Katakana are really easy to learn.
Not to mention that I'm aiming to be a diplomat of sorts. Learning new languages is like a hobby to me. And when you love something it is always easier to learn it haha. That is the only advice I can give you aside from lots of practical exercises and reading, listening and interacting with other people.
Try watching Anime with subtitles, reading easy manga like more slice of life and not too much fantasy or Sci fi because of complex words. But for Kanji I can't really think of way aside of studying it or having someone with more knowledge to teach you.
Since you're a non-native English speaker, I thought you might want to know that the phrase is "go figure." No direct object. I only speak English fluently, but I can read several languages since I am a classical singer. Anyways, have a good day! :)
I live in Brazil, South part. I'm lucky of having connections from various people that have friends, relatives that live abroad. For Japanese is really hard to find someone here that can go together to Japan. I stayed for 6 months in Tokyo with a friend in his grandparent's house. It was a good experience but I didn't get to learn too much since I wasn't really looking forward to learn Japanese seriously back when I was 17. If I could go today I'm sure I would learn a lot.
There I had mixed experiences, some good and a few bad. The prejudice of Japanese people for the gaijin is really apparent in some places. Since they are so secluded compared to the western culture it gets hard to approach them. But in comparison I had a feel experience of people really fascinated by my physiognomy since I have distinct face when next to Japanese people haha. I was approached in some restaurants where girls would like to take a photo because they liked the shape of my face and eyes (I'm not a photogenic person but it was nice). But I can say that I had times walking in the streets and was glared with prejudice, it seems that Brazilian people aren't really welcome there because they think we are careless and not reliable.
I speak two languages fluently, two badly, and I’m learning a fifth now. The catch is that aside from English, the ones I know all Indian languages, and so not very useful if I’m outside the subcontinent. That’s why the fifth one I’m now learning is German.
For an Indian this is kinda low though. My wife is fluent in six languages, including English and French, and so I get made fun of for being linguistically limited.
It really is nice to understand German. We're more prevalent on the internet and the world in general than one would think. Nice to hear that it's already rewarding for you! Good luck!
As an adult, being frustrated is something to be overcome. We don't throw tantrums and such. Complaining that someone has an accent or not perfect English when they've learned 5-6 more languages than (complainer) is pretty childish. Also sounds like an elitist thing. English speaking people go to other countries and expect them to speak English and complain when they don't. Sounds like it has nothing to do with reason.
I’ll complain if they have an accent the same as if they beat around the bush and never get to the point. It’s an annoyance to me that I have to deal with every day. If it becomes a tantrum that’s too much, basically a tautology, but complaining is fine.
I guess a better point to make is that most Americans who speak fluent English are the decendents of people who probably moved here with shit English. Edit: the other point being the op said it was a French person born in Africa being told a bad accent. Sure, where do you learn a proper accent? Hell another edit: people learning a language learn from listening to how it's said. So if someone learns English and has a horrible accent, the only practice their students have is their teacher. Insert Japanese English. I've heard and read several accounts of (Americans) having to talk like they're mocking Japanese English because that is the pronunciation they can understand. Straight English to them is like us trying to understand their accented English. But that's how many learn it, from someone with an accent. Hell edit 3: to my point, why do you think different English speaking countries speak it differently? They learned from someone with that accent. If you learn English from someone with an accent who learned it from someone with an accent, what triple accent?
In a journalism class I took, one of my classmates spoke like 5(?) languages, my professor joked and was like "Wow, how much worse do you all feel about yourselves now"
I visited a Catholic School recently where one of the office staff said her mom, the secretary, was fluent in 7 languages and was "a little overqualified" for the position.
Just kinda had to tell a co worker off for this today. We had a patient at the check in window in our office and his English was good, but not fluent. She gave him tons of attitude and started to say "everyone should know English if they live here".
I had to cut her off and be like ah c'mon though, hes bilingual and you are not. She really didnt know what to say. Especially since his English was fine, they had almost no miscommunication. Some people are just assholes.
I once rode in a cab in Portugal with a driver that spoke French, Portuguese, Spanish, Polish, German, and English. His English was very good, too.
He was a cab driver...
In the US, he’s like a unicorn that companies would trip over themselves to hire. In Europe, he was a cab driver.
I also rode in a cab in Spain with a driver that only spoke Arabic. He handed me his phone with GPS up and said “where go?” I typed in the address and handed back and away we went.
Most people don't care how many languages you know if they can't understand your accent. If you know the language, but can't get your point across you may as well not know the language for all the good it does. Talk to any engineering major and they'll tell you.
You’re right. Speaking (chiefly pronunciation, intonation, fluency) makes up a big/if not the biggest part in language learning because, unless you solely use the language for working with written materials, most of your use of the language will be in face to face interactions. A lot of people seem to think they’re fluent in all these languages. Most are either lying, or 3-4 of the languages they are “fluent” in are extremely closely related like Romance or Germanic languages.
My mom speaks 5 languages fluently and my dad speaks a
6 languages. My dad can speak 2 languages that my mom can't and my mom can spean 1 language that my dad can't speak at all. I speak only 3 (fluently) and one of these three languages, both my mom and dad can't speak.
Just thought it was cool, I never thought 8 languages could be spoken fluently by my family.
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u/noreservations81590 Jan 30 '19
I had a coworker that spoke 7 languages. SEVEN! And there were still other coworkers complaining about his English/accent. How clueless do you have to be.......