How many languages do you know?

[ummmm........]

Okay, this is a little OT, but you'd be amazed at the sites you get when you google this question, and I didn't feel like it needed its own thread:

Is it "Sieg Heil" or "Zeig Heil"? According to babelfish, the first means "victory welfare" and the second means "show welfare" so that's not much help.

And no, I'm not becoming a Nazi; it's a long story invoving a running gag from back when I was in undergrad.

 

[The Last Conformist]

It's "Sieg Heil".

 

[Pariah]

If there was a category for "fluent in 1, working on 2", that would be my vote.

 

[Zydiax]

2, working on another.
I speak Swedish and English, and I'm learning German. ("Der Weihnachtsmann isst Germknödel.")

I also "speak" HTML, and studying C++.

 

[mitsho]

Wenn ich nur wüsste, was Germknödel ist...
(If only I knew what Germknödel is...)

mitsho

 

[Fox Mccloud]

I barely know English...

Nonsense, you speak English very good! You live in England, right?

 

[Jeff Yu]

I speak English and Cantonese natively. Per tres annos Latinam scivi sed mea Latina mallissima hodie est. ( I learned Latin for three years but it's very bad now).

Right now, I'm also informally learning Mandarin on my own. It shares the writing system and most of the vocabulary with Cantonese, so it's a lot easier for me, the problem is that all the pronunciations are different!

 

[Amenhotep7]

Possum Latine loqui. Et in Anglice.

(I am able to speak in Latin. And in English.)

I want to know Russian, Greek, Italian, French, Norwegian and Ancient Egyptian.

(Volo posse loqui in Russia, Graece, Italia, Francia, Norvegia, et Aegypte Antique.)

 

[Tomoyo]

I speak English and Cantonese natively. Per tres annos Latinam scivi sed mea Latina mallissima hodie est. ( I learned Latin for three years but it's very bad now).

"For three years" is just "Tres annos", and the word for "to learn" is disco, discere. Scio means to know. Latin is usually used as a substantive adjective in the ablative when speaking it so it should be Latine, and to indicate that you are the one that the Latin is referring to, you use the dative of reference, mihi. Malus is irregular, so the superlative is pessimus. Don't I just love playing grammar police?

Ngo yulw sik gong dong wa, but gow yong ying yu dzi mo ho nan gong ga. (I also know Cantonese, but it's hard to use English letters to speak it)

 

[Jeff Yu]

"For three years" is just "Tres annos", and the word for "to learn" is disco, discere. Scio means to know. Latin is usually used as a substantive adjective in the ablative when speaking it so it should be Latine, and to indicate that you are the one that the Latin is referring to, you use the dative of reference, mihi. Malus is irregular, so the superlative is pessimus. Don't I just love playing grammar police?

Bah, high school was a long time ago, and I haven't exactly had a lot of chances to practice my Latin.

Ngo yulw sik gong dong wa, but gow yong ying yu dzi mo ho nan gong ga. (I also know Cantonese, but it's hard to use English letters to speak it)

Ngo tongyi. Yong yingyu hai ho gwai wut dut. Ho joi ngo mingbak yat D jungmen.
我同意.用英語字真係好鬼wutdut.好在我明白一D中文.
(I agree. Using English letters looks really awful. Good thing I know a bit of Chinese).

 

[Tomoyo]

I don't have a thing that lets me write in Chinese on my computer. Luckily I know enough Chinese to be able to read what you wrote. Except, what's that "D" where "dian" (dim) is supposed to be?

 

[Jeff Yu]

I don't have a thing that lets me write in Chinese on my computer. Luckily I know enough Chinese to be able to read what you wrote. Except, what's that "D" where "dian" (dim) is supposed to be?

Cantonese slang. I usually say "yat D" when I mean "a little" or 'keui D yeh" when I mean "his stuff". I'm not sure what the character for it is. "Dim" sounds too formal when I say it (except for dim sum).

 

[plarq]

Well you're speaking Cantonese not Mandarin,I staredt college in Canton three years ago and still can't master that dialect. But I can speak Mandarin with very little accent.

 

[Tomoyo]

Cantonese slang. I usually say "yat D" when I mean "a little" or 'keui D yeh" when I mean "his stuff". I'm not sure what the character for it is. "Dim" sounds too formal when I say it (except for dim sum).

Eh, when I talk I say "dit" (with a shortened t) but for some reason just "D" sounds wierd...

I don't find Cantonese that hard... It's Mandarin that makes my mouth tired.

 

[Zydiax]

Wenn ich nur wüsste, was Germknödel ist...
(If only I knew what Germknödel is...)

mitsho

Hmm. Ein Germknödel ist einen Österrischische spezialitäten.
An Austrian delicacy (?).
A ball of flour, milk and butter, filled with plums. Yummy

 

[mitsho]

Spezialitäten is Plural. Just leave away the -en at the end..

mitsho

 

[Fox Mccloud]

Hmm. Ein Germknödel ist einen Österrischische spezialitäten.
An Austrian delicacy (?).
A ball of flour, milk and butter, filled with plums. Yummy

Ok, I thought it was something stupid and immature you were saying. "Spezialitäten" is plural, make take out "en" so it is not plural, and says "Spezialität"

 

[Lockesdonkey]

I speak English (obviously) and decently fluent Arabic: I understand most of what is said, can speak well, but reading is difficult. I am in my third year of (high school) Mandarin Chinese.

 

[Pangur Bán]

Ah ... the linguistic ability of the community is pretty decent I see. I think this must be the 50th thread on the topic.

 

[E-Raser]

I know a hundrets of different languages! Or something...

I just can not speak them all

German, English, Latin a bit, and a tiny misarable peace of Russian. (At last I can order a beer ) Na sdarovje