Snow gates in Scotland

All of them. I used to work with a professor who spoke 11 languages fluently.

I learned 10 times as much French on holiday in France than I did at school. Main problem was the French teacher expected us to know what nouns and verbs and those more complicated ones were.

In retrospect, Spanish would have been a good choice. Or perhaps Arabic, although that wasn't offered at my high school.

In message snipped-for-privacy@ryzen.home, Commander Kinsey snipped-for-privacy@nospam.com writes

Here, Latin certainly helps us to understand what things like nouns, declensions, verbs, tenses, adjectives, singulars, plurals etc, etc actually are. These are generally learned at your mother's knee, and with certain exceptions we tend to use them more-or-less correctly without knowing what they are.

Problems arise when it comes to learning a foreign language. Yes - if you're totally immersed in a language, you might soon pick up enough stock phrases to repeat parrot-fashion, and eventually you might be able to parse them, and adapt them to suit a variety of situations (which, after all, is sort-of what we do instinctively with our own language, even if we don't know actually what the various parts of speech really are). Nevertheless, it's probably a lot easier (and quicker) if you are also able to call upon your 'technical' knowledge of how the foreign language should be constructed, and what the rules are.

Dutch?! You have heard of "double dutch"?

Indeed, they just aren't needed. I do past, present, and future tense. I do noun and verb. After that, no idea.

And why is it no words have a future tense?

Most foreigners don't care if you f*ck up the grammar. I've said things like "I be loving to get bread loaf" instead of "I would like a loaf of bread", but who cares?

The vast number of people don't have the ability to learn (and retain) more than one (or perhaps two) foreign languages. And then only if they use it (or them) regularly.

My father's mother spoke seven fluently. I spent quite a bit of time with her at her shop, and was impressed by how she could instantly switch to whichever language her customers spoke. My grandfather died before I was born, but I'm told that he could speak even more.

We get the weird result of Italian immigrants who only have quite poor english having to communicate using that poor english to other italian immigrants because the bulk of them only speak an italian dialect that isn't understood by other italians.

Everybody has the ability., very few have the time or the inclination. I made more money out of the C language than I ever did out of French...

My sisters family brought up with Afrikaans as a second language, had no trouble absorbing Swedish, Dutch and German. My other sister speaks fluent French, Italian German and Greek, and einstein she aint.

I did Latin at school for 3 years, and French to O level. A bit of both has stayed with me, probably helped by holidays in France and inscriptions. SUch as the Harry Potter motto "Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus".

My wife probably also helps. She is good enough in French to have been asked where she was from, as her accent couldn't be placed. And also speaks German and Spanish, not to mention a bit of Latin and a smattering of Swahili. Oddly she can't manage American English!

But everyone can learn? I had a colleague who had worked in Germany for

Andy

Latin, French & Greek to O level. Russian for 2 years,

I've had that, too, but I don't use French that often, nowadays.

I had two years of Latin. Recall very little from it as I did not want Latin so probably had a poor attitude. My grade level was too high for Spanish that the lower levels got. Over the years there have been many uses for Spanish but never met anyone that speaks Latin on a regular basis.

Huh. I didn't have your advantages of a parochial education, but there was no restriction on who could take Spanish, German, or (IIRC) French. Latin was discontinued just when I came along wanting to study it.

I knew a French teacher who people in France said spoke without an accent - which was surprising, as he spoke English with a very strong Scots accent.

Not if he learned French while in France.

It will never come back.

No thanks.

The most popular one, depending on where you plan going, who you plan speaking to, what work you intend to do.

Agreed. When camping, a Dutchman walked past and my friend struck up a conversation with him in Dutch. I never knew my friend could speak Dutch.

Although I didn't understand a word, whereas with French, most of the words are very similar, or the same, like "le weekend" or "le fast food" or "les vacances"

Never tickle a sleeping dragon? I thought "Draco" was one of the characters? Was he called dragon?

American English isn't a language, it's a fuckup.

Lazyness.