A little spin-off from the T&S thread. Something like this has been done before, but this time I think it would be fun not only to discuss how many and which languages you can speak (or understand, read, or sign). I'd like to ask:

What is the word or phrase that anyone should know in that language?


I'd like to impose one rule: it shouldn't be a downright insult or curse. If you really feel that one cannot get by in that language without insulting or cursing, make it a creative version.

Besides that, we could post the translations of some key sentences like: "I would like to order a coffee. Black like my soul." or "Could you show me the way to the nearest goth club, please?" So, basically, some of those key tourist phrases, but with a twist.

I talk English and French, with some japanese words(Watching subbed animes ftw!)

For a phrase that anyone should know in french... hmm
Je ne parle pas bien le français, parlez-vous *insert language in french here*
(I don't talk french very good, do you talk *insert language in french here*)
This could be something useful in any language ^^

Or maybe, if you talk a little french
Pouvez-vous excuser mon mauvais français?
(Can you forgive my bad french?)

range from 0 (no knowledge) to 10 (motherlanguage)

Italian 10
English 8
German 7
French 6
Spanish 5
Arabic 1

This is funny, as this for the longest time was the only phrase I could say in French. Turns out that people don't believe you when you can say that too well.

Dutch words that everybody should have heard/seen once in their lifetime is: mooi (beautiful), stroopwafel (that's a type of cookie), desalniettemin (don't know the English translation), or fietsbel (don't know that either). I think that there are many beautiful or nice sounding words in Dutch, althoug to others they might sound like crazy sounds.

"Mag ik een koffie, zwart zoals mijn ziel?" (Can I order a coffee, black like my soul?)
"Waar is de dichtstbijzijnde goth club?" (Where is the nearest goth club?)

To follow under_lord's suggestion:
"Ik spreek geen Nederlands. Spreekt u Engels/Frans/Duits?" (I don't speak Dutch. Do you speak English/French/German?) Not that you'll need it, many people over here will jump to the chance to practice their English. Makes learning Dutch for foreigners extra hard.

"Posso ordinare un caffé nero come la mia anima?" (Can I order a coffee, black like my soul?)
"Come arrivo al più vicino locale dark?" (Where is the nearest goth club?)

"Non parlo Italiano. Parli Inglese/Francese/Tedesco?" trust me, the answer you'll get will be no, but the communication will go astonishigly without any trouble, italians talk with their hands (with the exception of... well... me )

We'll forgive you, as you can speak English.

If they speak slowly enough I find I can figure out the jist of aural conversations in a few languages (mainly French though),
but I don't know any language other than English, and I know a little Irish.
I did French in school for about 3 years, but remember next to nothing.

I really regret this, while at the time I had no interest, now I would love to be able to speak other languages, I would also love to be much better at Irish, even if it is essentially a dead language.
Learning Italian would be useful though, my friend is Italian, we could have secret conversations

I only know English, but I want to know so much more...however that wasn't an option. If I could I would want to learn French and Middle English.

From the names of the political parties you (or Arq) posted, I wouldn't have guessed that Irish is a mostly dead language. Isn't it derived from the Celtic languages (like Gaelic)? Is so, then it must be hard to learn.

I have had classes in French and English for six years, and German for three years, but I can only hold a decent conversation in English. An extremely simple conversation in French or German is also doable, but I meet the limits of my knowledge of those languages pretty soon. I also had classes in Latin, which helped my understand how languages work.

Pardonnez-moi monsieur (madame), mais où est le (la) [in French, place you need to go], s'il vous plaÎt?

Excuse me Mr. or Mrs., but where is (fill in place you want to go), please?

Je ne parle pas français mais un peu
Is that the correct phrase for "I only speak a little French"?

-- Fri Mar 11, 2011 10:26 am --



Is the literal translation "How can I arrive in the vicinity of a goth club?"

If you are not sure to say le(Masc.) ou la(fem) you can just say le, we understand that you don't talk french easily ^^(Because you say It or the in english)

And it would be; Je ne parle pas beaucoup français.(Do you, english speakers, know how to say ''ç''? it's like an ''S'' but it's the intonation that changes ^^)

We learn alot of thing in this lovely place!

It is still the 1st language of very small areas called Gaeltachtaí, it is also necessary to publish any Political documents in both English and Irish, the language is also compulsory in school (though the new government wants to scrap that).
Yeah Irish is a form of Gaelic, I couldn't really comment on how difficult it is compared to other languages. We start learning it day 1 of school, in my school if you had to ask the teacher something like if you had to use the toilet, you had to do it as Gaeilge (in Irish) and I believe that was/is a very common practice.
Really though, nobody uses it, it's slow death began when it was declared illegal while under occupation (19th/18th century, my memory is hazy), and it's been a steady decline since then.

It's used so little, Ireland actually had to fight the EU to have it recognised as an official European language 5 maybe 6 years ago

Heres a map of those Gaeltacht areas.
And, just for the craic, heres Spongebob Squarepants as gaeilge

I think it's a shame that Irish was forbidden and basically outlawed at one time. The same was done to the Native people in America in order to more fully subjugate them.

from 0 to 10 (0 being the worst and 10 being the best)


English 10
Spanish 10
Portuguese 8
Latin 8
Italian 7
French 6
Hebrew 6
Norwegian 5
German 3
Arabic 3
Russian 2
Japanese 2
Mandarin 2
Every other language is either a 0 or a 1

-- Fri Mar 11, 2011 2:56 pm --

I forgot to mention

Asturian 9

I only know a smattering of different languages(a few words here or there that I could possibly string together to make an incomprehensible sentence).

I would like to become fluent in Spanish and German. Since English is my native language, I don't have to study it as hard.

I know what little of German I do mostly because of the bands that I listen to(Rammstein, Das Ich, Sopor Aeternus, Lacrimosa). Spanish, I've picked up a little bit here and there out of necessity.