View Full Version : How many languages do you speak?
gimmethesimplelife
10-20-25, 8:56pm
I'll start. Obviously English.....German good enough to travel and run basic errands/conduct basic daily business but not enough to work in an office. Some Spanish but I'm nowhere near fluent but I am excited because it seems I finally understand when to use preterite vs. imperfect tense for the past - anyone who speaks Spanish will know what this means and hopefully it's been easier for them than for me. But enough about me, anyone else speak any other languages, and if so, which? Rob
Three - English, profanity, and extreme sarcasm.
Hmm:
Native fluent: English
Non-native fluent: French(*), German. (French immersion school as a child, grew up in a German-speaking part of the US, and grandparents still spoke German in the home.). I read newspapers in these languages nearly every day. (*) Québécois French, which the French do not seem to recognize as a language :-)
Enough to get around on a daily basis: Spanish, Japanese (both improve rapidly when I am in an immersive environment, my partner and I will often speak much of the day in Spanish, as I'm trying to improve that ASAP. It seems to be coming back.)
Enough to read/understand, slowly: Pitcairnese, "Pennsylvania Dutch"
Enough to recognize/order my favorite menu items: Cantonese
"Dead" languages, proficient: Latin, Greek, Old English
"Dead" languages, semi-proficient: Old Norse
Learning: I've been working on Klallam, one of the Straits Salishan languages, for a couple years now, along with Lummi. I figured if you are living around First Nations folks, it's only polite to be able to know a little of their languages. It is slow going, as many of the local speakers aren't completely fluent either. I also recently acquired "Sumerian for Beginners" for a winter project. About 25 years ago, I spent several years learning Hawaiian as part of an open-ocean navigation project, but lots of that has faded.
My daughter however is very very proficient in many more languages. But that's her profession.
The real French consider the Quebecois to be barbarians.
pinkytoe
10-20-25, 10:22pm
English and Spanish.
iris lilies
10-20-25, 10:32pm
Three - English, profanity, and extreme sarcasm.
Hey, that sounds like me.
rosarugosa
10-21-25, 6:19am
Just English for me.
frugal-one
10-21-25, 8:26am
English but will be learning Spanish (for free). Checked and places here teach ESL and also Spanish to English speakers. Used to be proficient in German but haven’t used for a long time.
happystuff
10-21-25, 8:38am
English with some Spanish.
littlebittybobby
10-23-25, 5:38pm
okay---i speak AMERICAN, quite fluently. Also, I am well-versed in Foul Language, as well. Ha. How do you like that?
I almost forgot, I am still reasonably fluent in the language of my people. When my uncle visited recently, after just 2-3 days we had both code-switched to this language, to the horror and amusement of other household members.
https://i.imgur.com/mHtDwpc.png
catherine
10-23-25, 6:35pm
bae, can you give us a sentence or two? I'd love to hear a sample.
I'll trade you by giving you one of my favorite sentences my MIL said, which was in English, but I'm not sure anyone would have believed it if they heard her say it:
"Th' pair lassie was greetin' her een oot."
bae, can you give us a sentence or two? I'd love to hear a sample.
It's tricky, but I'll give it a shot. It's best a spoken language, there are sound-shifts in the dialect, some grammatical changes, and of course the wonderful vocabulary. Rendering it into English text runs the danger of lampooning :-). My daughter's partner, who is a keen student of UK dialects, says it sounds to his ear a lot like Ulster Scots from the 1700s, which makes perfect sense considering migration patterns.
Let's see:
Now, I come from back yonder in the hills, where the ridges run higher’n your troubles and the folks talk slow ‘cause they already know what they’re fixin’ to say. Never figured I’d end up way out here on Orcas Island — big ol’ chunk of green floatin’ in the salt water like a misplaced mountain. But I took a notion one day, packed my gear, and here I’ve been since, watchin’ the fog roll in like it’s got secrets to tell. Got me a little house with a big yard, and a dog so lazy he makes moss look ambitious. But he’s loyal, bless him, and he don’t argue near as much as the commissioners.
Now I tell folks this place ain’t that different from home — just got more whales and fewer Baptists. Roads wind the same, rain falls sideways the same, and people know your business three days ‘fore you do. Power goes out soon as the clouds start thinkin’ about fightin’, but that’s fine — I got them fancy solar panels up there on the roof hummin’ away like a swarm of polite bees. Most days I take my walk, nod at the fire hall, jaw a bit with whoever’s loafin’ out front. You can learn more from the fellers at the coffee shop than you can from the county website — though accuracy’s about fifty-fifty either way.
Come evenin’, I’m on the porch with a glass of somethin’ civil, starin’ out toward Waldron where the sun melts down slow as molasses. Dog’s snorin’, frogs are tunin’ up, and I swear you can hear the whole island settlin’ in for the night. Ain’t a rush to it. Ain’t supposed to be. I been places that moved faster, talked louder, paid better — but none of ‘em felt half so right. This here’s good livin’, the kind that don’t brag on itself. Just sits quiet and waits for you to notice.
catherine
10-23-25, 8:06pm
Wow, that's beautiful! It reminds me of one of my favorite books--The Dollmaker by Harriet Arnow. It was also a movie with Jane Fonda. When I read what you wrote, I could hear the words in my head said the way the characters in the movie would say them.
https://www.tiktok.com/@janefonda_v/video/7364870122806299909
rosarugosa
10-24-25, 6:20am
That was a really good book, Catherine, although it broke my heart a bit. I might have read it on your recommendation. I had tried to watch the movie online at one point, but it was such poor quality that I didn't stick with it.
DH and I adopted the useful concept of "fixin' to" a few years ago, although I don't quite remember from where, perhaps his cousin down south? Anyway, if we need to leave for somewhere at, let's say 9:00, we'll establish 8:50 at the "fixin' to go" time, when we get up, start gathering keys, handbag, wallet, etc. so that we can actually be out the door by 9:00.
Now, I come from back yonder in the hills, where the ridges run higher’n your troubles and the folks talk slow ‘cause they already know what they’re fixin’ to say. Never figured I’d end up way out here on Orcas Island — big ol’ chunk of green floatin’ in the salt water like a misplaced mountain. But I took a notion
My late father-in-law spoke this way, although without the poetic similes. He was pretty stoic for a man from the NC hills. Might have been his Navy career that affected his speech pattern.
I can get by as a tourist with Spanish, but have turned on the subtitles for things like All Creatures Great and Small. I'm amazed at people who can speak multiple languages. I think there is a critical time in ones early years when it comes easier.
Something I have found very handy in the past several years is to find a decent series on your favorite streaming service, and watch it in the language you are trying to learn, with the subtitles (in that language, not in English) turned on. Nature documentaries, travel documentaries, cooking shows, lightweight dramas all seem to work well for this.
HappyHiker
10-27-25, 7:55pm
It's tricky, but I'll give it a shot. It's best a spoken language, there are sound-shifts in the dialect, some grammatical changes, and of course the wonderful vocabulary. Rendering it into English text runs the danger of lampooning :-). My daughter's partner, who is a keen student of UK dialects, says it sounds to his ear a lot like Ulster Scots from the 1700s, which makes perfect sense considering migration patterns.
Let's see:
Now, I come from back yonder in the hills, where the ridges run higher’n your troubles and the folks talk slow ‘cause they already know what they’re fixin’ to say. Never figured I’d end up way out here on Orcas Island — big ol’ chunk of green floatin’ in the salt water like a misplaced mountain. But I took a notion one day, packed my gear, and here I’ve been since, watchin’ the fog roll in like it’s got secrets to tell. Got me a little house with a big yard, and a dog so lazy he makes moss look ambitious. But he’s loyal, bless him, and he don’t argue near as much as the commissioners.
Now I tell folks this place ain’t that different from home — just got more whales and fewer Baptists. Roads wind the same, rain falls sideways the same, and people know your business three days ‘fore you do. Power goes out soon as the clouds start thinkin’ about fightin’, but that’s fine — I got them fancy solar panels up there on the roof hummin’ away like a swarm of polite bees. Most days I take my walk, nod at the fire hall, jaw a bit with whoever’s loafin’ out front. You can learn more from the fellers at the coffee shop than you can from the county website — though accuracy’s about fifty-fifty either way.
Come evenin’, I’m on the porch with a glass of somethin’ civil, starin’ out toward Waldron where the sun melts down slow as molasses. Dog’s snorin’, frogs are tunin’ up, and I swear you can hear the whole island settlin’ in for the night. Ain’t a rush to it. Ain’t supposed to be. I been places that moved faster, talked louder, paid better — but none of ‘em felt half so right. This here’s good livin’, the kind that don’t brag on itself. Just sits quiet and waits for you to notice.
Bae, that's was awesome. You've a good ear for that dialect. We moved to NC from the West Coast and we've learned some new word usage we really enjoy. "bless your heart" "Fixin'--yep here that one quite a bit. "Young-uns" for children. "Shut the light" for turn off the light. "Dit-dot" and "ding-bats" for folks from "off" who don't know their rear from a hole in the ground....and feeling "mommicked" if being annoyed by something or somebody. If really, really pissed of by something, then you'd be "pure-T mommicked." There's quite a bit of archaic old English in some of our isolated NC "Downeast" fishing villages that were isolated for so long before bridges were built.
OK, the AI Overlords are getting too good.
For fun just now, I translated a passage from a H.P. Lovecraft novel into Pitcairnese (a language spoken by ~50 people), which took some trouble to accomplish with the rhythm I was aiming for.
I then fed my result to the AI for translation... Just to see...
Kinda scary:
My query:
Can you identify this language and translate this quote? "Wi lib pon wan kwaiet ailan, wea ign’rans sleep lik wata. Roun’ wi, da blak si dem roal widout en’. An i’ no bin mean f’ wi gwen far — naw, no moa den da star dem."
Robotic Overlord's Response:
That passage is written in **Pitkern** (also called *Pitcairnese*), the creole language spoken on Pitcairn Island.
It blends **18th-century English** (especially West Country and nautical dialects) with **Tahitian** influences.
Here’s a translation into standard English:
> “We live on a quiet island, where ignorance sleeps like water.
> Around us, the black seas roll without end.
> And it was not meant for us to go far — no more than the stars.”
It’s a Pitkern rendering of **H. P. Lovecraft’s** famous line from *The Call of Cthulhu*:
> “We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.”
I grew up in San Antonio so Spanish or Tex-Mex was spoken everywhere. However, it was a summer stay in Mexico when I was 19 where I learned Spanish quickly to get by. I don't even understand how it stuck but to this day decades later, I comprehend and speak Spanish enough to get by if needed. "Fixin' to" was always used in my family growing up but I don't know where it came from. Ditto catty-corner and some other phrases no one seems to use anymore.
rosarugosa
10-28-25, 6:09am
Pinkytoe: Funny, we say "kitty-corner."
rosarugosa
10-28-25, 6:23am
Bae: I often study AI-generated photos to look for the clues that they are AI. I expect the day will soon come that there are no more clues, and that is worrisome.
catherine
10-28-25, 7:55am
I'm getting closer to abandoning FB and social media altogether because it's nothing but ads and AI-generated crap. A large percentage of the photos and videos are AI-generated and it's all getting harder to ignore. Every now and then there is something worthwhile, but is it worth having to dig through all that junk?
I have wondered how much of the movies and TV series are computer generated or AI (if there is a difference). So far the acting is probably close to real, but I suspect the actors are in front of green screens and backgrounds and settings are digital. It seems especially obvious in period pieces with buildings or auto that mostly not longer exist. It a good case for the older movies, I think.
rosarugosa
10-29-25, 6:33am
Catherine: I access FB almost exclusively on my laptop. I have an extension that I added called Fluff Buster Purity: https://www.fbpurity.com/
Despite the ridiculous name, it is a pretty wonderful thing and it filters out all of the ads, sponsored posts and suggested pages. It's free, but they ask that you consider a donation (which I did, as the product is well worth it). You set your own parameters for the things you want to filter out. When I do look at FB on my phone, I can't believe how much it sucks in comparison. It's like a night and day difference. I mostly just access FB on my phone if I want to post something with a photo since it's easier.
Rosa, is that extension effective on YouTube?
iris lilies
10-29-25, 8:13pm
Rosa, is that extension effective on YouTube?
this doesn’t answer your question and I’m sure you don’t want to pay for YouTube premium, but I’m paying for YouTube premium and it is not cheap. It’s $13 and some change. The ads on YouTube were untenable.
That said, the ads that are embedded into the YouTube video are ones you can’t get rid of. In other words, when Dave Ramsey does a promotion for one of his sponsors, you have to sit through the whole thing, although of course you can always fast-forward through it.
I watch a ton of YouTube so I guess it’s worth it but it’s quite a bit more expensive than some of the other services.
rosarugosa
10-30-25, 6:35am
Rosa, is that extension effective on YouTube?
No, it's just for FB, and unfortunately the developer has no plans to develop a similar extension for the mobile app. I find that odd, since I think most people access FB from their phones.
gimmethesimplelife
10-30-25, 8:25pm
About AI - something I find mid range offensive and extremely creepy - on my FB feed I have been getting Holocaust related posts (a subject that I have to this day lots of guilt regarding) with AI generated photos of victims and crowds about to be selected for labor or (no need to get gory here, you'all know what the "or" is). This to me is so disrespectful and creepy with a CAPITAL C. Ick. Just ick. I wish there could be some set of laws to govern how AI is used to reproduce images. I know this would be considered a violation of free speech and in direct opposition to much of what I stand for but in this one case, I make an exception. To me - it's just morally wrong to use AI to conjure up images of Holocaust victims. I'm sure you'all can think of other instances of AI generated photos that are just creepy and disrespectful, no?
Does anyone see my point or am I once again on the Island of Misfit Toys? (My words, no one has said this nor implied this, and it's mostly an attempt at humour.) Rob
rosarugosa
10-31-25, 6:26am
About AI - something I find mid range offensive and extremely creepy - on my FB feed I have been getting Holocaust related posts (a subject that I have to this day lots of guilt regarding) with AI generated photos of victims and crowds about to be selected for labor or (no need to get gory here, you'all know what the "or" is). This to me is so disrespectful and creepy with a CAPITAL C. Ick. Just ick. I wish there could be some set of laws to govern how AI is used to reproduce images. I know this would be considered a violation of free speech and in direct opposition to much of what I stand for but in this one case, I make an exception. To me - it's just morally wrong to use AI to conjure up images of Holocaust victims. I'm sure you'all can think of other instances of AI generated photos that are just creepy and disrespectful, no?
Does anyone see my point or am I once again on the Island of Misfit Toys? (My words, no one has said this nor implied this, and it's mostly an attempt at humour.) Rob
Rob, At least with the "reels" on FB, I see a very strong causal relationship between what I click on, and what shows up with more frequency on my feed. For example, after Charlie Kirk's death, I clicked on a lot of reels because there was such an uproar and I had never heard of him before (I wanted to hear instances of him speaking). So then my reel offerings were non-stop Charlie Kirk. I was able to modify this by clicking on more cat videos, lol, and not clicking on Kirk reels at all, so they stopped appearing. If I click on political reels, I get offered more of them, and if I click on cats, I get more cats. Cats are clearly the preferred way to go!
Because I use that Fluffbuster Purity extension, my non-reel feed just shows posts from my friends and the pages I follow.
iris lilies
10-31-25, 9:51am
About AI - something I find mid range offensive and extremely creepy - on my FB feed I have been getting Holocaust related posts (a subject that I have to this day lots of guilt regarding) with AI generated photos of victims and crowds about to be selected for labor or (no need to get gory here, you'all know what the "or" is). This to me is so disrespectful and creepy with a CAPITAL C. Ick. Just ick. I wish there could be some set of laws to govern how AI is used to reproduce images. I know this would be considered a violation of free speech and in direct opposition to much of what I stand for but in this one case, I make an exception. To me - it's just morally wrong to use AI to conjure up images of Holocaust victims. I'm sure you'all can think of other instances of AI generated photos that are just creepy and disrespectful, no?
Does anyone see my point or am I once again on the Island of Misfit Toys? (My words, no one has said this nor implied this, and it's mostly an attempt at humour.) Rob
Your “ one case” could grow to be the “one case “of other people and that’s how uneven laws and apparent disparity in justice happens. No.
As for your Facebook feed, who knows what you clicked on to get those images but they will probably go away soon enough.
A few years ago, I had a very weird feed of Muslim men from Arabic speaking countries coming into my feed. They all had friendly faces and some of them were petting cats. It was so weird. It was probably generated from me hitting a few cat images.
I read later that this is a recruiting tool of radical Islam jihadists. They lure young people in with their friendly faces and seeming cat affection.
gimmethesimplelife
10-31-25, 10:34am
Your “ one case” could grow to be the “one case “of other people and that’s how uneven laws and apparent disparity in justice happens. No.
As your Facebook feed, who knows what you click on to get those images but they will probably go away soon enough.
A few years ago, I had a very weird feed of Muslim men from Arabic speaking countries coming into my feed. They all had friendly faces and some of them were petting cats. It was so weird. It was probably generated from me hitting a few cat images.
I read later that this is a recruiting tool of radical Islam jihadists. They lure young people in with their friendly faces and seeming cat affection.Don't drop dead of shock, IL. I agree with you here. My one exception likely would grow and who knows how far and how fast. I still.hold these Holocaust related AI images are morally wrong - but I do agree with you. Rob
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