What IS the dirty little secret of multilingual people??

I was brought up in Scotland and have learned German, and I nowadays put quite a lot of Scots dialect words (it's quite different from English) and some German words into my spoken English when searching for le mot juste.

McTag -- I think the language-learning thing comes from the damndest places, is related to the damndest things. My mother's family named things with their own pet names, the one which always comes to mind is the one for garbage pail: "gudgy bucket." This is like dialect, and in fact dialect pervades language without our even noticing it. Language changes fast: If I were to drop back into one of the European countries I lived in, I'd find all kinds of new words, idioms. Older people living in their own culture find it difficult to communicate with the very young because their own language is changing daily -- like, you know, fuckit. Maybe one of the main reasons some people pick up languages better than others is their absolute need (I have this) to "read the landscape." For others, what's "out there" is not all that interesting in itself, and they only want to learn enough to know how where buy petrol and how to get to the shopping center...

Switching driving left/right is also related. My father, a very bright man and a great driver, HATED having to learn other languages. He had gone to Oxford as a kid, returned to live in Oxford in his sixties where drove tenaciously and carefully but insecurely, being unable to fully "translate" to the left. (Watch out for that American in the roundabouts!) I loved languages and never had a problem with that switch.

i must also agree with Craven. For many people lot depends on what your first language is. If it's English, too bad. You'll have harder time learning other languages, on average. I speak some 5 languages, never had to put much effort into any of them, in fact French was the only one i learned consciously, for I started in high school. Russian came naturally, it's a very similar grammar to ours although words are quite different and the danged alphabet is different, English i learned since I was a 9 year old, had terrific teachers, so I never had to think about it. My mom, on the other hand, the brightes of all creatures, has been learning English for some 30 years and still speaks about tomorrow in the past tense and such things. But with her determination she communicates and gets her point across, nothing will stop her.

I had had a pen-pal, ages back, living in German speaking Switzerland. His grandmother, living in the same house, was a born Wallonian Belgian, speaking nothing than French. His mother had been to a Flemish high school. His brothers went to school in Italian speaking Switzerland.

(High) German was the single language, which was the less to be heard in this house (they spoke Switzerduitsch - besides grandma).

I speak 4 languages. Persian, English, Norwegian and Swedish. Since Swedish and Norwegian are practically the same language, (Although Norwegians would argue that ) you might say I only speak 3 languages

Welcome to the forum, Mamahani.
I understand Persian is an indoeuropean language, and that it is troublesome for you to write and read it in the arabic alphabet. Am I correct?

Thank you fbaezer
Well, being brought up in Scandinavia, I've sadly forgotten how to write in Persian (or Arabic), and I now only speak Persian.

If I communicate with other Persians over the net, I do so with the Latin alphabet.

I do know this, that the Persian, striving to differ from the Arabs, adopted new letters into the Arabic alphabet, and then called it the Persian alphabet.

Many Persian nationalists want to return to the ancient Persian alphabets, which I do agree with. I think you might have a point fbaezer. But it might not be out of grammatical inconvinience it is troublesome to read Persian in Arabic alphabet, it's rather the fact that the alphabet is Arabic rather than Persian.

And yes of course, Persian is an indo-european language

Mamahani, I am pretty sure my Swedish husband would argue that, also!

For a real taste of this come to Montreal. Languages everywhere, on the streets and in the shops.

That's probably true!

My first language is French. Until I was 17, I couldn't speak good english. It took me to go to english school and to surround myself of anglophones to learn the language. So I would suggest to put yourself into an environment which forces you to learn the language you want to learn. It worked for me.

Welcome Ionesco. (love the plays ) I completely agree with you about learning a language - the only way to do it is immerse yourself.

This question just popped up again and I would answer slightly differently this time. The dirty little secret is enjoyment. I love learning languages, living in other languages -- it's a way of being another person!

Ionesco :


That's truth and work for me too. I can speak three Chineses languages, but i cannot speak well in English. Now, i study in Australia. I think my English skills are improved rapidly. In order to join the community, you are forced to learn, listen, speak other language. Suppose, this is the easiler and faster way to learn other language!!

Thanks for the warm welcome! I feel good in a ESL or language conversation because it's kinda the story of my life... I'm studying history at an english university in montreal.

Sozobes right. My stepsisters 4 yearold friend moved to Japan and learned the language in 2 months... she also speaks english french and italian

FOREIGN LANGUAGES - GERMAN
i know i can't ask you to do my homework, but .... here is my dilemma : i agreed (foolishly) to a friend's request to translate about a half-page of english text into german. it's to be used in a tourist-promotion program by a small community near kingston; they can't afford to pay for a proper translation and i was given the honour to do it (ha,ha). i quickly found out, that a straight word-for-word translation just won't do. so i had to use my imagination to do this (my wife - after reading my translation - told me that i used enough imagination to qualify as the next press-secretary for president bush - OUCH ! ). would it be permissable to post the english text and my translation and ask for comments, or is that too commercial for able2know ? please let me have your comments. thanks ! hbg.

hbg, If you're not promoting something, it's okay to ask about translations on A2K. I'll take responsibility.
lonesco, WELCOME to A2K. My wife and I were in Montreal during the first week of August for our pre-trans-Canada Train Tour. It was my second visit, but my wife's first. I took her to the old waterfront area, and the botanical gardens, my favorite places in Montreal.
FYI, a bunch of people from A2K are planning on a get-together in Toronto. You may want to look into it. I participated in a A2K London Gathering in March. There'a already been several in the US; Boston, Florida, New Mexico, and others are in the planning stages. One big one is in the planning stage for San Francisco for April 2004. We have about 19 people now showing interest.

c.i. : thanks ! walter has already contacted me and agreed to have a look at it. since it is kind of semi-commercial i.e. for the tourist organization of a small community, well keep it p.m. - unless someone wants to have a look at it. thanks ! hbg