Multi-lingualism

[Deejax]

Originally posted by philip: and you didn't even mention awful translations from english to dutch. i read the first 4 harry potter novels in dutch and the 5th in english and i like the english one much more. the translations are not so awful for the first 4 imo, but the computer game sounded really stupid when i played in dutch, i immediately restarted in english.

I think an important aspect of learning english is that in holland tv-shows are always aired in their original language. Also most news programs use sub-titling when an interview with a foreigner is shown. So if you want, you can hear what (s)he's saying and not the interpretation/summary of the presenter.

One note about the sub-titling: with many sf/ff shows the sub-titling is terrible. It's like someone who doesn't like sf/ff and works of a poor transcript did the translation. Terrible. *shudders*

[Bungleau]

Best language teacher I ever had... McMullen. An Irishman (Belfast native) who taught French and Spanish at my high school.

During my final year, one day each week we divided the class into two teams and played Trivil Pursuit... in French, of course. Learned lots of conversational language as part of it, and had fun, too.

Final side note, from an American who speaks a couple of other languages... based on my extremely large sample size (okay, four professors), I have found that American-born language instructors tend to stress reading and writing, while European-born instructors tend to stress speaking and listening. Personally, I have a lot more time to think when I'm reading and writing, so the European approach (if there is such a thing) is much more useful in my book.

And that helps justify playing Trivial Pursuit in school, too... [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[Cloudbringer]

My High School required students to take one language for at least two years and the options were Russian (which I took), Spanish, French. They also offered Latin (which I also took), but it didn't count toward the requirement.

Here in NY state they now require the equivalent of two semesters of language knowledge for graduating from State universities and most High Schools and many lower schools have languages available or required for their students. Granted they should really start the kids off in 4th or 5th grade (9 or 10 yrs old) and continue, but that's rare, as local schools often have financial considerations and difficulty affording/finding language teachers at that level.

[Bungleau]

And my daughter started learning Spanish in kindergarden... [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

It's a lot easier earlier on than it is later on...

[Nanobyte]

And it's good too, that so many here are bilingual. I've been told that people who do speak more than one language tend to have a higher self-esteem than those of us who don't.

[Xen]

Well I can speak,erm... type... no wait speak...(somebody throws a rotten tomato)...*off with you jerk!*...

Erm... anyhow i can speak/write English very well,becuase i am learning it from when I was seven years old. Here in High School I am learning Italian and I am quite good at it,but still i prefer English! [img]graemlins/doh.gif[/img]

[Black Baron]

I know english well (ignore my sp mistakes, in other forums i post much better {and i tend to write fast} Dunno why) only because i liked terry pratchett. i finally when all the hebrew translations had been read i started to read him in english. here english is taught- but Badly. With a capital b.

[Lord Lothar]

Growing up in Pakistan, my first language was Urdu though I learned how to read and write English around the age of 3. I come from a well-educated family where everyone speaks fluent English so I can communicate excellently in both English and Urdu though I find English a better language because of the enormous vocabulary of words in it. I'm also taking French which is really easy to learn but I don't think I'm ever going to use it in my later life.

[Melusine]

Wow, Lord Lothar, I had no idea you were from Pakistan! I'm just starting to write an essay on a novel that plays in Pakistan, and is about a sort of Pakistan, with thinly-veiled references to real life events in that country. It's truly engrossing!!

Anyway, I'm trying to get my English up to near-native speaking, which I think is actually a requirement for the grade I'm trying to obtain. As far as reading goes, I think I can read equally well in English as in my mother tongue Dutch (and I mean read anything, not just trashy fantasy novels, but reading on an academic level). As for writing, I'm slowly getting there, but speaking English is still a bit harder. Maybe if I can work things out to do an MA somewhere in the UK, it will improve.
I can read German almost as well as Dutch, but I've gotten rusty in speaking it. Oh and I can read some French, wrestled my way through an interview with Eco and some pages of Camus recently but that's about as far as that goes - I've gotten immenselyrusty there too.

[Vaskez]

Hmmm, although Hungarian was my first language I cheated by moving to England so I suppose it'd be a bit embarrassing if mmy english wasn't on a native level
Also speak the little bit of German I have retained from taking it at school and college. In UK everyone has to learn French first (well in my school we did) and then either carry on with French or start German (which I did) but there is no requirement beyond GCSE (age 16) to learn any languages.