Lanuage or not.

[Gxc]

If you are in school and take a language or know a lanuage that you took in school what was it or what is it? im taking latin at the moment i guess its alright..spanish sounds like its much more fun.. but what about youz guyz?

[Melusine]

Well, I envy you! I'd much rather take Latin than Spanish, and I haven't learned either in school. I've tried to pick up some Latin over the years though, and though my grammar knowledge is very sketchy indeed, I do recognise some words, and am hoping to teach myself more in the future. Of course Spanish has many practical possibilities when you live in the USA, but to me Latin has always held a great attraction.

Anyway, I took six years of Dutch (my mother tongue), English, German and French when I was in school, and the order in which I put them is also the order of how fluent I am in them.

[Aelia Jusa]

Latin is really great for being a better English speaker. Part of the reading and spelling program I am developing as part of my research will incorporate a latin/greek component because they is so useful in understanding and being able to manipulate and produce English morphology. You should be really pleased that schools are still offering what is incorrectly referred to as a 'dead' language. Apart from the obvious benefits of being able to read the original latin versions of ancient texts as well .

I learned Chinese in primary school, and French in high school. Neither was taught with any direction or consistency and subsequently I am rubbish at both. We're not really committed to second language learning in Australia, which is partly understandable because there is no obvious first choice (unlike in non-English speaking countries) so no uniform curriculum. But also disappointing because being functionally bilingual is a real asset.

[aleph_null1]

Yeah, I was forced by the evil nuns to study Latin back in the day... and it has come in useful (though don't tell them )

I lived in Caracas for nearly a year with my SO, so I'm now "studying" Spanish in college because they're easy 'A' classes & the getting the minor will be a piece of cake.

I'm taking a handful of Italian classes now to, trying to eat up these HUM/SS (humanities / social science) electives I've gotta take. It's splendidly easy [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Bungleau]

I actually majored in French and minored in Spanish at university... which naturally explains why I work with computers [img]smile.gif[/img]

I speak English fluently as my mother tongue, French mostly fluently, Spanish enough to get by, and German enough to get beer. And sign language, too... American sign language, that is.

And I've been all but humiliated in countries where I didn't know the language. Trying to get a simple bottle of water in Poland... no such luck. And getting that plane ticket changed? Not a chance

[Lauren]

Well I did 5 years of French, didn't really take much of it in though I was too distracted trying to get my pronounciation right.

[Hivetyrant]

well I learned german for a while, and have always wanted to continue it, but my school doesnt do it, unless I do a correspondance course (which is expensive!)

[Kakero]

When I was in Malaysia. I studied in Chinese Schools in both my primary and secondary school. There I learn Chinese, Malay and English plus Kadazan language as an extra. After school time, I got to learn Japanese language as well during night time. As you can see, I'm very pre-oocupied during my primary and secondary school years. When I got to Pre-U, I choose to pick up Korean language. Don't know why, I just felt like it.

The advantage? I can visit most east asian contries and speak to the locals. For example when I was in China people was very suprise to see a "yap pun yan" who can speak potunghua.
Also, It helps a lot when I'm working as well. The company always sent me to China, South Korea, Taiwan , Indonesia, Brunei etc etc to take care of companies bidded projects and to liase with the local government people. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Azeral]

I did japanese until year 10 and then I lost intrest. I wish i had kept doing it.

[Cloudbringer]

In High School I had Latin and Russian. Got to university and continued the Russian and took a smattering of German.

I really enjoyed my Latin classes and the teacher added a little culture and history to the curriculum so we read plays in the original and learned a little bit about Rome while we conjugated verbs.