The_Kincardine Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 Which part of Sutherland was your dad from? Not many speakers left there sadly. He was from Strathy, which I think is now part of Caithness but wasn't when he was wee. The more languages the better at an early age is definitely good too, studies regularly show that bilingual kids tend to do better all round than monoglots and find it easier to pick up more languages. If you can give your child another language then you should really try and do it. English is omnipresent anyway, my oldest daughter was fluent at a very young age despite never hearing it from her parents. Weans are absolutely brilliant at acquiring languages. What's the story about your older girl? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HTG Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 French still working ok after all these years. Could manage Germany ok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shiltrum Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 Probably passable French, little bit of German and Spanish. My Mrs speaks French fluently and a bit of German after living in both countries, so she tends to deal with everything when we travel. I'm sure it does when she has to call into the local nick and explain to pc plod the reason you have over indulged with the local sherbet's on offer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamthebam Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 Can anyone speak any fluently? And if so, how did you learn? I'm in the car a couple hours a day at the moment and fancy making the time worthwhile by learning one. Has anyone done this, any tips, and how long did it take until you could hold a conversation in the language? you need to speak a language every day and have something to aim towards. To be honest I've tried learning a few languages just to chat up pretty birds... the lads laughed at Shug taking Spanish lessons until the day that ground hopper from Paraguay turned up... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 He was from Strathy, which I think is now part of Caithness but wasn't when he was wee. Weans are absolutely brilliant at acquiring languages. What's the story about your older girl? Excellent, I know a couple of folk from up there. There is an excellent book about Sutherland Gaelic which was published recently that you might be interested in, one of the informants was from Strathy. There is a CD with the book. It's called Gaidhlig Dhuthaich MhicAoidh, The Gaelic of the Mackay Country and was put together by Seumas Grannd. We don't speak English at home. Our eldest is 5 and totally fluent in both languages for a while now. The younger one is two and has recently started throwing in random English sentences and is understanding more and more when people speak English to her. As you say, kids pick them up easily. There are those however who say that adults are just as good or better but that the way we have tried to learn languages as adults has often been flawed (the reading and writing approach) and held us back. I reckon there is plenty of truth in that, all of us learned our first language by being surrounded by it and speaking it rather than trying to read and write it first . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Kincardine Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 We don't speak English at home. Our eldest is 5 and totally fluent in both languages for a while now. T So don't tease us. What's the 'home' language? You do have passable English for a diddy...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 So don't tease us. What's the 'home' language? You do have passable English for a diddy...... Gaidhlig . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mizfit Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 I could speak enough french from school to get me by if I was to visit there. Wanted to learn Turkish for some reason, don't know why to be honest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newbornbairn Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 What's the point? Foreigners all speak English when you're not looking you know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
invergowrie arab Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 He was from Strathy, which I think is now part of Caithness but wasn't when he was wee. Weans are absolutely brilliant at acquiring languages. What's the story about your older girl? How people who pick up english from gaelic is fascinating. on the mainland it was mostly from the bible so my aunty nell from sutherland speaks about serpents rather than snakes when talking about the adders over the summer. she also would never say she is hungry but what a hunger is upon her. anything bad is upon you. what a tiredness/ hunger/ boredom is upon me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChineseMan Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 我不是真正中国人。我只说英语。 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tight minge Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 Learnt Spanish years ago, but forgotten loads of it, but probably could still get by. Went to night school classes for that. Can speak a bit of Hungarian having lived there for 6 years. I can read Cyrillic which I picked up in Russia as well as some basic phrases and know small bits of Turkish, Tagalog, Mandarin, German and Polish, but only enough to be pleasant which I picked up from living and working in these places. Really wish I could spend time to learn more and have more than just phrases. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Kincardine Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 Gaidhlig . Is it an interesting phenomenon or am I going off on one here, Waspie? When I was a wean in Motherwell in the 60s we had a fair few native Gaels who had regular Saturday night Cèilidhs - but only for the cognoscente. The rest of the world though it was weird. Now? It would be seen as cool. How people who pick up english from gaelic is fascinating. on the mainland it was mostly from the bible so my aunty nell from sutherland speaks about serpents rather than snakes when talking about the adders over the summer. she also would never say she is hungry but what a hunger is upon her. anything bad is upon you. what a tiredness/ hunger/ boredom is upon me. It happens much less now they are older but I'd regularly hear the likes of "Has their come blood?" after one of my weans skint their knee or "Can you spare my pudding?" - both of which literal Swedish translations. When we were living near Banchory my older girl was pals with a lassie with a French father and a Spanish mother. Her parents spoke to her in their own native tongue and she learned English at school. Lucky wer bassa, fit like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 I'd imagine that it's pretty similar to your own experience with Swedish , Kincardine. We are lucky also in that they plenty of wee friends and also cousins nearby in the same situation. It feels normal rather than a phenomenon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Connolly Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 我不是真正中国人。我只说英语。 Disgusting. Reported. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mordecai Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 I can speak French, Italian and Polish to a decent level...Know a bit of Spanish, but wouldn't feel comfortable having a conversation. Throughout my life I've lived in Poland for about 6 months (not consecutive) and as a result I can talk my way through most situations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mkregan Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 Struggling with English tbh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongTimeLurker Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 Have been surprised over the years how easy it is to start using French in Quebec and France based on a half forgotten O Grade level mastery of the language. Know some Japanese but far from fluent and a smattering of German and Serbo-Croat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ya Bezzer! Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 I've learned and completely forgotten Italian about three times now. It's one of those things you need to do every day or it just doesn't stick in your head. Since it's 4 years since I spent any time in Italy I'm currently in a 'completely forgotten' phase. The best ways to learn are get the basics and then read and speak to people. Kinda obvious I suppose. Watch TV or get a dictionary and basically go through a novel word by word. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamthebam Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 have you ever asked for a spit roast though....? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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