4/26/20 Tower of Babel
10What do you call someone that speaks many languages?
Poly-lingual
What do you call someone that speaks 3 languages?
Tri-lingual
What do you call someone that speaks 2 languages?
Bi-lingual
What do you call someone that speaks 1 language?
American
As I have mentioned in the past my parents are both immigrants from France who arrived through Ellis Island in Nov 1951. As such, I grew up speaking French at home in St. Louis, and learned English from the local kids I hung out with, in order not to pick up Mom and Dad’s French accent.
In Jr High, we had an option to take French or Spanish. I picked Spanish… In Sr High it was French, Spanish or German… I picked German. Kids I hung out with questioned my sanity, “But you could get A’s in French why not take that??”
I’m not sure they were fully convinced when I said: " hey, I made A’s in Spanish and German, and I learned something that might be useful…someday"
Fast forward to about 2002, when I am leading a student tour with my wife and we had booked ourselves into a hostel in Rome. This is our first tour in Rome, and I figure that at a youth hostel, they will most likely speak at least some English and with my limited Italian we will work it out. We show up, ring the bell, and the person on duty says…
Girl: Parla Italiano?
Me, un po, Do you speak English?
Girl: NO, você fala português?
Me: No, Parlais vous francais?
Girl: No, Habla Espanol?
Me… Si!
So, in a hostel in Italy, dealing with a hostess from Brazil with a group of American students I conducted our business for the next week in Spanish. That’s why I took Spanish in school!
How about you?
Do you know any other languages?
Are you fluent?
Passable?
- 5 comments, 13 replies
- Comment
Oddly enough you are the second person I “know” that used their Spanish skills in Italy to get by!
BTW where did you go to high school
@tinamarie1974 Hazelwood High School. Back in the day when it was one “E” shaped school with a 1/4 mile long front hall!
@chienfou Ah! I have a bit of family in Hazelwood.
My alma mater has grown quite a bit since I was roaming the halls. As part of our 20 year reunion we were allowed to visit the campus for an organized tour. The footprint has completely changed and our theater and gym are now the “small” ones. I was much further south than you,
@tinamarie1974 Actually lived in Florissant but that was zoned for Hazelwood school district.I thnk my grad class was over 2K. Not sure since I left at the end of my first semester of my senior year and moved to France for 7-8 months.
@chienfou I think you traded up
@tinamarie1974 Mais oui ma chère.
English is my first language, and I’m sort of halfway fluent in Spanish; I grew up in Florida just as a zillion Cuban refugees fled Castro. We had TV language lessons starting in 1959. I took a job in Sicily, and you’d think one Latin based language would help with another. Nope. On a work trip to Spain with Sicilian co-workers, one asked a Spanish waiter for some burro (butter). The waiter said that they didn’t have any burro but his uncle had a mule, and smirked. I asked for mantequilla, and translated the rest of the time. The Sicilians discussed the waiter’s ancestry, in Sicilian, but I didn’t translate that. I took a couple of semesters of French before that, and my father spoke a little German. I find that once I’ve been in a country for a few days, the mind sort of shifts gears and I can understand local speech. Street signs and such are much easier. I do speak fluent formal governmentese.
I am a pure bread American, so I only really speak the Oklahoman dialect of American (I don’t claim to speak English).
That being said, I took high school Spanish and I still have quite a bit that stuck to me. Well, quite a bit is a relative term, not at all enough to be anywhere close to being able to converse.
@jst1ofknd “Pure bread American” – would that be sliced whole wheat?
@jst1ofknd @phendrick I believe that would be Wonder Bread…
certainly NOT WW.
@chienfou @jst1ofknd @phendrick
/giphy wonder woman
@jst1ofknd @phendrick @tinamarie1974 well that went sideways quickly…
@phendrick
@chienfou is correct. I’m about the color of typical Wonder Bread.
@jst1ofknd @phendrick but the beauty of that is that you can get virtually any color by applying a toaster…
@chienfou @phendrick
I’d be lying if I said I never thought about climbing into a person toaster, if only to see what it’s like.
@chienfou @phendrick
/youtube All toasters toast toast
Badly know Spanish (6 yrs K-12, 4 yrs college, yet still not good then and 25+ yrs later forgot most) and 1 semester ASL in college. So just 1 language.
My pen pal was from Wales so fluent in English, Welsh and Spanish. After HS she and a friend went to Spain for vacation and she met a German guy who also spoke Spanish, so they dated speaking Spanish for months. She started learning German, they married, and within 5 years of when they met, she was fluent enough to get a job in Germany as a secretary. I am always envious of her, and others I meet who are fluent in English as their 2nd language, and mad at myself I didn’t try harder.
Polyglot
Learning a second language can actually make the third easier. Even if not related
Had a friend years ago, was from Germany and lived in England (so German and English English) Also spoke Russian and enough Korean to teach a class in Korea, yes really