Who speaks a foreign language ? even a little bit?

Question

Brits are famous not to speak foreign languages. is it true ?
remember, most of you have learnt french or german at school !

Qui parle le français ?
Chi parla l'italiano ?
Quien habla espanol ?

etc.

say it in broken french, italian, espanol...

gracias a todos, grazie a tutti, merci à tous , danke schone

Answer 1

All those illegal immigrants for a start.
I speak fluent French and German; I can get by in Turkish if I'm on my own. If accompanied by a native Turkish speaker who speaks English, French or German I clam up and the same goes for Spanish. As for a little bit, I can give a Chinese taxi driver an address, say 'hello' and 'how are you?' in several languages and order a beer anywhere in the world.
I once did a translation from Russian to English with a Russian speaking colleague. Basically she did the translation and I corrected her English, but when she went off to make herself a coffee she was amazed that I had made some progress with the text. (And Russian has a different alphabet)

Brits are ashamed of speaking foreign languages. At an international conference in Switzerland, I happened to be sitting next to a Brit. The first speaker spoke French and she offered me a spare headset, which I politely declined. The second speaker spoke German. My neighbour offered me the headset again. When I again declined, she looked at me as though I were from Mars and didn't speak to me again.
C'est la vie!

Answer 2

We're not necessarily lazy when it comes to learning foreign languages. There are reasons why it is often a problem.
1. There are at least 4 languages that we ought to learn, your examples + German. So which do we choose.
2. No continuity! My school offered modern languages. In the first secondary year we started German but in the second year the teacher changed and we started French.
3. Most other European countries only need to teach one 'second' language - ENGLISH.
4. Lack of opportunity! Many schools don't even offer a second language. (except in Wales where some schools offer English as a second language - Welsh being the first).
Consequently we don't need a foreign language most foreigners can get by in English.

Answer 3

Me. I can speak enough to get by in countries that speak German or French (read a local map, not go the wrong way on one-way streets, push or pull a restaurant door to open it, order what I want from a menu, get my laundry from the hotel valet, and discuss technical subjects with non-English speakers, etc). My accent stinks but my vocabulary is adequate for those tasks.

Does that mean I can never be a Brit?

Answer 4

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Answer 5

In high school I had spanish class for 3 years....learned some forgot most of it though. Living in italy now. I speak fairly well Italian. My father is Haitian so i understand French, and I was born in the Philippines and speak Filipino (Tagalog) fluently. So I suppose i can speak/understand 4 languages

Answer 6

I have just started a Spanish course. It is the third spoken language in the world. I learned French at school, but have forgotton most of it. Tried to learn Russian.
Everyone should learn languages, although English is the business language of the world, business people will be impressed and delighted if you can converse in their native tongue, even if you are at the learning stage, and it would look good on your c.v.

Answer 7

I can do a bit of french and a bit of german, but not always sure anymore if I am saying it right. At work most customers are from all over the world so I ask them and they have started asking me things in their language. So funny sometimes but it's like re-learning the easy way.

Answer 8

I speak 3 languages - besides my mother tongue, I speak English and some French. I wish I can speak more languages but at this point, have no time to learn them. I wish we are all born 'multilinguals' and that we have an innate ability to understand/speak all the languages in the worls. Wouldn't that be cool???

Answer 9

Ich Canst Deutche Sprechon

Answer 10

My first language is probably spanish. But I also speak fluent english and German. I want to learn french now, that's my next project.

Hablo español.
I speak english.
Ich spreche Deutsch.