Poll of the Week: Foreign Languages

[SarahS]

How many languages do you speak? Vote in our poll!

[jocap]

School girl French, but it soon comes back to you, which is good because we entertain guests from out twin town.
The more we visit Germany, Spain and Greece, the more we seem to understand....Italy is similar to Spain, so you can work out the written meanings.
It's when there's a different alphabet that we get stumped. My OH is very good at languages, and once translated a long poster in the Greek alphabet for me. I was suitably impressed.
Ages later, he showed me the English translation underneath......

[LSKahn]

I speak French fairly well although not 100% fluently. I also studied Russian briefly in high school and used it with some success in Latvia last summer. I get along in German, Spanish and Italian. Before going anywhere where I do not know the language, I review or learn with Pimsleur. I have the Mandarin Chinese and some day I vow to do it but it hasn't happened yet. I will be reviewing Spanish next because I have a home exchange in Spain next summer and one in Costa Rica in November 2013.

Pimsleur will not make you fluent but it does help. I did Turkish before going to Turkey. I did not get through all the lessons but I got through lesson 23 out of 30. I play the lessons in the car. You play them over and over until they lock in and then move to the next lesson. Even that small amount of Turkish helped a lot. Of course, when I came home I forgot everything, but I still have the lessons if I ever go again.

[soliteyah]

My high school Spanish is fading fast, though I can usually read signs and sputter out a few key phrases. Otherwise I'm pretty terrible at languages. I do try to learn a few basics before I travel.