What foreign language do you enjoy hearing spoken? My favorite is German, because it sounds so Mechanical, like a complex, good-running Machine. The gears are meshed and the levers and links are connected, producing a nice, firm effect! "es klingt nett zu mir" Engineer Hal
Are you of German heritage, Hal? I like hearing most languages; it's fascinating that there are so many.
My heritage is Austrian on my Dad's side...his father was born in Vienna, Austria. (Wien, Osterreich) Dad always favored anything German, and my preference followed. My Mother was born in Poland, but is of Ukrainian heritage. Hal
I applaud you, Al! I took Spanish in High School and was soon appointed president of my Spanish Class. German was not offered at my H.S. or I would have taken 4 semesters of Deutsch. Harold
To me, French is just the prettiest language. I mean, a person can say anything in French and it sounds sexy. I can speak a good conversational Hebrew. However, when people have a heavy Israeli accent while speaking English, that accent is somewhere towards the bottom of my accent preferences. Sort of down around Russian accents. I don't notice a German accent as much when people speak because I grew up with my mom having one. The mix between German and Yiddish was interesting.
Your Spanish class had a president?? I never had any individual class that had officers. I had 4 years of French and 2 of Spanish. I can read and mostly understand both but never attempt to speak them.
I like the Scandinavian languages, but I grew up with people speaking Swedish, although I never learned the language. German is pretty easy to follow, with some help from captions. As for French, the guys sound gay and the women sound like hookers.
Yeah, Beth...Miss Barlow, our Spanish teacher, DECIDED that we should have a President, and the class named me by acclaim. I started off the class meetings by saying "Atencion, clase...en sus libros, pagina numero XX, por favor." (XX=page number) Hal
German sounds authoritarian...probably reviving memories of Nazis seen in the movies. I know enough Spanish to understand most of it if spoken slowly, but rapidly it's just a bunch of syllables running together. Arabic sounds like the speaker has a mouthful of marbles. Actually, English spoken by certain Brits can be enjoyable to this American ear. Sounds so sophisticated and knowledgeable. I'm sure that includes our British friends here.
I was just lurking on here and I wanted to add my languages... I spoke French before I spoke English because we lived in Quebec City which is primarily French speaking.. I went to an English school in Quebec City and spoke both English and French in the house.. Became perfectly bilingual.. After school, I went to Hebrew school to learn Hebrew.. I can read Hebrew but I can't speak it.. My Grandparents spoke Yiddish in their house, so I learned a bit of Yiddish as well, but I am not fluent in it.. They also spoke Romanian which I know nothing of.. Not a word.. After high school we moved to Montreal where I continued in both English and French making a living... I was a commercial investment consultant for years and years using both languages, English and French...
Maybe you could teach us a few words of the French language @Steve North maybe make up a little game where you post a word and we have to guess ( without looking it up ) what it means