Languages (was Re: [Sca-cooks] globetrotting)

[ana l. valdés]

Womderful with polygloths! I am as fluent in French as in English when I read
texts and when I speak then, but I am bad in syntax, helas! I am born in
Uruguay, the most cosmopolitan country in South America, we got all the
refugees and the inmigrants all other countries throwed away. My grandparents
were Italian and Spanish and I was raised by German nuns. They thought us
geography with maps from the Second World War and I worried all the time where
was France, Polen and Norway? In our maps it was only a big Germany in the most
of Europe....
Ana

Gorgeous Muiredach wrote:

> At 02:43 PM 5/19/2002, you wrote:
> >Ana, your scout in Outremer, said:
> > > Right, Philippa! I am always thinking in three languages actually :(
> > > Spanish, my first one, Swedish  my second one and English, the third
> > > language I use...
> >
> >Wow. Do you actually think in these languages? Or do you translate them
> >to Spanish?
>
> I don't know about Ana, but...  English is my fourth language.  French
> being my first, Greek my second, Italian my third.  I also am conversant
> (not fluent) in Sign Language, and can understand someone speaking *slowly*
> in Spanish!
>
> I think both in French and English, and at times it throws me for loops,
> because when I get tired, I apparently switch languages without thinking,
> nor realizing what I do...  My wife used to poke me in the ribs and tell me
> "in English please"...  And I'd be boggled, because I had no clue I'd
> stopped speaking English...
>
> I think fluency in other languages is wonderful, as it forces you to change
> your pattern of thinking.  When you reach a good solid point, where you are
> comfortable talking in the other language, you often have to change the way
> you think, as syntax is completely different.
>
> I should point out that it also boggles me the number of people in the US
> that are barely able to speak English, and no other language, when I look
> at Europe, where the majority of people know a couple languages, if not two
> and three...  But that's another topic entirely, and admitedly, a
> generalization :-)
>
> Gorgeous Muiredach the Odd
> Shire of Forth Castle (in transit)
> Meridies
> mka
> Nicolas Steenhout
> "You must deal with me as I think of myself" J. Hockenberry
>
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