Learning foreign languages

[Jennifer Steadman]

Which foreign languages do you know? Which ones would you like to know?

I learned French and Latin at school (was pish at French, good at Latin) and have just started learning Russian on Duolingo. Would like to learn Spanish and Serbo-Croatian. I reckon I could probably learn Spanish fairly easily, but struggle with the others. We'll see.

[Gavin Chipper]

I have GCSEs in French, German and Latin. Don't get me started on GCSE languages though - to cut a long story short, English is the only language I have any useful knowledge of.

[Mark James]

Did beginners German for two years in college just as a supplementary subject. Fairly basic stuff and I got Bs in my exams yet I can't remember most of it. Wish I could speak more languages, I just reckon I don't have the brain for it. Did French in secondary school and hated it. German was much more interesting and much easier to learn in my opinion. Just a shame I haven't retained it.

[Matt Morrison]

Did a year of half-German of which I can remember practically nothing other than a few numbers and "ich koche" for obvious reasons.
Must've been Year 9 where we all (I think, maybe it was a choice) did German and French and then chose which to do for GCSE level the next year.

I chose French and managed to pull out an A, despite a pretty ridiculous moment during the final oral exam when the French teacher tried to help prompt me to talk about holidays, which would have resulted, to the unseeing listener, in about four minutes of silence followed by an au revoir.

My French is ok enough to feel comfortable ordering some basic shit from restaurants and bars, basic directions, that kind of thing. No doubt my two most used phrases in France are still "Parlez vous anglais?" and "Je nes comprendes pas" though.

[Ben Wilson]

Did French for 3 years at school, German for 2 years, Russian for 3 (including GCSE). regret not taking French or German further, but in my defence my teachers were bloody awful. From work I've managed to absorb a little Polish through osmosis, and from various other interests a little Japanese (spoken only) though I couldn't hold a conversation in any of the languages mentioned in this post.

[James S Roper]

I could probably hold a short conversation in Spanish, although due to not really studying it anymore that's likely to not be a possibility for me in the near future...