How To Maintain Your Plurilingual Ability?
Hi, I'd like to know if there's any of you capable to speak more than 2 languages (which I'm sure there is
) and how do you maintain your skills? Do you have any language-blocked problem (I don't know the right term for this) but I do sometimes when at the same time I talk with friends from different nationalities then I have to switch it quickly to translate it to one another when they seem misunderstand of what other friend's saying. And one more question (just curious), is it possible for a headscarf woman to work in a multinational organization (such as UN) or international company as an interpreter 
? sometimes i doubt it... thanks. I also post this in 'Requests'.ah sorry, what I meant with language-blocked is... for example when you want to answer a question in English, but suddenly words come up in your brain is French or Italian, so that suddenly the only thing you can do is just opening your mouth without saying anything
because you only can remember that word in another language instead of the language you must answer with. Have you ever experienced that?It seems to be something that happens to people who learnt an extra language later in life. I have friends that have grown up bilingual and they do not seem to have that trouble
My own children seem to avoid that despite being so young (6 and 4)
I would have like to see the look in your students Patty lolI used to do this also... it's not neurotic at all! you give me great advice, thanks i think i'd better do it again
. it works effectively anyhow.
dinaGood to know that I'm not the only crazy person.
I grew up talking to the towels and washcloths while folding laundry to keep up my Norwegian skills. I also now tell my students to do that. It really does help. Putting labels on everything in your house while learning new vocabulary or if you don't remember a word is also helpful. Great question, request, hub, and conversation topic.
I'm definitely going to respond with a hub of my own, but want to think about what to write first.
- Zarm Nefilinposted 16 years ago
0I do not speak three languages, I play chess
Hope to learn three languages and join the tri lingual club! - Zarm Nefilinposted 16 years ago0
- Zarm Nefilinposted 16 years ago0
Anyone speak Amazon dialects?
On a more serious note, anyone here speak czech native tongue? If so what is the difference between that and polish or russian, I am curious. They are all different
There are all Slavic, and there are many similarly sounding words - but they often mean different things in different languages. I think if you compare English to French you get an ideaInteresting Misha.
That is pretty interesting, a helpful comparison because I know the difference between english and french.
- Zarm Nefilinposted 16 years ago0
Yes you are right, about language block, I speak bilingual Spanish/English, learned both very young. Then learned a smattering of Russian, took French classes in Spanish, and took Irish Gaelic in Ireland, and studied Portuguese for my job. It is funny I could always read Portuguese, and after tuning my ear a bit I understand it well if they speak slowly and avoid "modismos" but since I was grown when I started it I just can't make it come out, and to add to my laziness, most porto speakers can understand Spanish if you speak slowly and avoid "modismos".
- Zarm Nefilinposted 16 years ago0
I suppose it would have been better to say, if I were you I would make sure to get new movies and such that have a vocal and subtitle aspect that falls within your language needs. So for example, if you want to sustain your mandarin then go out and buy a jackie chan movie you have been wanting to watch for ages that has chinese and english as available language subtitles and as an available spoken script.
One could for instance, have the Chinese vocals on with english subtitles or vice versa. Or one could have Chinese vocals with Chinese subtitles.
Cheap and easy to do, and you have fun while your doing it!
I've only ever been fluent in one language, but I studied and was pretty good at Spanish, Russian, and Ancient Greek at one time. Nowadays I can get the gist of most written Spanish and most spoken Russian, but the Greek is functionally gone.
I've also had a smattering of Latin, French, and German, but not enough to really understand much beyond the most basic of interactions. I get a little more reading, but only because of the resemblences to English, Spanish or both.
My husband is genuinely trilingual - Russian, English, and a Central Asian dialect of Farsi - and he helps with the Russian, although we don't speak it around the house nearly as much as we should. There's a pretty healthy community of speakers of both non-English languages here, so he's able to keep it up that way, though he's been embarrassed by people back home telling him he's picked up a slight American accent. And even I have noticed that the longer people are over here, the more Anglicized their Russian becomes, in sentence structure, etc.
I've also picked up some of the Farsi by virtue of hearing it for 8 years, but I can't really speak it at all. Honestly, I don't think my tongue can make those sounds! It's very set in its ways, for being only 26.
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