Sarah's Scribbles by Sarah Andersen for June 25, 2020

I speak a little bit of high school taught German and Spanish. Let’s just say I’m not good at it…

I’ve tried learning various languages. I’ve had a hard time sticking with them enough to even get CLOSE to the “getting by” point. XD;

(Still really fun, though. =3)

Most babies have the capacity to learn the language they are immersed in. Polyglots usually come from countries or situations where several languages are spoken. As you get older, it becomes more and more difficult to learn a new language. My University required all Ph.D candidate to have proficiency in at least two languages. A friend of mine failed to get a passing score in Spanish and therefore he argued to the professors that FORTRAN, a computer language, should be considered a second language. They wouldn’t budge.

I only speak two languages, but I do enjoy reading Shakespeare in both of them. I’ve found that a translation into a language can create new, exciting phrasings that a native speaker wouldn’t create. Of course, not all of them are aesthetically pleasing… Cervantes in Swedish is beautiful, but Scholastic kids’ books (like Goosebumps or Nancy Drew: Girl Detective) just give rise to endless “People do not talk that way!”

Many years ago, my grandfather gave me a set of Spanish classical stories. He did that so I wouldn’t forget the language. And I never did!!

I sound like “all your base are belong to us” when I speak Spanish, and I acknowledge it. That said, my cleaning lady appreciates the effort (and not having to fumble with Google Translate on her phone). I also worked for Santa last Christmas and stumbled through a conversation with a Spanish-speaking family that wanted pictures with him. Kept apologizing for only having taken two semesters of Spanish 25 years ago, but they were so grateful, they bought the most expensive package and also tipped me.

I only have 1 comment to this. XD.

Learning spanish screwed up my english. Took several years to undo the damage.

Still, three languages is really impressive. I have been trying to learn Japanese for 20 years and I still suck at it.

What do you call a person who can speak four or more languages?

A polyglot

What do you call a person who can speak three languages?

Trilingual or European

What do you call a person who cans two languages?

Bilingual

What do you call a person who can only speak one language?

American

If my reality equaled my expectations, O the places I’d go…

To be fair asking yourself in wich language to read Goethe next is pretty stupid you either read it in German or your own language.

I tried learning Japanese, but I eventually flunked out. Minisan konichiwa past me

my first language is english, I take spanish in school, and I’m trying to learn Korean

English is my first language but I’ve been learning french since I was 6 so I’m as fluent in French as I am in english