Last night I ordered something from a French website. I couldn't find an "English" button, so I was forced to rely on my very rusty knowledge of French.

This, together with my recent trip to Portugal and Belgium has reinforced one of my convictions -- that we should be encouraging students to take more languages rather than less.

Here's a question for all of you (two actually):

1. What languages do you have?
2. How important do you think being bilingual/multilingual is today?

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1. I speak English fluently. I was a foreign exchange student in Mexico before Rockmolder was born, and lost a lot of Spanish. I'm no longer fluent. I can read some French and use the French option on the ATM. I think French is one of the more beautiful languages out there. I can't speak it though.

2. If English is your native language, realistically, it's not important whatsoever. Everyone speaks English. You can get around in Asia and Latin America speaking only English. Everyone wants American money. They'll try their damnest to speak English to you. That is reality and anyone offended by that, tough. I'm not even talking about the touristy parts. I'm talking the whole shebang. Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong, India, etc., you don't have to speak one word of their respective languages if you speak English.

The only trouble I had was in New Zealand. Every once in awhile, you get these weirdos with strange accents where I can't understand one word they're saying. English people need to learn to speak American English better. 😉

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I only speak English, and that's debatable if you read my posts.

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Lets see..

VB
VB.net
C++
C++ .Net
C#
SOAP
COBOL
Apple Basic
ASP
RPG...

Wait.. oh never mind.. lol...

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LOL. Yes, you and I have had at least one heated argument over a misunderstanding because of your "English" abilities. ;)

Pack - learn UNIX. You'll make a heck of a lot more money (and have a heck of a lot less headaches).

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I know English. I took one course of German in high school.. Every other kid took 4 foreign language classes throughout the 4 years of high school.

So, I know VERY little German.. although when reading it I can figure out most simple stuff.

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I'm waiting to hear Rourke's list. I know he speaks German and Latin in addition to better English than I speak.

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I hope this is English I'm speaking.

I went to a Japanese camp for a month when I was younger and learned a bit of Japanese there but nothing amazing.

I took Spanish from kindergarten-11th grade so about 12 years. I've never actually had to use it in a conversation however. I can definitely pick apart words and understand most sentences but I can't do it fast lol. Most people who speak Spanish speak it to quick for me to completely comprehend what they're saying.

I was going to go that route, but figured nah ... lol




I can admit my faults, lol. 🙂 (kind of hard not to I suppose)

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i have a 7th grade level knowledge of spanish, then i failed it

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