What language do you speak at home?

[drk]

My mother tongue is English, but DH and I speak German at home (he's German). I don't know that we're doing the right thing for our daughter, but I speak some English and some German with her, and only German when DH is around. Our Filipino nanny speaks English with her. I'm hoping to send her to French immersion when she goes to school. My German is fluent from 4 years in high school, plus 2 years in university, and 5 years living there.
I have pretty good French. We lived in France for a year when I was 10, and I wanted to go to the local French school. Started in Sept, by Nov was speaking just fine. I did high school French immersion French and have a bilingual secondary school diploma. Since I haven't really spoken French in years (apart from while on vacation), it's pretty rusty.
I have some Spanish after 2 years studying it in university and some business trips to Spain. Because of the French and Spanish, I can understand some Italian, but can't speak it.

Interesting thread!

 

[elrohwen]

Only boring English, I'm afraid. I took Spanish in high school, but my memory of it is very poor. About the extent of my ability is reading menus in French, Spanish, German, and a little bit of Portuguese.

I also took a year of Welsh in college, which was fantastic. I probably remember more of that than Spanish at this point, just because it was more recent, though I'm pitiful at that as well. I always said I would work my way through Harry Potter in Welsh, but forgot most of the language before I got around to it. Languages are not my thing! I also learned some Old English, but of course that's completely useless unless you want to read Beowulf in the original (which I have, to some extent )

 

[dragonfly411]

Redneck.

HA ditto.


I actually wish I had someone to speak Spanish with so that I could practice more. I plan on becoming fluent in that and Italian, and hopefully either German or Japanese. I want to at least learn some speaking in French as well.

 

[charbie]

I speak English at home.
I was an exchange student in Switzerland, and so I learned German fluently, tho it isn't to great anymore. Get this: my Swiss host family would speak Spanish with the mother, Swiss German with the father, High German to me, and then sometimes English with me. We could have 4 languages flying around in the car!

 

[Trekkie]

This thread has been so cool - I have learnt so much about my fellow PSers!

 

[anchor31]

AGBF: Is the French Canadian pronunciation very different from the continental French? Here in South Africa we have many immigrants from the French and Belgian colonies who sound nothing like the French I was taught at school!

I'm not AGBF, but yes, very much so. Comparing France French and Canada/Québec French is like comparing UK English and US English. In extreme cases we can't even understand each other, which can lead to hilarity. The accent you've learned in SA is probably completely different as well!

anchor, you are far more qualified than I to speak about differences between Parisian and French Canadian French! French is your first language, not mine, and you-not I-are therefore more attuned to it!

I can only say that I have great difficulty in comprehending French as spoken by French Canadians. And, even more astoundingly, I have even failed-at first-to recognize French when it was being spoken by French Canadians!

I was once on a beach in Connecticut (in the USA) and I heard a woman speaking a foreign language. As always, my ears perked up as I tried to identify it. If I cannot at least identify it when I hear a foreign language (let alone eavesdrop on the conversation), I am greatly frustrated! Well, I couldn't identify this one. I started to wonder if it could be Russian (one of the languages I really don't know) when I heard the word, "mais". Well, guess what? It was French!!! And I am an idiot...which is the same word (more or less) in French and English! The Canadian accent just kills me. I cannot understand it!!!

Deb/AGBF

lol That's a great anecdote! I have to admit that the French do speak it with a "cleaner" accent. I totally understand why non French-speakers would have an easier time understanding them than us. It's a bit like my husband and English: he does okay with the sort of "generic" US accent, but throw in a southern accent and he'll go .

 

[Octavia]

Currently English, but I am learning Turkish and hopefully it will become our primary at-home language once I'm conversational. I took German in high school and remember a lot of words, but no grammar. Unfortunately, my foreign vocabs like to invade each other and make things difficult. I also took a couple years of Latin, but I don't know anyone who actually speaks that!

 

[bee*]

I have no idea what happened to my post
What I meant to say was:
We speak mainly Gaelic then English at home. My Italian & Spanish are fluent due to Portuguese Schooling, mother is Irish part Portuguese.
I can keep a decent conversation in Aramaic, as we have been doing business in their community for so long.

Ye speak Gaelic? Irish/gaeilge? I didn't know you were Irish! Or is it another Gaelic? Do you live in a gaeltacht? I wish my Irish was better, I didn't appreciate it at all in school.

Yes, I'm Irish. There are plenty of names for the same thing out there:
Gaeilge/Gaeilic/Gaeilig/Gaedhilge/Gaoidhealg/Goidelc/Gaedhealaing, etc are all the same thing, known as Irish lenguage branched from Celtic. Irish that use Modern Gaelic can pick Spanish/Latin/Italian much easier as their alphabet sounds are very close if not the same
I was born in Louisburgh [County Mayo] recognized as part of the The Gaeltacht, left 18 years ago but my grandparents still live in Connemara. We try visiting every other year
Back to regular programming......

God that's mad! I've lived here all my life and only know a handful of people here that speak it as the main language at home, much less someone that lives abroad and still speaks it! But I don't live near a gaeltacht. That's so interesting that ye kept it up for so long. Are your kids and husband gaelgoirs too? Gaeilge is the main term we use for Irish but you're right about the other names in certain dialects sometimes. I just wasn't sure if you were referring to Scots/Welsh/Irish gaelic.

I'm actually heading up to Connemara for a daytrip this weekend! If I see your grandparents I'll say hi

Ok sorry, end threadjack! I've just never come across a gaelgoir outside of Ireland before, this is really interesting

Yeah, major threadjack..sorry!
DH is from County Donegal but almost everyone in the family has immigrated to Canada [Prince E Island] where we met. The lenguage is dying on my side but so natural between us two. DD is pretty good and currently taking Spanish in school. The baby is just too young, if they decide to quit at one point, I'll be fine with it...at least they will be well prepared for 3+ similar lenguages, no excuses.
Hope yo enjoy Connemara this weekend, I'm so envious!

Lá maith, Ninna
ETA: Hi Trekkie

How funny, about ten years ago my family and I went on a road trip from Toronto (where my aunt lives) to PEI, and somewhere along the way we stopped and were amazed to hear everyone speaking with an Irish accent! I can't remember the name of the place, I'll have to ask my parent, but apparently there's a full blown gaeltacht there, and even a GAA club! It was mad!

Anyway, this has been very interesting, but I'll end the threadjack now. Táim ag dul a chodladh, bhí sé ina lá gnóthach inniu, agus arís amárach. Beidh mé taitneamh a bhaint as Connemara má ghabhaim, cinnte!
Lean ar aghaigh gach duine!

That's crazy! I've forgotten so much of my Irish from school. That's amazing that there is a gaeltacht over there. We go and stay i the gaeltacht every summer for a week in Kerry and it's great to hear only Irish around us.
We speak English at home and occasionally if we don't want anyone to understand what we're saying, we'll speak in Irish.