# American native English speakers: what other languages have you studied formallyt? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 21, 2015, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-native-english-speakers-what-other-languages-have-you-studied-formallyt/732138 "2015-09-21T18:45:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-native-english-speakers-what-other-languages-have-you-studied-formallyt/732138/61 "2015-09-23T16:27:14Z")
In addition to German and Latin in school, I learned to speak Indonesian when I lived in Jakarta. I also know about 50 words of Korean. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-native-english-speakers-what-other-languages-have-you-studied-formallyt/732138/62 "2015-09-23T17:35:54Z")
> [@picker](#): > > I didn’t see an option for Welsh. > > Also, French and Latin. Picked up Italian while stationed there, but it’s all mostly gone now. > > Bydd Cymru yn codi i drechu’r Skald drwg! I swore off threatening and slandering Welshmen. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-native-english-speakers-what-other-languages-have-you-studied-formallyt/732138/63 "2015-09-23T17:37:37Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > I am the one who checked “Gaelic,” because I have taken Scottish Gaelic classes, but I assume you meant Irish Gaelic? > > I didn’t count languages I’ve studied on my own, per your rules, but my Italian is much better than at least three of the languages I’ve studied formally. I meant Scottish Gaelic. I meant to include Irish Gaelic but it got edited out by accident, just like Cantonese. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-native-english-speakers-what-other-languages-have-you-studied-formallyt/732138/64 "2015-09-24T02:03:30Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > German and Thai. I see Spanish is in the majority in the poll. Myself, I specifically avoided studying Spanish, because I was convinced I would be stuck in Texas if I did. Really. I studied German with an intention to have some sort of Germany- or Switzerland-focused career. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-native-english-speakers-what-other-languages-have-you-studied-formallyt/732138/65 "2015-09-24T03:19:19Z")
Couple of years of Spanish and Latin in high school, then one semester of Latin in college. The Latin is all gone, but I still have some very basic _¿Donde está el baño?_- level Spanish. When I vacationed in Mexico, I found I could puzzle out the labels in the museums and on the signs. In college, just for shits and grins, I took Biblical Hebrew - I was one of two _goyim_ in the class, and both of us took it through all three semesters. Can’t say I was ever fluent, but I could read the prose books of the Tanak - Genesis, Kings, Samuel. All gone with the wind, these days. > [@Shodan](#): > > German in high school, and I spoke it with my grandmother. I was almost functional in it, but not so much now. Two years of high school French, and one year of Koine Greek later on, so I could read the New Testament in its original language. The Greek was probably not fair - I know the NT so well that I can usually recognize a passage and work back and forth to puzzle out the Greek. The other non-Jew in my Hebrew classes was studying religion in preparation for entering a seminary, and he was fluent in _koine_ Greek. But he had an odd gift for languages - he had only taken two semesters of Hebrew before he started to dream in it. > [@](#): > > A professor of ancient Hebrew said that when he went to visit Israel, he could read the signs and newspapers OK, but people would laugh out loud when he tried to speak it. I got the same reaction when I tried to speak French the only time I was there. > > Regards, > Shodan My Biblical Hebrew professor told a similar story. He is an expert in ancient Semitic languages - Canaanite, Ugaritic, Akkadian, as well as Hebrew. But when he went to teach in Israel, the university made him take a class in conversational Hebrew. First he was given a placement test to determine what level he needed. Being perfectly conversant in Hebrew grammar, he was placed in the very highest level class. Where he quickly realized that he could barely understand, much less use, spoken modern Hebrew. He had to go back to the university and ask to be put in the beginner’s level. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-native-english-speakers-what-other-languages-have-you-studied-formallyt/732138/66 "2015-09-24T03:26:10Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > A professor of ancient Hebrew said that when he went to visit Israel, he could read the signs and newspapers OK, but people would laugh out loud when he tried to speak it. > [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > My Biblical Hebrew professor told a similar story. He is an expert in ancient Semitic languages - Canaanite, Ugaritic, Akkadian, as well as Hebrew. But when he went to teach in Israel, the university made him take a class in conversational Hebrew. First he was given a placement test to determine what level he needed. Being perfectly conversant in Hebrew grammar, he was placed in the very highest level class. Where he quickly realized that he could barely understand, much less use, spoken modern Hebrew. He had to go back to the university and ask to be put in the beginner’s level. This sounds like a lot of the Thai English teachers here who can’t speak English worth a damn. ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-native-english-speakers-what-other-languages-have-you-studied-formallyt/732138/67 "2015-09-24T12:15:21Z")
Spanish for three years in high school. Serbo-croatian and Dari - Short periods of training but in a formal environment. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-native-english-speakers-what-other-languages-have-you-studied-formallyt/732138/68 "2015-09-24T13:08:37Z")
Latin in high school, Classical Greek and Russian in college. Any others are self-taught. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-native-english-speakers-what-other-languages-have-you-studied-formallyt/732138/69 "2015-09-24T14:17:15Z")
ASL for four years (5th through 8th grades), Japanese for three years (ages 15-18 with a private tutor), Spanish (mostly South American dialects, two years at university). Fluent in none, but I can still communicate okay with ASL customers even now, if slowly, 28 years after I last studied. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-native-english-speakers-what-other-languages-have-you-studied-formallyt/732138/70 "2015-09-25T08:02:16Z")
French for all five years of elementary school, and Spanish for one semester in college. Learned about the same amount. ---
**Author:** ![ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryan)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-native-english-speakers-what-other-languages-have-you-studied-formallyt/732138/71 "2015-09-25T09:42:56Z")
Russian, in college for a semester. I still remember some vocabulary and a few phrases, but nowhere near fluent/literate. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-native-english-speakers-what-other-languages-have-you-studied-formallyt/732138/72 "2015-09-25T14:57:52Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > This sounds like a lot of the Thai English teachers here who can’t speak English worth a damn. Or me. I know I said I am not fluent in Italian, but in fact I can READ it. But to me fluency refers to understanding the spoken language and speaking it, and I’m a disaster at both. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-native-english-speakers-what-other-languages-have-you-studied-formallyt/732138.md?page=3)