# How many of Dopers can speak a foreign language, BY STUDYING IT **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 28, 2012, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-dopers-can-speak-a-foreign-language-by-studying-it/642414 "2012-11-28T23:04:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-dopers-can-speak-a-foreign-language-by-studying-it/642414/41 "2012-11-30T22:36:41Z")
I studied Spanish in high school for two years and then did not use it for more than fifteen years except for a brief trip to Cancun. Then during a vacation to Colombia I met the lady who would later be Señora Iggy. I found a traveler’s translation dictionary and managed to write a message asking her out. Over a few days I managed to stumble my way through enough Spanish to make a good impression. After vacation it was just emails and phone calls, though it was _very_ hard for me to keep up with conversations initially. That provided plenty of incentive to improve my Spanish. ---
**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:** [December 1, 2012, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-dopers-can-speak-a-foreign-language-by-studying-it/642414/42 "2012-12-01T12:09:13Z")
Zero. Studied Japanese and Spanish each for several years, and can’t do much in either. Lord knows how I ended up earning all As at university… perhaps pity on the part of the professors. Took ASL courses and practiced daily for years, and I’m barely above finger spelling. I learned English organically, and still have problems with specific grammar and punctuation rules. I have no idea what people are talking about when they refer to parts of speech, specific conjugations of verbs, or whatever. I sucked in elementary-school English classes save spelling and composition. I can research a usage rule and “get it,” but it never gets internalized. If I haven’t picked something up through osmosis by reading (which, frankly, is a haphazard way to put together a uniform standard of usage), I’m likely to be completely ignorant. Language is one of my many learning weak points. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2012, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-dopers-can-speak-a-foreign-language-by-studying-it/642414/43 "2012-12-01T14:37:36Z")
I have taken I don’t know how many French courses, but I am barely fluent after having lived for 44 years in Montreal. I am just hopeless in learning languages. The most bizarre story I know was that of a good friend of mine (who died about 6 weeks ago), a Rumanian who escaped to England and then got to Canada. He learned English by studying IBM technical manuals! I can’t imagine a worse way. By the time I met him he was totally fluent and lived the rest of his life in the US, first in San Juan–where he doubtless learned Spanish–and then NYC. He was also quite fluent in French, which he was taught by his grandmother. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2012, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-dopers-can-speak-a-foreign-language-by-studying-it/642414/44 "2012-12-01T15:44:23Z")
I’m going to guess 5 or more. There are a lot of dopers. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2012, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-dopers-can-speak-a-foreign-language-by-studying-it/642414/45 "2012-12-01T23:20:21Z")
> [@gracer](#): > > **capybara** , what-cha learn Dutch for? (Just curious, it’s an odd language to want to learn.) I study/write about Flemish/Dutch history, so research language/ to feed myself while digging around in archives in Ghent or wherever for months. ---
**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:** [December 1, 2012, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-dopers-can-speak-a-foreign-language-by-studying-it/642414/46 "2012-12-01T23:26:27Z")
I’m not sure Thai counts, since I live in this foreign country _and_ studied it. But German does. I studied German even at the graduate-course level while an undergraduate, and I spoke it with no discernible American accent when I traveled through Germany and Switzerland. Unfortunately, it’s pretty much all gone now, as I’ve let it lapse horribly over the years. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-dopers-can-speak-a-foreign-language-by-studying-it/642414/47 "2012-12-02T03:47:53Z")
I learned French and Italian fluently in classrooms before I ever traveled to France and Italy, so those count too, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-dopers-can-speak-a-foreign-language-by-studying-it/642414/48 "2012-12-02T04:00:12Z")
I speak German and Indonesian. German I learned in class in high school. I’ve never been to Germany. Indonesian I learned in a crash conversational course, but I was living in Indonesia at the time, so that doesn’t count. ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-dopers-can-speak-a-foreign-language-by-studying-it/642414/49 "2012-12-02T10:11:07Z")
> [@capybara](#): > > I study/write about Flemish/Dutch history, so research language/ to feed myself while digging around in archives in Ghent or wherever for months. Oh wow, interesting! I know this is totally off topic, but what do you write about? If it’s Flemish/Dutch presumably post-1830? Do people ever say your Dutch has funny old-fashioned expressions because of reading archives while learning, or you manage to separate the two? ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-dopers-can-speak-a-foreign-language-by-studying-it/642414/50 "2012-12-02T12:31:07Z")
I am a Canadian, but I liked languages and always did fairly well in French, at school. I even did Grade 13 French and read a few novels in French, but I managed to read Candide and not understand it was a satire until I reread it in English. Then I went to school in Montreal and barely used my French except for reading signs, because I lived in English neighbourhoods, went to an English language university and had English speaking friends. But nothing helps one learn a language like shacking up with a native speaker. My current partner is a perfectly fluently bilingual Franco Ontarian and he does not remember ever “learning” English, and he has no accent (well he loses an initial “H” after about 14 beer but I’ve only heard that twice in almost six years, and once he had a really thick accent when he was talking in his sleep) His family is all bilingual, his dad and sister perfectly bilingual with thick accents, his youngest brother has no accent (and is an Elementary school French teacher) His other brother has lost his French, apparently but doesn’t go to family gatherings much (and was in Afghanistan for a few years) so I haven’t met him. Mostly we speak French to keep my son in the dark about plans, presents etc. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-dopers-can-speak-a-foreign-language-by-studying-it/642414/51 "2012-12-03T04:30:49Z")
> [@gracer](#): > > Oh wow, interesting! I know this is totally off topic, but what do you write about? If it’s Flemish/Dutch presumably post-1830? Do people ever say your Dutch has funny old-fashioned expressions because of reading archives while learning, or you manage to separate the two? (sorry about the thread tangent, all; Flemish/Dutch as in 'Netherlandish" 15th and 16th century (art history), so, yeah, when I speak it sounds very, very old fashioned (I mostly studied in Antwerp but my accent is more garbagy than that, but a sort of 16th century vocab from working with middelnederlands and German too much (really strange words slip in), so Dutch people I speak to first assume I’m south African or something, so, yeah, that old fashioned) ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-dopers-can-speak-a-foreign-language-by-studying-it/642414/52 "2012-12-03T05:00:44Z")
1. I took four years of French I in High School and can’t speak it worth a damn. Le sigh. ---
**Author:** ![Jamicat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c67d28/32.png) [@Jamicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamicat)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-dopers-can-speak-a-foreign-language-by-studying-it/642414/53 "2012-12-03T05:04:41Z")
If it was just free time shits and giggles maybe, 1. Just to read Hebrew or Hieroglyphs to freak people out. Or, if I really had to, probably as many as needed to survive. I did French and German in school. Surprisingly I had to use them both once for a couple of tourist at Epcot, the short time I worked for Disney. Never used it since, now all forgotten and replaced with other more useful stuff. I could learn Spanish, if I really wanted to…bla. …Lacking any Hispanic attributes, I would only sound pretentious, while ordering my polo tacos. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![T.Slothrop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3e96dc/32.png) [@T.Slothrop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T.Slothrop)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-dopers-can-speak-a-foreign-language-by-studying-it/642414/54 "2012-12-03T06:51:41Z")
I am fluent in Mandarin Chinese from studying it and going to Taiwan normal Uni for a year and a half. I am pretty good in Japanese from studying it and hitchhiking around Shikoku a long long time ago. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-dopers-can-speak-a-foreign-language-by-studying-it/642414/56 "2013-01-12T08:34:47Z")
Very basic French, also some German terms from history books, documentaries, and marschmusik. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-dopers-can-speak-a-foreign-language-by-studying-it/642414/57 "2013-01-12T08:53:47Z")
Reported post above Qin’s. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-dopers-can-speak-a-foreign-language-by-studying-it/642414/58 "2013-01-12T18:52:55Z")
> [@Jamicat](#): > > …Lacking any Hispanic attributes, I would only sound pretentious, while ordering my polo tacos. ☹ Given that being Hispanic is a matter of cultural heritage and self-identification, and that there are no requirements to being born into the inheritance and no specific physical attributes making someone more Hispanic than another person, I hereby grant you permission to go and learn Spanish. _Hala, que ya tardas_ 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-dopers-can-speak-a-foreign-language-by-studying-it/642414.md?page=2)