# Languages that we speak (or want to speak) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 27, 2003, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-that-we-speak-or-want-to-speak/157819 "2003-02-27T04:46:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![RobbieFal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c5a1d2/32.png) [@RobbieFal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobbieFal)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-that-we-speak-or-want-to-speak/157819/41 "2003-02-28T02:55:27Z")
I have a language of my own, which I do not have a name for. Let me show it to you. “I evaho a egaugnala fo ymo nwo, hcihwo I odo tono evaho a emano rofo” And for the record, when a word starts with two letters like “ym” or “nw”, the first letter is silent, so “ymo nwo” would be “mo wo” Eheho! 🙂 ---
**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:** [February 28, 2003, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-that-we-speak-or-want-to-speak/157819/42 "2003-02-28T03:08:07Z")
Eh-oh! ---
**Author:** ![Sunshine\_and\_Smiles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Sunshine\_and\_Smiles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunshine_and_Smiles)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-that-we-speak-or-want-to-speak/157819/43 "2003-02-28T04:11:09Z")
English being my native, I can also speak German and could get by on my Spanish and French. Unfortunately, I have no interest in Spanish or French and will probably forget everything in a year or so. I’m real interested, however, in Russian. We have this girl from Russia at our school, and its such a cool language. That and Welsh. Gwyllywed (I made that up) ---
**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-that-we-speak-or-want-to-speak/157819/44 "2003-02-28T04:39:46Z")
Mein erstes Sprach ist Englisch, und ich lernte Deutsch in der Hochschule. Jetzt habe ich viel davon vergeßen. Ich will mehr Klassen nehmen, aber ich habe keine Zeit. Ich habe gute Grammatik, aber einen sehr beschränkten Wortschatz. == My first language is English, and I learned German in high school. Now I’ve forgotten a lot of it. I want to take more classes, but I have no time. I have good grammar, but a very limited vocabulary. And I know a tiny bit of Spanish, but that’s from living in Florida most of my life. Observe: ¡Por favor mantengase alejado de las puertas! from the WDW Monorail. ---
**Author:** ![ladyfoxfyre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@ladyfoxfyre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladyfoxfyre)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-that-we-speak-or-want-to-speak/157819/45 "2003-02-28T06:08:14Z")
Mi nombre es ladyfoxfyre, yo habla español solamente suavemente. That’s about it though. ---
**Author:** ![Sqube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aca169/32.png) [@Sqube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sqube)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-that-we-speak-or-want-to-speak/157819/46 "2003-02-28T06:09:58Z")
I know: English French I know fairly well: Creole (The Haitian version) What I wanna Learn: Chinese and/or Japanese ---
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-that-we-speak-or-want-to-speak/157819/47 "2003-02-28T06:24:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ladyfoxfyre \* > \*\*Mi nombre es ladyfoxfyre, yo habla español solamente suavemente. > \*\* If that means what I think it does, then it’s false. ---
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-that-we-speak-or-want-to-speak/157819/48 "2003-02-28T06:27:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gyan9 \* > \*\*If that means what I think it does, then it’s false. \*\* Oops :smack: Just used Babelfish 😃 ---
**Author:** ![3trew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/13edae/32.png) [@3trew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3trew)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-that-we-speak-or-want-to-speak/157819/49 "2003-02-28T06:31:04Z")
I speak fluent English. I speak Western Canadian High School French. This is a very useful language in that it allows you to converse, anywhere in the Francophonie, with another Western Canadian tourist. Nobody else, though. I have two semesters of German from university. I can curse or order a drink in English, Russian, German, French, Italian, and Spanish. I can count to ten and describe a number of ways to stand or hit people in Japanese. I want to learn another language that’s actually useful. Now, on to the hijack. Do any of the polyglots in this thread find themselves accidentally substituting words from one language to another? I suspect this is a filing problem in my brain, but if I am lacking a word in French I will sometimes substitute its equivalent in German in the middle of a sentence, and only realize it later. You can pull a muscle in your tongue doing that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-that-we-speak-or-want-to-speak/157819.md?page=2)