Vorkosigan

Speaking many languages is not that difficult. My wife knows four more or less fluently -- Cantonese, English, Mandarin, and Taiwanese -- and can get along in German, Japanese and a couple of others. A sufficiently diverse linguistic background is more than enough. Here in Taiwan many people speak three languages as a matter of course -- Mandarin, Taiwanese and English, and most educated people will also speak Japanese, and may know a smattering of another European language. Older Taiwanese speak Japanese as well, and many Hakkas in Taiwan in my father-in-law's generation can get around in Hakka, Taiwanese, Japanese, Mandarin and English. These languages reflect the progress of colonialism in Taiwan....in Africa most of my students spoke three languages -- a local, English and Swahili, and the language of some proximate group (in my area many Merus spoke some Somali, since the Somalis did a lot of business with the Merus. Even I picked up a few phrases of Somali).

I can speak a little Taiwanese, and also speak Mandarin, English, Swahili and I learned some of a couple of local languages in Africa, now forgotten. When you live in a place, you can learn the language with great rapidity.

Michael

Ales

Já ano, ale co Vy?

leonarde

Ales,
Ja jsem americ'an ale Kdyz' jsem slouz'il v armade' (je to uz' moc dlouho)jsem studoval c'estinu. Pr'ed ne'kolika dni(?) jsem vide'l
c'esky film "Musime si pomahat". Vy jeho vide'li?
Ten film se mi libi. Ahoj!

(Lituju z'e pis'u c'esky tak s'patne' ale jsem
nikdy nebyl v C'eskoslovenku (v C'echach, na Morave' atd.)

Is "Czechia" a legitimate ENGLISH word for the Czech lands? I ran across it once or twice recently but it was news to me.....
OR is it Czechia=C'echy=Bohemia (ie Moravia is
not included)?

Ales

Ahoj, pisete obdivuhodne dobre. Divim se, ze se vubec nekdo dokaze cestinu naucit. Klavesnice, na ktere pisu, nema hacky a carky, doufam, ze to je srozumitelne. I have never been to an English speaking country. Unfortunately, I haven't seen "Musime si pomahat" yet. It had an Oscar nomination, but "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" won it in this category. The most legitimate is "Czech Republic" (perheps with the definite article). "Czechia" is another legitimate word for the whole republic, although if you want to make a dictinction you call "Cechy" the "Bohemia" and "Morava" the "Moravia".
Now I am leaving Prague, I will be about 14 days in Krkonose without internet.
Ales.

Pandora

Something that I and a few of my friends were wondering about the other day:

I am bilingual in English and Italian. Italian I never studied, I learnt it living here - however, I did study French for eight years and German for three. My French was once almost as good as my Italian, now I find that whilst I can quite happily read a book or newspaper in French, I am completely unable to speak even the most simple sentences.

I'd understand if forgot all of it, but I can't work out why it's easy on paper and impossible vocally.

leonarde

Pandora,
I think your experience is not untypical: a second or third language unused goes to seed but
the active skills (speaking and writing) disappear
first, and more totally, than the passive ones (reading and listening comprehension).

Cheers!