I can do enough German to get around in Germany and say simple phases to locals. In Italy I can do a bit to get directions or buy coffe wine food. It makes it more fun.

Talking about website translation...I've done Steve Wong perf chip website one...at http://www.911chips.com/index2f.html

I am sort of bilingual...English and Dutch.

The main issue has been raised here, namely, to learn a language well it is best to be immersed in it and hear it regularly.....

The problem in North America is that in the greatest part of the continent there is only English and very few cases where you have the option to practice a particular language. There are some if you look, but it is difficult and it gets harder as you get older. I learned Dutch at my father's knee as my parents spoke Dutch between themselves when they did not want the kids to understand, which provided very good motivation to learn to understand but since we spoke only English, I sound like a 5 year old when I speak.

I would highly recommend Rosetta stone, certainly it works pretty well and I think my Dutch is improving as a result (I am in Holland as I type)..not sure how it would work from scratch though.

I wish I had taken the opportunities to learn French when I had the chance and I wish I had pressed my kids to study more languages than they did (they both have French). There is NO substitute for speaking the local language...the more you can speak the more interesting the world becomes.

Dennis

I was telling that joke to a bunch of Romanians, and just as I'm about to hit them with the punch line, one of them slams his fist on the table and yells:

"A Russian!"

I guess we're more a like than we thought...

Salut Zef

Pretty cool, my biggest job ever has been the Starwood's Hotels Spanish version website. I only proofread it, hundreds of hotels, and also corrected the translations made by other freelancers. Took me almost two months. I freelanced that job for Translations.com, huge Co. on Park Ave.

a bientot. :D

Sorry about the missing accents, no french keyboard. :(

I speak jive.

wikki wikki bluckt tippity two click bang-a-ro sling bing dingity do! Get it? It's AWESOME! I don't have the heilographics in front of me but they mean 'Nail a couple bizzzitches'...... :D

Yup...accurate translation is a long and hard process...I've had help from my wife (she is a French elementary teacher)...I find it more easy to translate from French to English....this latter is a lot more straight fwd language. As-tu vérifié mon travail sur le site de Steve...?
Passe une belle soirée

A few cocktails while watching the debates? :D

"Klaatu barada nikto."

we own our very own continent - sea to shining sea

thus, there has been little need to bother with other languages

add to that the fact that English is the lingua franca for science -- and nearly so for business, and there was even less reason


btw - how hard was cantonese to learn?

I speak German, Mandarin and English...the first two learned as adults.

Scientifically, languages are easier to learn when you are a child. Your brain is somehow geared for it. Once you hit puberty, this ability almost disappears.

With that said, in the the western hemisphere, you really only need two languages: English and Spanish. Sure, you will run into Portugese, French and Quecha in spots, but really you could travel from the Terra del Fuego to the Bering Sea and only speak English and Spanish. Nowhere else in the world could you travel such a distance and rely only on one or two languages.

try Brussels, each sign is bi-lingual, by law
even street names are translated

French and Dutch for everything, it's a Belgian thing

other then that, why would any country invest a lot of money to add english to signs mostly used for locals?? foreigners SHOULD learn the local language , not the other way around... I'm sure it would cause a big riot if your Gobment would make all signs bi-lingual ... English and Spanish...
it's no different in Europe

dunno man, but the ex USSR is pretty big, and Russian goes a long way there

Languages are fun! I'm trilingual (about to downgrade to bilingual soon, though). I speak English, French & Tagalog. My native language is the weakest of the 3 since I barely use it.


Um, no we don't. Ever heard of Canada & Mexico? They're a part of "our" continent too.

We barely speak English in Brooklyn. It is an embarrassment. And it is getting worse as the "brooklynese" gives way to Spanglish.

Was pretty good a Japanese years ago. Wish I started studying Italian when I moved to my neighborhood..

i was lucky. my parents are both cantonese. they stressed our native language growing up. they both worked so they hired a hispanic woman to take care of us during the day. her name was josefina. she only spoke spanish. i learned two languages concurrently. it was awesome.

ironically, nobody taught me english. i didnt say a word up until 1st grade. my parents got called in, and i was a step away from "the short bus". they thought i was a special needs kid. anyways, i never shut up from that day forward. my cantonese and spanish have diminished, and i am trying to build them back up. my wife speaks taiwanese and mandarin, and she has given herself the challange of teaching me mandarin. once i learn it, i am telling off a portion of her family..hahaha. she yells at me in mandarin, when i do something stupid...i think it is HOT!

i am italian and i live by Italy, i speack italian (of course) french, school English, for write i use the traslator, but is no efficient...my "rancor" is the bad italian translate for the Anglo-Saxon for Italian words tecnical cars... typical:

magnetti marelli (Magneti Marelli)
alpha romeo (Alfa Romeo)
duccati (Ducati)

and others, but the italian language its very difficult (the italian dictionary is double vs english) one word are many many synonyms, even the Italians know well)))

you missed my use of the restrictive clause "sea to shining sea"

and most of Canada speaks English...

nothing intelligible though