Languages

[Oma]

My DD for the past year has been learning Spanish,
She has a Spanish tutor who video calls every week , he has several pupils and sometimes they do a group chat and he also brings his niece into them so they get all round conversations, he lives in Mexico at the moment,
Yesterday while DD was here he rang her to rearrange her lesson ,
To say we were impressed by her is a understatement, she just rattled off this conversation with ease.
She can read and write Spanish too as he sets lessons in that also,
She thinks she has a long way to go yet ,
Considering I struggle with my own language at times I think she's amazing ,
I know I'm biased I'm her Mam but she never ceases to amaze us ,
She will try something new and put her whole focus on it till she succeeds,

One proud mammy reporting for duty 😁

[Gemini]

Wow, clever lady! I'm impressed Oma It's harder to learn a language as an adult ( like most things!) so well done to your DD.

DD1 has been learning Spanish via Dualingo for a couple of years but I doubt she is at your DD's level.

I have rusty O level standard French , a tiny bit of Latin and odd Spanish words, but couldn't have a conversation in any other language.

[Nanto2girls]

Well done to your DD Oma.

I know a few French words. They started doing French lessons when i was at school.
They had only been doing them for a couple of months when i left school.

[Oma]

I'm useless, I know a few German words but that's only because of Bs family ,
I certainly couldn't hold a conversation,
I seem to sort of get the gist of what they are talking about after being with them a few days .
I'm not sure I understand the actual words more the facial and hand signs .

I always knew when his grandmother was saying stuff about me it was written all over her face,
Didn't need to understand German with that one 😁

[Plantaholic]

Oma, I am sure she was saying nice things about you. I was taught German at school, I expect they could not get a French teacher. My GD2 has a language degree and her partner is fluent in French.

[Daisy]

Oma, your DD is not only clever, she's focussed on what she's doing and is determined to do it well.

I tried to teach myself Spanish a few years ago - mainly from language CDs in the car. I never quite sorted out the differences between South American Spanish and European Spanish, and when I tried to speak Spanish, I thought of the Spanish words (I think I did!) but the words came out French. I can just about order a drink and a meal.

Plant, my GD1 is doing German as her compulsory language. She thinks it is much more logical than Spanish or French.

[Oma]

Plant
She wasn't a nice lady , his Mam takes after her,
She definitely didn't like me ,
But there was no love lost , I wasn't keen on her either,
So not like his Aunt and his great grandmother they were lovely people,
His great grandmother was a very funny lady she giggled all the time.
I was lucky to meet her.

Daisy
They say if you listen to a language as you fall asleep you learn it quickly,,
I wonder if that is true 😁

[Daisy]

Oma, I've heard that too, about learning something as you fall asleep. Fortunately I never tried it in the car!!

I find it really frustrating if I go to a country and can't speak even a few words in their language - even basic things like hello, thank you etc.

[Lizzie48]

GD2 chose Spanish at school, she is enjoying it as well, that and the English!! DS1 works in German, English etc so has to know the languages, DS2 studied English in Bath, sadly he doesn't seem to do much with it unless the music is in Englishl

There was a young lady in the office this morning, she is translator for the Ukrains living here, she has lived here 12 years now and speaks Dutch quite well.

[Gemini]

I'm ashamed to say I don't know which language GD takes at school.
GS1 takes Spanish ( or would if he went to school )

[Oma]

Lizzie
That's the trouble if you don't use it you loose it,
B doesn't speak much German now , in fact neither does his Mam unless she phones her sister but sadly that's getting harder as her sister has Alzheimer's now.

Some years ago myself and DD went to college to learn sign language.
I really enjoyed it but remember very little now , DD still has to deal with some deaf clients but even she said there are times she just can't remember it.
It would have been different if we had someone deaf or amongst the deaf community then you keep it going ,
Do you speak English to the GDs ?

[Lizzie48]

Oma, I have tried speaking English with them when they were younger, they said "later"! They both speak good English now so they were right.

[Daisy]

Talking about using it or losing it, years ago we got talking to an Englishman in Marseille. He had lived most of his adult life in France and asked us to chat with him for a while because he never used English and was forgetting it. He kept lapsing into French when he couldn't think of a word, but afterwards he said thank you, we'd made his day. I often wondered if he found any more English people to talk to! (There were very few English visiting that area back then.)

Lizzie, your GDs have done well with their English.

[Lizzie48]

Daisy, I can lapse into Dutch when visiting in the UK, I would sit talking to my late sister, she couldn't understand a word I said!

[Gemini]

Lizzie I think this happened to us years ago! We were having lunch in York and I suddenly couldn't understand what you were saying . It was very brief

When we went to Canada on a coach tour our guide was Swedish, and had lived in Canada most of her adult life.
A couple of times on the holiday we would call out 'Christa, we cant understand you ' She had lapsed into her own language.