# How many languages have we here?



## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

It's been a while since we discussed how many languages of the world are represented in Chef Talk members.

What is your native language? What other languages do you speak? 

I'll start off: I'm a native speaker of American English. I speak fair French, a few words of Greek, some Hebrew, and a little bit of Italian since last summer.

How about you? :bounce:


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

American English, German. I can still read and listen to German OK, but I'm really slow at speaking any more. 

Phil


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## kokopuffs (Aug 4, 2000)

Natively I speak American; but I also speak French, Italian and Roumanian. Me and my long haired chocolate manx cat, named Chocolate, communicate very well but I don't know what you call that language!


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## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

Kokopuffs, depends on the breed of cat.


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## athenaeus (Jul 24, 2001)

If I start talking my native language , it will be all Greek to you 
Languages are my strong point.
I speak English and French and I can read very well( but not speak fluently) Italian.
I speak acceptable Hebrew and I am improoving my Arabic.
Last summer I took over Ladino (the language of Sephardic Jews) but since I am self instructed it's not so easy.


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## momoreg (Mar 4, 2000)

I speak English fairly well, since it's my first language. I also speak Spanish. When I spent half a year in Italy, I became quite good at Italian, but without practice, I've lost it. Which reminds me; I need to go back!!


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## rachel (Oct 27, 2001)

Lets see, I speak very fast Scottish English, very fluent fast Spanish, passable Catalan (but I understand it a lot better than I speak it) and I can insult and order food in Italian. I can understand when I am being insulted in French, but unfortunately cannot reply. 
Also I can "I am 13 years old' in German, which is of absolutely no use whatsoever but is the only thing I can remember from my year of German at school.
*Athenaeus* don't you understand Latin too? I don't, but I never wanted to visit Latino anyway


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## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

Athenaeus, I have three or four albums of Sephardic music from the 14th and 15th centuries. I don't know Ladino and only traces of Spanish, but I am beginning to follow some of the lyrics. It's a bit startling to suddenly hear some Hebrew laced through the music- makes me feel connected to the people who sang those melodies hundreds of years ago. I read somewhere that it was the women who saw to it that the music was preserved once the Jews left Spain and wandered to Italy, Germany, etc. I even fancy I hear some klezmer riffs in the music!


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## spoons (Nov 10, 2000)

American English....... Japanese.


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## athenaeus (Jul 24, 2001)

This is how I started myself Mez. I was very determined with that so, I started copying lyrics and trying to trace the conjugations...

Someone told me about a yahoo group where they practice Ladino . There, I met very helpful people, some of them living in Greece and they told me about a teaching method a teacher in Haifa University has developed.

I am having some progress. 

It's a beautiful musical language. Just Beautiful!

Rachel of course I understand Latin. I have had many courses in school and in University. I used to have some collegues that they were communicating in Latin


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## pongi (Jan 11, 2002)

Wow...I'm impressed by all these people speaking Italian (BTW, Rachel, if you want to increase your possibilities to insult people in Italian, don't hesitate to seek my advice!  )
As for me, like most Italians foreign languages aren't my strong point...apart from a fair Italian, I can speak the poor English you can see, read and understand pretty easily French and Spanish (but if I have to communicate with a French or a Spanish I prefer speaking English). Ah! I can read a menu and order food in all the main existing languages  
Can also understand and partially speak Genovese and Cremonese dialects 

BTW...there is a question that intrigues me. Every Italian region has its own dialect, and they're so different the one from the other that you can consider them separate languages (I mean that, in example, Genovese is so different from Italian to be almost unintelligible for a non-ligurian, not only when it's spoken but also when it's written). So, I wonder whether is the same for the other countries!

Athenaeus: how curious, in Italy Ladino is the language spoken in a number of valleys in the Dolomites. It's very ancient, directly coming from Latin, and it's one of the three official languages of Trentino-Alto Adige (the other two are Italian and German). I never heard about its relation with Jews, so I wonder if it's the same of the Ladino you mentioned, or something totally different...

Pongi


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## entremetier (Jan 7, 2003)

My native language is American English.

But I speak better German than English,


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## kokopuffs (Aug 4, 2000)

Pongi:
Out of all of the Romance languages in existence, it appears that the Italian language is the least unified.


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## isa (Apr 4, 2000)

French and English. 

I'd love to say I speak some German and Japanese but I forgot everything since I never used it anymore.


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