Languages

[puppylove]

Hi not sure if this topic has been done b4 but was just interested to see what other languages people on here can speak.

I speak English and Dutch, English because im from Northern Ireland and Dutch because ive been living in Holland for 3.5 years now.

 

[Sherlock]

English is my native language

Speak/read/write Dutch from living in NL for 5 plus years and German from my time spent living there.

Also can drag out basic simple day to day French if I need to.

Tried to learn Spanish to be able to communicate better with the family there but tbh, I never really liked it.

Started learning Italian, lovely language and hope to continue it at some point in the next year or two.

 

[puppylove]

Sherlock thats brillaint that u speak lots of languages wel done, i found it hard to start with learning a different language and still soemtimes find my words a bit muddled up

 

[JoAnn&Aimee]

Just english!
OH and I were planning a week to Italy so I started learning Italian but then found out I was pregnant and plans were put on hold as was the italian!

 

[puppylove]

xjoann well u never know u might get back into the language again when baby is born

 

[emeraldsroses]

English (native language), Dutch (second language seeing as I live in the country), Italian (can converse, read and write but not as well as I'd like to... and I'm half Italian ). I can understand quite a bit of German, a bit of Spanish and some French but cannot speak them either very well or at all.

I speak English and Dutch, English because im from Northern Ireland and Dutch because ive been living in Holland for 3.5 years now.

Where in the Netherlands do you live? I'm so happy to find someone from this forum who actually lives here

English is my native language

Speak/read/write Dutch from living in NL for 5 plus years and German from my time spent living there.

Where in the Netherlands did you live? Where in Germany?

Started learning Italian, lovely language and hope to continue it at some point in the next year or two.

YAY! I like when I hear people who like learning Italian Can someone knock some sense into my husband about this

 

[puppylove]

Hi emeraldsroses

well im happy to hear u live here to i live in South Holland outside Rotterdam i can pm it to u what town as i dont think i can do that here, where is it you live ?

 

[Sherlock]

Where in the Netherlands did you live? Where in Germany?

Started learning Italian, lovely language and hope to continue it at some point in the next year or two.

YAY! I like when I hear people who like learning Italian Can someone knock some sense into my husband about this

I was in Amsterdam Zuid (on the Stadionweg) and Amstelveen (near the Bos) after that. Worked in the centrum for a private bank. Spent 5 years plus there. My ex (as tall, blond and Dutch as they come) used to say I was more Dutch than he was I really embraced the entire life, culture, language, the works. I only had one English friend, the rest were all Dutch and from elsewhere. My ex was surprised to find out I was leaving I can tell you. I was told too many times I'd never leave the place. Only time I've ever been truly happy liviing in a city.

Germany was spent in Hamburg. For about a year. While great, a bit to starchy, even for the north. Beautiful city, but never felt the people really relaxed enough. Enjoyed visiting it again but would never want to go back.

 

[leckershell]

English, French and German

(I did work experience for a week in both Nantes and Koln)

I learnt a couple of phrases in Turkish for when I went on holiday there but the people I met there spoke German anyway...

Tried to learn Spanish but had too much going on at the time and just let it slip... just for languages sake really, I don't go there or have family there or anything it just seemed the natural language progression from French and German. I put a learning cassette on one night and in the morning I miraculously knew the difference between Spanish Spanish and South American Spanish... lol learning in my sleep

 

[elaine22]

I took Spanish A Level but have forgotten quite a lot of it now, though I'm sure I could get by on holiday or something. I really wish I could be fluent in Tagalog (my mum's Filipino) but I was too lazy to learn it when I was younger.

 

[emeraldsroses]

I was in Amsterdam Zuid (on the Stadionweg) and Amstelveen (near the Bos) after that. Worked in the centrum for a private bank. Spent 5 years plus there. My ex (as tall, blond and Dutch as they come) used to say I was more Dutch than he was I really embraced the entire life, culture, language, the works. I only had one English friend, the rest were all Dutch and from elsewhere. My ex was surprised to find out I was leaving I can tell you. I was told too many times I'd never leave the place. Only time I've ever been truly happy liviing in a city.

I'm amazed how you seem to have assimilated to living in the Netherlands during your time here. Why did you end up leaving?

Oh, my husband has two of the three qualities your ex had. Mine is tall and Dutch, but has dark hair

Germany was spent in Hamburg. For about a year. While great, a bit to starchy, even for the north. Beautiful city, but never felt the people really relaxed enough. Enjoyed visiting it again but would never want to go back.

Shame you felt this way about Germans in Hamburg. I've never been there, though, so I wouldn't know what Germans in Hamburg are like. I only know what they're like in Bavaria, but some things just don't change

 

[puppylove]

Very good leckershell i do think its very handy having a few different languages i was always to lazy to learn a language but because i moved to Holland i had to and i always thought dutch and germany where very similar but there are onl a few words the same.

Elaine mayb u should still try to learn the Tagalog language when i have time as it would also b nice to pass it on to your children as another language.

 

[emeraldsroses]

I took Spanish A Level but have forgotten quite a lot of it now, though I'm sure I could get by on holiday or something. I really wish I could be fluent in Tagalog (my mum's Filipino) but I was too lazy to learn it when I was younger.

With me it was the other way around. My dad, who's Italian, never spoke the language with me. We were raised speaking English (mother was American) even when I lived in Italy as a child. I find it a shame that I wasn't raised bilingually as I feel that children are only at an advantage when they are raised with more languages. I've also done research on this when writing my dissertation at university back in 1997 (geesh, I'm old )

 

[elaine22]

Elaine mayb u should still try to learn the Tagalog language when i have time as it would also b nice to pass it on to your children as another language.

Yep I've bought a couple a simple phrase books to get to know the basics but I can't get my head around the pronunciation as I have nothing to base it on really lol. Even my mum struggles these days as she's been over here 26 years and only speaks English I might get a learning cassette thing or something.

 

[puppylove]

Elaine, hehe it is hard learning a new language especially if you dont have anything to tell you its right or wrong, i find sometimes when im speaking to my family i speak Dutch because i speak it more than english now but my family dont understand what im saying so i laugh and have to start my conversation again

 

[emeraldsroses]

i find sometimes when im speaking to my family i speak Dutch because i speak it more than english now but my family dont understand what im saying so i laugh and have to start my conversation again

I get that when I speak to my (half) sister who speaks English and German. I want to speak speak English and I find myself starting out in Dutch Sometimes I also do that with English speaking friends of mine who don't speak much Dutch

 

[_Rosie_]

I speak english and arabic. english because i am english lol and arabic because my OH is arab and i wanted to learn so he cant keep any secrets in another language lol no i really want my children to have 2 languages and 2 cultures so i can speak arabic and am learning to write it and read it at the moment.

 

[Sherlock]

I'm amazed how you seem to have assimilated to living in the Netherlands during your time here. Why did you end up leaving?

I just loved the city, really felt at home there and tbh its still the one place I think of as 'home' even after leaving it for a while now. The rest of the NL's was lovely, but I'd never have lived away from Amsterdam. I remember visiting it, thinking I had to go back and so I did. Moved over there and got into living there. I was never one for leaving one foot back in the UK and clinging on to things here and one foot over there. It was all or nothing for me. I used to love cycling the city, didn't ever really go near the tourist parts unless I had friends visiting who wanted to see them, and just threw myself into living a Dutch life.

I recall going for drinks one evening at an English couples apartment. Quite a few of us there, all English (it was via work iirc now) One guy I was talking to for a while (with his female friend) then turned to me after my saying something, 'You know, for a Dutch person your English is nearly perfect' *Nearly* I didn't know to laugh or cry.

I found after about a year of living there and living with a house full of Dutch people, that I really did develop a Dutch accent to my English and most Brits thought I was Dutch. As did most Dutch, in English or Dutch. Always took it as a compliment and it made it easier to integrate also.

I used to pass hours in a cafe where chess and the Dutch Klaver Jasser were played. I was taught KJ by some Dutch friends and got pretty good so used to love going in there and sitting down with the old boys and playing a few hands And many a night we had all night card games with a house full of friends playing it.

Why did I leave. Good question. I guess a number of reasons. I think if I had not gone when I did I'd have never left. I sometimes have mild regrets about leaving, but on the other hand, when I go back and visit now, its not the same city I fell in love with. It has a different feel to it, an underlying tension that wasn't there before. Maybe if I had stayed I'd have not noticed it or just grown along with it. But it stands out to me now going back.

I still love walking the streets though, seeing the moon along the canals and finding a cafe and drinking decent coffee (non of this Starbucks crap). And Queens Day in the Vondelpark or cycling the Bos, all things I love to do if I am back there.

 

[puppylove]

Rosie, is arabic hard to learn i see ones in my school with the arabic -dutch wordbooks ive had a look and really cant understand anything of it at all and they write from left to right which i find nice to watch.

 

[emeraldsroses]

I'm amazed how you seem to have assimilated to living in the Netherlands during your time here. Why did you end up leaving?

I just loved the city, really felt at home there and tbh its still the one place I think of as 'home' even after leaving it for a while now. The rest of the NL's was lovely, but I'd never have lived away from Amsterdam. I remember visiting it, thinking I had to go back and so I did. Moved over there and got into living there. I was never one for leaving one foot back in the UK and clinging on to things here and one foot over there. It was all or nothing for me. I used to love cycling the city, didn't ever really go near the tourist parts unless I had friends visiting who wanted to see them, and just threw myself into living a Dutch life.

I recall going for drinks one evening at an English couples apartment. Quite a few of us there, all English (it was via work iirc now) One guy I was talking to for a while (with his female friend) then turned to me after my saying something, 'You know, for a Dutch person your English is nearly perfect' *Nearly* I didn't know to laugh or cry.

I found after about a year of living there and living with a house full of Dutch people, that I really did develop a Dutch accent to my English and most Brits thought I was Dutch. As did most Dutch, in English or Dutch. Always took it as a compliment and it made it easier to integrate also.

I used to pass hours in a cafe where chess and the Dutch Klaver Jasser were played. I was taught KJ by some Dutch friends and got pretty good so used to love going in there and sitting down with the old boys and playing a few hands And many a night we had all night card games with a house full of friends playing it.

Why did I leave. Good question. I guess a number of reasons. I think if I had not gone when I did I'd have never left. I sometimes have mild regrets about leaving, but on the other hand, when I go back and visit now, its not the same city I fell in love with. It has a different feel to it, an underlying tension that wasn't there before. Maybe if I had stayed I'd have not noticed it or just grown along with it. But it stands out to me now going back.

I still love walking the streets though, seeing the moon along the canals and finding a cafe and drinking decent coffee (non of this Starbucks crap). And Queens Day in the Vondelpark or cycling the Bos, all things I love to do if I am back there.

Good heavens! From reading all this you should definitely move back to this country, but perhaps to another city (Rotterdam or surrounding area, perhaps ) Much more easy going than Amsterdam, to be honest.

I also know what you mean by the Dutch accent getting into your English one. At one point about 13 years ago, my Dutch teacher from school told me that I had developed a slight Dutch accent when I spoke Enlgish. Unfortunately, this is not the case when I speak Dutch. Everyone can hear I speak English as a native language, although I'm complimented on my fluency in Dutch. I suppose that being married to a Dutchman does help with vocabulary My work also facilitated in learning a lot of Dutch, just for the daily conversation (I teach English to Dutch students at HBO (university) level), but outside of the lessons I speak with my students in Dutch. It goes without say that I speak to my colleagues in Dutch, even though I know that many of them can speak English.