Sunday, April 04, 2010

World Languages--Just for Fun

Last week, most likely during a bout of procrastination, I decided to list all the words/phrases I know in other languages. (There is no way I can list all the words I know in Spanish and Russian, and of course I am a native English speaker.)

Spanish: intermediate skills
[On various tests, I've scored at Intermediate 1, Low Intermediate, C1--Advanced (this test was only 15 questions)]

Russian: beginner skills
[Scored "pre-intermediate" on a 60 question test, July 2010]

French: 1 semester in high school--this is ranked lower than Russian because I cannot conjugate basic past and future tenses in French (people here speak to me in French sometimes...it's strange...)

Ukrainian: Besides knowing how to say yes, no, what, and kung-fu, I can't speak other phrases, but if I had text, I could probably guess at some of the words.

German: good day, good morning, please, no, hail, goose, I, thank you, goodbye (I could probably understand some if it was spoken to me)

Hebrew: shalom, Shabbat, good morning, Shma ("hear, O Israel...")

Arabic: thank you (shukran), God willing (En sh'allah), come on (yallah)

Polish: lip, thank you

Mandarin Chinese: hello (ni hao), I love you (wo ai ni)

Cantonese Chinese: gorilla (sing sing)

Dutch: airport (luchthaven)

Albanian: goodbye (mirupafshim)

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