Post by runforrest on Oct 28, 2013 21:07:45 GMT -5
Every day. Both of our neighbors speak Polish, and I hear them every day and/or talk to them. We also hear a fair amount of Spanish in Chicago. And I speak German to the kids.
Huh. I live in the least diverse part of the bay area and still hear two or three different languages a day. About 5 different languages are spoken at home among DD's preschool class of 20ish kids.
Ugh, I started French in 5th or 6th grade and took it through college. I NEVER hear it. It makes me sad - and makes me wish I took Spanish instead.
Yeah, Spanish certainly would have been more useful. But I had to be different.
My mom forced me to take Spanish when I wanted to take French. I hated every single minute of those three years. Also, after three years of Spanish I can say super important things like I have a lava lamp in my belly button and where is the pencil sharpener. lol
Every day. Of N's neighborhood friends, she is the only one with two U.S. citizen parents. They all speak excellent English, but they mostly speak in their native language with their kids. It makes me jealous that all these kids are growing up bilingual but ours. Another hot spot is the public library. We most often hear Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, French, and German.
Every day, several times a day. Several different languages are spoken by students at DD's school. Our next door neighbors are Russian, so we hear Russian a lot.
Every day, but I can't recognize most of them. I hear Spanish, German, Mandarin, and Cantonese on a regular basis, but I can't hear the difference between mandarin and Cantonese. And one neighbor is Vietnamese, one is Indian, and one is Korean, so I hear them speaking, but I can't recognize those either. I'm told I hear Russian and Polish fairly regularly, but again, I can't recognize them.
I really suck at hearing languages. I'm very visual, and my auditory processing is rather weak. So if I know the people, I know what they're speaking, but otherwise I don't. I know enough words in Spanish and German to recognize them, but that's it.
I think that it's a shame that American kids aren't taught other languages. A German exchange student in my high school was fluent in German, French, English, and written Latin, and although he didn't consider himself fluent in Spanish, he could easily hold a conversation. He said they started teaching foreign languages in school when they were very young.
But I hear it daily since my classroom is next to the Spanish class. But I don't think that's what you mean lol.
But I hear Spanish a lot. I also hear Brazilian, Portuguese Thai, and Lebanese somewhat frequently.
What is Lebanese? Levantine Arabic?
Lol That will teach me to multitask. I was brainstorming the ethnicities of those who speak non English languages around me. I just typed those out. And the even worse part is Lebanese was supposed to be Lithuanian. Apparently my brain works better at 3 am.,,,,,
Everyday, but I don't live in the US. On a daily basis I hear Afrikaans, Xhosa, Zulu, French, Portuguese, Shona and German. I'm sure I hear other languages, but I can't recognize them.
But in the U.S. when I lived in Philly I'd hear foreign languages daily as well.
Never had I been so frustrated at myself as i was when i realized my patent inability to prounce a Xhosa click during my visit.
And yeah, in my field, French has totally been an asset, much more than Spanish.
All the time. We have a lot of multinational companies nearby, as well as a rather large community of Russian immigrants. My neighbors are from Poland.