Do you understand a language you cannot speak?

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Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 8:16 pm

I have so many Italian friends, and I hear Italian all the time. I cannot speak it, and I can read a little bit of it, however, I seem to understand it. It was just brought to my attention that I need to learn Italian. I asked why, and a friend pointed out that in a conversation I just had with another friend - the other friend hardly spoke any English to me yet I understood and responded to everything she said (in Italian) in English. I have been not even noticing when they begin to speak Italian. This isn't even the first time this has happened - a lady that I had just met a few weeks ago said that she thought she had forgot her purse in her chair at a restaurant. I said, "I'll go back in and get it for you." She then asked my friend if I was Italian. Anyway, things like this have been happening lately - so I am realizing I understand a lot of the language but can't speak it Sad

Now what about you - am I the only weird person out here?

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 8:26 pm

I think you probably know more of the language than you realise Very Happy

Probably most people understand a few words and guess the rest from the context/tone/gesticulations/facial expressions (well I do anyway Very Happy

)

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 8:30 pm

I was slowly picking up Russian like that. I had no idea what precisely was being said but if I went by 'gut reaction' to the tone, situation and that I could guess.

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 8:47 pm

I lived in Juarez, Mexico for a month. By the time I left there, I was the same way Eliza. I could understand what was being said but could only speak asi-asi (so-so). Now that I am back in the states, and have been for several years. I can barely understand slow conversational speak.

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 8:50 pm

I have lived almost all my life in Central and South American countries so I had to learn to at least read and understand spoken Spanish. Although my ability to communicate in Spanish is rudimentary at best, I can easily gain information about the world around me in either Spanish or English.

Funny part about me: I am 0% Hispanic myself! Laughing

[hijack] So Eliza, are you ever gonna appear on the Facebook? Wink

[/hijack]

TheGreatOok wrote:

I lived in Juarez, Mexico for a month.

I am currently living in Juarez (actually, Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico)! Smile

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 8:52 pm

When I was a kid, relatives from France would visit every summer... I could understand and converse them without mastering the language...

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 9:24 pm

benjaminbunny wrote:

I think you probably know more of the language than you realise.
Probably most people understand a few words and guess the rest
from the context/tone/gesticulations/facial expressions.

That is exactly how I am learning Dutch. My wife and I have friends
in Holland, and we are trying to learn the language .... Smile

We listen to them speak, look at their newspapers, especially ads with
pictures, and the words under, and their news programs on TV.

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 7103 Location: Yes

My father is from Germany and we have many native German friends. I can understand it to a limited degree (I did take one year of it in High School, but I studied French all the way through college and lived there, so I'm semi-fluent in French).

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 11:18 pm

Eliza_Doolittle wrote:

Now what about you - am I the only weird person out here?

If that was posted on any other site the answer would be yes. But this is eater... Very Happy

Portugese of the Brasilian variety.

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 12:57 am

Can understand some spoken Spanish and Portuguese (with the help of alcohol + ) from being/living at times in Spain and Portugal and Brazil and a few related-language countries.

A little Dutch written and less spoken. A lady friend in Spain was from Holland.

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 1:17 am

When I went to Germany and Switzerland to visit my relies for about 1 month and a half or basically the entire school holidays I started to pick up on the German with out being able to speak it.

But I HATE French, hate it, well just the teacher, hate her....control freak French teacher..hater her...hate..

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 2:43 am

I have only a few Pakistani friends and I never learned how to speak Urdu, but when they are talking together, I can sometimes understand a few things they are saying and I end up responding to them in English.

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 3:19 am

There's a few Chinese dialects I can understand perfectly well but can't speak. I have trouble understanding Shanghai dialect and Cantonese though. In the case of Fujian dialect I'm lucky if I can catch a single word.

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 3:26 am

I understand a lot of Greek yet speak very little.
Basic things in spanish I understand.
Dutch I understand rather well but don't speak it.

I can figure out very basic things written in Swedish, Finnish and Danish but cannot understand when people speak those languages to me. Laughing

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 3:28 am

lotta wrote:

I can figure out things written in Swiss, Finnish and Danish but cannot understand when people speak those languages to me. Laughing

At the risk of looking like a pedant but ahem? When was "Swiss" a language Laughing

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 3:41 am

I can understand French orally, but I am better at reading it and understanding it.

In the Great white north all the packages have bilingual labels by law, so I guess all those years of studying the back of the cereal boxes, en francais, paid off.

I did study French for one semester in school, but all I got out of it was a reputation as a poor speller in both official languages.

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 4:24 am

Standard Procedure wrote:

At the risk of looking like a pedant but ahem? When was "Swiss" a language Laughing

You're right Laughing

That should be either french or german. I meant to type Swedish.

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 5:22 am

un poco Espa�ol

un peu du Fran�ais

It was interesting that 10 years ago when I traveled to Europe with my daughter. A merchant in a French shop thought we were Dutch (must have been my French proficiency... or my English...) Laughing

EDIT: forgot Capital letters.

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 5:22 am

TheGreatOok wrote:

Now that I am back in the states, {...} I can barely understand slow conversational speak.

Yeah, this also happened to me when I went there a while ago... Wink

@Eliza: I think there's something about Italian that lends itself to picking it up easily over time. I used to live with a flatmate who had an Italian boyfriend who spoke almost no English. He would tell me elaborate stories about his day in Italian and after being exposed to it regularly for some time, I could actually understand the gist of what he was saying most times.

Wannabe Baiter Joined: 21 Jun 2007 Posts: 86

Cantonese -- My whole family spoke Cantonese (except me and my brother). I would listen to what they said in Cantonese, and I would respond in English. Needless to say, everyone had a hard time understanding me -- except my dad, he knows Engrish. Laughing

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 8:26 am

benjaminbunny wrote:

gesticulations

Gesticulations? Italians? naaaaahhhh Laughing

Italian actually shares quite a few words with English, like everything that will end on "-tion", like nation - nazione, action - azione, rotation - rotazione and a lot of other words like fragile - fragile etc. so it isn't *that* surprising a native English speaker can follow someone speaking Italian, especially if he minds his dialect. Very Happy

I understand Dutch but don't speak it. Mainly because I fear it will cause throat cancer and a rapid decline in football abilities.

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 8:34 am

Standard Procedure wrote:

When was "Swiss" a language Laughing

"Swiss" German is not a language in its own right - it is an ailment of the throat. Ask any German German Wink

Being an English speaker who lived for a while in Germany, I find it relatively easy to read related languages (Dutch, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian) even though I have never studied them and only had limited exposure to one (Danish). Understanding the spoken language is more difficult - I can never keep up with the speaker.

More surprisingly, I listened to a 40 minute tape in Italian a while ago and understood most of it. Orientation (ie, knowing in advance what subject was being discussed) helped a lot, but I was still surprised at how much of the detail I could understand.

I like to pick up a few words of the local language when travelling, but inevitably I find that reading is the easiest skill to acquire, speaking is next and listening is the hardest. I'm going to try Swahili next month - wish me luck!

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 8:45 am

I went out with a German girl many (over 20) years ago. She gave me crash course, and after six months I was fairly fluent. Then we split up and I never used it from that day on.

Now, when I hear German spoken I can recognise the words, but can't remember what they mean! Mad

Elite Baiter Joined: 02 Jul 2006 Posts: 1702

I travel abroad to europe a lot, a basic understanding of a handful of french words, a basic understanding of some german words and the following happens:

You can work out flemish, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, even turkish.

Language is like accents, mothers know from babies cries if its time to feed or change, there is a connection there in language, english came from german, we just "pronounce" the german in English and spell the words in english but the language is a germanic one, therefore it fits.

merhaba nasilsiniz = hello how are you in turkish, yet im not turkish.
Autobus chuffeur is bus driver in turkish, and shares this with the french, bus and chuffeur both used in english ( a lot ) and as technology and industry gain forward momentum we speak more and more similar words, and the internet will create a single language if left long enough over the years.

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 1:52 pm

I understand a couple of sign languages but cannot speak them.
I can sign them, though Wink

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