I have some knowledge of the politics complicating the learning and speaking of Breton in Brittany, so I think I understand why that may be difficult for you.
How many languages do you speak?
It depends how you define 'speak'.
I learnt Japanese in secondary school, but it doesn't seem to have stuck. As I say, I speak Irish, badly. I have a good passive knowledge of German - when I lived there, my spoken ability was a lot better, as I spoke only German with my friends, classmates and housemates, but I now seem to have lapsed into a situation where I can understand about 75 per cent of any conversation, but speak so slowly myself that it makes more sense to answer in English. I will speak it in situations where it's necessary, but when I speak to my partner's family, they speak to me in German and I answer in English.
I studied medieval literature at undergraduate and postgraduate level and have a PhD in medieval Irish literature, and at one point or another could read the following languages (with the help of a dictionary and/or grammar):
Old Irish Middle Irish Middle Welsh Medieval Cornish Medieval Breton Medieval Latin
I could muddle along with Middle High German, but I had to read all the words aloud until they sounded like modern German words to work out what the text would be saying.
I'm pretty rusty at all of these now that I'm not in academia any more, but I think I could pick any one up quickly if I had to do a translation, except possibly Latin.
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Date: 2015-10-13 02:20 pm (UTC)How many languages do you speak?
It depends how you define 'speak'.
I learnt Japanese in secondary school, but it doesn't seem to have stuck. As I say, I speak Irish, badly. I have a good passive knowledge of German - when I lived there, my spoken ability was a lot better, as I spoke only German with my friends, classmates and housemates, but I now seem to have lapsed into a situation where I can understand about 75 per cent of any conversation, but speak so slowly myself that it makes more sense to answer in English. I will speak it in situations where it's necessary, but when I speak to my partner's family, they speak to me in German and I answer in English.
I studied medieval literature at undergraduate and postgraduate level and have a PhD in medieval Irish literature, and at one point or another could read the following languages (with the help of a dictionary and/or grammar):
Old Irish
Middle Irish
Middle Welsh
Medieval Cornish
Medieval Breton
Medieval Latin
I could muddle along with Middle High German, but I had to read all the words aloud until they sounded like modern German words to work out what the text would be saying.
I'm pretty rusty at all of these now that I'm not in academia any more, but I think I could pick any one up quickly if I had to do a translation, except possibly Latin.