Re: Rio de Janeiro (was: Re: Hello)

 --- Thomas Leigh wrote:



> Well, how well do you speak those nine? (And which nine are they, BTW? I
> know Dutch, English, and Polish, obviously, but that leaves 6 more...) You
> could still be more impressive than I am! After all, as I explained at far
> too much length, I've now forgotten most or all of what I used to know of
> most of the languages in my list. :-(  I've been reduced to knowing *about*
> them, and knowing how they work, but not being able to actually *speak* them
> anymore.


Yes, my Dutch, English, and Polish are quite fluent.

As for the rest:

German - I had it in school and I can speak/write it quite well. But I know
less words and make more mistakes than in English.

French - I had it in school, as well, and was quite good at it at the time. But
it seems that with each Polish word I learnt I forgot a French word. Strange
how languages can interfere. I can read a French book without a problem, but
even when I lived in Luxemburg for almost a year I somehow didn't grasp fluency
in it.

Greek/Latin - belong to the basic package of anyone who goes to the gymnasium
and chooses the a-side of it. They were the core of my education. But although
they absorbed roughly 1/3 of all school hours, knowledge of them was meant to
be  passive only - and that's what it is. No speaking.

Russian - when I studied Sovietology I had to learn it. Besides, I live with a
woman whose native language is Russian. Nevertheless, I never feel completely
comfortable in it. My knowledge of Russian is more or less on the level of my
French.

Ukrainian - bluntly speaking a combination of Polish vocabulary with Russian
grammar, so I never had problems reading it. I did a teach-yourself course in
it, and followed quite some courses at Warsaw University. Unfortunately, most
of my knowledge of Ukrainian got lost.



> > In correct Dutch that would be "Tot ziens", just picking ;)
>
> You know, I actually started to write "ziens", but then I stopped, thought
> about how I've heard it pronounced, and wrote "siens" instead. Darn it. :-)


That's the way it is often pronounced, especially in the cities.



Regards,

Jan

=====
"Originality is the art of concealing your source." - Franklin P. Jones

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