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| 1. Author: GG Riva Date: Tue 3rd Feb 2026. 16:39 I had the pleasure of meeting Alfons Amade on a visit to Cairneyhill PS yesterday. Born and raised in Germany, the first thing that struck me about Alfons was his near perfect English. Fluent, sophisticated, and with no hesitation whatsoever. As a bilingual myself, it was obvious to me that he thinks in English when he speaks it and in German when he speaks that. I didn`t ask him, but his parents are from Mozambique, and I wouldn`t be at all surprised if he also speaks fluent Portuguese. So what you might say? Well, he only studied English at school in Germany. Most Scottish children are nowhere near as fluent and confident in languages such as French and Spanish when they finish their schooling. They don`t generally appear to have the motivation and determination to learn a new language, according to my modern language colleagues when I was teaching. It`s unlikely to be vastly different now. Tbf, English is so widely spoken around the globe that many kids don`t feel the need to learn a second language in the way that foreign kids want to learn English. It`s the language of IT and music, after all. What many people perhaps don`t realise is that learning a second language can inform your first and expand your vocabulary. e.g. how many of you know the meaning of the verb "masticate" without googling it? š¤  Not your average Sunday League player. Post Edited (Tue 03 Feb 17:56) Reply |
| 2. Author: Luxembourg Par Date: Tue 3rd Feb 2026. 17:00 Itās sadly an example of how widely English is spoken - I learned French, but whenever I speak it, the other party recognises my shoddy accent (yeah, and grammar) and answers me in Englishā¦ The problem is that English is the worldwide business language used in airlines and banking/financial services, which pretty much covers Lux - as well as typically being the ācommon languageā spoken by most politicians and governmental bodies. Both my kids are fluent in French, pretty decent in German and Luxembourgish - which is not uncommon here - hell, the taxi drivers speak 5 or more languages.  Reply |
| 3. Author: Luxembourg Par Date: Tue 3rd Feb 2026. 17:01 Oh, Iād need to chew over an answer to your masticate questionā¦ Reply |
| 4. Author: wee eck Date: Tue 3rd Feb 2026. 17:02 I remember seeing a TV programme about kids and languages. It was quite common for kids in London to have parents whose native language was not English but different from each other`s and the children were fluent in both as well as English which was the common language at school of course. They could switch between them without thinking. Apparently kids are most receptive at a very young age to learning different languages. A friend who worked for a while in Belgium where a few languages are spoken told me his kids were much more fluent in them than their parents and he often had to ask them about the meaning of words in the different languages. `Masticate`, GGR? Wash your mouth out! Reply |
| 5. Author: neilholland999 Date: Tue 3rd Feb 2026. 17:28 A lot of the highest selling/most popular movies and songs etc are performed in English, so more people are also exposed to the language on a regular basis. Reply |
| 6. Author: Buspasspar Date: Tue 3rd Feb 2026. 19:18 "e.g. how many of you know the meaning of the verb "masticate" without googling it? š¤" If its good enough for COWS its good enough for me :-o))) We are forever shaped by the Children we once were Reply |
| 7. Author: jake89 Date: Tue 3rd Feb 2026. 19:58 Germans are probably only second to the Dutch for their excellent grasp of English. Like Lux, I find if I attempt French or German they just take pity and respond in English. Reply |
| 8. Author: LochgellyAlbert Date: Tue 3rd Feb 2026. 22:21 I never really understood why French was taught, Spanish is spoken in a lot more countries. Reply |
| 9. Author: AdamAntsParsStripe Date: Tue 3rd Feb 2026. 22:28 As I lived in Germany, I learned it from scratch really not through school or books. It took me a good two years to hold a half decent conversation in German but it benefited me in that I got to learn all the nuances that go with learning a new language such as various dialects in different areas of Germany. Most Germans it has to be said thought I was Dutch as I presume they have that brusque way of talking like Scots. Very few referred to me as an Englander as they are easy to spot. I can also tell you the moment when I knew I cracked it. I began to dream in German. Never looked back and even yesterday I struck up a conversation in a shop with two German women and hadnāt forgot much at all 8 years after coming back home. Zwei Pints Bier und ein PƤckchen Chips bitte  Reply |
| 10. Author: Luxembourg Par Date: Tue 3rd Feb 2026. 23:29 jake89, Tue 3 Feb 19:58 Iāve worked beside a load of Scandiās (Swedish bank with English as working language - Swedes, Finnās & Danes) and they are as near as dammit to fluent in English too. Reply |
| 11. Author: GG Riva Date: Wed 4th Feb 2026. 06:17 LochgellyAlbert, Tue 3 Feb 22:21 It`s fairly straightforward, LA. At one time, French was considered the second most important language after English. It was the language of the fledgling Common Market in the 50s. Language students studied French at universities. Those who became teachers taught French. I`m fairly certain that would have been the case when you were un petite garƧon. š Later, university students were encouraged to study more than one foreign language. By this time, West Germany had overtaken France in importance in Europe, so many new teachers could also teach German and schools could offer both. In more recent years, Spain has become a favourite holiday destination for Brits and there is more appetite among school children to learn Spanish. Many schools now offer French and Spanish rather than German. Some Edinburgh schools offer Italian if they have staff who are qualified to teach it. Not your average Sunday League player. Reply |
| 12. Author: auldpar Date: Wed 4th Feb 2026. 07:16 `Petit` garƧon! š tut tut! My oldest granddaughter, 5 , living in Toronto goes to kindergarten and although it`s an English-speaking part of Canada, she`s taught in French and can already converse in both languages. Post Edited (Wed 04 Feb 07:16) Reply |
| 13. Author: Dave_1885 Date: Wed 4th Feb 2026. 07:36 They say that for Scots, German is the easiest language to pick up, I think because of things like that āchās at the end of words like Loch and Nicht etc. I done German in school, never continued it when left but do know the basics still and tried my best to use them during our trip for the Euros. Does anyone else feel a sort of embarrassment when trying it though? Possibly why most just stick to English. And donāt get me started on trying French or some French peoples attitudes towards folk that donāt speak itā¦.. Reply |
| 14. Author: GG Riva Date: Wed 4th Feb 2026. 08:57 Dave_1885, Wed 4 Feb 07:36 Maybe for the pronunciation of certain words, Dave, but German`s sentence structure with the verbs coming right at the end, makes it quite difficult for foreign students to master. Not your average Sunday League player. Reply |
| 15. Author: DJAS Date: Wed 4th Feb 2026. 10:55 Made an attempt to learn German after I booked up for the Euros. Spent 6-7 months but failed in the end š Predictor league winner 2012/2013 Reply |
| 16. Author: Playup_Pompey Date: Wed 4th Feb 2026. 14:13 Have used Duolingo for German and its brilliant, can now watch interviews and understand key words etc enough to get context whats happening etc. Can discuss basics etc directions and ordering food  Reply |
| 17. Author: DBP Date: Wed 4th Feb 2026. 18:06 I know someone who is from China and is over here teaching mandarin in a small private school. They take languages very seriously and every child reaches a good level of fluency. Whatās interesting is that they teach all the kids, the only two languages they offer, mandarin and Spanish. Their view is that if pupils finish school being able to speak English, Spanish and mandarin then they are basically sorted regardless of where in the world they are (as the people will very likely speak one of those as a first or second language) Reply |
| 18. Author: veteraneastender Date: Wed 4th Feb 2026. 20:36 neilholland999, Tue 3 Feb 17:28 We met a couple of Belgian lads on holiday in Italy a few years ago, their English was as good as ours (no comment) - they explained that they got popular UK terrestrial television broadcasts due to living near the coast. Reply |
| 19. Author: Big T Par Date: Wed 4th Feb 2026. 23:45 Always look forward to Rammstein releasing new material, so that I can update mein Deutsch. Reply |
| 20. Author: hurricane_jimmy Date: Thu 5th Feb 2026. 13:33 Interesting thread and always enjoy hearing about others` language journeys. I did French until S2 and then took an Italian class during S6 to fill a gap in my timetable, which was what really got me interested in languages again. Ended up doing a few elementary Russian courses with Lund Uni while working as well to couple with the Russian/Soviet History/Politics courses I was doing - case system there was just insane though! I learned Swedish during my 9 years over there and would say I got pretty good at it and was always told my pronunciation was very good, but the difficult thing was always the rhythm of the language which is the giveaway for not being a native speaker. The other thing I found was that I developed a very specific vocabulary and taking about Chemistry or Physics was fine, but trying to sort out insurance or online banking could sometimes leave could leave you quite stumped! Also found that I could communicate easily with the Norwegians in our respective language and the Danes too depending on where they were from, but the throatiness of Danish sometimes made it a nightmare to listen too. Easy enough to read either though. And I did find that it helped my random German knowledge that I picked up during my time over there improved a helluva lot because of Swedish, but that really translated as receptive skill rather than productive skill - was often mistaken for being Dutch I spoke German with the Swedish grammar, which has maybe about 1/3 of the rules of German. My son is also half Japanese and so I`ve been investing time in that and its a completely different beast from anything else - 100% memory work and brain training to the point where you basically need to learn grammar on a contextual basis and remembering the specific conjugation for the sequence can really mess with your brain! Being based in Hong Kong though, just have to say that Cantonese is mental - 9 possible tones per syllable...Mandarin/Putonghua is a lot better though with just 4 but prefer not to use that here as its widely disliked although you can get away with it as a foreigner. During my days in the Scientific field, I always enjoyed reading papers and tried to avoid looking at the names while trying to guess what nationality the authors were. German speakers always had really long sentences with loads of caveats, the Italian ones were always quite colourful in terms of descriptions and the best-written were always the Greek papers, which I certainly wouldn`t have expected based on national second language ability. I have to disagree slightly with Jake on the Germans though: I`d say the Swedes, Danes, Norwegians, Icelandics and Finns would be on par with the Dutch in terms of English. The younger generation of Estonians as well. If you know enough German then generally you do hear bits of word-for-word translation "I have played guitar since 7 years" is one I always remember and "I drive the bike" was another. Also agree on the the points above about Anglophones perhaps not having the same motivation to learn a second language as others. I have always wondered if they start language lessons too late in Scottish schools - teachin Post Edited (Thu 05 Feb 13:37) Reply |
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