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| 21. Author: McCaig`s Tower Date: Thu 5th Feb 2026. 14:07 I think learning a different language is like committing a murder – you need means, motive and opportunity. Means is a lot more straightforward now, with apps and web-based courses freely available. Motivation is a big issue for anglophones. If you were Swedish, for example (and I`ve just seen HJ has posted with practical experience) then there’s a big incentive to learn English – hardly anyone speaks Swedish outside Sweden, except maybe for some parts of Finland. Possibly you could get by in Denmark or somewhere, but other than that, no-one will understand you. There I guess you will be taught English at primary school and you will hear songs in English and watch English language films and TV shows, and talk about them and quote them the next day at school. Whereas in the UK – which language do you learn? And when would you ever use it? I can think of two occasions when I’ve been abroad and the person I’ve been trying to speak to didn’t speak English – one an Arabic speaker in a hotel in Tunisia, one an Italian taxi-driver in Turin. Both spoke French as their second language. Then there’s opportunity. You need to practice the skill – use it or lose it. A conversation class once a week might help, but I think, as has been said, something like immersion is the best way. That time I was in Tunisia there were a couple of people from Cambodia on my tour, and they didn’t speak a word of English (so that makes a third occasion), but I found that after only a couple of days I was able to make basic conversation in French relatively naturally (rather than think of something, try and translate it, realise I couldn’t think of the word, so try to say something else). Other languages certainly teach you about English grammar – which was never formally taught in my day – things like tenses, moods, voices, inflection of nouns and so on, although this is often en passant – there seems to be a reluctance to suggest learners sit down and learn some basic rules. I read somewhere that to have a basic understanding of a language you need to know 800 “lemmas” or root words. To understand TV programmes you would need to know 3.000, and to read well 8,000 to 9,000. I would have thought reading a different language was easier than listening to one, but maybe I misunderstood. A native speaker might have 20,000 such root words at their disposal. I’ve tried German on Duolingo – I’m finding it really hard, compared to other languages. I think it’s the word order. Also, the aging process – learning things take about 4 times as long as it used to. Reply |
| 22. Author: jake89 Date: Thu 5th Feb 2026. 16:52 Good shout, HJ. Immediately after I posted my mind went to the Scandinavian countries. I went to uni with quite a few from Norway, Sweden and Finland and their English was superb. It really does put us to shame but then I think there IS an advantage that it`s easy to be immersed in English compared to many other languages. I`d love to learn Cantonese but it has the additional complication of a different alphabet and structure - or that`s my excuse! Reply |
| 23. Author: GG Riva Date: Fri 6th Feb 2026. 10:33 What an enjoyable read this thread is. It`s really interesting to read the stories and experiences of other posters in relation to other languages. Who would have thought that dotnet was a hive of erudite linguistic scholars? 🤔 Much as I admire anyone who strives to learn another language, I have some sympathy for Scottish secondary schoolchildren. It can`t be easy for them. It`s too late for a start. Starting in P1 would be far better, but very few primary teachers have a degree in a second language. Some lip service is paid to the practice, but few kids leave primary with more than a smattering of words in French or Spanish. Learning in a classroom setting doesn`t really cut the mustard either. There`s no doubt that immersion is far and away the best way to learn a new language. Nobody ever learned to swim without getting wet..... After visiting Barcelona 20 years ago, I resolved to learn a bit of Spanish. I thought it would be relatively straightforward, given I`m fluent in Italian and the languages are so similar in structure, with many similar words. I bought 16 CDs called Learn Spanish, put them on my Walkman, and listened to them right through time and again, when I went out running. (I could manage 10 miles in around 85 mins back then.) After a couple of months of repetition, I managed to get the hang of it, but initially I thought I never would. "`Masticate`, GGR? Wash your mouth out!" Aye, I was a bit of a naughty teacher, wee eck. If I spotted some young lad chewing in class, I`d ask him if he was masticating. They were always horrified for some reason. Heads would turn, girls would giggle and the boy in question would turn red and deny it vehemently. "OK, mastication is just another word for chewing", I`d explain. "Just put the gum in the bin, please, before it ends up under your bench." It never failed to get the desired result. Now, when I think back, it was a bit cruel.  Not your average Sunday League player. Reply |
| 24. Author: Tad Allagash Date: Fri 6th Feb 2026. 19:56 Interesting thread even for a monoglot like me. Should we bring back Latin to our schools? I think it’s interesting that it is still widely taught in posh private schools, but comprehensives including the Catholic school I attended abandoned it decades ago. Reply |
| 25. Author: AdamAntsParsStripe Date: Fri 6th Feb 2026. 20:39 Tad Allagash, Fri 6 Feb 19:56 Indeed. Most European languages derive from Latin so it would make it easier for people to learn other languages. Zwei Pints Bier und ein Päckchen Chips bitte  Reply |
| 26. Author: red-star-par Date: Fri 6th Feb 2026. 21:20 Interesting thread, over the years I`ve worked with loads of Swedes, Polish, Italians and Spanish people and their command of English and vocabulary in general has been very good, both written and spoken. Many of them speak better English than most people I know. My language skills are terrible, only really had a couple of years of French at secondary school and some Spanish at Uni. I lived and worked in Spain for a while and was keen to speak it whenever I could but as soon as people sussed you spoke English, then they wanted to speak English to practice their second language. Reply |
| 27. Author: Jeffery Date: Fri 6th Feb 2026. 22:28 I took German at school, and although I couldn`t have recalled much of it on demand, when I went over there and was immersed in it, it all came back. The organisation of memories and how they can be recalled by a word, sight, smell, sound really is an incredible thing. Reply |
| 28. Author: AdamAntsParsStripe Date: Sat 7th Feb 2026. 01:45 Jeffery, Fri 6 Feb 22:28 That’s absolutely true. I said earlier I’ve been back here about 8 years from Germany but I surprised myself in a shop by how much I remembered. Language is a jigsaw puzzle which, when comes together is a joy to behold and you see it in another light. German for example is often seen as the least romantic language in existence but it’s not true when you know it and the culture that goes with it. Zwei Pints Bier und ein Päckchen Chips bitte Post Edited (Sat 07 Feb 01:46) Reply |
| 29. Author: neilholland999 Date: Sat 7th Feb 2026. 10:53 Tad Allagash, Fri 6 Feb 19:56 Not a bad shout. My mother in law used to teach Latin at a private school until the school closed and she lost her job a few years ago. She now offers online lessons to lots of kids across the UK and further afield. It is still considered a good foundation for understanding the background and mechanics of many other languages. Reply |
| 30. Author: wee eck Date: Sat 7th Feb 2026. 11:13 I did Latin to O Grade and found it provided a good grounding in English grammar and vocabulary. I think it may have been mandatory to Higher Grade if you wanted to study medicine or am I misrembering? Reply |
| 31. Author: buffy Date: Sat 7th Feb 2026. 12:08 I did it at DHS and it’s come in handy in legal work. ”Buffy’s Buns are the finest in Fife”, J. Spence 2019” Reply |
| 32. Author: wee eck Date: Sat 7th Feb 2026. 12:39 `Labor omnia vincit!` `Quidquid agis age pro viribus!` Does DHS still have a school motto? Post Edited (Sat 07 Feb 19:11) Reply |
| 33. Author: parsmad68 Date: Sat 7th Feb 2026. 12:57 Went to Munich to meet customers who I was told would need a German translator. Turns out they had better English than me! Was great to meet my pal Abdel from France (originally Algeria) who was luckily there at the same time, who can speak Arabic, French and English fluently. He was telling me that they don’t get on with Morocco with their border now closed, when we got into discussing World Cup things. When flying Qatar airways, I love listening to the Qatari safety announcement. It is like music to the ears. No idea what is being said but sounds great. Post Edited (Sat 07 Feb 13:00) Reply |
| 34. Author: McCaig`s Tower Date: Sun 8th Feb 2026. 20:58 I did Gaelic at school, for a year. It was compulsory, and not very well taught. I think one issue was we had an old teacher (although all teachers were old) and a classful of kids who weren’t particularly interested. Almost all of us gave it up as soon as we could. Looking back I think the only people who kept it going were second generation Gaels. I took up Latin instead. It seemed more modern and useful. And it certainly helped with introducing concepts of grammar that were no longer taught elsewhere. I think for the Romance languages once you’ve mastered a little bit of grammar it’s largely vocabulary, a lot of which you can guess. So you can understand a fair bit of the written word. Speaking them is harder because you need to know more rules, like which preposition to use and how to form the future tense. Pronunciation generally isn’t a particular problem. German has the word order issue. Gaelic has word order and spelling. And sound different sounds. And more grammar. Greek and Russian have the different alphabet, but I don’t think that in itself is a major hurdle. Arabic and the oriental languages have completely different character sets. How easy it is to get beyond that I’m not sure. Being a tourist is different from any serious attempt to learn – you can get by with knowing a handful of words and guessing the rest in Western Europe and the Nordic countries - so you see the word “Farmacia” for example and can guess it’s a pharmacy. Eastern Europe is harder, I think. I imagine further afield may be a bit harder still. I was trying to remember Oban High School’s motto – so I googled it. This is the answer I got: “The motto of Oban High School is “Àrd-sgoil an Òbain” – this translates to “School of the Gaelic” in English.” This is wrong and wrong. (It’s “Dia ar n-uil” by the way.) Reply |
| 35. Author: Big T Par Date: Sun 8th Feb 2026. 21:07 Remember one time when I was in Germany and we were in a restaurant and I thought I`d impress the family by asking for the bill in German. I sneakily had my phone down by my knee and typed in, what I thought was, Can I have the bill please. Back came the translation, but unbeknownst to me I had put bell, instead of bill. So I proudly said, in my best German, Kann ich bitte die Glocke haben? The Fam were most impressed, until the waitress looked at me, rather confused, and started going, ding ding and hitting an imaginary bell with a hammer. What a riddy 🫣🫣🫣 Post Edited (Sun 08 Feb 21:08) Reply |
| 36. Author: GG Riva Date: Mon 9th Feb 2026. 08:36 Big T Par, Sun 8 Feb 21:07 😂😂😂 Not your average Sunday League player. Reply |
| 37. Author: AdamAntsParsStripe Date: Mon 9th Feb 2026. 09:20 Big T Par, Sun 8 Feb 21:07 😂😂😂 Zwei Pints Bier und ein Päckchen Chips bitte Reply |
| 38. Author: NMCmassive Date: Mon 9th Feb 2026. 23:10 I’ve got family in Eastern Europe. Have made a tube of myself numerous times. Told my mother in law I was away to shower my undercarriage and I still don’t know what I said wrong 🤷🏻♂️ But yeah I do recognise speaking in a bad accent and then ending up speaking English 🤷🏻♂️😂 Genuinely though, I get a large amount of positive feedback just for trying COYP Reply |
| 39. Author: Big T Par Date: Tue 10th Feb 2026. 07:37 Was down at the BVB Spurs game recently and my mate, who`s a fluent German speaker, was talking to an older lady, and she told him that his fly was down, and he started laughing. Asked him what was funny and he said that the literal translation of, your fly`s down is, The key to your pants is open 😅 Post Edited (Tue 10 Feb 07:38) Reply |
| 40. Author: Paralex Date: Thu 12th Feb 2026. 19:20 The problem that English speakers have in speaking another language, as has already been said, is the global popularity of English. I learned a bit of French at school and to be fair, was awful at it, although I do know many nouns, basic phrases and some of the grammatical nuances. Having holidayed in France many times, maybe as much as 20, I can understand enough to get by with little difficulty but my speech is of the pigeon variety. And in that style one of my party tricks is describing, in French, our experience of sitting on the grass, dans une parc en Amiens and watching une grande television screen, to see le coup de monde finale, a la France et l`italia. I also describe how le capitain a la France, Zinidane Zidane, was awarded le carte rouge, for putting la tete on an italian defender. One other problem is that, whether in Paris, or caravan sites in Normandy, Brittany, la Cote d `Azure or elsewhere, you tend to meet other holiday makers, who don`t speak French. Reply |
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