daniel the linguist

[Jprime]

Oops! Forgot Leet!

[Sue_Jackson]

As someone who has absolutely NO facility for languages...I admire anyone who is bilingual or more!
Nmom

Me too, Nolamom. I have always admired people who can speak more than one language, fluently. I speak English (that's because I was born in the U.S.).

Sé hablar español un poco. But, that's just about it. I'm still learning how to speak and understand Spanish better. I try to watch the Spanish networks (Telemundo, Futura), and see if I can understand or learn. It's even better when I use the CC on Spanish channels. Makes it easier to kind of understand what they're saying.

I just admire the people who come to the U.S. from a foreign country not knowing a thing of English, and they take the time to learn and speak English very well.

[Crazedwraith]

Me too, Nolamom. I have always admired people who can speak more than one language, fluently. I speak English (that's because I was born in the U.S.).

Bah, Americans don't speak english! They speak "American English" An extremely annoying sub-set of english complete weird weird spellings and pronunciations! (j/k by the way i hope i didn't offend our american lackeys..er..friends )

[Iskandra]

I speak German and English on native speaker level and know a bunch of languages rather well that do not have speakers anymore: Latin, Ancient Egyptian, Old English, Middle English, and Coptic. I can get around in Welsh and Arabic and can order food in Italian Among the artificial languages, I know some basic Esperanto, Klingon, and a bit more of Sindarin (one of Tolkien's languages). I have dabbled in Ancient Greek and Modern Russian and can read (but not understand most of) both. Right now I'm learning Akkadian (Assyrian, in cuneiform). I understand the concepts of most languages' grammars, though, even if I don't speak them - that's one of the bonuses of being a linguist, you learn to recognize and understand structures in languages...

...and if the Welsh *really* run the SGC, at least I can talk to them in their native language

[epiphany]

And his answer was . . . ?

-tera'ngan

I answered that in my original post. Michael said, in terms of earth languages, Daniel had learned Chinese(can't remember which dialect--or even if he mentioned which dialect). So that means as Earth languages go, he now speaks around 24.

[Ugly Pig]

Being Norwegian, I obviously speak Norwegian most of the time! And I'd say I'm fairly well familiar with English. But that's it... I'm no Daniel.

[shinyredpants]

wow...and chinese is pretty hard...

[Jprime]

wow...and chinese is pretty hard...

Let me guess: ur more accustommed to latin based languages right?

[Coz]

I have issues with English despite the fact that it's my first language. I can speak a bit of Welsh, I studied it in school and was alright but don't get that much chance to use it in Sheffield (weird that) so I've forgotten most of it. I have nothing but respect for those who can speak multiple languages!

[Anubis]

Anyone who speaks more than their first language has to study very hard to learn then fluently. At school, we are taught Spanish and French

[DarkQuee1]

I answered that in my original post. Michael said, in terms of earth languages, Daniel had learned Chinese(can't remember which dialect--or even if he mentioned which dialect). So that means as Earth languages go, he now speaks around 24.

When? He didn't know it in FB.

J.

[epiphany]

When? He didn't know it in FB.

J.

Hey he's the one who said it in answer to Ali's question. I figure he had some reason for saying it as he specifically said Chinese, so I assume either the translator was more for the comfort of the old man(I've been told there are cultural reasons for this but unfortunately I can't quite remember what they were ) OR it was a dialect of Chinese Daniel didn't know(they can be very different and thus difficult to understand for those who speak another dialect) OR Daniel decided to take it up AFTER meeting the old man, thinking "Hey maybe I should add Chinese to my repetoire, it is the most common spoken native language on Earth after all, I can't believe I haven't done this sooner!::forehead slap::"

[Sue_Jackson]

When? He didn't know it in FB.

J.

I believe that Chinese couple was speaking Cantonese. (Don't ask me what they were saying. That's what it said in the CC. ) There are many different Chinese dialects. May be Daniel doesn't know Cantonese. May be, he knows only certain Chinese dialects. Or, may be he just knows Mandarin.