Writer's Block: Parlez-vous francais?

[marina_bonomi]

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My first language is Italian, I'm fluent in English and Putonghua (Mandarin Chinese), I know French and have a smattering of German and Spanish.
I can also read (and translate) classical Greek and classical Latin.

I'd love to improve my Spanish, learn Hebrew, Japanese, Scottish Gaelic and Old English

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Wow.I'm very impressed. My only good second language is French, though I read a bunch of mediaeval stuff.
Oh, and wo ye shuo putonghua. Yidian.

[marina-bonomi.livejournal.com]

Ni ye hui shuo putonghua ma? Tai hao! :)

Well, I learned French at school, then chose sinology as my professional field and taught myself English while in Taipei because my Chinese wasn't up to any serious book-reading and I was going crazy.
I owe my bit of German to being determined to become a medievalist, before changing path and deciding on Chinese.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

If I had a time machine, I might well go back and become a mediaeval Sinologist rather than a mediaeval Celticist, not least because Chinese is a lot easier to learn than Welsh. (My Welsh tutor refused to believe this; my various Chinese tutors find it hilarious.)
My Chinese is very rusty these days: I haven't been able to afford lessons for several years and I'm forgetting stuff. I try to keep it going by watching tv shows from China and Taiwan.

[marina-bonomi.livejournal.com]

That's always a good way to keep the 'ear' at least. :)
Welsh? I love the sound and the 'inner music' of the language, from what I read it's definitely more difficult than Chinese,.

If I had a time machine...very likely I'd go for a specialization in Chinese history rather than art history, but for the Yuan my prof wanted people who knew at least Russian and English to start with, and I didn't even know English back then.

[andreochka.livejournal.com]

Sono impressionato...

[marina-bonomi.livejournal.com]

Grazie. :)
Avevo provato a 'mordicchiare' il russo per conto mio, ma non riesco proprio ad imparare una lingua partendo dalla grammatica.

[andreochka.livejournal.com]

Il russo è sicuramente meno "tragico" di quanto possa sembrare ma purtroppo per parlarlo ad un livello decente occorre molto tempo: la mia pigrizia rema contro... ;)

[cedarseed.livejournal.com]

My first language is French, I'm fluent in English and Lebanese, can get around in Italian and Arabic, know a smattering of (Western) Armenian and Japanese. The little Chinese I know comes from my martial arts ;) I would really like to become fluent in Japanese and Armenian.

[marina-bonomi.livejournal.com]

My compliments! :)
Armenia is fascinating,I have really enjoyed your posts about your trip there. I'd like to go some time, knowing the language would add a lot to the experience