anyone studying or know multiple languages

Native: Portuguese and Spanish
Fluent: Latim
Intermediary: English and Basque
Basic: Slavic languages in general(but mainly Russian and Ukrainian) and Bokmål
Beginner: Italian and Polish
Withdrawal: German, Suomi and Esperanto

Eight wrote:Zavatee, why Hebrew school? Is one of your parents Jewish?
I admire the quality of education at Hebrew schools. Did you study Talmud as well?
Do you get to use your Yiddish, with family or friends?

Yes my father is Jewish and my mother is Catholic and I was raised as both during my childhood. I was forced to attend Hebrew school by my mother at a time in my childhood when I was living in a Catholic household with my mother and her parents and spending time around my Catholic aunt and cousins and going to their communions in Catholic churches and being raised around their religious beliefs, but Hebrew school was for my Jewish education and that's where we studied Hebrew and the Torah so I was on the borderline between both religions as a kid.

I can actually use Yiddish as a guehaim shprakh (secret language) to have private conversations with my dad, who learned it from his parents who spoke it fluently, and can use it to talk with his side of the family and use English to speak with di goyim, pretty much everyone else I know who isn't from my dad's side of the family. In the rare instances where I am talking to an Ashkenazi woman I can also speak it with them. They often learn mame lashon also because it's part of their ancestry background.

Thanks for sharing.
I too went to parochial schools, though instruction was all in English so I didn't learn another language other than the Spanish that we also speak at home.

I have a grandparent who is Swiss French and she tried to teach me French but I was too young to value what she was doing. She used to be royalty in Switzerland but that ended in politics and she and her family came to the US as poor immigrants. She never lost her regal ways, though, and I was fascinated by her as a child. So beautiful and so... ladylike. She had the most beautiful handwriting... all script and wrote with a fountain tip pen. And her lace... I still have much of her lace.
I now wish I could speak French.

You're blessed to have a facility for languages.

Yeah I have recently stopped to think about it and it's like languages is a part of my life and I'm glad I can do it. This afternoon I had a conversation with my dad over the phone and most of the conversation was in Yiddish, and I like that there are "secret" languages in the family to discuss important things. Apparently he and I both very much need each other's help at this point and we have our secret tongue passed down the family through the generations to communicate and I think it's useful to have that. Also I'm arranging to go out tonight with a friend who speaks Spanish and she and I have been texting each other in Spanish, so it's cool I have opportunity to use these skills of mine but even if I didn't have much opportunity I would still want to know them. I think it's a big part of my life because I've always surrounded myself with multilingual people.

I would LOVE to have a 'secret' language I could use with a chosen few people. How special that you and your father have that between you -- it's something that binds you together.

Having a facility for multiple languages will probably keep your brain from dementia too... as long as you stay away from that alcohol.

Ancient and modern Greek- Was studying to be an archaeologist before mental and physical issues arose.

Ancient Egyptian (hieroglyphs, demotic, lil bit of hieratic and coptic)- specifically was going for egyptology.

Arabic- Minored in Cairene Arabic in college while having a Lebanese teacher who would teach us Lebanese as well. I took Arabic 1-3.

French- My mom's side of the family has a strong French heritage, so she taught me that growing up. I started majoring in French in college, but my teacher had a Beverly Hillbillies accent that I couldn't stand.

German- Majored in German (dad's side is Irish and German, and I lived in a very "German Town" community growing up). My family basically said they'd only pay for my college if I went with French or German as a major.

Latin- (see Ancient and modern Greek)

Japanese- I dunno why, but my dad was obsessed with this language. I was the only one in class who wasn't studying it to watch anime without subtitles. I took Japanese 1-4 in college as a minor until they offered Arabic.

Lots of these I haven't used much in years, but feel I'm proficient in them at least.

Moved to Spain and now can finally say I'm fluent in Spanish after studying and practicing for over a decade. I can read and write fairly well in Portuguese now, too, with basic speaking/listening skills, and picked up a bit of Catalan here as well, although that's mostly reading and listening.

Now I've been very slowly learning Arabic (Levantine dialect), I know the alphabet and got enough basic phrases under my belt to impress some of my husband's family members, but time and energy to devote to studying has really been limited.

I was never really interested in French or German but I think I will end up getting into them "accidentally" the way I did Portuguese. I find myself reading multilingual packaging here and I'm like, well, I can sort of almost understand that, why not go all the way? So if I start learning German, it will be because of Nesquick

I also did some Rosetta Stone Latin years ago, which turned out to be semi-helpful for physiology and Catalan, unexpectedly.

I would love to take a stab at Hebrew as an adult. I was so jealous of my Jewish friends who were learning it when we were kids that I forced them to teach me a little, and I still remember the alphabet song hehe.