Languages

[DontSayBanana]

You could say japanese you know 

Meh. I just prefer to call languages by their native names as a matter of preference. I could just as easily have said German, Spanish, Japanese, and French, but I decided against it.

[Zoupa]

I think you should push it further and type nihongo using their alphabet next time.

[garbon]

Meh. I just prefer to call languages by their native names as a matter of preference. I could just as easily have said German, Spanish, Japanese, and French, but I decided against it.

Don't worry, we're used to you putting on airs.

I am surprised though that you've only admitted to being fluent in one other language!

[grumbler]

Curious how many of you share Sheilbh's passion for languages.

I get no respect.

[DontSayBanana]

Don't worry, we're used to you putting on airs.

I am surprised though that you've only admitted to being fluent in one other language!

"Putting on airs" is a gross overstatement- I've already admitted I can't speak the only language besides English that would actually be useful in South Jersey. It's just a simple neurosis.

I do like my vocabulary, though. Another neurosis would be being overly-precise in my speaking, and yes, I talk the same way I type. I guess I could see where you guys would get "putting on airs" out of that.

[garbon]

"Putting on airs" is a gross overstatement- I've already admitted I can't speak the only language besides English that would actually be useful in South Jersey. It's just a simple neurosis.

I do like my vocabulary, though. Another neurosis would be being overly-precise in my speaking, and yes, I talk the same way I type. I guess I could see where you guys would get "putting on airs" out of that.

Actually, the "putting on airs" part more globally goes to your attempts to play the role of encyclopedia brown.

[DisturbedPervert]

You could say japanese you know 

He wants people to google it

[DontSayBanana]

Actually, the "putting on airs" part more globally goes to your attempts to play the role of encyclopedia brown.

More "Encyclopedia Googlica" than "Encyclopedia Brown."

[Martinus]

Other than English, I speak some French and Russian. But English is the only language I speak fluently (shut up!).

[Archy]

English rather well for a not native speaker. I can understand it fluently, read it fluently, speaking and typing itself with some errors.
French: I have a basic knowledge and can make me understood rather well. I don't know it as well as English, but I use it in a daily setting with our customers. I have a bilingual colleague whom I often ask for advice.
German. Better as Jean Marie Pfaff, former goalkeeper of Bayern München. I can understand it rather well when written since it's the language closest to Dutch. I can help me out when necessary but I make a lot of errors. Also more often it's literraly translated Dutch.
Spanish: I had two years of evening classes. I can still understand most of the written lingo but I fogot half the vocab so I can say some sentences with help of a tourist dictionarry.

[Malthus]

I only speak English fluently. I know a little French to read (not much), a very little Chinese (in spite of years of schooling in both) and a smattering of Ukranian and Yiddish (in spite of being married into a family fluent in the one and being the grandson of grandparents fluent in the other).

I suck at languages.

[The Brain]

I only speak English fluently. I know a little French to read (not much), a very little Chinese (in spite of years of schooling in both) and a smattering of Ukranian and Yiddish (in spite of being married into a family fluent in the one and being the grandson of grandparents fluent in the other).

I suck at languages.

You conveniently forgot Hebrew.

[Malthus]

You conveniently forgot Hebrew.

I don't know any Hebrew at all. 

[Razgovory]

I took Latin.  I forgot most of it.  It's not exactly useful.

[grumbler]

I do like my vocabulary, though. Another neurosis would be being overly-precise in my speaking, and yes, I talk the same way I type. I guess I could see where you guys would get "putting on airs" out of that.

Using the Japanese word for their language rather than the English word, when writing on an English-speaking board 9especially when the rest of your post is in English exept for the foreign-language names of the languages) could so easily be taken for "putting on airs" that I am astonished that you don't see it.

I ' use "bulkhead" for wall, "hatch" for door, or "ladder" for stairs, even though those are perfectly correct and accurate terms when speaking Navy-speak.  The reason I don't is because it would be "putting on airs" unless I was literally speaking about those things aboard a ship.

You might want to look more closely at the reasons why you used the non-English terms.  They probably are not so innocent as you believe without consideration.