OT Languages You Can Speak / Countries You’ve Been To

you're new here...always ask for a muzzle as well

 

I speak Mandarin, some Taiwanese and understand some German from taking 2 years of it in high school ...been all over asia...was sent to Vietnam in 71 and traveled all over the west Pac on the USS Blue Ridge...took trips to Nepal, Thailand, India, Bali....traveled through China twice...been to Phillipines many, many times.as well as Hong Kong..lived and worked in Taiwan for a couple decades...saw Japan, Okinawa, Korea, Mongolia, Cambodia, Laos, Burma across the river...didn't get to cross.....lived in Hawaii 3 times and speak passable pidgin english. Been to Canada, Mexico and Central America...my wife is Taiwanese but now an American citizen for the last 12 years. We've been together 31 years and change...we speak english and Mandarin in our home

 

I have only been to Canada. I don't speak Canadian.

Besides Oregon. I have been to Washington and California.

I know a few German cuss words my dad learned while stationed in Germany in the 60's. Beyond that, I speak English.

 

I did the same all expenses paid junket to the Far East as @riverman, including being aboard the very same ship (Riv was apparently going down the gangplank in Okinawa as I was going up it). So I’ve been to the Philippines, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong etc (and Vietnam from a heathy distance). Also been to Mexico and Canada numerous times. I’m reasonably conversant in English and extremely proficient in profanity (my native language). I also know a few words of Pirate in case I need to talk to @barfo......

 

I have a good friend who's father was one of the highest ranking south Vietnamese generals, his name was Ly Tong Ba. After taking his family including my friend to the embassy to evacuate to the Philippines as refugess, he was captured and a prisoner of war for 15 plus years. He was able to move here and had a huge following and wrote several books.
I have a Vietnamese daughter in law, she and her father just became a US citizen's. I have a Korean daughter in too and three Amerasian grandkids.

 

I have been sitting at a bar in Taiwan many times while people at the bar are talking about me in Mandarin...then I call for the bartender in Mandarin and have a long conversation with him/her and embarrass the hell out of the locals who assume I can't understand them....language is power...and speaking the local language is the best way to experience being an expat

 

This is an interesting thread....I speak English, and enough Spanish to survive, maybe, kind of... I wish I had one of those brains that didn't suffer from paralysis through analysis...

Countries: Canada, Mexica, Guatemala, Scotland, England, Wales, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, and Morocco... I also was born in the South, which is essentially a different country.

 

I'll teach you Canadian...."eh".....end all your sentences with that and you'll start to understand eh?

 

Born and raised in inner SE Portland. I've been to Canada a bunch of times, BC, Alberta, Ottowa, Quebec. Mexico twice for just a couple days.
England, Scotland, Wales for three weeks total, France for about a month total, Spain
(Barcalona, Pamplona, San Sebastian) for about a week, Italy (Rome) for a few days, Switzerland (Lausanne) for a few days, Germany (Munich) for 1 day, Hungry (Budapest) for a few days, passed through Austria on the train. Australia (Melbourne, Adelaide, Alice Springs, Darwin, Sydney) for three months. Been around the states a bit, mostly on the West Coast and visiting friends in the Midwest (mostly Cleveland, and Chicago).
I speak enough french to always be nominated by whomever I'm with to buy the train tickets and talk to cab drivers. I understand basic Spanish (I usually get placed in intermediate classes). And am taking a Russian class at PCC right now. I'm about to head to RUS 202 for Winter term.

EDIT: And I know a couple of swear words in Vietnamese and Cambodian. I can count to 20 in Cambodian and to 3 in Vietnamese. I used to know how to say Go home! In Cambodian because my friend's little brother used to follow us around when we were playing baseball, and football.

 

Fluent in Spanish

spent a decent amount of time in Colombia. A month in Peru, and Mexico a couple times.

edit: took a bus once to Canada too. Ate some edibles otw and was too high at the border. Almost didn’t get in and everyone on the bus had to wait like 30 min for me

 

They're referring to dead insects, butterflies, cockroaches, and other critters....you probably know their real Latin names are

 

Been to 45 states......
& Canada, Mexico, Azores, Argentina, Brazil, England, Netherlands, Scotland, Greece
Will be in Japan next summer if they hold the games.

Speak just enough Spanish to survive in a foreign country. Wish I knew more.

 

You drink coffee, don't you?

 

I was born in Atlanta.

 

When are you finally going to apply for US citizenship......????

 

I speak passable Spanish. A bissel of Yiddish and Hebrew.

I have travelled extensively, both for work and pleasure. 38 countries.

Most exotic was Mongolia. Scariest was Turkmenistan (police state.) I was in South Africa during Apartheid when I was a student, that was when I travelled around the world by ship on a program called Semester at Sea and visited a dozen countries. That started my wanderlust.

 

I can say "a boat in the sea" in Greek. That got me pretty far there.

 

So, that's a euphemism in Greek for getting laid?

 

My friends in Taiwan were from Paris...our children played together...their son spoke english and French, daughter spoke french and mandarin and my son spoke mandarin and english...the 3 kids used all 3 languages when playing together and had no problem...it was fun to watch...