• Question: Can you speak any foreign languages?

    Asked by SopChap to Angeline, Catherine, Luke, Philip, Shona on 9 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Angeline Burrell

      Angeline Burrell answered on 9 Mar 2015:

      Yes, I also speak Spanish. I’m trying to learn Danish, and not doing very well 😛

      Sí, hablo castellano también. Estoy intentando aprender danés, pero no con mucho éxito 😛

    • Photo: Shona Whittam

      Shona Whittam answered on 9 Mar 2015:

      No.

    • Photo: Catherine Vlahakis

      Catherine Vlahakis answered on 10 Mar 2015:

      Yes, I studied French and Italian at school. I was quite good at languages – better than physics! Now that I live in Chile I also speak Spanish. I speak little bits of other languages. If I had more free time I’d learn more foreign languages, probably starting with Japanese (I once went to evening classes to learn Japanese and I really liked it).

    • Photo: Philip Moriarty

      Philip Moriarty answered on 10 Mar 2015:

      Embarrassingly, no. I did French at school for five years but, remarkably, it was an almost entirely written course — very little spoken/aural comprehension. I went to Mulhouse in the first year of my PhD and realised very quickly just how little French I knew.

      I spent quite a bit of time, off and on, in Germany for my PhD. I really made an effort to learn the language. But I’d go into a shop, ask for something and get an answer in English. (Crushed my confidence just a little!)

      I also did Irish for 13 years — it’s mandatory in Ireland. But what little Irish I had is also almost entirely gone because I haven’t practiced it. Tá brón orm.

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