Probably New Zealanders too. - eviltoast
    • Licherally@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      20
      ·
      1 year ago

      In the US we take like four to six years of Spanish and walk away with “donde estas la biblioteca” and “donde esta el baño.”

      • Atomic@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        12
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        That’s because you don’t want to learn Spanish. I know English because I wanted to learn it. I practiced it daily and got pretty decent at it.

        I also took 4 years of German. I hardly remember any of it. Because I wasn’t interested in learning any. It was just something I had to do.

      • BartsBigBugBag@lemmy.tf
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        I took half that many years of Spanish, and that’s about all I remember too. Also, “tocar los pompes”. I feel like we do it all wrong here though. Language classes aren’t typically until high school, and by then your ability to learn languages is far less than when you are younger. It can still be done, but you have to want to, and teenagers have too much going on to care about speaking a language they haven’t used this far in their life.

        • Mothra@mander.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          Tocar los pompes? What are pompes? Is it slang for something? Spanish is my first language and I’ve never heard that word

      • aceshigh@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        i just remember “dios mio no es beno” from that 70’s show. i probably spelled that incorrectly.

        although i cheated… i took 2 years of spanish in jr. high, and didn’t learn shit. so i took my native language in hs and college. got an a- in college.

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Jay parlay France-says trey bee-in! Jaytude quart annes in laycool.

      That’s all I need to know as an American. Any French speakers will immediately switch into English and forbid me from speaking in French, lol.

      • Anon819450514@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Here is an attempt to fix that for you: J’ai parlé français, c’est très bien. J’ai étudié quatre années à l’école.

    • Braysl@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      1 year ago

      Hey speak for yourself, I was forced into French immersion school by my parents with promises of good government jobs. Now I can understand French but Quebecois is a whole different beast 😂

    • Haus@startrek.website
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      The foundations of my French were built on puzzling out the backs of shampooing bottles while sitting on the crapper, pre-internet.