Does your job stimulate your interest in foreign languages ?

Dieter   Wednesday, June 08, 2005, 20:38 GMT
Can you please state your occupation or "the link" to your linguistic interest...
Damian from Edinburgh   Wednesday, June 08, 2005, 20:41 GMT
Are you the bloke who wanted info on Cambridge uni?
Brennus   Wednesday, June 08, 2005, 22:08 GMT
For many years I worked for the telephone company and even though it is a communications company there was ironically very little in it to stimulate an interest in foreign languages. English was nearly always used. Only a few Mexicans and Filipinos working there were willing to talk about Spanish and Tagalog with me. The one German I knew, his first name was Dieter, had almost no interest in talking about Germany or Germans.

In 1983, when we were still AT&T, however, the company did print a fairly good pamphlet about telephones and telephone service in Spanish, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Lao and Cambodian with an English translation.
Lee   Wednesday, June 08, 2005, 23:46 GMT
yes, i drive a cab. everday i encounter so many languages, i really love it. i've learned basic greetings in 7 languages, and the tourists always appricate when i try to speak their language.
i am originally from korea, living in canada many many years.
i am learning german, which seems odd for an asian not in germany. germans really appreciate my basic german.
Travis   Thursday, June 09, 2005, 00:31 GMT
Bestimmt nicht.
Jonas CSG   Thursday, June 09, 2005, 00:33 GMT
I like languages because I grew up speaking two (Cantonese and English). I learned my 3rd language in high school (French), and my 4th in college (Korean). This Fall, I will be starting my 5th language (German) which will be fun, as I will be taking 3rd year Korean, and structure of Spanish at the same time.

I technically do not have a job, but I am a student.
10€   Thursday, June 09, 2005, 00:38 GMT
in 3 years of korean, are you fluent.
i think if you dont practice enough everyday its easy to forget.

are yu fluent in french
10€   Thursday, June 09, 2005, 02:32 GMT
wie gehts
bonjour
konichiwa
anyunghaseyo
salaam
yo
g'day
cheerio
biaatch

these are common greetings.
Ren   Thursday, June 09, 2005, 03:00 GMT
Yeah I used to work for a tourist agency and part of my training was a crash case in different greetings. LOL the tourist would always teach me the odd word from time and sometimes teach me bad words LOL.
Kirk   Thursday, June 09, 2005, 03:52 GMT
I'm a student with Jonas at UC San Diego, and I'm a linguistics major so you could say my "occupation" definitely does stimulate my interest in foreign languages. I've taken Spanish since I was in 7th grade, took a couple years of French, a year of Korean, and will also be taking second-year Korean and beginning German next year (with Jonas...haha) along with a 'structure of Spanish" linguistics class--so my interest and appetite for foreign languages is thankfully somewhat satiated by my being a student. I also work part-time with an English Language Program at UCSD extension for foreign students,

http://www.extension.ucsd.edu/department/elp/

so I am familiar with people directly from other countries that obviously have varying native languages (the most common are Korean, Japanese, and Mandarin, but there are people from all over). I've also occasionally needed to use Spanish in my other job as a tour guide on-campus here. Anyway, after I graduate I'd like to spend at least some time in another country teaching English--I'm seriously considering South Korea.

<<in 3 years of korean, are you fluent.
i think if you dont practice enough everyday its easy to forget. >>

I think by 3rd year Korean most people would be at at least a very high intermediate or very probably a good advanced level, and could certainly be at least moderately functional in Korean society, and I'm sure with such a strong base that even a couple weeks in Korea would significantly bolster their abilities in the language. In my one year of Korean I've taken so far I feel I'd be able to survive on the streets of a Korean city, knowing how to ask how to get places, how much things cost, being able to say what I did yesterday or plan to do tomorrow, etc. My writing and reading skills are much better than my conversational levels, however. My professor said in terms of writing at the end of first-year Korean I had reached beginning-intermediate level, as we had already covered past and future tenses, many honorifics and grammatical patterns reaching up to counterfactual subjunctive statements ("If I had more money, I'd buy a sports car"-type stuff). However, my speaking level is still behind--hopefully I can catch up to speed this next year.
Nick   Thursday, June 09, 2005, 21:42 GMT
Well my job as a customer care telephone operator lets me talk to an average of 100 people each day from UK, US, Australia, Ireland. And it lets me hear different kinds of accent and pronunciation.
10€   Thursday, June 09, 2005, 21:49 GMT
Kirk, i find your knowleage very impressive. Major in linguisitcs i think is very difficult subject, so my hats off to you.

But i think mandarin chinese would be more useful in the future, as it is now the most spoken language in the world and good for business. China is next superpower. I'm not chinese but i like to learn it.
Bee to Travis   Friday, June 10, 2005, 10:57 GMT
"Bestimmt nicht"

Why, is that the experience you had when you began learning that disgusting language or do you still have Germans criticizing your German? Seeing as though you're NOT a native speaker!
Javine to Jonas CSG   Friday, June 10, 2005, 10:59 GMT
In other words you're unemployed and claiming state benefits! And let me see, you're a student OF LIFE?
Riko   Friday, June 10, 2005, 11:17 GMT
My jobs and society force me to speak a 'foreign' language 100 percent of the time! (Me an immigrant in Finland from USA)