Language Students

I'm doing European Studies w/German, does that count?

Reply 2

Sarah Sheep

OP

I would say so! Welcome to the club :cool:

Reply 3

YAYS!! I'm part of the club :p:

Reply 4

I'm afraid I'm a Germaniac, although I'll be wanting to focus on History more.
I'm also planning to learn Japanese in my spare time, and Norwegian if there's time.

...Geneva has a head start! They speak four languages in Switzerland as it is!

Reply 5

Janelley

I'm doing french with film studies. I really think i'm the only one... how thrilling! this means i'm in the club too though right?!

Reply 6

JP2403

French and German.

I didnt think about getting a monolingual dictionary. How much are they and where did you get it from?

Reply 7

*jaygirl*

im doin french and spanish, and im getting my french monolingual dict. from france cuz its like half the price, so i wont get it for a few weeks yet :P owell, but the spanish ones i can get on amazon, dunno if ill get the recommended ones tho, bit pricey :s-smilie:

am mucho looking forwards to 3rd yr tho!

Reply 8

Sarah Sheep

OP

JP2403

I didnt think about getting a monolingual dictionary. How much are they and where did you get it from?

I bought mine from www.amazon.fr because it was cheaper than from the UK amazon website! It was about £35 instead of about £55.

Reply 9

JP2403

Sarah Sheep

I bought mine from www.amazon.fr because it was cheaper than from the UK amazon website! It was about £35 instead of about £55.

Is this for a small dictionary or a really big one?

I was only going to get a small monolingual one. £35 doesnt seem right for a small one.

Reply 10

Sarah Sheep

OP

JP2403

Is this for a small dictionary or a really big one?

I was only going to get a small monolingual one. £35 doesnt seem right for a small one.

It's a big one, but it's the one they tell you to get on the reading list, so I got it!

Reply 11

*jaygirl*

on the french one they make out that monolingual dictionaries are essential, but on the spanish one it says they really arent so dont necessarily bother... am getting one for both, the petit robert for french (my french relative is getting it properly cheap, like £20) and probably the recommended one but the abbreviated version for spanish, which is only like £25 anyways. whatever. dont really see whats wrong with bilingual ones personally hey! also, guess work helps. got me a c in fast track spanish as, i.e. started from scratch last september took as this summer, got a c. on guesswork, im so proud :biggrin:

Reply 12

Cartouche

...Geneva has a head start! They speak four languages in Switzerland as it is!

But I'm not Swiss...and very few people in Switzerland speak all the languages lol! For such a tiny country, the segregation between the French speaking area and the German is really big...Plus, I speak German, but I can't really understand Swiss German (haha it sounds horrible...sorry for any Swiss Germans out there) So yeah...not much head start, I only speak 3 languages :smile:

Reply 13

*jaygirl*

i speak 4, english obv, french and german relatively fluently tho i cant be bothered most of the time with german, and spanish im passable in. so i'm happy :smile:

does 4 make me multilingual or quatrolingual? is there a word? lol. languages are so easy its gr8!

Reply 14

sneezyme

2

Ok guys, i am going to enter my 2nd year of French and Spanish. I didn't bother buying my petiti robert until after the first term! a lot of the stuff on the reading list you don't actually use, so you might want to buy things once you are here. Any questions feel free to ask :smile:

Reply 15

geneva_debs

But I'm not Swiss...and very few people in Switzerland speak all the languages lol! For such a tiny country, the segregation between the French speaking area and the German is really big...Plus, I speak German, but I can't really understand Swiss German (haha it sounds horrible...sorry for any Swiss Germans out there) So yeah...not much head start, I only speak 3 languages :smile:

Three languages is still pretty impressive...and I don't follow Schweizer Deutsch either! 3 languages is enough of a head start on most people...I think the average for the UK must be 0.75 languages (as a lot of people can't even speak English properly [see: chavs]). I expect you're totally fluent in French, seeing as Geneva is just a frog's hop away from the French border.

Reply 16

lol, this is true! yeah i'm fluent in french, my dad actually lives across the border in france, so i'm constantly hopping between 2 countries (oh yes the border guards love me :p:

)

Reply 17

It must be a beautiful place to live though, with Lac Lausanne, the Alps and the Jura all closeby...have you always lived there?

Reply 18

Yeah I've lived here since I was 6...its actually a great place to live cuz we get the hot summers and the cold winters, which means swimming and sunning in the summer and skiing in the winter...Lac Léman (aka Geneva, Lausanne) is gorgeous, I've always lived in houses with lake views, its gonna be so odd not having mountains and the lake as of...2 weeks :redface:

Reply 19