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Poll: In my household, we speak Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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| Dogs and drivers | Apr 20, 2016 |
Reading through others' comments, I wonder if what we speak to our pets or screech at other drivers is the most indicative of the language that comes most naturally to us?
And my children, despite my lack of English input at home, disobey completely fluently in Spanish and in English.
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| Gotta love translators :) | Apr 20, 2016 |
Only translators can understand other translators, I love all you guys' answers!
In my household we speak English (being my husband American, which in his case equals "monolingual" ) and Italian with my son, with also some Spanish and some of my hometown dialect, which is fun and everybody loves, including my husband (even if he knows that if I approach him in dialect, it means he is in trouble ... See more
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| Love these replies | Apr 20, 2016 |
We speak English at home with the odd German word thrown in now and again.
When the kids were small we used to speak in French when we were discussing things not intended for young ears but had to stop when my eldest started learning it in school.
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neilmac
Spain
Local time: 04:27
Spanish to English
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I currently live alone most of the time. The languages I speak depend on my interlocutors. For example, a Spanish friend came to see me for a couple days and most of the time we spoke Spanish, but she also likes to practice and study her English, so for some of the time we had more or less normal conversations in English.
When my family are visiting, we speak English amongst ourselves, and make an effort to modify our Scottish accents when speaking to people from other English-speaking ar... See more I currently live alone most of the time. The languages I speak depend on my interlocutors. For example, a Spanish friend came to see me for a couple days and most of the time we spoke Spanish, but she also likes to practice and study her English, so for some of the time we had more or less normal conversations in English.
When my family are visiting, we speak English amongst ourselves, and make an effort to modify our Scottish accents when speaking to people from other English-speaking areas to make sure they understand us. When Francophone friends are visiting, we usually speak a melange of Spanish and French with the odd word of English thrown in. ▲ Collapse
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Egmont Schröder 
Germany
Local time: 04:27
Member (2013)
Chinese to German
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We take turns, one day we speak in Mandarin (the language of my wife) and the other day we speak in German (you guessed it, my native language). With the boy we speak in our native languages.
It works fine, we only get confused sometimes, but it is important for each of us to know the partner's language.
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| Depends who's at home | Apr 20, 2016 |
With my husband, his language, Italian.
When my son and daughter are here, English with Scottish elements.
They speak Italian to their father who, despite living with me for over 40 years, seems to have cloth ears, though he can read English without any trouble.
When my sister and her family come to visit from Austria, we speak a mixture of English, German and Italian.
Now my daughter is learning French, so we're adding that to the mixture.
My son married a Romanian... See more With my husband, his language, Italian.
When my son and daughter are here, English with Scottish elements.
They speak Italian to their father who, despite living with me for over 40 years, seems to have cloth ears, though he can read English without any trouble.
When my sister and her family come to visit from Austria, we speak a mixture of English, German and Italian.
Now my daughter is learning French, so we're adding that to the mixture.
My son married a Romanian girl (also a translator!) so at home they speak a mixture of English and Romanian, with a bit of Italian thrown in when there are visitors.
This is quite normal in our family, for generations...
My Scottish aunt married a Polish opera singer and they spoke Italian together.
While on my husband's side, his mother spoke both Italian and Slovene with her siblings. ▲ Collapse
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Michele Fauble
United States
Local time: 19:27
Member (2006)
Norwegian to English
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| Multilingual | Apr 20, 2016 |
My husband and I mainly speak English, our native language, and French, the second language he speaks best. We also speak a variety of other languages with each other simply because we can and we enjoy practicing our language skills.
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I speak Italian to my husband and he speaks Italian to me.
I speak Norwegian to my daughter - and she speaks Norwegian to me - most of the time (though sometimes she slips into English or tells me something in Spanish)
I speak English to most the people I encounter or that are invited to the house, and when I have a day off work, I spend it on literary pursuits in English (own writing)
Once in a while, my husband and daughter speak to me in French just to piss me off (it's a la... See more I speak Italian to my husband and he speaks Italian to me.
I speak Norwegian to my daughter - and she speaks Norwegian to me - most of the time (though sometimes she slips into English or tells me something in Spanish)
I speak English to most the people I encounter or that are invited to the house, and when I have a day off work, I spend it on literary pursuits in English (own writing)
Once in a while, my husband and daughter speak to me in French just to piss me off (it's a language I don't master)
And yes, there is also my older daughter who currently lives in Norway - we speak Norwegian to each other - except when she's at work or on a bus or similar - when she prefers Italian to avoid being understood by people around her [Edited at 2016-04-20 17:11 GMT]
[Edited at 2016-04-20 18:23 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Rich Petty
United States
Local time: 22:27
Spanish to English
| Two languages | Apr 20, 2016 |
I'm from the US and my wife is Venezuelan. We have a daughter who's six and we all speak both English and Spanish at various times. Our daughter is in a phase right now where she is speaking only English because, of course, here in the US English is the dominant language. Even our Hispanic friends' kids speak mostly English among themselves, in or outside their homes.
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Shabelula
Italy
Local time: 04:27
English to Italian
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| A Roman Jewish family with a breadwinning interpreter | Apr 20, 2016 |
I am a single mother and I have Jewish roots and traditions, which I discovered late in life. Plus, I was grown in international environments and at a certain stage I really felt a real English native (now I don't).
My daughter went to a Jewish school and learnt some Hebrew, like me, for praying and communicating with Israeli friends and visiting hosts. We pray in Hebrew. She speaks much better than me but I don't complain.
I get angry in English. Oh if I get angry. I ... See more I am a single mother and I have Jewish roots and traditions, which I discovered late in life. Plus, I was grown in international environments and at a certain stage I really felt a real English native (now I don't).
My daughter went to a Jewish school and learnt some Hebrew, like me, for praying and communicating with Israeli friends and visiting hosts. We pray in Hebrew. She speaks much better than me but I don't complain.
I get angry in English. Oh if I get angry. I also write in English a lot and feel happy. As for the breadwinning, well folk, you know everything about this job, don't you.
P.S. Shabelul in Hebrew means SNAIL or ESCARGOT : I get things, do things, and feel things, slowly and for good just like a snail.
[Edited at 2016-04-20 21:58 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Balasubramaniam L.
India
Local time: 07:57
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
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SITE LOCALIZER | Not as simple as that | Apr 21, 2016 |
In our household, we speak four or five languages, and all depends on whom we are speaking to. We, husband and wife, and older family members, converse almost exclusively in Palakkad Tamil, a version of Tamil spoken by Tamils who have been residing for generations in Malayalam-speaking Kerala - it is a Tamil heavily tinged with Malayalam.
To my daughters, I speak almost exclusively in Hindi, while my wife speaks to them in Palakkad Tamil. The daughters speak back to us in Hindi and ... See more In our household, we speak four or five languages, and all depends on whom we are speaking to. We, husband and wife, and older family members, converse almost exclusively in Palakkad Tamil, a version of Tamil spoken by Tamils who have been residing for generations in Malayalam-speaking Kerala - it is a Tamil heavily tinged with Malayalam.
To my daughters, I speak almost exclusively in Hindi, while my wife speaks to them in Palakkad Tamil. The daughters speak back to us in Hindi and Hinglish (a mixture of Hindi and English) as they have never set foot in Kerala or Tamil Nadu and do not know Tamil or Malayalam, and have been born and brought up in Mumbai, a multilingual city where Hindi, English, Marathi and Gujarati predominate, among many other languages.
My daughters use the same Hindi/English mixed linguo while speaking among themselves. With their friends, it is Hindi all the way.
We have Bengali, Gujarati, Konkani, Rajasthani and Malayalam-speaking neighbours, with whom it is Hindi, as that is the common language of communication between different language-speakers in India. Both my wife and I, speak Malayalam, so with Malayalam-knowing neighbours and guests, we speak Malayalam too.
Having lived almost 20 years in Gujarat, my wife and I also understand Gujarati, and conversations with Gujaratis follows a curious dual language approach, with them speaking in Gujarati, and we replying in Hindi, and there is perfect comprehension on both sides!
[Edited at 2016-04-21 02:51 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 23:27
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
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| Four times PT | Apr 21, 2016 |
Although two of us are fluent in English, and the other two are on their way, we have always lived in Brazil, and Portuguese is mother tongue for all of us.
But we all speak "Leihan Language" all the time, a mixture of English and Portuguese with loads of invented terms in both languages, which we all understando perfectly, and most other people don't understand at all.
[Edited at 2016-04-21 17:27 GMT]
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