Students with language skills
You don't have to be good at it. Just say what you know.
Contents
American Sign Language
Bahasa Indonesia
Ronit Bhattacharyya '07 lived in Jakarta for seven years, still has an okay grasp of the language.
Bengali
Catalán
David Rodriguez learned a bit while abroad in Barcelona and completed a phonetic study of it as his final project for LING 111.
Chinese
Cantonese
Jason Law '06 can get by, but not as well as with Mandarin (though Cantonese was his first language...).
Jing Cao 08's first language
Nela Vukmirovic '08 lived in Hong Kong for 2 years, and all she can say in Cantonese is "mgoi sai"...
Jessica Chung '07 (Wishes she had Cantonese soap operas to watch.)
Mandarin
Jason Law '06 can get by.
Jing Cao 08's second language.
Jason Ren '08, but only after disgusting losses in Beirut.
Kim Fassler '06
Kristyn Bretz '06, but only when drunk
Estalyn Marquis has some awesome skills
Lars Enwereuzor Kana Ojukwu '07
Elizabeth Macek passable
Richard Zhang I'm counting on it to get me a job
Ted Haley '07
Jerry He back in the days ...
Shanghainese
Lingwei Gu '07
Richard Zhang '07 You wish you could speak this exclusive dialect
Taiwanese
Rachel Ko '09
Toisanese
Amy Chin '08, but not really.
Jason Law '06 can understand it almost as well as Cantonese.
Penang Hokkien
Teng Jian Khoo '09 can speak it tolerably, but will not be understood by pretty much everyone on campus.
Danish
Heather Casteel '06 (drunkenly)
Dutch
Jason Leith '03 lived in the Netherlands for a few months, and can tell you what "neuken in de keuken" and "let op zakkenrollers!" means. He had little opportunity to actually speak the language, though, which was probably actually a good thing, as he values the integrity of his velum.
English
British Accent
- Katie Montgomery '07 can distinguish British accents from each other, and can identify Glaswegian, general Scottish, Northern Irish, Southern Irish, London, Liverpool, and (more hesitantly) a few types of international British Empire accents. To say nothing of being able to hear a Canadian from 20 yards.
Canadian Accent
Chinese Accent
- Jing Cao speak Proper Chinese Flavor English
East European Accent
- Nela Vukmirovic '08 speaks English with East EU accent, though she doesn't notice it. Hmmm, it's not even pure East EU, it's a mixture of several...
Indian Accent
- Nirmal Deshpande '07 speaks with a British-tinged Indian accent when drunk, specifically responding "You can make me drink, but you cannot make me get you a beer!" to demands that he wait hand and foot upon someone.
- Sean Milano '09 tries to immitate his neighbour upstairs, but fails miserably. He just isn't cool enough.
Japanese Accent
- Diana Davis '07 spent a month speaking English with a Japanese accent, so she can still do it very convincingly.
Scottish Accent
Southern Accent
- Evelyn Robinson '05 has an occassional native Southern accent so sudden and endearing you'd swear she is joking, but she aint.
- Will McClain '09 speaks with a Southern accent on and off during regular conversation (something out of his control), but can speak Mississippian at will.
- Wes Johnson '09 somehow doesn't have one.
Wisconsin Accent
- Katie Montgomery '07 has heard and can imititate an accent so strong that you will not believe that it actually exists.
- Samantha Peterson '08 can't speak it that well, but she can make fun of it like no one else.
- Cat Vielma '09 hates it, and reminds people that Chicago is universes apart from the rest of the grand ol' Midwest
"Manglish"
- Teng Jian Khoo '09 speaks this at home, but again would be unintelligible, owing to Manglish's status as virtually another language.
Esperanto
Joe McDonough '06 visited the International Esperanto Museum in Vienna, but by that time he had forgotten most of the Esperanto he had learned in a fit of boredom during Winter Study two years previously.
French
David Rodriguez used to be much better, but he now inserts random Catalán words in French conversation.
Diana Davis '07 is still pretty good at French.
Katherine Huang '08 took a lit course with Professor Martin and scored well on the SAT II and AP exams, but that doesn't mean her accent isn't atrociously American...
Samantha Peterson is majoring in it, so she probably knows a few phrases.
Katie Montgomery '07 can, in theory, communicate in French.
Lindsay Long-Waldor '08 has not spoken in a while, but I might still have some skills.
Nela Vukmirovic '08 fourth language in which she has basic skills.
Tosin Adeyanju '08 third language I can kinda speak.
Vlado Nedkov '06 spent last year in Paris. He can say a lot more than 'voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir', althought that phrase comes in handy quite often.
Ikem.T.Joseph after 5 yrs of study can pretty much read and write with good understanding. In terms of speaking, that's a work in progress.
German
ich wuerde kimis film sehr gern anschauen. machen wir das, ge? und was lustiges fuer euch- wenn ihr jemanden um eine cigarette bitten wollt, sagt mal einfach-"chill mir eine cigarette." ohne scheiss. funktioniert hervorragend. die deutschen...
Kimi Gilbert '06 spent more than a year in Berlin. Hence, she is legitimately badass. Her German skills are unbelievable. And she starred in a Deutsch Scheiße Video. Go figure.
Kat Jong '07 Is currently spending the Year in Munich and can thus speak enough to get by, read books she'd already read in English, and play an entire game of Magic The Gathering.
Vlado Nedkov '06 used to kick ass in German. Unfortunately, he's a sell out and has moved on to romance languages.
- Swiss German
Jono Dowse '06 has a German-language textbook on Swiss German and really wants to be able to speak it authentically. At this point, he knows the numbers and some basic vocabulary and grammar. (TAs swoon when he counts to ten.)
Joe Gangestad '06 speaks a mad Munchen Deutsch, and will one day teach astrophysics to unassuming little German children.
Teng Jian Khoo '09 reads children's books in German.
Greek
Ancient
Hazen (As in I can write in it and tell you how to pronounce the letters of their alphabet. I didn't write this.)
Brent Yorgey '04
Math nerds know the Greek alphabet.
So do Classics majors. (And in order. What comes after phi, oh my math and physics friends?) (the "$" comes after "\phi", unless it's on its own line, in which case you'll put "$$")
Modern
Joanna Demakis knows some but she dropped out of Greek school after first grade.
Jono Dowse '06 thinks Modern Greek is cool and spent some time in online lessons for it his sophomore year. His study has since lapsed. He knows the order of the Greek alphabet well despite being a math major.
Jim Prevas knows all the bad words.
Hebrew
Robert Streicker '07
Zachary Ulman '06
Davida Kutscher '03
Elissa Brown '09
Emily Ente '06 can exchange pleasantries such as "I love my breasts" and "I eat the grapefruit and I am not in the camel." (And really, isn't that all you need to get by?)
Hindi
IPA
is not a language; it is an omnipotent alphabet.
Jono Dowse '06 is to the International Phonetic Alphabet as Al Gore is to the Internet.
David Rodriguez learned the IPA incredibly well as Jono Dowse's (who's Nate Sanders?) student in LING 111
Jason Leith rejects the notion that a velar trill is impossible. It is, however, so ugly a sound that not even languages like Dutch and Danish have adopted it. He uses IPA when indicating pronunciation in his music.
Italian
Lucy Cox-Chapman '06 spent a semester in Italy
Katie Josephson '07 is dying in Italian 103
Nela Vukmirovic '08 loooooves Italian 103! It comes like a breeze after all those DIV III classes...
Samantha Peterson '08 is in 101 and discovered she can speak Italian by throwing in vowels here and there while speaking French.
David Rodriguez '06 knows all of the great insults and generally vulgar phrases.
Japanese
Amanda Van Rhyn now knows how to say "my husband got drunk and hit me."
Diana Davis '07 frequently mutters small phrases in Japanese. People think she is mumbling, becuase they don't understand Japanese. In addition to randomly speaking in Japanese, she also randomly speaks English with an excellent Japanese accent.
Leah Weintraub '06 spent a semester in Japan. Ergo, she probably speaks Japanese.
Charlotte White rocks at Japanese, and is easily distracted by pretty things from Japan. She also says "WTF Japan" rather often. As should we all.
Ebonie Little '07 can karaoke most hit Japanese pop songs...albeit in an unflatteringly squeaky voice. She's also in Japan for a year leveling up on language skills.
Korean
Dawn Robinson '08 is Korean. She can read and write Konglish, and say, "Hello, my name is Dawn" in Korean. :)
Angela Lee '06 can speak, read and write Korean surprisingly well, even though she emigrated at the age of 6. She also has a (dare I say) encyclopedic knowledge of Korean pop culture.
Ilya Feldsherov '06 can count to 8 in Korean, say "attention," "master," and "bow."
James Kim '08 obviously sucks at Korean, but do get by. Do not be fooled by his genuine Korean features.
Latin
The Devil knows Latin. So do Joe McDonough '06 and Richard Rodriguez.
A rather cool internet program created by Lee Butterman of Brown University is a text to speech program that will read any latin poetry or verse aloud and give you a decent pronunciation of it. Find it Here
Love, the Language of
Malay
Another one on the list of Teng Jian Khoo's lonely languages.
Middle Earth (assorted languages)
Laurie Brink was the "official unofficial" translator and pronunciation expert for the NYC area premiere of the Lord of the Rings Symphony, and, as such, can say a variety of things in Quenya, Sindarin, Adûnaic, Rohirric, Khuzdul, and the Black Speech. It also helps that she has, in a certain sense, been speaking Quenya since the day she learned her own name.
Oppish
Alden Robinson '06 whopat dopo yopou thopink opof thopat?
Sara Beach '06 propetty swopeet, Opalden.
Pig Latin
Seth Brown taught a course on Pig Latin during Winter Study 1997.
Sara Beach '06 isay uentflay.
Polish
Jonathan Landsman '05 can say "What's up, sweetheart?"
Jono Dowse '06 knows how to pronounce written Polish and has quite a few audio samples of Polish phrases on his iTunes account courtesy of Peter Ladefoged.
Portuguese
- Brazil
O Marcos Gouvea '05 fala português. E você?
Rumanian
Laurie Brink knows just enough to sing the entirety of "Dragostea din Tei" (a.k.a. the Numa Numa song).
Russian
Emily Button '07 can say "I've seen more women than you've seen sparrows!"
Ilya Khodosh does an excellent drunk old Russian man impression.
Suzanne C. Walsh '05 can say, "Her breasts are as big as pineapples" and can translate for fiends who lose the ability to speak English and can only speak in Russian while drunk. She is also known to mutter things in Georgian. And we're not talking about, "y'all."
Anna Tsykalova '08 says that all good things come from Mother Russia.
Sara Beach '06 (a.k.a. Zlaya Antonovna)
Eugene Berson '08 puts the hammer together with sickel.
Ilya Feldsherov '06 can do a Ukrainian accent, but no one would know the difference.
Spanish
Monsie Muñoz '09 speaks Mexican Spanish- is slowly adopting a chilanga accent
Alejandro RodrÃguez-Prieto '09 also speaks Mexican Spanish- but can speak an even more special subversion- the Chihuahuan accent
Luz M. Gómez '08 speaks paisa Mexican Spanish, can speak "proper spanish" when needed and can do a messed up chilanga accent----oh, and a beatiful Xicana accent
Pablita Santos '07 speaks Mexican Spanish and has a beatiful Chicana accent when slightly intoxicated
David RodrÃguez speaks Dominican Spanish to his fellow Dominicans and a more comprehensible Latin American Spanish to others, but often swears like a Spaniard for no good reason.
Jonathan Landsman '05 (budding bachatero)
Alan Cordova '06 - like your high school Spanish teacher.
When traveling in non-Hispanophone countries, Alex Lavy's brother pretends he is from Spain, where he "fights the bools" and "stoodies the art".
SofÃa Torres (but apparently she speaks Mexican, a variation of Spanish)
Paulette RodrÃguez can speak Spanish without consonants (also known as Puerto Rican--similar to Dominican)
Sarah Steege can speak with or without the sexy Spanish lisp.
Cat Vielma can speak spanish with both an American accent and a Chilean accent in the same sentence.
Julia Brown speaks Ecuadorian Spanish with an American accent.
Ilya Feldsherov '06 with a lisp that offends most Puerto Ricans, despite dropping his "s"s.
Ikem T. Joseph can get by with the few years of study he has but don't ask him to carry a convo, it's for your own good!
Daniel Gerlanc speaks Spanish with a peninsular accent. His accent cannot be traced to any particular country; however, most Spanish-speaking Europeans guess that he's from northern Europe.
Jerry He lo habla
Tamil
Turkish
Dave Senft can count to four in turkish, and also knows six through eight, and ten.
Marisa Lau spent a semester (Spring 2005) in Turkey so she knows numbers and greetings and maybe a bit more
Urdu
All these students are fluent in written and spoken Urdu, the national language of Pakistan. Urdu is a unique language adapted from Persian and written in Arabic text, though it sounds identical to Hindi, the national language of India, which is written in Sanskrit script.
Aatif Abbas
S. Waqqas Iftikhar
Uzaib Y. Saya
Ali Moiz
Samreen Kazmi
Murtaza Hussain
S. Kashif Akhtar
Yooper
Katie Montgomery '07 Oh ya.
Yoruba
Tosin Adeyanju