# Languages in your city today



## PedroGabriel (Feb 5, 2007)

An appendix to the "Ethnic make up of your city" thread. Ok, this goes a bit beyond that. i may include tourism, and apart from ethnic makeup, languages play an import role in viewing the real diversity of a city.

what languages did your heard in your city *today*? Supermarkets, streets, etc.

In here, Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal
today I heard

Portuguese (of course)
French
German
Spanish
Galician
Ukrainian

in yours?


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## -Corey- (Jul 8, 2005)

I heard English and Spanish, almost everyone is bilingual, if u go to the bank, store, mall, etc.. they'll probably be bilingual... Also there's are communities of somalian, chinese, people from Cambodia, Vietnamese, Philliphines, etc.


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## PedroGabriel (Feb 5, 2007)

^^ i'm not talking about communities, there are other languages here too, I'm talking what the language you clearly heard today, during the day.


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## koolkid (Apr 17, 2006)

Today I heard

English
Spanish
Polish 
Chinese

Thats about it guys, no bullshit.


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## Cristovão471 (May 9, 2006)

How can you tell the difference between Ukrainian and Russian?


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## hauntedheadnc (Aug 18, 2003)

Just English, Gujarati, and Spanish. I expect to hear Chinese tomorrow.


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## Xusein (Sep 27, 2005)

Mostly English and Spanish...


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## nygirl (Jul 14, 2003)

Today on a trip from 59th north to 116th east and back down again ( after criss crossing through the 70's and 80's over to Park Avenue.. and even as far as East End Avenue..

I heard... a mish mosh.

Of Spanish ( Mostly in the 100's) ,Chinese, Dutch or German ( can't tell), Greek, French ( tourists), Creole, English, Brooklynese  , Some sort of west African language, Korean ( some girls on the line @ Pinkberry), Russian.. tons of it around the 70's and 80's by the park, and Hebrew?.

There were probably others but that is definetly what I could remember.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

In Hong Kong - Cantonese, English, Mandarin.
A lot of Tagalog from Filipino housemaids, and perhaps Hindu and Pakistani among the minorities trying to get some tailor business in the tourist areas.


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## oliver999 (Aug 4, 2006)

how you guys know which is the foreign language you heard in the streets if you've never learnt about this language?


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## jeicow (Jul 18, 2005)

English, Mando, Canto, Hindi


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## futureproof (Nov 2, 2006)

spanish, english, french, german and some nordic countrie´s idiom, also japanese, all of them tourists


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## _00_deathscar (Mar 16, 2005)

hkskyline said:


> In Hong Kong - Cantonese, English, Mandarin.
> A lot of Tagalog from Filipino housemaids, and perhaps Hindu and Pakistani among the minorities trying to get some tailor business in the tourist areas.


Neither Hindu nor Pakistani are languages. 

Today, I heard no languages being spoken (assuming 'home' doesn't count), as I haven't put a foot out the door yet.

As I go out for some food and a couple of drinks in the evening, I expect to hear: Cantonese, Mandarin, English, Hindi, Tagalog.


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## Swede (Aug 24, 2002)

oliver999 said:


> how you guys know which is the foreign language you heard in the streets if you've never learnt about this language?


We've learnt ABOUT the languages and heard them enough to tell them apart. Doesn't mean one has to understand what is said.

/haven't been outside yet today...


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## techniques1200s (Mar 11, 2005)

English, spanish, chinese, russian, vietnemese, tagalog, korean, french, maybe german sometimes...arabic....sometimes indian, polish, swahili or japanese,


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## eklips (Mar 29, 2005)

not today because I didn't go out in the city but yesterday I went and heard:

french (obviously)
wolof (I think it was that)
english (tourists)
tamil (probably)
spanish (tourists)


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## ØlandDK (May 29, 2005)

I mostly hear Danish, English, Swedish, "Arabian languages", Norwegian, "Asian", Polish...In tha order I think


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## wjfox (Nov 1, 2002)

London has over 300 languages spoken - more than any other city on earth.


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## PedroGabriel (Feb 5, 2007)

^^ today!



chris_underscore47 said:


> How can you tell the difference between Ukrainian and Russian?


we call all of them Ukrainian for a reason, it is just a very good guess. 



oliver999 said:


> how you guys know which is the foreign language you heard in the streets if you've never learnt about this language?


I don't speak German, but I know when it is German and when it is not, same with Dutch and others! I just can't tell the difference between Swedish or Danish for instance. That is, you know it by the language's sound.


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## eklips (Mar 29, 2005)

wjfox2002 said:


> London has over 300 languages spoken - *more than any other city on earth*.


The first part I don't care, if you want to sound like a cheap tourist brochure be my guest, but don't you guess that the second part is the reason why london forumers (a bit less now) are being bashed on this forum?


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## ØlandDK (May 29, 2005)

Today so far:
Danish, Polish (construction workers), swedish (nice girl in a shop+song in the radio), estonian (my cousins wife), english (my cousin), spanish (some people in the metro) and arabian languages (in the bus)...


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## Skybean (Jun 16, 2004)

Today: Mandarin, Cantonese, English


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## jaaar (May 7, 2007)

alex537 said:


> Yeah, Spanish is the most spoken language in 48 states..


last time I visited the United States (West Virginia, 9 months ago), I found quite odd that almost all DVD movies I was checking on a mall, got only english/french track audio options (looking at the back cover of DVDs). only a few got English/Spanish tracks.

It shocked me :lol:


Answering the post question, here in Seville, Spain, you can hear almost every west european language at downtown plus some arabian, japanese and chinese

but TODAY i'm not gonna get out of my house, so i can't tell you sorry :cheers:


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## Xelebes (Apr 1, 2007)

chris_underscore47 said:


> How can you tell the difference between Ukrainian and Russian?


Ukrainian = singsongy, like Swiss German
Russian = more articulation, like Portugese


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## Xelebes (Apr 1, 2007)

Oh... and what did I hear today?

Mandarin
Cantonese
Portugese
Czech
English


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## Zaki (Apr 16, 2005)

Today:
English
Bengali
Hindi
Farsi
Spanish
French
Mandarin
and a whole lot of other languages I couldn't recognize.


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## Joshapd (May 21, 2004)

Yesterday:
Dutch, German, English, Spanish, Turkish, Vietnamese, Arabic, Malay.
Today will be more since I'm going to Amsterdam in a few hours.


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## Sen (Nov 13, 2004)

In Beijing right now.
Today I heard
Chinese of various dialects and accents
English
Russian
and another language spoken by a group of european looking people in the local supermarket (Carrefour), I dont know what it is though. But I know it is NOT French, Spanish Italian or German, because I know what those languages sound like.


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## Tubeman (Sep 12, 2002)

Aside from the obvious English (of many accents and dialects might I add):

Polish
Other Eastern European languages
African languages (Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo etc)
French (a lot of Africans too e.g. Congolese, Senegalese)
Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Tamil, Sinhalese (etc)
Chinese
Caribbean Patois
Portuguese (from Portugal and Brazil)
Tagalog
Turkish
Kurdish
Arabic
Somali

...And tons more


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

Yesterday when I went into the town centre I heard:

English
Spanish
Dutch
Polish (probably, although could be some other Slavic language)
French
Welsh


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## Imperfect Ending (Apr 7, 2003)

Yesterday when I was out:

Armenian
Spanish
Russian
Ebonics
An Indian language
Chinnese


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## staff (Oct 23, 2004)

PeterGabriel said:


> There are some Nordic people around here, but I don't know if they are Swedish, Danish or Norwegian, cause I really don't know those languages too.


You can distinguish Danish (and Scanian + "Bergenian") by how the way the "R" is pronounced - the same way it is pronounced in France or Germany, for example. The rest of Scandinavia pronounce their R:s like in Finnish/Russian.


Today, in Malmö, I've heard;
- Swedish (my own conversation)
- Danish
- English
- Russian (I think)
- Spanish
- 普通话 / Mandarin (my own conversation)
- 上海话 / Shanghainese (I consider it as an own language as it differs much more from Mandarin than Swedish differs from Danish/Norwegian (for example), plus the fact that I can't understand a single word of it)
- 温岭话 / Wenlingnese (see above)


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## DanielFigFoz (Mar 10, 2007)

I'm from London, live in Portugal so I've heard othe people asnd me speak Portugese and english(my parents and me).


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## PedroGabriel (Feb 5, 2007)

staff said:


> You can distinguish Danish (and Scanian + "Bergenian") by how the way the "R" is pronounced - the same way it is pronounced in France or Germany, for example. The rest of Scandinavia pronounce their R:s like in Finnish/Russian.
> 
> 
> Today, in Malmö, I've heard;
> ...


For me Chinese is Chinese, cause I don't understand a word. Are you chinese, or you really like Chinese stuff?! 

Today I heard:
Portuguese (more often)
French (also often)
German
Ukrainian
Capeverdian Portuguese Creole
Chinese


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

I was in Manila weeks back. What I heard

Tagalog
English
Korean
Japanese
German


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## DG (Sep 2, 2005)

so many lol


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## eusebius (Jan 5, 2004)

Arnhem:
Dutch
English
French
German
Arabic
Berber
Hebrew
Alavit
Kurdish
Rumanian
Polish
Italian
Spanish
Russian
Danish
Italian
Cantonese
Malay
Hindi
Urdu
Tamil
Vietnamese
Portuguese
Swedish
Serbo-Croatian
New Greek
Albanian
Wolof
Swahili
Farsi
Pashtun
Sranang
Papiamentu


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## Tymel (Jan 9, 2007)

English
Spanish
Chinese
German
French
Creole


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

HK today. 

Filipino
Bahasa Malaysia
Cantonese
English
Mandarin
French


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## Tavik (Apr 22, 2007)

Xelebes said:


> Ukrainian = singsongy, like Swiss German
> Russian = more articulation, like Portugese


TRUE!


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