Multilingual Italian/What do you think? He's pretty good...

Luca seems pretty good with some of his languages. He's much better with the Romance languages and English than in German, but jmo. I don't mind if you disagree.

Recently we've read comments on the cheap and quick methods to fake an accent. I think a person should try to put in the time and figure out what's wrong with his or her accent, then work on it. The result will be better in the long run. It would be interesting to read what Luca thinks.

Since Luca has "an ear", I think he is capable of nailing more accents and even tidying up his German. I admit that German is also one of my weaker languages, but my accent isn't the problem, it's getting practice.

The introduction is in English (his English is lovely), then he tells us in Italian, that well, you know, he's Italian. I'll listen to the languages and tell you what I hear. Do you agree?

I'm not going to make a video myself, but at least you'll know that I'm not fibbing about understanding languages.

I give him a lot of points for having the courage to make this video (unless he's an actor auditioning for a role, lol).

Type in the address below or look up Scriptorium, find Prof A's video on shadowing, then look at his favourite videos.



Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3w8yHrqFiQ

English: Great!
Italian: He doesn't say much more that he is Italian, of course, and it wasn't a lot of work for him to learn this language.
French: Greets us and tells us how he learned French. He learned it at school, watches Antenne 2, and has improved a lot with the help of a beautiful female friend...
German: He hopes that we understand him. He studied German for four years and tries to speak with Germans when he meets them and has the possibility of uh, let's say, practicing.
Spanish: He was in Barcelona and had a great time there. Mostly he heard Catalan, but if one speaks to the locals in Spanish, they will reply in Spanish. What do you think of his comments at the end of this section?
Dutch: I only understood part of what he said. He can speak a little Dutch and read books, I think. One word I completely missed. If you are great in Dutch, please tell me what you think.
Swedish: I can sometimes understand some Swedish, but I didn't try here. How's his Swedish? I can't judge it.
Russian: He spoke only two or three sentences. It's a difficult language for him, he told us.

Do you agree with my summaries?

Yo quiero el curso de planeta Agostini ese,jeje!!!!

What's that? A course for children?

Planeta DeAgostini es una editorial española con sede en Barcelona fundada en 1985 que forma parte del Grupo Planeta. Planeta DeAgostini está centrada en la edición de coleccionables para todos los gustos y aficiones: cine, música, obras infantiles, hobbies y coleccionismo, productos interactivos (enciclopedias, cursos multimedia...) y cómics (bajo sellos, como Cómics Forum, World Comic y Planeta DeAgostini Cómics).

Planeta DeAgostini is a joint venture betwin editorial societies Grupo Planeta (Spanish) and De Agostini (Italian).

-- His French is flawless. The voice still retains some distinctive Italian shade but he has a command of colloquial expressions like few non natives have. Obviously he practices on a daily basis with his French girl friend.

-- Dutch (not bad!): he complains that he gets too few opportunities to speak it in the Netherlands cause people always find easier to use English to communicate with foreigners (I agree), but he can read books without a problem since the language is so akin to German.

-- Swedish: excellent! His Swedish ex-girl-friend suggested to introduce him to Nordic languages and helped him learning Swedish, for two years. He also met girls from Norway who spoke Swedish. He says he always insist to use Swedish with people from Sweden, though they also tend to use English.

<< Do you agree with my summaries? >>

Yes:
- His German still allows large spaces for improvement.
- Spanish: must be very good, he speaks just like a Spaniard, very fast and unarticulated, I just understood 'Barcelona', 'experiencia fenomenal', 'Catalan, Catalan a la universitad', 'problema'.

How is his English?
It sounds more American than British to my ears .

Thank-you for your comments on the Swedish and his Dutch. His English sounds North American to me, so yes, more American than British. Travis or Josh may be able to pinpoint specific accent markers.

Okay, I listened again. I didn't know about Planeta DeAgostini until today.
I heard him say that, but I didn't know what it was. TY for the explanation.

Wow that's the best English I've ever heard from a foreigner.

I suppose this guy has a good ear for languages. I think that's very important to master a language quicker.

Update: Luca will be making more videos including some imitating people and dialects. If you like that sort of thing, you may want to check out his YouTube videos.

<< His Swedish ex-girl-friend suggested to introduce him to Nordic languages >>

Perhaps when he has mastered French to his satisfaction, he'll do away with his current girlfriend!

Girlfriends are a tool for learning languages. LOL!