Of the four non-English Quoras to date:
- I don’t have an account on the Italian yet, and I’ve never formally learned the language. Informally, I have faked the language through reconstruction from music scores and Latin, but I would be reluctant to commit my improvisation to writing.
- Taxi cabs are another matter.
- I spent some time watching Univision while living in Southern California, but I have not studied Spanish either, and Speedy Gonzales cartoons are no substitute for musical scores, when it comes to reconstructing a language. The four Quora languages are in fact the four European languages taught at Melbourne Uni, when I was hanging out there in IT; but Spanish was a late addition, and I didn’t get on with the lecturer. So less incentive there.
- The languages I have had formal training in are French and German. My command of the two is equally bad, but I’m clearly gravitating towards the German.
- I already know two users well on the German site, Clarissa and Joachim. (Can’t tempt you to join, Kat?) I’ve been doing good banter with both. On the French site, I only know Habib well, and I didn’t get the impression he was a frequent poster.
- I have aesthetic reasons to prefer German to French. Although that aesthetics is as much to do with their music as their language.
- I have had my one French answer corrected 4 times. The first time by Sihem herself. The first two times, it’s flattering. By the fourth time, you start suspecting that maybe they’re trying to tell you something. My German answers have been corrected too, but only once (so far). And my German interlocutors tell me they find my German adorably eccentric.
- … They should be careful what they wish for…
Why yes, I do have footage of me speaking German in a cab, too:
See? They should be careful what they wish for…