Diverse indeed. I have Iraqi loved ones who cannot understand Moroccans because the speech is too different. It’s a gulf much wider than American and British English, apparently.
My OH (Brazilian) is teaching my Portuguese at the minute,it’s actually quite easy to pick up,but I have a long way to yet!
Pimsleur is good if you want to learn some basic language that will get you by when you’re visiting a country. It’s less good for actually going deep into a language, as there’s no grammar or spelling at all (you won’t come away from Pimsleur able to read your chosen language, for example), but it’s useful for getting you talking.
Sadly, I found that Pimsleur Irish is pretty much useless unless you’re interested in the Munster dialect, whereas my dialect is Ulster.
I wish Rosetta Stone had a program for Irish! They’re widely regarded as one of the best learning methods in the world!
Redwolf
Yes, but that’s a different construction from Je parle un peu de français.
You are right though, that the one you quoted requires the article le, because you are referring to the language, as a noun.
It’s “I speak French a little”, versus" I speak a little French."
You’re also correct that the language name, français, isn’t typically capitalized. If we were talking about French people…les Français…it is.
Off the pedogogical soapbox before I fall off, as I’m bound to do sooner or later.
edit: Yes, in fact:
Now that I think about it, I’m certain that one should say "Je parle français without the “le.”
For example, who hasn’t heard this: “Parlez-vous français?” No article.
If, however, you wish to refer to the language as an entity, nevermind whether you speak it or not, you might say “Le français, c’est la langue d’amour.”
le = the
de = of the
correct => Je parle le français.
incorrect => Je parle le français un peu. - this is English grammar
correct => Je parle une petit peu de français.
djm
This indeed.
having said that, je parle une petit peu de québécois, et espangol aussi. 
(I think this is correct, it’s been a very long time since i’ve used it)
I speak and read/write some Hindi and speak some Urdu. The two languages are grammatically very similar, and share a substantial vocabulary. Where they differ is probably in that quite a bit of the Hindi lexicon is derived from Sanskrit, while that of Urdu contains much from Persian and Arabic.
I can cope with the Hindi Devanagari script ok, but Urdu writing scares the hell out of me and I simply couldn’t learn it, despite trying. It is very similar to Arabic - squiggly and veers off in the wrong direction for my mind to handle (right to left).
I also have some spoken/written Punjabi and Bengali, and a passing familiarity with Gujarati.
I have a little spoken Cantonese from a Chinese friend, but can’t read it (and neither can she!).
I’ve never been to Asia in my life, but I live in a richly multicultural area, and worked for 16 years in a factory where most of my workmates were Indian, Pakistani and Bangldeshi. Learning languages is a great way to cope with mentally undemanding work.
I have forgotten most of my school French and German.
I’d quite like to learn Gaelic and Spanish, and I wish I hadn’t let my French rust away.
I don’t really speak any now. I’ve forgotten most of what I’ve learned. I took Russian in elementary school—it was at a time when there was a big scare that the Russians were all learning English and we wouldn’t know Russian and they “would get ahead of us”—and it was fun, although I think we didn’t learn very much. In high school I took quite a bit of Spanish, in college quite a bit of French and a year of German. A few years ago I took a couple years of Latin.
I tried the first Spanish lesson at the BBC website and I did okay. It’s nice to be able to hear the pronunciation so well. It is a little different than the Latin American pronunciation I am used to.
I listened to the four tones on the first Mandarin lesson and made a half-hearted effort to learn them. That was definitely harder than the first Spanish lesson for me!
I’m another lapsed French speaker–studied about 7 years in junior high, high school, and college. I hardly use it now, although I’m still amazed how much is still buried in the noggin after 20 years. Unfortunately, verb conjugation is a bit of a mystery these days.
I have also studied Hebrew for a few business trips to Israel. I used Pimsleur for Hebrew. I concur with Red Wolf that Pimsleur is good for basic conversation, and that there’s no instruction on the written language. Fortunately, most street signs in Israel are tri-lingual: Hebrew, Arabic, and English, so I managed to find my way OK.
I’m not going to enter into the French grammar debate!
I teach French and speak French to my own kids every day. Seek me out if you really want to debate the details.
And I speak and teach Spanish daily, too. Not as strong as my French, but pretty good until I start reaching for vocabulary like “peel the parsnips.”
I took an intensive Russian course once, but lost it all almost immediately because the new alphabet didn’t correspond. I’d like to try again.
I still have a little Inupiaq and a little German. I really wish I knew how to at least pronounce the names of some of the Irish tunes I have.
Jennie
Here’s what I can say in German:
“Oje…der schwamm ist nicht nass!”
and
“Das telefon klingelt!”
Oh, and this poem:
(I’m spelling this stuff wrong, sorry…)
Ein, zwei, drei, fier, funf, sechs, sieben,
Mein mutter, sie kocht ruben,
Mein mutter, sie kocht speck,
Und du bist veg!
Tha Iapanais, beagan Fraingeis, agus beagan Gàidhlig na-h Èireann agam. Tha mi airson bruidhinn Portagailis cuideach.
Add me on to the lapsed French learner brigade. The foreign language that I can stutter through with the least ineptitude is, ironically, Japanese. I studied it in college, lived there for a while, and still occasionally get roped into being a glorified tour guide for squealy Japanese girls here to shop and possibly study…I also speak some Scottish Gaelic, although I very rarely get a chance to speak it around where I live…I do listen to Radio nan Gaidheal a lot at home though. Spent a summer living in the Corca Dhuibhne Gaeltacht in West Kerry and could understand quite a lot of Irish, but was sometimes derided for speaking with a Scottish accent when I tried to speak it. Irish classes are occasionally offered at Portland Community College and I’m thinking of taking one the next time it’s available.
I occasionally make attempts to resurrect my rotten French with friends that also speak rotten French, but all that happens is that we end up speaking really rotten French to eachother…I’m also planning on taking some Spanish classes as I feel a bit embarrased of being a California native and not able to speak a lick of Spanish. The language I’d really like to learn, though, is Portuguese. (Eu sambo mesmo.)
My experience studying linguistics has really shown me just how hard it is for an adult learner to gain genuine proficiency in a foreign language–I love it when I hear people say things like “I’m semi-fluent in Japanese” and they couldn’t ask directions in Japanese if their life depended on it. Once you hit that first language learning wall, 9 times out of 10, it’s bedtime for Bonzo…Most human beings just aren’t patient/crazy enough to keep trying. But I like it. I’ll probably never be able to woo women in the Bossa Nova clubs of the Zona Sul in perfect Portuguese, but why give up?
I’m also involved right now in editing a book to be entitled Gobsh*te Wisdom: Curse & Berate It in 69 Languages and am sometimes truly awestruck at some of the delicious vulgarities people from around the world come up with. For example, when you puke in Danish, you don’t worship at the porcelain shrine, you “tale i den store telefon” (“talk in the big telephone”…My favorite expression for vomiting is still the Australian English “technicolor yawn”, though…).
To conclude, here’s something for you all to try out on your next foreign excursion:
Svifnökkvinn minn er brimfullur af álum.
(That’s “My hovercraft is full of eels” in Icelandic.)