Likewise, what strategies do you employ in identifying languages when hearing people speak? I'll admit that even though I know enough Vietnamese, Mandarin, and Cantonese to pick out words in them now and then, when I'm out and about San Jose and hear people chatting away I often have trouble telling them apart (though if I suspect it's Vietnamese I'll usually try to pick out "roi" or "không" as a definite way to ID it). When it comes to Romance languages I'm dead stuck, can't tell Italian from French from Portuguese, etc.
Sorry if this post seems unfocused; had a clear idea in my head when I started writing it, but for some reason it's not communicating as smoothly typed up as I had it initially thought out.