How Many Languages Do You Speak? (1 Viewer)

How many languages do you speak?


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MegaTon44

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As an ignorant American who took 6 years of Spanish (all A's in the courses) but still can't speak or understand a damn word of Spanish, I always find it interesting when folks learn other languages. Some people have a knack for it, while others (myself included) have such little aptitude or interest in learning. My ancestors arrived in the (future) states on the Mayflower, so I've had very little exposure to anything beyond American English.

Even if not fluent, if you speak well enough to be dropped into a country and be able to communicate reasonably with the locals to not look like a tourist asshole, you can count it. Feel free to provide commentary on your family history if interested (eg "I speak Portuguese, but only because my dad is Brazilian").

Thanks for sharing!
 
Despite many years of training, I can't speak French very well. The last straw was university...my French professor was Scottish. That ruined me on the language.

Thankfully my kids are bilingual.
 
Everyone in Belgium learns 3 languages in school; out of the 3 national languages (Dutch, French, German) and English. At least, that's the theory.
 
If we have any Polish speaking members I'd love to connect. I've dabbled in it and would like to get a natives perspective/advice.
 
I can only speak English, but I can understand Spanish, American Sign Language, and Labradore decently well.
 
Voted 1, I have enough background/experience with spanish from 4 years in high school and some family/work interaction where I can understand enough to get me through some basic conversations, but can't speak it for shit.
 
My paternal grandparents came to the US from Poland/Czechoslovakia around the turn of the century. In an effort to become "real Americans," when they started to have kids, they only English at home. As a result, my Dad and his siblings knew only English. My mom's side is Eastern European (details as fuzzy as the borders of the time) and spoke only English at home. I studied French in high school and eventually could read it without having to translate, but I lost that ability after graduating -- a prime example of use it or lose it. I also studied German when in my forties. Today I can read French and German with a dictionary. As for speaking either, I have the vocabulary of maybe a toddler.
 
2...kinda. One is a dialect of German used by most in the town I grew up in, and probably could be considered my mother tongue. My parents still use it at home a lot, and being that I work here I continue to use it as well. All that said, I’m much more fluent in English and it’s primarily what my wife and I speak on a daily basis. There are some expressions that will never have the same effect in English, so those will live on forever.

Now that we are new parents, we have already discussed how much our little son will learn the German dialect. It will be hard to pass that on as it takes more work to teach than is worth it in the long run.
 
I am reminded of the joke:

What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Multilingual / Polyglot
What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual
What do you call someone who speaks one language? American

Two languages for me (and was born and raised in the Southern US). Lived in one of the US/Mexico border cities for a few years. Immersion learning is the best learning even though I recognize a lot of words I learned were Spanglish. I've mostly learned the correct words now.
 
I can converse fluently in English, hillbilly, and dog. Still remember a dozen words from high school German class, but am really only capable of asking someone if they speak German.... which is rather pointless to know, if I can't. :confused
 
I can converse fluently in English, hillbilly, and dog. Still remember a dozen words from high school German class, but am really only capable of asking someone if they speak German.... which is rather pointless to know, if I can't. :confused
Iche spreche nein deustch
 
I can speak English, French and Spanish, in addition to my mother tongue (Greek) and some basic Turkish (I didn't count it in).
I can only understand phonetically some Greek, if spoken properly:D, which is a rare occurence, and some North Eastern American English:)
 
English and my parents native tongue of Urdu (Pakistan). I was born and raised in MA but my family immigrated here about 35+ years ago (I'm 26). Glad they taught me their language growing up. Helps me really appreciate the culture.
 
English and enough Spanish to get me by. I learned from three deployments to South America, couldn't have a conversation, but can get by if dropped in rural Mexico. I read it much better then understanding spoken word.
 
I've spent a little time South of the Border.
I can read Spanish..... let me re-phrase, I can read
the language and I tell that it is Spanish.

So I guess the answer is 1 (and I'm rounding up.)
 
For me it's 3. Norwegian, English and Chinese (Mandarin). Everyone in Norway learns English from a very young age. We also have the option to choose between German, french, spanish, (in some schools Russian/Chinese) in middle school and high school, but that usually only lead to a very minor proficiency. I have had a few years of both German and spanish, but am not fluent in any way, although I can understand a bit of Spanish. I have majored in Chinese in the University though, so I speak that relatively well!

I can understand Swedish and Danish as well, but I guess that doesn't count since it's so similar to Norwegian
 
I studied Spanish for about 8 years throughout school and worked with some Spanish speaking people for 7 years after that and got pretty good but haven't had to use it but it really helped when I was in Spain a few years ago. My wife's fluent in German so I know bits n pieces. I can pick out a few words in a conversation between her and her mom and kinda figure out what they're talking about
 

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