Anyone speak more than two languages

[JetBlast]

American and British.

 

[Lucky Strike]

Originally Posted by JetBlast

American and British.
Sooo...divided by a common language, then?

 

[bobyoung7]

Originally Posted by rjmaiorano

I am not linguistically gifted like my POS family. I've got English and ok Spanish. Can understand Italian-ish.

My pops on the other hand is fully fluent in 5. Speaks a local Occitanian dialect of Southern Italy that is heavily latin, with some Italian + French influence, yet interestingly can not be understood by anyone but a native speaker. He also speaks Italian (which he learned here in the US), English, Spanish and French.

He is pretty gifted with languages, but I would guess he picks them up well because his native dialect was based in Latin.

Moms is also crazy, Fully fluent in English, Italian, Spanish and Polish (she is native Polish).

Sister then has English, Spanish, and approaches fluency in Italian and Polish. She can also randomly speak backwards without hesitation.

I suck in my Family.

Edit: my pops tells me his native tongue is considered a language, not dialect, as it is not mutually intelligible.

She might need the services of a good priest.

 

[Night Owl]

Lots of I speak a little bit of bullshit here

If you listen to radio broadcast in that language do you understand 90%? If not stop saying you speak that language, a few phrases doesn't count

 

[Psyren]

English, French and learning Spanish.

 

[cucurrucucu]

I speak Spanish which, having grown up in Buenos Aires, is my first language; Korean, learnt at home; English and French learnt at school, and I'm currently taking Italian, which should be fairly easy for its similarity to Spanish.

 

[adfan]

Originally Posted by Sherlockian

I, too, am somewhat suprised by the number familiar with Hanguk-oh on here. I can blunder my way through a little survival Korean, and can read/write it at a very low level.

Fairly decent (but rusty) with French and Spanish - French is the compulsory second language that all kids in England take in secondary school. I was impressed when I visited my cousins in Australia and learned that they often study Japanese in the same way; I tried learning hiragana but really need formal lessons to keep me motivated.

I was also surprised by the number of people who know Korean. Interesting.

It seems like several people know Korean and Spanish. I had a friend back in law school who was korean but grew up in Latin America. He said there were a lot of Asians in Latin America. It reminded me of my Korean friends who grew up in Germany and France - they spoke both korean and their respective language - but to hear Korean with a German accent (from a Korean) was interesting to say the least

Regards.

 

[vitaminc]

I am not European and I speak more than 2 languages.

 

[G79]

English
Hindi
Malayalam
Tamil - begginer/ intermediate
Kannada
Arabic - Read/write - not conversational

 

[whymakemedothis]

4 languages:
-native language of birth
-immigrated to usa
-3 years in high school
-3 years in college

id like to learn a new language (arabic, russian, or italian), but it simply isnt practical (time) now that im a working professional.

this winter i might transfer internationally for work for +1 to make 5 languages

 

[stylo 9000]

Tamil - fluent
English - fluent
German - 7 years but I wouldn't say fluent
Arabic - 1 year

 

[Journeyman]

Originally Posted by ZackyBoy

I am fluent in English, French, and Italian...written and spoken. By the time I am done university I will be fluent in Arabic.

Not to pick on Zacky specifically, but I'm often a bit wary of people who talk of themselves as being "fluent" in a language, particularly if they have only studied it at school or university.

Of course, languages are different - some are simple (Bahasa Indonesia, for example) and some are hard (Japanese is moderately difficult, Arabic and Russian are apparently difficult).

Nonetheless, to my mind, it's a bit rich to boast of being fluent in a language unless you either grew up with the language (ie grew up in a country in which the language was used, or had parents who spoke the language to you) or you spent time in the country once you grew up, having studied at high school or university.

Maybe I'm too humble and I need to blow my own horn - metaphorically speaking - but I do not regard myself as being in any way fluent in Japanese and yet I studied it at university for four years, then did a year of university exchange, then got a job that involved the language and travelled to the country multiple times each year, then married a Japanese national and am currently attempting to raise two kids to be reasonably bilingual.

To me, "fluent" means effectively native speaker level. Perhaps other people are using different definitions of fluent, such as "can communicate effectively and be widely understood".

I also speak some Indonesian, but quite poorly. But it's enough to chat to people, get around, and make friends whilst acting recklessly on remote islands.

 

[Canal Directo]

Originally Posted by Lucky Strike

Being Norwegian, I also understand Swedish and Danish quite well, the Scandinavian languages are quite close.

Most Scandinavians are supposedly quite fluent in English. Much of the reason for this is that the Scandiavian languages are too small to have television and films dubbed, so you get the original languages, with subtitles in your own. Portugal, for example, has the same situation WRT dubbing, apparently, whereas Germany/France/Italy/Spain does not. The Portuguese generally speak English very well, the Spanish, not so much.

Also, I speak some German and a very little French.

What's up with the norwegian language.
Is there really two different sub-languages: bokmal and nynorsk?
Or is it just a distinction between written/formal and oral/casual?

 

[rdawson808]

You have no idea how jealous I am of you and others in this thread. I will always consider it one of my greatest failings that I have not learned another language to the point of fluency. I can read a fair bit of French and speak very little. At one point or another I've taken classes in German, Spanish, French, and Mandarin Chinese.

I hope to move abroad one day just to force myself to learn. Preferably French.

b

Originally Posted by M.D.

I have the advantage to live in Flanders in Belgium. Almost nobody in the world speaks Dutch so you're kinda required to learn other languages.

Dutch because i live and go to school in Flanders;
French because it's the second language in Belgium; i speak French with my parents, so its my mothertongue;
German because I've learned a bit in school and had internships in Germany;
English because half of my courses are given in English, all movies and series on TV are in English and subtitled in Dutch;
Italian because I've taken lots of holidays in Italy and my uncle lives in Rome;
If everything goes along plan next year I'll go on an Erasmus university exchange program in Spain for 6 months. Hopefully by then, I'll be able to add Spanish to my list.

 

[globetrotter]

Originally Posted by Journeyman

Not to pick on Zacky specifically, but I'm often a bit wary of people who talk of themselves as being "fluent" in a language, particularly if they have only studied it at school or university.

Of course, languages are different - some are simple (Bahasa Indonesia, for example) and some are hard (Japanese is moderately difficult, Arabic and Russian are apparently difficult).

Nonetheless, to my mind, it's a bit rich to boast of being fluent in a language unless you either grew up with the language (ie grew up in a country in which the language was used, or had parents who spoke the language to you) or you spent time in the country once you grew up, having studied at high school or university.

.
+1

I can follow about 80% of a conversation in colombian spanish (chilian it drops to like 30%) and probrably 40-50% of an arabic conversation. but I wouldn't say I speak either of those. I can get by in a taxi, more or less.

some people have great language skills, but that is usually part of growing up with languages.