How many different languages can you speak?

[Mandy]

I guess I'm in a poll-ish mood this week...

So, how many languages can you speak? Well, enough to hold a simple conversation?

I've always been fascinated by people who know a number of different languages. I started taking Japanese in High School, but we moved after one year in that school and the next school didn't offer it. Then I took up Spanish, but I didn't stick with it...wish I had.

So I can only speak one.

[linsleyd]

I can speak German, though I am a little rusty right now. I can also do minimal Italian but I didn't count that because the conversation would be very basic!

[sneezles]

When I was a freshman the school I attended tried to talk me into taking Russian (Spanish class was full) but I took geography instead. Just as well since we moved the next year and the new school didn't offer Russian. Took 3 years of Spanish but don't remember much (except for "una mas" when drinking margaritas!)
We're actually trying to learn "one more" in as many languages as possible. Couldn't understand the waiter at our favorite chinese restaurant though! However in Czech it's "jeste jedna" (big Czech area here!).

[LaraW]

I picked "one"

I took Spanish in high school, but it is all lost. DH and I were going to Mexico for our honeymoon, and I said that would give me a chance to say the one sentence I know in Spanish:

Dos Coca-Cola's, por favor

Oh, this would go back to the "favorite movie lines"

Donde esta la zapateria


So I know 2 sentences!!! :D Of course, I would not be able to understand the directions to the zapateria! :rolleyes:

[Natasha]

I LOVE languages!! They are one of my big passions. :)

Since the criterion is how many languages you speak well enough to hold a simple conversation, I voted six: English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, and Italian. I would say that I am only really fluent in three, though: English :D, French and Spanish.

I took Portuguese and German in university (and have travelled around Germany and other German-speaking countries, and read a fair bit in German). So I can speak those languages to some extent but am rusty. If I went to a place where those were the main languages I would be able to pick it up again. I also taught myself Italian many years ago, and feel comfortable reading it and speaking it at a certain level.

I draw the line at counting Dutch. I learned some when in the Netherlands, and could read some or get the gist of TV shows in Dutch, but not at ALL enough for it to count as knowing or speaking the language. :o

Unfortunately, the only languages I get to use on any kind of regular basis are English and French. *sigh*

Natasha :)

[Scout]

I picked one but I am currently taking Spanish lessons weekly. I took Spanish in High School and only paid attention enough to pass but now I have more interest in learning. My sister -in-las is from Guatemala and speaks little English but is getting better since she has started taking English classes. She gives meprivate lessons once a week and I pratice when I am around her and my brother. So maybe someday I can say I can speak two languages.

[Julia1Pin]

I was born in Russia and can speak, read and write (although can't do any of these perfectly). And in high school and college I took Russian (yes, it was an easy A :D )

Sneezles - "escho odin" (one more)

[Gail]

How simple a conversation did you have in mind?

Sample "simple" conversation translated from Greek:

Gail to cab driver: Acropolis please.
Cab driver: Here we are.
Gail to cab driver: Thank you.
Cab driver to Gail upon receiving tip: Thank you very much.

Does that count? :p

Like Natasha, I LOVE languages. I used to be fluent in Spanish (now I can read it, but it takes me about ten minutes to recall how to say anything and I'm sure my grammar is horrendous; I understood and could read and write French (we won't get into my "Spench" accent); could fake my way through Italian (understanding was a cinch after Spanish); and managed a smattering of Portuguese. And of course there was that crash course I gave myself in reading Greek and learning a few basics before traveling there.

Unfortunately, I'm a sad victim of "don't-lose-it, you-lose-it" syndrome (sigh.) My one consolation is that it DOES come back if I brush up.

[Melman]

I voted one. I had 2 years of French in high school...but it was taught by a woman with a very strong Maine accent...in a VERY southern high school (ou est l'ocean?..ya cahn't get theah from heah-vous). You get the idea. :rolleyes:

Our department secretary is on vacation this week and all the users are being forwarded to my phone. I really wanted to vote TWO languages...English...and computer illiterates! I just got off the phone with one person who had some kind of network problem and the PC stalled on her. I told her to just press the power button and let it reboot...and went one step further and said if the power didn't go off, to hold in the power button for about 4-5 seconds. Her response:
Where's the power button?

Can I count 2??? Please?? :-)

[sneezles]

Originally posted by Julia1Pin
Sneezles - "escho odin" (one more)

Thanks, Julia!!
Can't wait to I use that to impress everyone at the table!

Is the ch pronounced as in children or chronicle?

[Vanessa]

Spanish & English. I took French but did not use it so lost it :(

[KValley]

I've formally studied French, Spanish, Italian (and English, obviously- who can forget those endless sentence diagrams in the 7th grade?). Fairly fluent in French, my Italian is rusty but I can get by fine in it and in Spanish once I get going- if we're talking simple conversation!

I studied Chadian Arabic when I lived in Chad, but that's fairly worthless outside of the country- it's a relative of classic/standard Arabic, but not really comprehensible to other Arabic speakers.

Living in Japan gave me a smidgen of Japanese- enough to get myself into trouble, but not enough to get out of it. I knew how to ask for directions home, but darn if I could understand word one of the explanation :rolleyes:

If I didn't travel so much during the academic year for my job, I'd be back in Spanish classes. Italian is by far my favorite language, even over French. It's just not terribly practical!

I would dearly love to learn a Q-Celtic language (Irish, Scots, Manx) and a P-Celtic (Welsh, Cornish, Breton). Now THESE would be practical ;) - perhaps for my eventual migration to Ireland or Wales, eh?

[Dewey]

Well, I'm quite disappointed in myself for letting my Spanish and Danish lapse to the point that I don't think I can truly say that I can hold a conversation in either language. So I voted one. I used to be very good at both Danish and Spanish, but lack of use has taken its toll. I at least have an excuse for the Danish, since there aren't a lot of people in Colorado (or the US) that you can practice your Danish with. But I have no excuse for never practicing my Spanish...:(

[MaryH]

I said 4: English, Armenian, Spanish and French. Now having said that, its definately a use it or lose it type of thing, but it does come back. I didn't count Italian as I can only understand it, not speak it (it is close enough to Spanish that I just spoke Spanish when asking for directions once and everyone seemed to understand). Armenian does not sound at all like French or Spanish and has its own alphabet. So, although I can name some of the letters it takes me a LONG time to read anything.

Growing up in SD I heard Spanish all the time (and you do hear it in Fresno), but I use the Armenian much more here. Once I was in Costco and overheard a conversation. It took me about 5 minutes to realize it was in Aremnian not Spanish. Now my problem is trying to remember the Spanish, because sometimes I'll answer in Armenian, which gets me all sorts of strange looks.


Next on my list is Arabic. My husband is fluent in it and one day I'm going to be able to at least know some of what he's saying. My MIL has a great Aremnian saying. It says that when one is young, learning a language is like writing on stone. When you're older its like writing on ice. ;)

[MKSquared]

English and French. I can also hold a conversation in Spanish, but it would only be appropriate in a restaurant kitchen. :) The guys back there loved me, so I picked up a little more than dishes, plates, etc. ... one of them would continually call me his "little monkey." :rolleyes: Now, I understand that's an idiomatic expression of love (much like the French "little cabbage"), but I still felt silly when I translated it. :)

Thanks to my grandparents, I know a few strange things in Slovak and the standard "hello-how-are-you-good" greeting. I can't string anything together logically - it's all parroting what I've heard since my childhood. On Christmas one year, my family all gave "toasts" using whatever Slovak word they might know. "Dishrags!" "Go to bed!" "Hit it!"

[Canice]

I said two. I started studying Italian in high school and took classes all over the place til I went to school in Italy (first Perugia, then Siena) and finally for a BA in Italian here. My biggest thrill was when I was flying home after 6+ months in Italy and the guy next to me (from Milan, didn't really speak English) and I chatted in Italian the whole way -- and the flight attendent gave me the customs form for non-US citizens! I felt like I'd finally made real progress in my efforts to learn the language. Mind you, 10 years later I got into a compartment on a Paris-Rome train with a middle-aged couple who chatted with me the entire way, and my heart was racing, palms sweating, brain reeling away trying to catch up and reply. I was SO stressed out! Needless to say, my skills are now more than "rusty".

[HRJ]

I picked one, despite the attempts of many well-intended (and some not-so-well-intended) educators and family members to teach me other languages over the years. I'm pretty embarrassed, actually, at my lack of knowledge.

I took French all through junior high and high school -- even won an award for French at high school graduation. But, except for a week in Quebec when I was in 7th grade, I've never been to a French-speaking place, and never had much of an opportunity to speak French with anyone, so I have no ability to conduct a conversation. I can still read some French, but don't remember enough grammar and spelling to write anything.

I know a smattering of Yiddish -- enough to eavesdrop on a conversation between my mother and my aunt ;) , but not enough to converse on my own.

I also once knew how to read enough Hebrew to get me through my bat-mitzvah service, but the knowledge promptly drained from my head the minute the ceremony was over.

DH and I may end up taking Spanish classes this coming fall, but that's still very tentative.

Helene

[wallycat]

I put 4...and sometimes I wonder if my English qualifies!!:D Such great writers here that I'm often ashamed of my "skills"...

I was born in Poland, so Polish...but we left when I was 1-1/2...which means can't read it well nor write it at all....
we moved to Israel and left when I was 4-1/2...still no school required :D

Came to US and learned English in 3 months. Too bad they don't teach languages in grade school!!!
Studied Spanish in High school but feel rusty...
Crash Berlitz course in French--learned more living there for 3 months--again, rusty.

My dad spoke 7 or 8 languages, so similar to HRJ, I picked up a few phrases here and there from what he spoke, Yiddish, German, Hebrew, Russian....It's funny how one can understand a language and still find it difficult to SAY ANYTHING in that same tongue....oh well..more studying.

[CherylCH]

I studied Spanish and Latin in school, but I am so rusty in both. I have been toying with the idea of taking the Foreign Service exam though, so I have been studying up on the subjects for that at home, and I am going to enroll in some continuing education classes in Spanish at Georgetown once I move to D.C. in August. I am really so excited about the classes. I have only been out of school for a year, and I learn so much at my job, but I still miss formal education. I am such a dork, I know.

[JHolcomb]

Does knowing how to say hedgehog in Russian count? I can also say "I am so high" in Russian and a couple of general explatives (we had a Russian friend in college). I can say one word in Finnish and it's also an explative. In Irish I can say "Bhi me ag ol" which means "I have been drinking" and "Ta sea scamallach" which means "it is cloudy." Ok, I can say a few more things in Irish, but not much. Oddly enough i got hooked on Arthur (the aardvark) on Irish language tv.

I took French in high school and college but only used for 3 weeks in France and can only remember a few odd phrases.

[mandarin2j]

I voted two--I've taken 4 years of high school Spanish and another 2 at university. I'm by no means fluent, but I can express myself and can carry a conversation as long as it doesn't delve into themes that are more complex than day-to-day political chitchat. Now that I'm through with school, I'm going to start trying to learn Thai, and I'd like to learn Italian one day as well (after Spanish, it should be fairly easy!).

-Amanda

[Ms. Chevious]

Originally posted by Natasha
Since the criterion is how many languages you speak well enough to hold a simple conversation, I voted six: English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, and Italian.

Ooo-kay, thanks Natasha, now I feel like a complete idiot for barely being able to speak one language ! :D

I'm going to put my dunce cap on and go sit in the corner now.

[aggie94]

English, of course. I understand a fair amount of Chinese and can speak conversationally, but only with my parents. I highly doubt anyone else would understand my attempts. :rolleyes:

[Grace]

I vote 2-1/2?? I speak English, of course, and German fluently. But I also studied Spanish in school, and have had to use my Spanish a lot throughout the various jobs I've had in my life. I wouldn't say I'm fluent by ANY means, but I can say a lot more than just a few phrases. I also studied etymology (the study of words and their origins), and so learned a bunch of Greek and Latin, although that hasn't served me well except to help me understand the meanings of obscure English words (which was the purpose of the course, so I guess it IS useful - just not useful when speaking to a foreigner! :D ). I do know how to say hello, thank you, goodbye, Merry Xmas, etc. in Greek. But that's it.

[lorilei]

Like many here, I also am intrigued by/love language. I'm mystified and impressed by the nuances of each language and how each tongue seems to reveal something fascinating about the culture in which it originated.

I hit the "2" button in the poll -- but that might not be completely accurate.

I've formally studied Latin (primarily), French and Classical Greek. I can also fudge my way through a bit of Koine Greek. My best speaking skills are in French -- though I wouldn't consider myself even REMOTELY fluent.

Additionally, I picked up a bit of Arabic while I was studying in Tunisia (though don't ASK me to remember much at all!). I can fake a bit of reading in Spanish, since it's a Latin cognate. And I know a bit of German, since most of my family is of the Deutsch persuasion.

And then there's my incredible fluency in PIG LATIN :D

Don't be impressed -- I'd venture a guess that I'm not much use in ANY of these languages, considering I don't speak/use any of them very often.

Someday I plan to go back and brush up on one or more of my languages... <sigh>

[lisalee]

I can sign and consider that another language. Right? I use it all the time working with kids. As a matter of fact, from January to May I went into my nephew's first grade class and taught them sign language once a week. We did really basic things, the days of the week, numbers, letters of the alphabet, food , people and manner signs (I'm big on please and thankyou!) Then I taught them stories that had signs in them. (They were very big on the monkey sign!) As a wrap-up I made each of them a sign language book that had most of the signs we used in both fingerspelling and signs. What a project that turned out to be! I'm planning on using signs when I get into my new classroom in August. I can interpret some, but if I had to sign a lot to a deaf person the conversation would take a really really long time!;) I'd like to be much more proficient again.

[BarbaraL]

There's an old joke:
If you speak 3 languages, you're trilingual
If you speak 2 languages, you're bilingual
If you speak 1 language, you're American!

I studied Spanish in middle and high school and was reasonably good at it. Naturally, now I forget most of it.

[JennieL]

Originally posted by lorilei
And then there's my incredible fluency in PIG LATIN :D

[/B]

I was wondering if Pig Latin counted!!

I know just enough Spanish to get by in Mexico and speak with the guys at the car wash!:)

[Natasha]

Originally posted by BarbaraL
There's an old joke:
If you speak 3 languages, you're trilingual
If you speak 2 languages, you're bilingual
If you speak 1 language, you're American!

I studied Spanish in middle and high school and was reasonably good at it. Naturally, now I forget most of it.

Barbara,

Funny you should bring up this joke, because it seems to be used universally with variations. :) I remember reading a Belgian version of this joke in a psycholinguistics book:

What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Trilingual.
What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual.
What do you call someone who speaks one language? A "Wallon" (the term they use for French speakers in Belgium).

This was apparently a joke used by those in the Flemish portion of the country. Don't know how true it is, but there you have it!

Natasha

[ccooney]

I voted 3, but I sort of cheated. I can speak English & tried to minor in French but just couldn't fit the last two classes in before I graduated. I was pleasantly surprised to find, earlier this year, when faced with the challenge of spending a goodly amount time alone with a friend's mother who only spoke French, that I could still hold a basic conversation with her. And I've been out of college for 12 years and have only used my French a couple of times on trips to Montreal. Just like riding a bicylce!
So as for the 3rd - here's where I cheated. I consider music a language, and one that I'm definitely fluent in. I hope that's OK with everyone.

[Elisabeth]

I voted 3, but I have very different abilities in French and Dutch and am not fluent in either, so to be fair, I should probably have voted 1/2 + 1/2 + 1!

DH is Belgian (Flemish--so I enjoyed your Belgian joke, Natasha!), so I have quite good comprehension in Dutch, can speak in a basic way, and can read in a basic way. I did live in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium for 2 years, so I ought to know the language much better than I actually do, but I'm very lazy about these things.

I actually have a degree in French and sadly enough, can't speak a word or understand a whole lot. But I can read fluently and write decently.

I keep telling myself I absolutely have to start working on these languages again, because I lose so much each year. But then inertia takes over!

[Holly in KC]

I voted one, but, like many others, I took a few years of Spanish in junior & senior high school. SO and I had recently decided to pick it back up, so we've purchased a few books and have been studying for the past few weeks. One of the study-guides we purchased is an 11 CD set from Barrons - It's called "Mastering Spanish", and is supposedly the same course that is used by the US Government to train diplomatic personnel. After just 2 chapters, I've definitely got the following phrase down pat: "Donde esta la Embajada Americana?" (Where is the American Embasy?) :)