how many languages do you speak?

Three - English, French like a five year old, and the Italian of...maybe a three year old - I know lots of nouns, and the basics of present tense verbs. I'm hoping to work on both German and Spanish before my brain turns to total mush.

An interesting question....

Fluent - English
Get By - French, Italian, Arabic (Cairo dialect)
Struggle - Greek, German
Forgot - Russian

Four and a half: Dutch (mothertongue), French, English, German, 1/2 Spanish. My Spanish used to be good at the time I went to highschool (25 yrs ago) but I never used it since then, besides on holidays.

One. English. And I'm really, really mad at myself about this.

Oh sure, I took a semester of Spanish in seventh grade. I had the maturity of a seventh-grader, so I promptly dropped it because it was hard. Oh, and I took two semesters of Spanish at a community college after I finished grad school. But let's be serious. It's awfully tough to learn another language through a weekly course after a long, hard day at the office.

I consider my language deficiency a significant personal failure. Thanks for listening.

In addition to English, I'm fluent in Fortran and Basic, and speak a bit of German.

English is my 1st language.
I can get by with the basics in French, when speaking & reading.(Took 3 yrs in high school & 1 semester in college.)But everyday conversational French, I would be left in the dark.
Can do some very basic beginning German, but wouldn't want to have my life depend upon it.

Fluent (?)- English

Basic- Spanish--Have been by myself in Guatamala and lived to tell about it.

Get By- (with lots of hands and cause I love it) Italian

Studied- French, but too intimidated to speak in France--just not good enough, I feel, and afraid to make mistakes.

Understand Some- German. My grandmother lived with us and spoke it all the time.

Wish I had studied as a kid--it's so much easier to learn. But what did I know?

English - fluently.
Lived in Spain for 5 years so probably about a toddler's level of Spanish. I can get by as a tourist but can't discuss anything deep.
French - had 3 years in high school and can still read it but not real well, lost the pronounciation, maybe I never really had it. Have been to France many times and used the tourist stuff but never discussed anything with anyone there.
German - some - lived in Germany 5 years but every time I spoke German, they would answer in English way better than my German. Only really had to use it in Bavaria.
Can say "thank you" and "no" and "yes" in Greek and Russian and "goodnight" in Finnish and Merry Christmas in a bunch of languages.
Carol

I really enjoy this question....
Learning languages is my favorite thing in the world to do! I just graduated from high school and I plan to travel abroad and learn lots of languages.
I speak English fluently, I've studied Spanish for 4 years and French for 3, and I took a conversational Italian course before going to Italy last year. This month I'm on my way to France and England where I can brush up on my French. I love languages! Being of Polish decent, I hope to study Polish one day as well. My mom has taught me a little.
Adios and Gracias!

Great post!
I speak American English as my mother tongue. Fluent in Spanish--exchange student in Spain in high school and tried to keep it from getting rusty ever since.
Get by in French and Portuguese, can read both well.
Basic hello, thank you and directions (tourist language) in Italian and German.
Right now I'm brushing up on French, next is a home course in Portuguese, then I'd like to learn Arabic.

Spanish – mother tongue
English – fluent. Learned as a child, lived in England and the USA. Work in a US multinational company, practice every day.

Portuguese, French & Italian: tourist level – about 100 word vocabulary (give or take a few).

Nice story: while living in the USA, at a party a friend who was an immigrant from Russia was talking to my daughter who was 10 years old, and told her that in his culture learning another language was like acquiring another soul.

Hmmmm.... well English on good days.
I used to be fluent in French, but now it is at the advanced coping level.
My Macedonian is a bit more than tourist - I can hold simple conversations, bargain with taxi drivers and complain about most things. [and read cyrillic]
My Hungarian is entry_level tourist - but seems to work.
And I can say "thank-you" in about 10 languages

I can get by in Italian, German, Spanish, French and English. Can read pretty well all of them. Writing is quite another story ... a complete illiterate.
My mother language (sort of) is Portuguese.

Paulo

Australian English is my mother tongue. I studied French in High School for three years and found it easyish to pick up when I decided to try University as a mature age student. I majored in Italian and French which included much literature from Dante up, consequently I read both French and Italian much better than I speak them especially since I studied externally for my degree and only got together with my tutors and fellow students about twice a year. In France and Italy in 1995 I tried really hard. I was understood but the French tended to answer me in English which was a little frustrating! Since I graduated way back in 1991 and don't practice as much as I should, both languages are slipping away.
Rosemary

Beth- I love your question because it invites sharing and not controversy.

My grandfather was German (off the boat) and married my grandmother who lived in N.Y., was raised in a convent and was somehow commissioned to teach Leo English. They fell in love and had 8 children. I am his grandaughter. My early childhood memories are laced with German sayings like, 'Morgan stunt hat gold in munt. Translation- 'The morning hours have gold in their mouths.' Forgive the grammatical errors, this is what I heard. We knew it to mean- get up early and get to work, get busy, these are the best hours to accomplish anything.

At 14 yrs. old, went to Mexico and lived with a large family in San Luis Potosi. Learned the language, fell in love with the culture and had a classical guitar teacher that taught tablature. I visit Mexico yearly and am still in love with the culture.

And French?... enough to understand Debussy and Mallarme.

Bon Vivant,

Anne Marie Antoinette

I wasn't sure I felt like chiming in on this thread, but there seems to be some pretty good company here.

Best: English, French, German

Fairly good: Spanish, Italian

With cramming, I have been able to get up to several hundred words and basic verb conjugations, and figure I can do it again: Portuguese, Dutch, Danish.

Once studied for a year (in high school), and would love to have the chance to dust off and try again: Russian.

Learned a smidgin 30 years ago: Greek.

Studied up for trips that have as yet not materialized: Norwegian, Swedish, Czech, Polish, Hungarian, Finnish (I don't kid myself about how much I could actually absorb in a few weeks of cramming for the last two).

And last of all, tried really hard for six weeks, serious effort and got NOwhere and I have retained NOTHING: Japanese.

It IS a fun question. And with a slightly serious side, since I am dogmatic in my belief that we travel-lovers should make an effort to learn something of the language of the host country, both out of politeness and because we'll get a lot more out of the visit. Unfortunately, we Americans seem to be a bit more deficient than most in making the attempt.
So, my attempts: Southern (U.S.) English is, by the grace of God, the mother tongue. I am (or used to be) reasonably fluent in French, having lived there for a year long ago. I get by in German, Spanish, and hopefully -- considering I will arrive there in a couple of weeks -- Italian. I know a bit of modern Hebrew, and in the past I have obtained phrase-book level skills, via tapes and books, in Czech, Greek, Dutch, etc. -- wherever my wanderlust takes me!

Hello, Bon Jour, Hallo, Salve, Guerzi,

Native English speaker
Semi-fluent French
Understand some Dutch (lived in Holland for 8 months)
Very very basic Italian
And beginner at Swiss German (have lived here for 5.5 months) and making quite remarkable progress...I really enjoy the situations (albeit too rare) when the other person doesn't speak English and I'm forced to use my fumbling language skills.

anybody here able to speak Afrikaans?

Fluent: English, French, Spanish, German
Passable: Portuguese
Emergency use only: Finnish, Japanese

Louise, I don't speak Afrikaans but own a very impressive English-Afrikaans dictionary; I have a collection of Dictionaries and language coursebooks, featuring weird wonderful lanuages such as Maori, Mapuche, Basque and Kalka-Mongol.

For anyone really interested in playing with (European) languages, here's a whilarious website:

http://www.uchrony.be/europanto/

Louise,

I can understand Afrikaans because it sounds very much like the Flemish Dutch I speak and I know a few words ("braai" for instance). I love Afrikaans because it says so literaly what it means. And I hope to be able to visit Zuid-Afrika soon.

American English - Mother tongue
Fluent - British and Australian English :0)
Able to manage in German - read/write better than speak.
Basic traveler stuff - French, Spanish
Enough to get giggled at - Japanese, Russian.

I always attempt to get at least a basic traveler's vocabulary before I go anywhere. Unfortunately, I haven't gone anywhere lately, so my skills are shaky. We're heading to Germany and France in a week, so I've been brushing up my spoken German, and am starting on the French. Since I am starting to develop a group of friends on the Internet who speak something other than English, I have more opportunities to practice the languages.

Hi all,

Your replies are all so interesting! So many talented people out there! I think it is very interesting that this has invited people to talk about their ancestors/background, too.

My next question might be - are you more interested in European travel (and learning European languages) because your family comes from there (or do they not come from Europe - don't want to paint with too broad of a brush).

or, for you, is the European travel just the tip of the iceberg? after all this is a forum on Europe so it follows that is much of what would be discussed.

For my part, roughly 100 years ago, all "my people" were to be found somewhere in Europe. Sweden, Germany, Austria-Hungary - as it was called in 1902 when my Great-Gramma (Baba) came over here as a young girl of 16 (alone! to visit friends, then she decided to stay...)

Another point I thought I might share with you, for I find it interesting: I am very interested in history and especially am drawn to European history, especially more so than "American" history. A British Colonel whom I stayed with in Normandy (Col Chilcott, for those of you who have not read my other posts) is an avid historian. He pointed out that he thought one difference between Americans and their view of history versus the British viewpoint was that Americans tend to say "my history started in 1776" (or thereabouts) and they limit their viewpoint of "their history" to what happened on American soil... whereas the British (and other Europeans I would imagine) tend to look at the WORLD'S history as their history. Romans? British history (a lot of England was under Roamn control 2000 years ago. France? British history (1066). etc etc.

For my part, I tend to think of "my history" as belonging to Europe. In 1776, my people were not even on this continent, nor were they here in 1860-65! Germany did not even exist in its present form - not to mention Austria-Hungary, etc...

anyway.... food for thought.

I had no idea I would get such a big response to this question, I wonder how many more will be waiting for me when I get back from Ireland I leave in a few hours - so, maybe I can add "a few words of Gaelic" to my list when I return.

I forgot to add in "a (very) few words of Hungarian/Slovak" too... (not even enough to get arrested, alas!)

Myriam - I have to tell you, I have heard from various friends that the Dutch really tend to be polyglots - that it is not at all unusual for many of you to speak 4 or more languages, fluently! I think that is amazing. I could only wish I would be up there someday. (I don't consider myself fluent in French, even though I can read it pretty well - and I have actually had several native speakers tell me I speak very well - I guess it is a confidence thing more than anything)

and so everyone, I am off to the Emerald Isle shortly, have a wonderful holiday weekend and I will see you all in about 10 days or so! (no matter how addicted I may be to this forum, it does not extend to accessing it while I am actually ON vacation!!)

Cheers!

Beth

Beth, have a great trip in Ireland!
We look forward to your posting upon return, and thanks for the great question.
My languages, in descending order of proficiency are:
Russian, French, Italian, Spanish, Latin, German, Finnish
I was once able to read Tolstoy in Russian, but have lost that facility through disuse.
French I picked up in one conversational class plus living in Ontario, so near Quebec, and then travel in France.
Italian is lovely and easy to pick up, with a little French as a base. Italian seems easier, but I don't know why.
Maybe it was the two years of Latin I studied.
And Finish, well, I stayed in Finland one summer while I studied Russian, and picked up some, which is now down to a few cherished words.
I always thought I wanted to learn German, but after four trips to Austria and Germany, I see how hard it is. It needs to be studied, not picked up, IMHO.
Au revoir, folks.

good question
english -native language
french-fairly fluent
spanish-can get by on vacation
chinese-just learning

i just like to study languages to keep the brain cells in shape. you never know when you might need to use one of them.
have a nice trip.

Louise. I learned conversational Afrikaans while at high school in Johannesburg and also a smattering of Setswana because 'home' was Gaberone. Don't have either anymore. It has been 25 years. Not much chance to practice either here in Victoria. I have almost totaly lost my French also. I can only translate fragments of movies now. How do people hang on to languages without having a chance to practice them.

I am fluent in English and can get by in Spanish and French when necessary. I had 8 years of Spanish so I should be able to do more than "get by" but that is life. I took a semester of Italian in college but remember none of it. I also understand a small bit of Ladino since most of my family speaks it. Every few months I try to teach myself Hebrew. I usually give up after a few days only to start again a few months later.

'allo:
After many years of taking French courses at all levels plus a stint
living in Paris shortly after the Romans
left I still go into panic-mode when
forced to attempt French in France;
however, after a bottle of wine I
become miraculously fluent - complete
with Gallic gestures. Many a native
French speaker finding themselves in
a tete-a-tete avec moi has backed off
quickly with a look of stunned bewilderment - but I continue in full
spate much to the amusement of my mono-
lingual North Amer. friends.....but,
luckily for me, mon mari is absolutely
unable to absorb any language - after
six months of French lessons he asked
in all innocence what "oui" meant....
so he honestly thinks I make sense when
I speak in tongues in Toulon.
We leave for France in a few weeks and I
hope the Language Police are en vacance!

A bientot!

Fluent in English

Fluent in Southern English (U.S.), although 8 years in Wisconsin left me slighly less than perfectly fluent (just a joke)

Studied four semesters of German in college; was my best subject - can speak it pretty effectively, but my reading needs some work

Studied French in high school; my best subject; took a little in college and reading knowledge of French classes prior to grad school; used it primarily for my thesis research in French history - now, I can speak it well enough to get by and read it fairly fluently

Studied Spanish in jr. high and high school - brushed up for a trip to Mexico two years ago - only know some basic phrases and words, but knowledge of French helps in reading some

Studying a little Italian now

Constantly studying French and German to hopefully be fluent some day; also would like to learn some Russian

Whew. This makes me very embarrassed. I envy those of you who so easily pick up another language. I have absolutely no ear for languages. Fortunately, I learned reading (English!) by the sight method, because I have found in adulthood that I also have no ear for phonics! It has made me very sympathetic to the young readers that I work with. I took 4 years of French, and, when I keep up, I can read it pretty well, but beyond the basic "bonjour", etc., I am a complete deadbeat. My husband is learning some Italian for our third trip to Italy in three years. I am still very self-conscious about "bouna sera". I found myself saying "grazie" in France last November, so I suspect I will "merci" everyone in Italy this summer! I do so try, but it just is not there. Appreciate your talent and contribute your skill to more than the hard work that you put into it. Is there anybody else out there with my problem?

Marty,
I recognize your problem. My husband has just the same. But although he only speaks less than basic English and French, he will always get what he wants and never needs my help. He just doesn't mind to make mistakes or to mix up the various languages.

Great Question! What a wonderful chance for everyone to share a little of themselves!
---------------------------------
Native language: American English (specifically, Southern dialect)

Tourist and in an emergency: French


I was born and raised in the South, graduated high school in 1985. Didn't really plan for the future too well, and certainy never thought I'd travel anywhere outside the U.S.
Well, as Fate would have it - I married a wonderful man who was in the military, and we have traveled quite a bit!
A whole new world has opened up for me, and now I kick myself on a regular basis for not becoming fluent in at least one other language. Looking back, I don't remember ANY of the schools I attended encouraging the students to learn other languages. The courses were just "there" on the the curriculum, but not well publicised or supported. Having made friends in other countries, I have seen the result of how schools outside the US widely and enthusiastically encourage the learning of other languages.

Parents of America - encourage your children to sign up for Foreign-Language classes!!! Knowing how to converse fluently with people from other cultures will serve them well in two areas: self-confidence when travelling and future employment.

Five. Chinese, English, French, Malay and Spanish. And also two other Chinese dialects (Cantonese and Hokkien). I am learning Italian in Italy at the moment, so far I can hold a decent conversation with the locals and read the headlines of Italian newspapers. Where I come from (Malaysia), most people are bi or tri lingua. Oh, just in case you are wondering, my job has nothing to do with languages or travel industry. I just love languages.

My native language is Hungarian,
I'm fluent in English,
Have studied German for 8 years,
Russian in grade 3 -> almost completely forgot,
High-school French,
university intro. Spanish,
I count to ten in Japanese,
and want to get fluent in Frech, Spanish, pick up Russian again, and Greek. Still have 3 years of university left, so I hope I can make it. Next year I will study advanced university German and French at the same time, I hope I won't mix them up!

top

English, German fluently(Lived there), COBOL, Basic, PL/SQL, SQL, Assembly, Enough Spanish and Swedish to get my face slapped by a young woman, a few words of Italian and Hungarian. I'm always impressed with most Europeans and South Americans that speak several languages. I'm also impressed with all of you Fodorites that have taught yourselves multiple languages.
Great Travels

5 languages including my mothertoung:

swiss german (mothertounge): perfect
german: perfect
italian: very fluently (living there)
english: between fluently and very fluently
french: learned it in school and use it once in a while, it's better when i'm in the country

intresting how people are able to communicate and it's important too!

Can't prevent myself from bragging any longer:

German and French, mother- and fathertongue, respectively

Latin: 3rd language (8 years in high school, and loved it); semi-fluently

English: 4th language, fluently, still loving it

Italian: 5th language, fluent for food, medical, sports and art subjects

Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Dutch: won't starve in countries where these languages are spoken....

Greek, Finnish: Basic phrases, menus, road signs, timetables.

I'm a language junkie, can't wait to try learning more...(ah, Europe!).

Enjoy your travels, learn languages.

Phil

P.S. Didn't tell you the language I use most frequently...

Native English speaker (American)
Fluent in British English
Pretty good in French (French in school, French-Canadian relatives), which gets better the longer I'm in France, and the more I drink.
Rudimentary Japanese like numbers and "stop" and "elbow".
I understand a lot more Italian than I think I do.
German completely escapes me, but Flemish is easy to read.
I have a book I bought in Malta on learning their language (spoken Phoenician, as I'm told).
I have books on language and English etymology.
If I could find a class or person to teach me Basque, I'd be all over it.
Spanish is seeping into my brain by osmosis.

Elvira -- If you're serious about Basque (and who could joke about Basque?), I remember seeing a Colloquial Basque book and cassette tape in a bookstore. I'm pretty sure the publisher is Routledge, who does a whole series of Colloquial ____ books. Put those tapes on in the car and imagine what the driver next to you at the stoplight is thinking while you're doing the repetition.

I see I've cornered the market on Czech. I also struggle through French (studied it for 10 years) and Spanish (8 years), both of which have been totally out of use since college. I think understanding a foreign language gives you a unique insight on a culture as well as a better grasp or awareness of your native tongue. The more fluent you are, the better you can understand a culture -- listening carefully to sentence structure and word choice lets you really read between the lines... Fun stuff. I heartily endorse college requirements for foreign language proficiency.

top

A question- should I try to speak French (not fluent at all) while i'm in Paris, or just stick with English?

As for Beth's question:

Fluent: Colloquial Vietnamese, English
Learn/ed: Latin (so shoot me for learning a dead language LOL) 3 yrs, French 4 yrs, Italian 3 yrs

Bonjour! Tina. Yes, you should definitely try. The locals like it if you try. They will break into English when they realise your French is not up to much. They won't be so rude if you try your French first.

Hi Tina!

Yes, by all means, do practice your French as much as you can. What better time to improve your skills?

I always look at it like - if a foreigner were to come up to me here, and at least TRY to speak English I would do whatever I could to help them. If they came up and started gabbling at me in Farsi I would not have a clue as to what they were saying and would not have the slightest idea even HOW to help them!

I learned a few Gaelic terms on my trip, too - so I can add that to my repertoire now (I just got back from Ireland, Sunday)...

I will post a trip report soon...

Beth

Born in Cuba, reared in the US. Consequently, am completely fluent in both languages (Spanish and English). Here is my experience with another foreign language, though, an am curious if others have had the same experiences.

As an undergraduate and later as a grad student I spent three semesters in France, with about five years in between the undergrad and grad periods. Before going I took classes at L'Alliance Francaise and discovered that by knowing both Spanish and English that French was a relatively easier language to learn had I not been fluent in the other two.

Second point, I thought I would develope my fluency in French across the board. Instead, I found that it became easier to read, second easiest to speak, third to understand, and fourth to write. I am now at the level where I can understand about 50% of the conversation between two native French speakers, so long as they don't speak too fast. But I believe that I will have achieved "real" fluency only when I can completely understand the conversation taking place between two people, say as I walk along a street in Paris or sit at a cafe and I hear what others might be saying next to me.

Last, in order to reach fluency I carry on fictional conversations in French in my head. It sounds odd but I find myself recalling words and phrases I've heard and forgotten.

Mother tongue: Basque
At street, learnt Spanish.
More or less English, French and German.

Fun post! I'm very impressed with everyone's desire and ability to learn so many languages. I thought I was doing so so, but I now hang my head in shame and bow to those who blow me away -

Mother tongue - American English

Fluent - British/Australian/New Zealand English

Basic words/phrases/count to 10 - French

Basic words/phrases - Hungarian, Italian and Spanish

I speak English fluently with an unmistakeable but not overpowering Australian accent.

Deutsch kann ich gut genug, dass ich mich eine Stunde lang mit einem Muttersprachler unterhalten kann, bevor er merkt, dass ich kein Deutscher bin.

Je peux converser en francais assez couramment, mais je me sers d'un francais litteraire, parce que j'ai appris cette langue a l'universite et n'avais pas l'occasion de vivre en France.

Mis conocimientos de Espanol son bastante minimos porque hace 35 anos yo ha hecho un curso de verano durante seis semanas en San Sebastian en Espana y no ha habido despues muchas occasiones de servirme de esta lengua.

Saya dapat cakap-cakap sedikit di Bahasa Malaysia/Indonesia karena saya berkali-kali kunjungi negara-negara ini.
Dahulu saya cakap lebih lancar dari sekarang.

Ya mogu chitat russkiyu pismenu, a uzhe zabyval bolshinstbo slova.

I feel guilty that I don't know any Thai when I spend about a third of my life over there. But I do have a fair idea of their awfully difficult script.

Harzer

I'm bi-illiterate. I can't read or write in at least TWO languages...

Bad luck Turnip, but surely you can speak Swede!

I only speak two, English and German, but have many relatives in Europe. One interesting family tidbit: my husband's German cousin met a Korean-born Swedish girl in Australia and they fell in love, got married and live in Germany. They spoke English to each other, he learned Swedish for her, she learned German for him. They now have two young children. She speaks Swedish to them, he speaks to them in German. The children will learn English in school, so soon the kids will be tri-lingual as well! My nephew, also a German, speaks English, French and Spanish like a native, as well as his native tongue and ancient Greek among others. Put most of us Americans to shame!

Hi, Bonjour, Guten tag, Goeie dag, Sanbonani, Dumelang, Sau Bona!!!
In South Africa we have 11 official languages!
My home language is Afrikaans which is quite close to Dutch/ Flemish.
I had German at school for 5 years along with a bit of French.
The other languages all South African's know bits of are Zulu, Xhosa and Sotho.
Obviously English is also on my list.
Enjoy your travels & communicating from your phrase books everyone!

top

Impararo l'italiano da cinque mesi, ma non parlo bene.
Bisogno di practica!
I have been trying to teach myself Italian for five months now.
I find it exciting and frustrating.
English is my native tongue,and all of my relatives spoke only english, but occasionally would interject some german or dutch phrases.
I took 2 yrs. of spanish in high school, but at the time was not too interested, and as it has been almost 30 yrs.,remember almost nothing.
The educational system in America really does *not* value the learning of second languages.
Waiting until high school age is really too late to develop a fluency, or even a real interest (unless one is really into learning )
I know my children's 1st grade teacher was so frustrated by the lack of interest, by the administration in their school to have languages, that she actually went to nightschool to learn spanish.
We finally have a part time spanish teacher, but not until the children reach 7th grade!
Other countries are so much farther ahead of us, in introducing students to languages while they are still young.
I think the United States is a great country, but we are so egocentric, that "we" do not really see the need for our children to be bilingual.
It is too bad.
I would have loved to have had the opportunity to learn language when I was receptive, and young.
So, for now,
bisogno italiano.
Nancy
Sorry for this rambling discourse,
I kind of got off the subject.

Native English speaker
Obsessed with and Fluent in Spanish
Can surivive in French
Desire to learn everything, but no time.

These posts remind of my first time really speaking in French. I was living in Spain, teaching English, and my roommate was Spanish. He would practice his French with a French woman, and I had taken just the basic French 101. And we went out with this French woman and her friend. Well, her friend didn't speak English and didn't speak Spanish, so the only way for me to communicate was my rudimentary French that I had never spoken to anyone who wasn't my French 101 teacher. I just put aside all modesty and the words came out one at a time "Je . . . m'apelle . . . Ed".
It was like this the whole night, but I talked, somehow. Nancy, I know you're
going to do great. Good luck to all the language learners everywhere!!!

How about a joke as a follow-up to Nancy's comment:

Q: What do you call someone who speaks several languages?
A: Poly or multi-lingual.
Q: What do you call someone who speaks two languages?
A: Bi-lingual.
Q: What do you call someone who speaks one language?
A: An American.

I agree that it is a shame that we don't spend more time and money on our kids learning another language. In fact, in our school district, they have actually eliminated all but Spanish as an option. Back when I was in school, you had to pass a proficiency test in another language to graduate from the University of California.

Anyway, this was a great question. For my answer, I am pretty fluent in English, French, Spanish and Italian. Can get by in German and Greek. Native tongue is English, learned the rest either listening to my parents (spoke Spanish when they didn't want us to understand) or school (French) or tapes (German and Italian) or living there for a while (four months in Greece). Can you tell I love foreign languages?

Luigi,
Liked your joke!
Ed,
Thanks.
Nancy

top top top

I loved Art's humor!
I'm French, of French/Italian and Dutch/Norwegian descent, raised in Belgium by German nannies, educated in England, currently living in California , married to an American surfer dude. Languages include French (mother tongue), English, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian and, believe it or not, ... ancient Greek and Latin
Glad to see I have company on this forum!

Love your question!
I speak Spanish (I'm Mexican and work in a school that is 99% Hispanic) and Italian (my major), but I never get to practice Italian, so I mix them up a lot. I love languages and would love to learn Russian and Greek.

I think I know French pretty well as far as reading literature and writing goes, though I have had little occasion to ever speak it and have found that I understand very little of what is said to me in France if the sentence runs longer than five words or so. I wouldn't count languages I only know bits and pieces of myself, though I must say I have known more outgoing people who probably knew no more than 50-100 words of French or German or whatever who just loved talking so much that they ended up actually communicating and connecting with people much more than I did. I'll speak French if I have to, and based on what other people have written on their experiences there it is worthwhile to be able to do some of this, but I find I am never really comfortable speaking it until the other person has established that they can't, or aren't going to break into English the first time I stumble.

Fluently: Australian English and Dutch.
Enough to get by as a tourist: Spanish, Italian, Indonesian, Japanese.
Teaching myself for my next trip: Czech, French, German.
I love languages so hopefully after my trip next year my Czech, French, German, and Italian will be of a better level.
Very much want to learn: Vietnamese, Cantonese & Russian.

Yes, this has been done before.

Two years ago.

nice to hear from Beth Anderson again!!

Wouldn't it be better to add more responses here than to perpetuate a second thread on the exact same subject?

I missed this thread the first time around and think it's a fun one (although it makes me jealous)!

Native English speaker (American)
Fluent spoken French (albeit with grammatical errors)
Enough Chinese to live here, but not enough to have a friendly conversation

Have added some Polish and Romanian since two years ago.

Fluently: Russian, Spanish, English
understand and can keep a conversation:Italian and Portuguese.

English is the first and probably only fluent language I speak.

French is still there as I took it for 9 years up to universiry and can hold a good conversation...better with a glass of wine as I am not trying too hard then! I am starting classes again next month and I can't wait...I love French.

Spanish...shocked myself and boyfriend in Madrid last March when we were over for a wedding. I started ordering food and answering people in Spanish without thinking. I learned through a bit of osmosis in NY/NJ and working in restaurants in my younger days in the kitchens.

German very basic- took for 1 year at school and worked for a Swabian (SP?) company. I could not figure out why I did not understand them and realised it was the dialect they were talking in. Freaked them out when I started to understand and answer in English

Chinese - forgotton most of it...I found it very difficult and learned some studying for 2 months in Shanghai. Andrea Zai if you can master it I will be impressed!

Finnish - very basic questions and answers learned as an exchange student

Lastly Irish - I know a few phrases and rude words my mother taught me. (she never says rude things in English) She was fluent as a child and forgotten most except for the funny or rude things!

I guess the older we get the more exposed we become and learn more to communicate with others.

Fluent in French, Italian. Know a smattering of German but don't like it. Have studied Latin for about 1 year and understand it enough to decipher monuments and manuscripts in European museums.

I can order a beer in 5 languages! English is my native tongue; I never took a language, not in high school or college or even grad school - not sure how I got away with that! I am currently living in Geneva and having an extremely difficult time learning French. However, my kids are doing great at it. Wish I had learned one before I drank all that beer!

Fluent: English, French and Turkish/Turkish Cypriot
I get by pretty well in Italian
Basic: Russian and German

One, but I try to talk it real good.

My husband was born in Israel and teaches romance languages at a university for a living. He's fluent in 6 languages and when we travel I have found that his accents apparently are also spot on as natives we meet always think he's from another region of their country (except the Austrians....who think he's German). What I always get a kick out of is running into some American in our travels in the US or elsewhere who (before he knows what my husband does for a living)states he's fluent in some language my husband teaches. 95% of the time when hubby then says just a simple question to that "fluent" guy in the language he claims to know the man looks disturbed and stumbles around in coming up with a mangled response or just replies in English (and usually reveals he didn't understand the question). I find it funny how these guys (and it's usually men) brag about being fluent when really they are at the basic level or beneath. The sad ones are the few we have met who TEACH that language in high schools in the USA and yet can not respond in more than a rudimentary way to someone speaking to them in a language the US school systems are paying them to teach our children!

I speak English fluently, and French - almost fluently!! I did Spanish in school and was reasonably fluent at the time, but I need to do a refresher course! I also speak Irish, and have just started learning Italian.

Hebrew is my mother tongue and I'm fluent in English. Read and understand Dutch and French but haven't had much experience speaking either of them.

Fluent in English.

And on our trip to Germany in 2002, I was pleased to find out that quite a lot of my high school/college German came back to me as we roamed about. I would say that my German was workable--hotel, restaurant, buying tickets in German, comments on the weather, discussing families/homes/jobs, etc. Plus I was able to translate enough to get the meaning of brochures and exhibit plaques at museums and castles.

Korean--I have survival Korean. I know all the polite phrases, and I could order a meal, buy a bus ticket, or get a hotel room if face-to-face and with some hand gestures.

What a fun question!
Native language--American English (and can do fairly well with British English! )
Can get by in German, but have forgotten as much as I knew (I can relate, Cindy--I'm angry with myself for not keeping that up)
Can understand a FEW Swiss German words but speaking it, forget it!

French reasonably well; a little Italian; a little Russian; and a very little German. California Spanish--pretty basic, though.

Spanish- pretty well (conversant, but nobody would ever confuse me with a native speaker) I majored in Spanish in college, and was an exchange student in highschool, but that was a loooong time ago.

French and Italian- fair. I can read and understand a lot better than I can speak.

Czech- basic traveler's phrases

I love Pimsleur language courses!
My next projects-- Japanese and German.
Studying languages in preparation for a trip is one of the things I love about traveling.

English, Hebrew, some spanish and Latin (pig) LOL

Fluently: 4
English
Croatian
Italian
Spanish

I took German in High School and that was so long ago all the German I know anymore I've learned on Volkswagon commercials. I use the Spanish I learned in college from time to time and after two weeks in Spain, it comes back.

I'm good at English. Apart from that, français, italiano, and Deutsch. I studied Russian for three years (beautiful, rich language), Arabic for three also (let's admit up front that was pretty much a waste of time - I can talk like a 2-year-old, if that), and Danish for a year. Oh, and before traveling to Turkey I studied that (impossible!) language for about 6 months and maybe was able to ask for a glass of water and a hotel room.

This is an oldie but goodie. I am currently learning Russian(tough language).

I studied french through middle school and then high school and I am now taking a french class for college and realize I have forgotten everything.

This post is back from the dead.
It's funy how easy language is to forget when you don't use it.

English is my first language and hope one day to master it.

I am able to survive in French speaking countries due to 5 years of middle and high school French. I was in love with my teacher so I actually studied. When I went to Martinique and Paris as a teenager I was quite competent. Unfortunately, due to lack of opportunity my skills are only rudimentary.

My Japanese is improving daily as I have amble opportunity to practice with having a wife who is Japanese and taking classes on a continual basis.

I know enough Spanish and Korean to get slapped.

Interesting thread!

I speak four languages fluently, English, German, Italian and Finnish (mother tongue). Plus I speak decent French and Swedish and I get by with Spanish.

Of all the languages I've learned I found French the most difficult and I'm sad to see that I've forgotten most of it though studied it for seven years...

Everywhere where I travel I always try to use the local language and especially in Italy this is a real asset.

Mit freundlichen Grüssen aus Deutschland

Five and something...
Mother-tongue italian
Very good romanian (been taught it since I was 3, my father is romanian)
Fluent English
Good French and Spanish
basic German (studied it for 3 years at the language high school in Italy, I could keep up a simple conversation, but I almost forgot all of it unfortunately...)
I am fascinated by portuguese... wish I had the time to study it...

I love the sound of Portugese and would love to speak it!
I speak a small bit of French and Spanish.
I am becoming quite fluent in Southern these days
( I just moved from NY to Fl)

Italian. Understand French and Spanish. Studied them in school, but do not use them.

French is my first language, but I have been speaking English since I'm 12 years...(35 years now..Yikes!!!)

<<I have been speaking English since I'm 12 years...>>

lyb: If you don't mind a gentle correction (my daughter's studying for AP French Exam tonight and we're going over this), in English we say:

I've been speaking French since I was 12 years old.

In French, you say:

Je parle français depuis que j'ai douze ans.

The tenses are completely different in the two languages. In French, you stay in the present tense; in English, you switch to the past conditional followed by the simple past.

It's one of the big differences in the languages, the other being the French use of the future after certain prepositions.

Interesting post,is nice to see that there are so many multilingual people around.

I speak 31/2 languages, however I noticed that if i dont use them often, I can be pretty rusty when I start speaking it..but after a couples of days, my mind is completely in the language that I am using.

I admire people that can go from one language to another, without even thinking..

StCirq,

Funny....I forgot to put the "old", I know it's supposed to be there. And as far as the exact "tense", honey, when I'm typing away here on this board, I type quickly, sometimes it may not be 100% exact...What can I say, even an English major, such as I was, can make a grammatical mistake when I'm typing away quickly and not doing any proofreading. But if I was able to help your daughter with her class, I'm happy to do so.

Did you really mean to say "past CONDITIONAL"?

I was interested to learn how many of us speak--at least a smattering--of various languages.

I do speak German fairly well, the result of spending 5 years working for Dept. of Defense in Germany and of many summer sessions at Deutsche Sommerschule am Pazifik in Portland and at a couple of Goethe Institutes. My Spanish isn't as good, but I've been studying it on a haphazard basis (whenever I could find a class) for about 5 years.

At various times languages have come in handy at unexpected times. I've used German in southern Italy and Spanish in Milan. But my favorite experience happened in Florence in about 1965. My young and very pretty sister and I were being followed by a couple of mashers (Does anyone use that word nowadays?) and we didn't want them to know where our hotel was. We couldn't lose them, so we finally gave up and went to park the car in a parking lot by a church. The attendant was trying to tell us something in Italian. These two characters came up and tried to help us. They spoke some French, but we didn't. We spoke some Spanish, but they didn't. Finally, one of them told me in Latin (I'd taken 2 years in high school and one class in college, plus all those years of going to Mass in Latin) that we had to move the car by 7:00, when the parking lot turned into a market. I loved that, especially since I considered Latin a church language and these guys were just a couple of pesky wolves.

I was an English Major, too. Before that, I was a French Lieutenant (but there was a problem with a woman - you may have heard about it).

Actually, I majored in English and minored in French, so I'm fluent in both - in an academic sense. But there aren't any Anglo-Saxons or Middle Englishmen to chat with any more, and the conversational French taught here is all but useless when haggling in les Halles.

I have also studied German and Russian, so I can read the signs and ask questions, but I rarely understand spoken answers without asking for simplification. "Nein - das heisst, ich lerne Deutsch..."

Fluent 2
Good 1
Get by 2
Forgot 1 (latin) who need it in real life any way

.75

Interesting that this post has been around since 2000 - and is still getting replies!

Aside from the obvious English..French, Italian, Latin, Greek (needed for historical research), limited German (sister lives in Berlin so I can get around while visiting there), Spanish, and Afrikaans. Goal is to learn Russian - my aunt and uncle live in Moscow and I want to visit soon!

I speak English, Spanish and French. I am Anglophone. I learned my French in Canada but I also have spent a lot of time in France. My accent is definitely Quebecois. When I speak French outside of Canada people say" Vous venez du pays de Celine Dion, ne c'est pas? You come from the country of Celine Dion! Pretty funny! In Quebec they know I am anglophone of course. But I always use French there and even after a weekend I feel totally immersed. Its a great place to learn and people really appreciate the effort. Its also pretty essential when you leave the touristy areas.
I lived in Spain for 2 years but strangely enough, the accent that I have is more Latin American. I have travelled quite a bit there too. I could never capture the rythm of the Spanish from Spain. I can immitate the accent but it does not feel natural to me.
I studied 2 years of Italian way back when but during a trip to Italy. I actually remembered enough to get by.
There are tons of Lusophones(portuguese speakers) where I live but my brain is much too cluttered to learn another language. Quite honestly, I dont have any desire to learn to speak it. Portuguese seems very different than Spanish. Id rather maintain or improve my Spanish and French and maybe Italian . This a great thread!

I'm fluent in English. My French is horrible, but quite functional, and noone has ever laughed at me - to my face, that is! I can have basic conversations in (Lebanese) Arabic, and can follow a slightly more complicated discussion. My theory is that if you know 20 words in any language, you can survive, and I've survived in Spanish and Italian.

Unfortunately, I also know more Latin than my 9th grader...

Native tongue: American English

Passable: Mexican Spanish, which I learned traveling around Mexico as a young child. I have forgotten a lot from lack of use, but it comes back very easily (just ask the guy I told off at the gas station in Hermosillo a few years back).

Rudimentary at best: German. Took three years in high school and a year in college, but if anybody asks, ich habe viel vergessen.

Currently trying to learn at least to pronounce some Irish and Welsh, if only to avoid embarassment during our upcoming trip when asking directions to places with Irish or Welsh names.

A Swiss guy, looking for directions, pulls up at a bus stop where two Americans are waiting.

"Entschuldigung, koennen Sie Deutsch sprechen?" he asks. The two Americans just stare at him.

"Excusez-moi, parlez vous Francais?" he tries. The two continue to stare.
"Parlate Italiano?" No
response.
"Hablan ustedes Espanol?" Still nothing.

The Swiss guy drives off, extremely frustrated. The first American turns to the second and says,
"Y'know, maybe we should learn a foreign language."

"Why?" says the other. "That guy knew four languages, and it didn't do him any good."

LOL!

We should start the 2006 resurrection of this thread:
OK - Fluently: English, French
Kinda sorta get by: Portuguese
Read: Spanish and Italian

I SPEAK three languages: American English, German, and Spanish.

I understand two languages: American English and German.

I need a total immersion in Spanish before I will be able actually to understand native speakers.

Mother tongue: English
Fluent in Indonesian
Rusty in Malaysian and Italian
Schoolgirl French
Smattering of Portuguese and Spanish
Even less German and Japanese
Trying to learn: Farsi

Fluent: English
Can survive in: German and Korean

Looking back at the time and money my parents, the US educational system, and I spent for me to "learn" various languages (Spanish, French, German, Korean) at various times, it was really pretty much a waste of both the time and the money.

Over the past 50+ years, I just haven't had enough opportunities to use the languages to make it a wise investment. A couple of 2 week vacations in Germany and visits back to Mrs. Fly's family in Korea certainly didn't make "learning" those languages worthwhile in terms of costs and effort involved.

Even living in the American southwest for many years didn't make the years of Spanish classes worth it.

For most English speakers, spending time and money really learning a foreign language (I'm not including learning some useful phrases for a vacation trip as "learning") might be a nice hobby, but not especially cost effective.

However, for someone aspiring to any sort of career involving frequent contact with people speaking other languages, it would certainly be useful and cost effective. And with increasing globalization, more and more such careers are opening up.

Much more useful have been various courses covering world cultures, religions, and history.

Mother tongue: Dutch (Flemish)
Fairly Fluent: English, French and Spanish
Basics: German, Italian and Catalan
I can get some basic Portuguese and Swedish for example, by comparing them with related languages I do know.

mother tongue- English
speak- Russian and Spanish
want to study more- Korean and Italian
know enough -French

And as a child, my mom's best friend (who speaks Mandarin Chinese) taught us polite expressions in Mandarin. I thought it was really cool then, but mostly she used it to tell us things in public ("don't stare", "say hello", "try one piece", etc...)

I wish I still remembered those expressions! I would guess that if I heard a child getting reprimanded in public in Mandarin, I might have a flash back!!

I wasn't around when this thread started. I've missed a lot!
English: native
Italian: fluent. Started studying after college
French: HS and college. It improves when I'm in France
Spanish: learning. Get by because of similarity to Italian

Some interesting replies.

My mother tongue is American English.

I can get a museum ticket or a restaurant table in German, French, or Italian (which is actually rather sad, since I studied a couple of those for years).

My uncle tried to teach me Attic Greek when I was a child, but I was as impervious to learning it as I was to learning modern Greek years later. I visited Athens knowing how to say nothing more than "Hello," and "Thank you." And now I've forgotten even that.

Once I could read Latin with great fluency and recite Roman poetry almost beautifully (I thought), but it all rotted right out of my head years ago.

Interesting thread, so I should add to it, although nothing distinguished.
Mother Tongue: English
Reasonably good French (lived there one summer and high school courses)
A little bit of Russian (college courses)
Limited Italian and Spanish (what I studied for trips)
I'd love to learn Swedish, but it's so easy to get by in Sweden with English.

I speak, read and write English, French and Italian - all fluently.

I can get by in Spanish, both speaking and reading, and I read Latin fairly well thanks to several years of Latin in school.

I know some traveler's mandarin chinese (about 300 words probably) and took one year of russian and can speak about 20 or 30 words, so basically have forgotten most of my russian! I also learned some arabic for my trip to Jordan and Egypt, but just enough to be polite and gracious when eating or shopping.

Bilingual: Spanish and English
Fluent: French and Catalan
Conversational (no writing, hardly any reading): Norwegian and German
Forgetting (but not without a fight) Mandarin Chinese
Learning: Syrian Arabic
Key phrases: Cherokee (thank you, Daddy!)

Claire

Fluently: English only

But I can do basic tourist communication (verbal and written) in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italain, German, Dutch and the German-based Scandinavian languages. And I learned about 25 words of Hungarian for my trips (but everyone wanted to practice their english).

But slavic languages are a complete mystery to me - and those are my next goal - as well as learning the Cyrillic alphabet.

Oh - and I have about 8 phrases in Japanese.

English fluently
Un po Italiano
Loisaida Spanglish
Yiddish curses

My French improves with each trip. Far from fluent, but I get by. And I have no problems communicating with Frenchmen.

English--Fluent
Spanish--since I was seven, I'm 17 now...
Italian--can read and understand well, can speak basically
Portuguese--can read

English - fluently
Conversational French, Italian, Spanish and Armenian.

English is my native language but I am also fluent in Spanish due to having Cuban parents. Hopefully enough French to get by in Paris this May,(took 3 years in high school, 2 semesters in college). Took one semester in German but pitiful in that language, which is sad since my mother in law is German. A little sign language as well. wish I had become a U.N. translator while I was young...my dream job back then!

Croatian and Serbian ( lived there as a child)
fluent English
high school French
tourist Italian
learning Spanish

Ok, now im going to be a little cheeky. For all those in the USA, you can credit yourselves with an additional language - American LOL.

The terminology between English and American can be so varied eg in England we say:
rubber you say erasor
Toilet - Washroom

are 2 examples

The other difference is that you say "not gotten" where we say "have not got"

So congrats on your additional language.
LOL

I understand all languages except Greek.


Of course if you say something that is not in English, my response is: "That's Greek to me."

I do speak several Southern dialects, however. North Georgia, South Georgia, Sand Mountain Alabama, etc.

I can even understand the people around Savannah, provided they are speaking English rather then Geechee or what ever that odd ball hybrid language is.

Mother tongue: Afrikaans
Fluent: English
Read and understand: Dutch/Flemish easily(like Myriam said of Afrikaans!)
Get by: German
Able to follow conversation: Tswana and Pedi - and use some phrases in those languages
Basic tourist phrases: Italian and Spanish
Studying: French.

Groete uit Suid-Afrika!

Don't know why I never answered this thread before, as it seems to have been around for a while!
ANyway, here are my languages:
English - mother tongue
French - near native/bilingual
Spanish - fluent
Italian - used to be fluent!
Romanian - learning, have achieved decent conversational level
Portuguese - basic

ok, my turn to show off: English, Italian, French, Spanish, all fluent. Catalan pretty good, German very basic...

I'm happy to add a few details to my previous post on this thread:
Hebrew is still my mother tongue.
My English is still fluent.
I now speak some French and feel pretty comfortable with it. Read it almost as easily as I do the first two.
Speak a bit of italian and read OK.
Read Dutch but speak just a little.

English
Spanish
Japanese
German

Wife - English, Spanish, French, Portugese, German, Italian

Oldest son - English, Spanish, French, Italian

Youngest son - English, German

Interesting...wonder why I never saw this thread...(and if I answered already, silly me!)

Native speaker: English, Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese
Used to be fluent: French
Forgotten: Japanese
Touristy: Italian
Failed attempt to speak: Spanish (but I can understand half of what they say, more if they say it slowly)

All this means I need to learn and find ways of retaining language.

1 hehe

Languages I speak:

English: Passably.
French: A few obsolete phrases from high school French class.
Italian: A few memorable curse words from my mother.
Romanian: A few memorable curse words from my father.

Found these tables interesting.

Most Native Speakers:
Mandarin Chinese (1.1 billion)
English (330 million)
Spanish (300 million)
Hindi/Urdu (250 million)
Arabic (200 million)
Bengali (185 million)
Portuguese (160 million)
Russian (160 million)
Japanese (125 million)
German (100 million)
Punjabi (90 million)
Javanese (80 million)
French (75 million)

Most Secondary Speakers:
French (190 million)
English (150 million)
Russian (125 million)
Portuguese (28 million)
Arabic (21 million)
Spanish (20 million)
Chinese (20 million)
German (9 million)
Japanese (8 million)

Total speakers
Mandarin Chinese (1.12 billion)
English (480 million)
Spanish (320 million)
Russian (285 million)
French (265 million)
Hindi/Urdu (250 million)
Arabic (221 million)
Portuguese (188 million)
Bengali (185 million)
Japanese (133 million)
German (109 million)

Most Influential (on a points system)
English (37)
French (23)
Spanish (20)
Russian (16)
Arabic (14)
Chinese (13)
German (12)
Japanese (10)
Portuguese (10)
Hindi/Urdu (9)

English: Native speaker
French: conversant
Russian: bits & pieces from high school
German, Italian & Spanish: Fewer bits and pieces from parents' Yiddish and Pimsleur CD's.

Oh, yes, I am great at Yiddish curses too.

Is there a special category for Yiddish curses?

I really have to contest those "tables". Worldwide, English is far more spoken as a "secondary" language than is French. Almost everywhere in the world, English is the most common secondary language. In fact, English is the only language in the world which is spoken as a secondary language by more people than who speak it as a first language.

In the European Union, according to the official report of language ability by the EU (on their website), almost 140 million people in the EU speak English as a second language vs. only 40 million who speak French as a 2nd language. BTW, another mistake in your tables, the EU reports that, just in the EU, 45 million people speak German as a secondary language (your table reported 9 million wordwide).

Larry, I thought the same thing. The French are always touting French as the main second language, but I just don't get it. French is, in fact, losing popularity as it is supplanted by English.

Someday Mandarin Chinese might top the list, but it is such a difficult language to learn as a second language. Of course, it is all characters and not letters and it is tonal. I was thinking of getting Pimsleur CD's for Mandarin, but not much point as no trip to China is planned anytime soon.

My first language is Cantonese (Chinese dialect). I keep meaning to learn Mandarin, but I always put it off. Fluent in English of course. And I guess I should learn some Dutch since my bf is Dutch but I just can't seem to make the "g" sound. Last time I was there for a wedding and for the life of me couldn't properly say "congratulations."

Baybee,

can you make the "k" sound? G and K are virtually identical as far as the position of the speach organs, but in K the sound is made by releasing air suddenly, whereas the G sound is made using the vocal cords. G is what is called a "voiced" consonant.

Mother tongue - English

Fluent - French (attended Lycee in Paris yonks ago); Dutch (lived & worked in Amsterdam for nearly 2 years)

Tourist level - Bulgarian, German, Spanish

Smattering - Scots Gaelic, Italian, Greek, Welsh,