Miane

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!

Carin

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.

Michael

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.

Andy

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.

umm

Yes, this has been done before.

Belinda

Two years ago.

anon

nice to hear from Beth Anderson again!!

oh

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

Andrea

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

Art

Have added some Polish and Romanian since two years ago.

xx

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

Siobhan

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.

Suzanne

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.

mary

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!

XXX

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

Ira

One, but I try to talk it real good.

Millie

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!

cailin

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.

Keren

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.

RufusTFirefly

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.