How Many Languages Can You Speak?

[adurso]

English as a second language; gibberish is my natal tongue...

 

[grazie42]

I put three...swedish, english and german...
I know enough phrases to get by in french, spanish and italian.

My (limited) experience with languages is that besides enabling communication (the obvious reason to learn) they also give you insight into the perspective native speakers have on the world. Once you really start learning a foreign language you´ll understand that language isn´t just a "tool" but a carrier of culture and values.

If you really want to understand someone or a society, I believe you need to learn the native language and learn it well...

ymmv

 

[Walter]

Lynne-- the thing about German is, it doesn't give you any leeway as far as word order. Say it wrong, and you sound like Yoda to a German...

The exact opposite of Russian.

 

[nereas]

The way this normally works is that if you were born and grew up in the USA, then you probably speak only one language, your mother tongue, the native language of the former British commonwealth.

If you were born in any other country, and it is large (China, Russia, Japan, Germany, etc) then you probably also speak English as well as your mother tongue.

If you were born in a smaller country, then you probably speak, several languages, (1) yours, (2) the local lingua franca, and (3) English as well.

The British often are schooled in French and German as well, as I have found out on several trips there. Sometimes in Dutch also. These seem to be a very bright and inquisitive People, given to study in their schools as youths, and gifted in international finance. They are pretty good scuba divers as well.

Ultimately, I suspect in another 100 years many languages will fade away (including French, much to the chagrin of the French), and leave only the following major world languages:

English
Spanish
Mandarin Chinese
Arabic

Then ultimately, illiteracy would be defined as not being able to speak or read one of these major 4 languages.

The universities will certainly always preserve the major Biblical languages of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, as will the orthdox of those respective faiths. But even in Israel and in Greece, you tend to hear a lot more English than anything else.

 

[nereas]

One in 5 people in the world is Chinese. Will they learn English? Or will Americans have to learn a dialect there as they become a world power?
One thing different about Chinese immigrants in 5 countries I've lived in or visited a lot,....they retain their language and pass it on for generations. All the kids still speak it well. Germans, Italians, Poles...one or two generations in the USA and the language was gone.

So far, all the Mandarin-Chinese speaking multi-linguals that I have met are either Chinese (Shanghai or Beijing) or immigrants from China.

Does that help answer your question?

 

[kilo_fox]

I put three languages: German, English, French.

Besides, I speak some basic Kiswahili but not enough to be counted, now learning bahasa Indonesia. Already pretty much advanced in the sign language

 

[k4man]

Four years of high school Spanish, four years of college Spanish, most of it forgotten....

...Thus, even with one's NATIVE language, unless it is used regularly, the skill will fade.

It seems that you have answered your own comment about why you, as well as others, forget their high school and college language (or math, science, other subject that is not used for 20-30 years or more).

...But for most people who live in America and who don't travel internatonally, the time required to acquire a new language isn't worth the effort...

Sad, but probably true....not "worth the effort" to most. Too busy watching TV, reading the Star, and drinking beer--ok, so I like a beer now and then, too

...Bashing Americans for being mono-lingual isn't fair. It's simple jealousy of our dominance. In fact, as my guide pointed out, her friends who speak five languages, but not English, would gladly trade all five for fluency in English alone.

I think it is fair and deserved. It would be different, as you explained it, if Americans WANTED to be bi/multi lingual and couldn't. Perhaps that was the case in the 1940's and 50's, but not today. The majority of Americans have allowed their ethnocentric mentality to get in the way of reality. We (ok, many, not all) are too lazy to change their ways to learn another language which--as you pointed out--DOES require effort and determination. In turn we find it easier to say that the rest of the world is jealous of us and our dominance. (?) True, we're in a great country and have opportunities like no others...and, no, I don't want to leave or give up any of my freedoms, etc, blah, blah, etc. However, these same people will wake up some day to find their factory, business, or other job run by a boss/company who does not speak English as the first language (or maybe 2nd, 3rd). We as Americans will be in a minority position and not know what to do, while our Chinese, Arabic, Spanish, or other language speaking neighbors will have the upper hand!

PS--Yes, I have been combating mono-lingualism in public schools for over 21 years.

 

[Marek K]

The exact opposite of Russian.

...or any other Slavic language I'm aware of. Logic is expressed through the ~6 or 7 noun cases, and it really doesn't make much difference what order the elements are in in the sentence -- except to impart stress. No confusion ever over whether "the man bit the dog," or the other way around.

Why German, with its four cases, is so strict, I don't know.

I guess English is somewhere in the middle... word order is somewhat significant, but flexible.

 

[Zeeman]

Ingerish and Hungarian fluently, I can speak German well enough to get by in a German town or city, and I kinda started learning Spanish, but kept having to work and missed 3/4 of the classes. so I kinda suck at it.

 

[rhadamantus]

.... and I kinda started learning Spanish, but kept having to work and missed 3/4 of the classes. so I kinda suck at it.

u are really bad at it. :laughing:

ooops, sorry, do carry on....