To kill time...

You know what they say -

A person who speaks 3 languages is trilingual

A person who speaks 2 languages is bilingual

A person who speaks one language is an American!


I am however, trying real hard to learn.......

She speaks 3 and i speak 2, and we have 1 in common (if you don't count the "language of love").

He knows the important words

The one language thing LOL

I am not fluent but I can follow a conversation and understand the radio, tv, etc.... I actually speak Spanish, English, I am good at Italian + still learning Dutch...

Hm, this poll needs a "my fiance's language is the same as mine/isn't the same as mine" differentiation.

Anyway, I'm better than "enough to get by" but I consider fluent to be pretty much no mistakes. I make mistakes a lot. Not grammatical ones but with each sentence and word choice it's clear that I'm foreign, know what I'm saying?

No matter how much anyone else compliments me on my pronunciation, I did not hear the end of how I sounded when I told Rey that my mom was making him some pão de banana. "hahahahah fala 'pão' " etc etc

I was living in my guy's country for 21 years and was fluent in his language (Telugu) years before I met him. I hope that he can come here and we can take Spanish classes together - the 2nd or is it 1st language of California!

Yep, I'm fully fluent in his language

I understand very little of her native language which is Ilocano. I can read much of her secondary language, which is Tagalog, but speaking it is a completely different matter. She understands most English, but again her speaking it is an entirely different matter. But we have no problems understanding each other.

I only know few of his words in original language, but he does very good English

I can speak good German when I can be assed to. I have a lazy enough tongue in English. I can read, write, and understand it all well. Not 100% perfect, but 85-90% easy. Hochdeutsch, anyway.

I am learning Nepali, speak very little but know the most important words...

We both speak English and French.

He also knows Hindi, and I know Italian and German, plus Hawaiian pidgin..

A bit complicated:

• Both of us can speak English, and do at home
• Unfortunately, neither of us can speak THE OTHER's native language (hers is Telugu, mine Tamil)
• I can speak French fluently (Pras cannot), a little rusty in German

However, I am trying to learn Telugu at home, so it will be easier to speak to my MIL (who can speak Tamil with some difficulty, no English).

I'm pretty fluent....though I did look at him oddly the first time he asked for the "brush"...he's bald you see.

No arabic for me.

No - Not at all. I've offered to try to learn some words or take a class in Dutch, but he's specifically begged me not to. He dislikes his own language and doesn't want to hear it from me. That... and he knows I can't make those horky sounds that you need to make for languages like Dutch and German.

I know a few words here and there but for the most part No.

Well, we both have a second language (French) in common. His English is getting miles better, but my Arabic is hopeless. Seriously, it's like he'll tell me a phrase in arabic, and I'll remember it for 5 minutes. I don't know why I'm like a brick wall when it comes to Arabic. I usually do well with foreign languages. I'm ok with Spanish, and did well when I took German in college (though I've forgotten most of it now), but Arabic is just so difficult for me! I think it's because I need to see it written out, or else be constantly exposed to it. Maybe one of these days....

I have to be - he doesn't speak English!!

I have to be too because my fiance doesn't speak English.

Well...he knows the important words

Since English is his first language , yes....I do speak it

As for PATOIS - I can understand 97.5% of it, and can speak enough to get by.

I know enough to understand a few things...but I am going to learn it before we move back to NS. My husband is French Acadian and most everyone back home speaks French.

Well I am British and we DO have some "quaint" little sayings that sometimes makes Larry scratch his head. A few times he has turned round to me and said "what???!!" but most of the time it is just funny.

I speak two languages fluently, enough of two more to get by, and a few words of three more besides.

My non-USC husband, however, speaks only English.

We both speak english and arabic fluently.

i know a few words but thats it. i can understand some of what he is saying when talking to family.

Like Mags said...we both speak english but we aussies have some interesting slang so I have to translate which makes him laugh!

I can speak a few words of Turkish, but that's about it. And even then, seems like half the time when I am in Turkey and use the little language that I know, no one knows what the hell I am saying. Kind of a twist...to be an American and be the one who has the "accent". Seems like each time I say something in Turkish to someone, my wife has to step in and repeat it to them , for me.

So...no.......I don't really speak her language. Then again, she speaks perfect english and had lived in the USA for over 10 years before I had met her, so we communicate just fine.....and she's very familiar with the American ways of life.

I know Turkish words, like hello ...which is "Merhaba"......goodbye..which is "Hoshakal"....among others.......

And of course I have my priorities straight....so one of the first phrases I learned was how to order a beer.....

Jon knows a lot of American slang words and I know a lot of British slang words mix them together and we have a giggle

I speak minimal Spanish. We speak English at home.

I should know more....

I am fluent in Spanish, which is what we communicate in... though I should say he is learning more and more English each day.

we speak our own language its called "bingo and bingie " - we are the only 2 persons fluent in this romantic tongue.

Probably one of the first Turkish phrases you learned was 'seni seviyorum', right?

I had a Turkish bf a long time ago, amazing I still remember that!

Well my hubbys first languange is English but his parents also taught him Urdu. I Havent got a clue in Urdu except for the naughty stuff. I speak English, Spanish, and some Italian. I am looking for a good Urdu course to purchase because I would really love to learn Urdu. Any suggestions?

Yeah, we understand each other pretty well.

We are both fluent in Polish... and his English is progressing super quickly

But when we have a "disagreement" it seems that no matter what language it's in, we can't understand each other.

I am learning Tagalog slowly but surely by reading, studing, listening to music, and watching the TV shows. I'm really working on building my vobulary and grammer skills. We'll have some exchanges in Tagalog or Taglish (English and Tagalog), but my wife is fluent in English so of course we speak english the vast majority of the time. However, my goal is to be fluent in Tagalog, and my wife is very supportive in helping me develop into a native speaker. I love it...

Now that's a good point. Definately needed to know that one if I ever had any hopes of making a good impression.

We both speak English

My husband can also speak French (but I can't)
I can speak some Spanish (but he can't)

We both are not orginally from the US, but both know English of course. I know his 2 languages pretty well and he is learning mine.

When we first met, he spoke NO English, so for these six years he and I have communicated in Spanish. Over the years, he's learned quite a bit of English at work, but I've not taught him any of it. This is despite my being an ESL teacher!

However, his family also speaks Yucatec Maya in their home, and I can only say a few phrases in Maya.

Sometimes I wonder where he picks up his English...he asked what I thought of threesomes once and I almost fell over.

I voted yes! Even though I am now trying to get my fiance visa .... a few years ago I was still a permanent resident of the US. I went to American school and therefore speak English. However, I can't really speak my own language too well. So here I am in Germany, the country I was born and am a citizen of, and I struggle with the language LOL. Ironic, isn't it?

I'm gonna answer for my hubby - he doesn't. Not a word

I only lived in HK for around a year, but I feel like I can understand quite a bit when my fiancee talks to her family and friends in Cantonese. This is mostly due to content, secondarily due to actually knowing some small amount of common words and grammar, and thirdly due to studying Mandarin in school (though not enough to really be useful). My fiancee also speaks Mandarin pretty fluently (so she can help me with homework all the time). She speaks English very fluently and writes pretty grammatically. Though once in a while, she'll write something completely insane that doesn't make sense.

I'm working hard on learning more Mandarin, since, though its not her native dialect, most people in HK can speak and/or understand some of it. More importantly, her mom does not speak English (her dad does), but does speak Mandarin. Cantonese would be fun to learn, but no classes for it! I'm learning to read and write traditional Chinese though, which isn't as painful as it sounds to most Americans I think. It's actually a lot of fun, and I find it easier to remember words that are more visual than when I learned Spanish, using Roman characters, which I've forgotten almost all of since.

My fiancee and I don't communicate in English though really. We somehow communicate in a strange mixture of all the Cantonese I know and English. I'm not sure how it got this way. In fact, when we speak to each other, my grammar in English even changes to be quite different. I constantly use "ho" to emphasize things. I curse in Cantonese, and hardly ever in English (and it feels quite natural)! There are handfuls of common things you hear in HK (for example, when you order food at one of the fast food places and the person at the counter goes "yum mut yeaah" asking you what you want to drink) and can recite them almost mechanically in perfect intonation. But if I try to learn a phrase from the dictionary that has Yale tone marks, I can't even come close. We get strange looks sometimes in the Wellcome (grocery store) when I am talking with random Cantonese words intermixed in my English (she does too, but no one seems to look at us strange when she does it - just me). Somehow I worry that she's forever damaged my ability to speak English properly. I remember working hard on some class problems with a study group one night, getting frustrated, throwing a white board marker across the room, and yelling "pok gai" when I'm back here in U.S. There was one person in the room who understood, but everyone in the room laughed, even if they didn't know what was going on, because I looked so stupid.

I am semi-fluent in food too. I'm always interested in food. So I learned a lot of food words.

Heh, I look forward to walking around with my fiancee here in U.S. I'm sure we'll continue to develop our own mixed up hybrid language that makes everyone who hears us speaking think we're completely insane.

And maybe eventually I'll be fluent in something besides English

You know though, I think language, and having fun with language, is one of the things that helped our relationship a lot when we first started dating. Somehow words themselves can be one of the most interesting and funny subjects - really can help conversations keep going for hours and hours. Maybe it sounds boring. I dunno. Fun though

-Tim

I don’t speak Portuguese yet.

We decided to concentrate on her English which was already very good so she would be more comfortable in the US. When she arrives … I get the crash course. Give me a year and ask the same question.

LOL! My fiancé doesn't even speak Hindi, but he does know some to get by, and I picked up on a few things while I was in India. I would like to learn more though.

I am answering on behalf of my husband who is the USC. He knows some important words but other than that it's just so convenient to talk in English all the time. Even now that we are stationed in Germany, he is always around his Army buddies and when we are out in the civilian world I do all the talking. But I am sure once we have kids and they will grow up bilingually, he will catch up on some more German.

After living in my Wife's Country for 3 1/2 years I was able to learn the language well, When I returned to USA I took Uni classes as not to lose my Japanese.
We speak both Japanese & English at Home, both of us are fluent in one anothers language.

I have tried and he just laughs at me. I find it very difficult to move my tongue to make the sounds.

Then again, you laugh whenever I speak Dutch (after you pushed me to do so). But yes, when you speak it, it sounds like there's something stuck in your throat.