How many languages do you speak?

[sereia 0]

i'm fluent in only english.

but i'm very good with french. would never call it fluent though!

next with portuguese and spanish. i understand the majority of both but speaking it i clam up from shyness! someday i hope to be fluent in one of both (mainly portuguese)

and very minimal in arabic now. know about 50 words!

and my own ethnic background i can't even speak more than 5 words. shame on me.

[Jenn! 918]

and my own ethnic background i can't even speak more than 5 words. shame on me.

I speak the language of one half of my ethnic background, but the other half, like 5 words, maybe. I blame my grandmother (obachan)!

[sereia 0]

oh she's a hapa!! awesome!

i'm a halfer too. my mom is totally american and never spoke the languages her parents spoke. but my dad is actually from denmark and speaks danish fluently but never wanted to teach me. i used to beg him. now i only know how to say i love you, fart, and a few food words. lol

[Jenn! 918]

oh she's a hapa!! awesome!

i'm a halfer too. my mom is totally american and never spoke the languages her parents spoke. but my dad is actually from denmark and speaks danish fluently but never wanted to teach me. i used to beg him. now i only know how to say i love you, fart, and a few food words. lol

Hapa? If that means Japanese, then yes! LOL

fart, lol. That might be the most important word in any language!

One of my students taught me to count to 10 in Danish - I find it so hard! Any non-romance language seems soooo difficult to me. Arabic is gonna be one helluva struggle.

[jundp 191]

I speak one fluently, one conversationally (Spanish...again I can read and write it well, but my speaking ability is lacking. Actually, I can speak it fine, it's just that my brain goes into panic mode when someone speaks it to me!), and I understand a tad bit of French. I am in the process of learning German, but I only know enough to make very basic sentences and I have no clue about the verb tenses....at the moment I am getting the "word of the day" and how to use it from my SO ;-) It's shaming b/c my son is quickly achieving fluency in German and rubs it in my face.

If I had to use Spanish on a daily basis again, then I think it would take only a short time before I was fluent again.

I applaud those who speak more than 2 languages fluently. I wish that more American schools would start out teaching world languages at an early age, rather than starting in high school.

[Alex+R 0]

oh she's a hapa!! awesome!

i'm a halfer too. my mom is totally american and never spoke the languages her parents spoke. but my dad is actually from denmark and speaks danish fluently but never wanted to teach me. i used to beg him. now i only know how to say i love you, fart, and a few food words. lol

LAWL I'm the same with Greek. My dad decided not to teach it to me, although his mother decided not to teach it to him either when they spent the first 10 years of his life in New York. After a year in India, they moved back to Greece, and that's when he learned it. Nowadays bilingual upbringings are de rigeur.

So, I'm thinking of taking French again. I used to be functionally fluent but Portuguese ate it and now I don't speak it at all. Is it a useless language?

[Scott & Lai 12]

I speak American, Canadien, Austrailan, and Russian. I do not speak English fluently, but I am working on it.

So, what do they speak in America and Australia?

[russ 1]

I applaud those who speak more than 2 languages fluently. I wish that more American schools would start out teaching world languages at an early age, rather than starting in high school.

American schools do a poor enough job teaching English already.

Language is also a unique skill, in that the motivation of the student is more critical than anything else. There is no compelling need for most students to be fluent in another language here. In Europe, English is more or less necessary in most professions for work and travel. It isn't practical for everyone to be fluent in every European language, but knowing 2 or 3 is a huge benefit to most Europeans. That is not really true in the US.

[Alex+R 0]

I applaud those who speak more than 2 languages fluently. I wish that more American schools would start out teaching world languages at an early age, rather than starting in high school.

American schools do a poor enough job teaching English already.

Language is also a unique skill, in that the motivation of the student is more critical than anything else. There is no compelling need for most students to be fluent in another language here. In Europe, English is more or less necessary in most professions for work and travel. It isn't practical for everyone to be fluent in every European language, but knowing 2 or 3 is a huge benefit to most Europeans. That is not really true in the US.

How about Spanish? How about another world language like French?

[Caladan 19]

Plus, even if you're good at languages (like I was as a child), you won't have much of an opportunity to practice it unless you're around native speakers, which isn't always practical or financially feasible.

[sereia 0]

Hapa? If that means Japanese, then yes! LOL

fart, lol. That might be the most important word in any language!

One of my students taught me to count to 10 in Danish - I find it so hard! Any non-romance language seems soooo difficult to me. Arabic is gonna be one helluva struggle.

hapa half japanese half white or something else. mixed!.

LAWL I'm the same with Greek. My dad decided not to teach it to me, although his mother decided not to teach it to him either when they spent the first 10 years of his life in New York. After a year in India, they moved back to Greece, and that's when he learned it. Nowadays bilingual upbringings are de rigeur.

So, I'm thinking of taking French again. I used to be functionally fluent but Portuguese ate it and now I don't speak it at all. Is it a useless language?

wow what an interesting family! wait so you're greek and jewish? or a greek jew? i'm confused.lol why all the traveling? thats my dream life. to get married and we live a year here, a year there, etc.

i think french is not useless...it all depends on your interests. the only reason i ever took it was because i wanted to move to france and go to the cordon bleu cooking school. otherwise spanish would have been a much more intelligent option (california is 50% mexican after all. lol) but look! it came in handy in morocco meeting my fiance.

i'd say become more fluent in portuguese and brush up on your hebrew. i know a few there too. shalom! shabbat shalom! LOL!

Edited May 12, 2007 by abdounjen

[almaty 19]

none...i am not even good in english

[jundp 191]

I applaud those who speak more than 2 languages fluently. I wish that more American schools would start out teaching world languages at an early age, rather than starting in high school.

American schools do a poor enough job teaching English already.

Language is also a unique skill, in that the motivation of the student is more critical than anything else. There is no compelling need for most students to be fluent in another language here. In Europe, English is more or less necessary in most professions for work and travel. It isn't practical for everyone to be fluent in every European language, but knowing 2 or 3 is a huge benefit to most Europeans. That is not really true in the US.

Well, as an English teacher and a former Spanish teacher I can agree that student motivation is definitely critical. However, I wouldn't agree to a blanket statement that "American schools do a poor enough job teaching English already."

I also agree think that learning more than one language is a benefit to all students, even in the US. Aside from the practical matter of being able to communicate with more people, as well as obvious career benefits in many cases, there's also the fact that the skills learned while one studies a language are beneficial in many fields. It engages the brain and lends itself to critical thinking and problem solving which are helpful in a myriad of fields. IMHO ;-)

[Ladylethal 12]

For those that are fluent in more than one language, I guess a more accurate question would be, how many languages do you use actively on a regular basis? The reason I ask this, because it may help w/ the definition of fluency. If one does not use a particular language at all....but can read/write and on occasion 'make themselves understood'....that may not mean the same as someone actively 'using' that language on a fairly regular basis. Does that make sense?

I use three of the 4 languages I speak on pretty much a daily basis, and I try to use the 4th one as much as possible. (Luckily the 4th one is Spanish and there are plenty of opportunities where I live to practice.)

-P

Well in that case I use my own language always 'cus I talk to my family and friends, I use English daily as well, 'cus I watch movies, TV, type in forums, read news, and talk to my husband's family in English, and even though I don't consider myself fluent in Spanish, it's the only language me and my husband speak to each other in, precisely 'cus I am living in a Spanish speaking country and must acquire fluency in it.

I took 2 years of French and 2 of japanese but I've forgotten what I learned.

Edited May 12, 2007 by Luis&Laura

[Amby 490]

Neil and I both speak/read/write English and French. He doesn't use it hardly at all but I have a friend who is French so I try to use it as much as possible when talking to him so that I can practice. I speak very basic Spanish from working in kitchens but I would like to be able to be better at it. I plan to take a basic Spanish class this summer to get better at it.

flu·ent /ˈfluənt/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[floo-uhnt] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–adjective 1. spoken or written with ease: fluent French.

2. able to speak or write smoothly, easily, or readily: a fluent speaker; fluent in six languages.

Able to express oneself readily and effortlessly: a fluent speaker; fluent in three languages.