How Many Foreign Languages Do You Speak?

707CMF · Wed Nov 17, 2004 5:41 pm

I speak English and French (almost) fluently , a bit of German, a tad of Japanese and some Elbonian. Also my work made me learn a lot of words and expressions in Spanish (although what I really need there are the swear words for those stupid Spanish phones we handle !)

Who else is at least bilingual ?

Cheers,

707

pilot kaz · Wed Nov 17, 2004 5:43 pm

I speak the following:

English
Irish
Scottish
American
Canadian
Australian

Hehe Big thumbs up

TriStar500 · Wed Nov 17, 2004 5:45 pm

Well...

German (duh)
English (fluently)
French (basic)
Spanish (basic)
Latin (now that would have really helped me 2000 years ago!)

UTA_flyinghigh · Wed Nov 17, 2004 6:10 pm

French (both chatié and lascar)
English
Italian
Spanish (a little less proficiently)
Elbonian
A little Hindi
A little Korean
A little Arabic
Irish...pog mo thon Big grin

UTA

keno · Wed Nov 17, 2004 6:12 pm

I consider English as my 2nd language rather than a foreign language. Most businesses are conducted in English despite Malay being the only official language.

I've been learning French for many years now so that's the only foreign language that I can speak at a good level of confidence. My lame and often shortlived attempts in Japanese, German and Mandarin don't really count...

Indonesian is very close linguistically to Malay, so I'm able to understand them quite easily.

I can read and write Arabic & Japanese but not necessarily understand them.

IFLYMCO · Wed Nov 17, 2004 6:12 pm

English
German (4 years of study)
Spanish (6 years of study)
A little Dutch
A little Farsi (Persian)

B747-437B · Wed Nov 17, 2004 6:17 pm

Unfortunately, I don't consider my proficiency in any language to be of sufficient standard to be considered fluent. I guess that is a side effect of growing up in different places around the world.

Hindi (almost-fluent)
English (almost-fluent)
Marathi (above-basic)
Gujarati (above-basic)
French (basic)
German (beginner)
Spanish (beginner)

Plus about a dozen others where I can communicate in specific situations but not enough to be considered even beginner proficiency.

I envy those folks who claim to speak a number of languages fluently.

qr332 · Wed Nov 17, 2004 6:19 pm

I speak two languages perfectly fleuently: Arabic and English.

JRadier · Wed Nov 17, 2004 6:20 pm

Dutch (like duh)
English (quite ok)
German (can manage quite well, tho less then english)
French (If I'm really desperate I'll use it)

and some variations on English and Dutch

JGPH1A · Wed Nov 17, 2004 6:25 pm

English
Afrikaans
French
Dutch (fluent read, basic speak/write/understand)
Italian (basic read, v basic speak/understand)
Spanish (basic read, v basic speak/understand)

USAFHummer · Wed Nov 17, 2004 6:39 pm

English (native)
Spanish (basic)
Thinking about taking a 3rd language here in college...

Greg

wietse · Wed Nov 17, 2004 6:47 pm

Dutch (native)
English (fluent)
French (average)
German (above average)
Italian (learning)
Spanish (basic)

AMS · Wed Nov 17, 2004 8:00 pm

English (Native)
Dutch (Native)
German(Fluent)
Japanese(Fluent)

xpat · Wed Nov 17, 2004 8:09 pm

English (fluent)-Technically this would be my "foreign" language
Hindi (passable)
Gujarati (less than passable Smile

German (beginner level i.e. 3 year old level)

[Edited 2004-11-17 12:21:55]

[email protected] · Wed Nov 17, 2004 8:20 pm

Norwegian
English
German

All fluent appart from German. Smile

I also know some cursing in italian... does that count?

[email protected]

British767 · Wed Nov 17, 2004 8:24 pm

English - fluent
German - average (been learning it for 6 years)
Italian - extreme basic

Did know some French but i've forgotten it all.

[Edited 2004-11-17 12:24:49]

Braniff Place · Wed Nov 17, 2004 9:09 pm

Apart from aussie english i can speak, read and write in two dialects of Japanese (both tokyo ben and kansai ben)

-Braniff

fritzi · Wed Nov 17, 2004 9:21 pm

Speak:

Swedish (fluent)
German (fluent)
English (fluent)
French (basic)

Understand:

Swedish
German
English
French (basic)
Norwegian
Danish (most of it if their accent doesnt suck too much)

pyh · Wed Nov 17, 2004 9:39 pm

Finnish
Swedish
English
German
Russian

whitehatter · Wed Nov 17, 2004 10:01 pm

English
French
Spanish (a little)

and my boss reckons I'm extremely good at talking absolute bollocks

damirc · Wed Nov 17, 2004 10:26 pm

Slovenian (obviously)
English (fluent)
German (fluent)
Croat (fluent)
Bosnian (fluent)
Serbian (fluent) ; actually. Croat/Bosnian/Serbian used to be one language Big grin

French (understand, can get myself understood with trouble)
Spanish (.... same as French ....)
Italian (.... same as French ....)
Slovak (understand 90%, speak very little of it)

D.

dl021 · Wed Nov 17, 2004 10:30 pm

English and American (Two nations separated by a common language)

French

GI Spanish

College German

Read most Romance languages, and get around an airport in most.

Can say thank you, please, wheres the bathroom please, and I'll have one of those in 7 or 8 languages.

I'm lost in Greek

And erfectpay Ipgay Atinlay.

boeing767-383 · Wed Nov 17, 2004 10:44 pm

Danish (native)
English (fluent)
German (fluent / basic)
Spanish (basic)
French (basic)
Norwegian (fluent)
Swedish, (understand it fully, can only speak it under the influence of alcohol Big grin

)

jasepl · Wed Nov 17, 2004 10:53 pm

Can speak 6 languages overall, of which only 1 is really foreign: French. Though I've surprised myself by the amount of coherent German that I manage when In a situation!

And I can say the following in a few others:

Please / thank you / sorry
Where's the toilets?
May I have a beer please?
I don't speak...

airplay · Wed Nov 17, 2004 11:10 pm

English and American (Two nations separated by a common language)

Next time you have a flat on your lorry while you're away from your flat, get your torch and tyre out of the boot. Some have the jack and spanner under the bonnet mate. Careful..don't bang the wing.

Or you can have someone else labour over your colourful auto while you enjoy some bangers and mash and maybe some spotted dick at the food stand. great flavour that!

Well...I'm off to the off-license then to the chemists to pick up a dummy and nappies for my son.

BREmer · Wed Nov 17, 2004 11:26 pm

Wow I didn't know so many people speak (or try to speak) German here. Smile

Interesting....

My portfolio:

Fluent:
German (duh)
English

Basic - Average
Spanish
French
Dutch

[email protected] · Wed Nov 17, 2004 11:27 pm

Ah... my list should of course look like this:

Speak:
Norwegian
English
German

Understand:
Swedish
Danish (Even though they sound like they talk with food in their mouth all the time...) Big grin

[email protected]

[Edited 2004-11-17 15:27:50]

SXFAN · Wed Nov 17, 2004 11:39 pm

For me it is:
Greek (Mother tongue)
English (Proficiency)
Albanian (Basic)
Italian (Less than basic)
And of course Ancient Greek (Not that much though). In fact I am among a very small amount of people who can read the Roseta Stone Smile

P.S. I said read not understand the whole text!!!!

LO231 · Thu Nov 18, 2004 12:30 am

For me it would be:

Polish (mother tongue)
English (fluent)
Dutch (fluent)
Russian (poorly)

LO231

saxdiva · Thu Nov 18, 2004 1:02 am

I'm the worst example of an American with crappy language skills...

English (at least I'm good at one)
Spanish (passable)
Italian (I'm learning this in a hurry--will be living in Italy for a few months next year)

UAL747 · Thu Nov 18, 2004 1:29 am

Chinese (Minor in Undergrad, fluent) Lived in Beijing.
French (Minor in Undergrad, fluent) Lived in France as well.

UAL

asbg · Thu Nov 18, 2004 1:46 am

Hebrew and English. Both fluent.

Sam.

Boeing4ever · Thu Nov 18, 2004 1:52 am

English (Mother Tongue)
Polish (Parental Tongue Big grin

Thus fluent)
German (conversational)
MATLAB ("The Language of Technical Computing" or so the manual says. Why'd I pick Engineering as my major? Laugh out loud

)

B4e-Forever New Frontiers

mdsh00 · Thu Nov 18, 2004 2:47 am

Mine are English (most fluent), Gujarati (fluent..except for reading and writing), Mexican Spanish (somewhat fluent...I can understand it much better than speak it), Hindi (I can understand a good portion of it).

flyboy36y · Thu Nov 18, 2004 2:56 am

Pilot Kaz,

You must be quite ignorant to be one of the few people who speak all of those languages and not New Zelandain also. Big grin

I speak: English, Russian, Spanish, and Hebrew

SlamClick · Thu Nov 18, 2004 3:42 am

savvy pointy-talkee
pidgin all talkee same-same

Any kimmies here harp Boontling?

Klaus · Thu Nov 18, 2004 10:08 am

German (native)
English
Latin (slowly fading away)
Assembler
C(++)
Perl
PHP
...

iakobos · Thu Nov 18, 2004 10:35 am

In no particular order

English (all versions)
Dutch (Dutch and Belgian versions)
French (all versions)
all enough to read, write, speak and shout back when required

By similarity with one of the formers, but at much lower levels
Afrikaans
Italian
Spanish
Letzeburg (Luxemburger)

Very rusty but where once fluently managed
Swahili
German (incl. Austrian and S w i s s when I had plenty of time)

With some doping
Greek without hands (extremely difficult to make oneself understood)
Greek with the hands (much easier)

I say enough is enough !

Lan_Fanatic · Thu Nov 18, 2004 10:59 am

Spanish (native)
English (fluently)
Italian (70%)
French (50%)
Portuguese (30%)

PPVRA · Thu Nov 18, 2004 12:26 pm

Portuguese (Brazil) (native)
Deutsch (basic conversation)
Spanish (can understand most of it)
English (fluently)

Cory6188 · Thu Nov 18, 2004 12:34 pm

I speak English fluently (it's my native language and would be very difficult to do without in the US), and I'm fluent in Spanish from studying it in school - I'm in Honors 4 (I'm a junior in high school), and we only speak in Spanish in class. I am basically fluent in Spanish, but sometimes a word escapes me now and then. In class today, I couldn't remember for the life of me how to say "shower curtain" - la cortina, for any of you who care. So it's little things like that I have issues with.

Cadet985 · Thu Nov 18, 2004 9:06 pm

English (native)
Spanish (2 years of it in HS, probably going to take another 2 here in college)
Hebrew (basic - except for some curses, which is sad, because I studied it for 6 years)

I know a couple words here and there in several other languages. Back in high school, I knew how to curse someone out in like 17 different languages (a benefit from going to a very international high school), but I really can't remember many of them.

Marc

airways1 · Thu Nov 18, 2004 10:58 pm

English (native)
Chinese
French
German

French and German are getting rusty from lack of use, but the Chinese is improving since I am living in China for now.

avek00 · Fri Nov 19, 2004 12:38 am

Native Languages

English (fluent)
Ebonics (above-basic proficiency)

"Foreign" Languages

Spanish (above-basic proficiency)
Mandarin (a handful of basic phrases, e.g., words used in shopping)
Thai (couple of basic words)

MattCLE · Fri Nov 19, 2004 12:41 am

English (Native speaker)
German (Learning it...in Germany! Big grin

)

-Matt

mia · Fri Nov 19, 2004 12:46 am

English - Native
Spanish (Cuban, Venezuelan) - Native
German
Italian

andrej · Fri Nov 19, 2004 4:30 am

Hello all,

OK, I speak Slovak, Czech and English fluently.

I can speak German, and very little French.

I understand, Polish, Ukrainian, Serb-Croatian.

OK, that is all,

Cheers,
Andrej

jcs17 · Fri Nov 19, 2004 4:37 am

English
Spanish (Mostly fluent, I have trouble when people are speaking to me in Spanish, but I can read it and write it)
French (basic, still learning)

aa61hvy · Fri Nov 19, 2004 5:00 am

I know Spanish pretty well, my pronunciation is not very well, but I've been told by native Spanish speakers, my memory for vocabulary is amazing.

DeltaMD11 · Fri Nov 19, 2004 5:13 am

English (native language)
Spanish (6 años)
Latin (3 annos)

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