How many languages can you speak?

@XoyyoX (1055)
China
February 18, 2009 4:44am CST
How many languages can you speak? a couple of days ago, my answer would be I can speak Chinese, English,French, Japanese and Russia, which I always showed my linguistic talent off to my students before, but today I begin to ponder the real meaning of "can speak a language". Chinese is my mother tongue, English is my first foreign language and I majored in English in my university, it's a language that I've learnt since I was a junior high student, hence i can say i can speak Chinese English. From today on, I dare not say i can speak French, Japanese or Russia, acturally, i can only speak a few sentences or words of the three above languages. Coz today, i met a Chinese lady, whose Frech speaking is far better than my English speaking, I regreted saying that "I can speak French" to her, for I can't follow her at all.
7 people like this
35 responses
@qiuying (28)
• China
19 Feb 09
haha!it's really a good topic for communication,thank you fou your creativity.i am studying on JM(juris master) in renmin university of china,this year is my first year.as you know,generally our chinese students don't figure out in english as a foreignal language,unluckily,im just assorted to this level of study.still i rememberd when i was admitted to this university,desiriously i had desolved to learn korean language as my second foreignal language in order to create more chances for finding a satisfactory job after graduate,now reflecting on this daydream of mine,im feeling a little shamed.just as my tutor said:"even,your english doesn't satify yourself,do you think you promise to have enough time fou another language study?"it's ture,really.my childish dream just intend to express my joy for going into renming university of china ,maybe.through a deep thought,i really shoud focus on ehglish study,more hard and deeper.having told a lot,almost forget,except for my mother tongue-chinese,i only can speak english,to add,it's poor.however,i will make an all-out efforts.have a great day!
• China
19 Feb 09
I can speak two languages: English and Chinese. Chinese is my mother language too, and I am glad to meet you here. Although I learnt English from junior high school, I can't speak it well. And because I don't use it often in my life, I find my English is too poorer than my mother language. As the developing of globalization, more and more important English is. So now, I pick up my English book again and join here. Nice to meet you here and good luck to you!
3 people like this
• Philippines
19 Feb 09
I can speak english plus my native language, Tagalog. But i've always wanted to learn french, spanish and japanese...
2 people like this
@pinkista (892)
• Philippines
19 Feb 09
I only speak 2 language, one is Tagalog/Filipino and the second one is English. I only speak few korean & japanese basic phrases or words...hoping to learn more about it since I really love Korean & Japanese culture.
2 people like this
@mialei23 (2385)
• Philippines
19 Feb 09
Hi I can speak English and Tagalog only. Well, I'd like to learn other language but I think I'm getting old to learn some of those hard to speak languages. Good luck you learned a lot, you can work now as an interpreter.
2 people like this
• France
19 Feb 09
Hi Mialei23...I can speak English and French. I was born in England, and moved to France eight years ago, so now all the family speak French. I must admit my four children are alot better than me and my husband at the language, and one of my daughters speaks a little Spanish too
• China
20 Feb 09
I think you are still a linguistic talent though you've found your language skill was not as good as you thought before. Learning a foreign language needs much time and enough efforts. There's a long road between you and your destination. I'm glad to see that you are going forward with a good pace, and you've gotten some wonderful achievements. You're much better than I. So just insisting on!
2 people like this
@idowrite72 (2213)
• United States
20 Feb 09
The only language that I can speak is English. While in school, I took 5 or 6 years of French, and know words here and there, but never learned to fluently speak it. I had a friend come to visit from France, and he told me that the words that I DID know, I said without an accent. I was so surprised and never would have guessed it. It didn't help me to better understand his English and his accent, though!
• Malaysia
18 Feb 09
i can speak 2 languages, english and malay. i wish i could speak mandarin though!
@XoyyoX (1055)
• China
18 Feb 09
If you wish you could speak Mandrain, the best way for you to become a good mandarin speaker is that you can come to China and learn Chinese, if you like, i can teach you, and we have many Chinese mylotters, all of us can teach you mandrain for free. LOL
• Philippines
18 Feb 09
I just speak two languages, English and Filipino. I can understand a little Spanish but I cannot talk - yo no habla EspaƱol. I want to learn Chinese but it is really very difficult for me.
• China
20 Feb 09
hehe, i can help you.
@mammamuh (582)
• Sweden
18 Feb 09
There are several discussions here in the subject - try to search existing discussions before you start a new *lol* I can speak Swedish, I manage to have conversations and discuss fairly okay when it comes to English - so I'll say I can speak English. I understand German good, and I guess I would manage to speak German after a few days with Germans around me - at the moment it's a bit to far away in my mind to get there. I understand Danish and Norwegian to a decent point, I guss that's it. If it comes to sentences and knowing a bit I could add several languages to my list!
@XoyyoX (1055)
• China
18 Feb 09
I did search existing discussions, but it's after my discussions. LOL until then, i realized that I started the same topic over again, and so I guess few people will respond to this discussion, but to my surprise, mammamuh, you gave me the first response. thanks for your response, and thanks for your reminding.
@Amanda81587 (3042)
• United States
20 Feb 09
Ha Ha yeah i bet that was embarrasing. I have done that before when I started speaking spanish. But since my moment I became more fluent with it and now I am able to read, write, and speak spanish. But my mother language is English, for I live in Ohio, USA
@XoyyoX (1055)
• China
20 Feb 09
How many people in Ohio speak speak Spanish? I guess it must a large number. I know quite a lot of people speak spanish in USA, and most USA people prefer spanish as their own first foreign languages. right?
1 person likes this
• United States
21 Feb 09
Well i am not everyone in the USA but I would rather have english as my first language. From what I have been told, English is the hardest language to learn. I will have my children know both languages because they are half hispanic, so they will have both. Yes there are a lot of people in Ohio that speak spanish and there are so many latinos here as well.
• China
18 Feb 09
all of you are really someting! i can only speak chinese,because it is my mother language.english is also my first foreign and learnt since junior high cchool.but i can't skilled in it .so ,i can't say that i can speak english.
@XoyyoX (1055)
• China
18 Feb 09
LOL. As long as you can do mylotting in mylot, i bet you can speak English. Good luck!
@jshekhar (1562)
• India
19 Feb 09
I have not learned any of the foreign languages except English. Being an Indian, I feel it is sufficient to be able to communicate to most of the people from around the world. Apart from that I know a lot of Indian languages like Hindi, our National Language and a few regional languages like Bhojpuri, Magahi, Maithili, to name a few. I am sure you would never ever have heard about these but those are the languages that I know. Would love to learn French or German some day.
@XoyyoX (1055)
• China
20 Feb 09
Definitely No. I never heard of the regional languages you mentioned above, but if i had the chance to go to your country, i would know them a little bit better. Spanish and French could be another two popular languages that people tend to use except english and chinese.
@neha2k94u (406)
• India
19 Feb 09
Well I am in your favour that speaking a language isn't very easy... practice makes you perfect... And I can speak Hindi(My native language),English(I have learnt it from long),Marathi and a bit of Punjabi... You might not understand all these... These are indian languages... Happy Mylotting My Buddy... HAve a great time...
1 person likes this
• China
21 Feb 09
I can speak English besides my mother tongue, chinese. I have been learned Japanese, but now i almost forgot it for i hardly use and learn it anymore. I can speak little sentences of korean which learned from the korean dramas. My favorite language is English which i keep on learning these years. Maybe i will try another language severl years, but before it, i need to make my English be best.
• Philippines
9 Mar 09
I know English and Filipino. I am planning to take up Japanese or French within the year. It is always nice to learn another language ... we learn another perspective. Good day! Magandang Araw!
@dianni (195)
• Indonesia
21 Feb 09
I only can speak two languages = Indonesian languages and java languages this is not java program's name but this is one of languages in Indonesian languages, there are a lot of languages that because a lot of island in Indonesia .... I little can speak and write in English languages until now still learn... hope be better everyday
• Netherlands
20 Feb 09
I can speak 3 languages but only my English is fluent. I also know how to speak Dutch, (if you call what I do speaking, I think I kill the language!), and I use to be good in Spanish but since I moved from L.A. I have forgotten a lot of my Spanish. I can however understand some German and French because I live in Holland near those countries. ;)
@shinkai03 (114)
• Philippines
20 Feb 09
Saya bisa bitsara bahasa indonesia dan bahasa inggris! That means I can speak Indonesian language and English language!
@fren45 (894)
• Malaysia
20 Feb 09
I could speak chinese(manddrin,hakas,hokkien),Bahasa Malaysia, and English. total five dialogue I could speak . Written :English and Bahasa Malaysia