How many languages do you speak?

United States
January 3, 2007 7:44pm CST
Most Americans are very limited in language knowledge. We tend to pretty much think speak English or nothing else. I know many other countries encourage learning many languages while kids are in school. How many languages do you speak? Do you speak them fluently?I myself know French, but minimum amounts. I had 3 years of it in high school, but have never truly put it to use so have gotten very lax.
18 people like this
221 responses
@maumbi (2570)
• Indonesia
4 Jan 07
i come from indonesia. well my english very poor, my chinese not bad, my french small point;)
• Philippines
4 Jan 07
Im from philippines. Mylanguage is only Filipino. But i also speakin english and my sister teach me italian words.
• United States
4 Jan 07
awesome.... i'm actually embarassed for we Americans because we are so limited!
2 people like this
@ajithlal (14716)
• India
4 Jan 07
I am from India. I speak English, hindi, tamil, and malayalam.
• India
4 Jan 07
english, urdu, gujrati, marathi and tamil
4 people like this
• United States
4 Jan 07
thanks! very impressive!
2 people like this
@JC1969 (1224)
• United States
4 Jan 07
I speak English fluently. In high school, I took 5 years of spanish, and can speak enough now to get me by if I need to use it. I am an American living overseas in Italy, and before our family came over here I brushed up on the Italian I already knew and helped my 3 kids learn enough to get them by. My youngest is 6, and our base doesn't have pre-school so they encourage us to use the local Italian preschool systems, and so we did that for her. After preschool, we kept her in the Italian school system for kindergarten and now first grade. She is fluent in English and Italian, and she can read and write in both languages. I also volunteer and teach English at her old preschool, and another local preschool, which has helped me increase my use of Italian.
2 people like this
• United States
4 Jan 07
how lucky for your youngest to have this ability to learn first hand!
@JC1969 (1224)
• United States
4 Jan 07
It has been a great opportunity for her and our whole family. We are of Italian ancestry, and it has given us a chance to meld in with the culture first hand, and appreciate it even more than we already had. My youngest has American friend in our base community, and Italian friends in her host country community, and I think she is extremely fortunate to have this experience.
@onesiobhan (1327)
• Canada
4 Jan 07
In my social group I am practically illiterate. Maybe it's because I live in Toronto where there are lots of immigrants, but my friends speak French, Italian, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Ukranian, Croatian, Gaelic and Japanese. And I only speak English! At work it's even worse. I started trying to learn German but I didn't really stick with it. Maybe I should make that one of my New Year's resolutions.
2 people like this
• United States
4 Jan 07
well the good thing is as you drive the streets you can learn French along the way!!! I always chuckle at everything written in both English and French over there!
@KrisNY (7590)
• United States
4 Jan 07
I am like you and took 3 years of French in school.. that was 15 years ago.. I remember very little.. In our schools they teach the kids a second language (choices between Spanish and French) but not until Jr high and high school. I wish I could speak more languages.. but I haven't made the attempt to learn.
3 people like this
• Malaysia
4 Jan 07
malay,english,and german
3 people like this
• United States
4 Jan 07
impressive!
1 person likes this
• Hyderabad, India
4 Jan 07
i can speak english, hindi, telgue, spanish
2 people like this
@kgwat70 (13388)
• United States
4 Jan 07
I only speak english fluently though I did take spanish when I was in high school and I took French while I was in college. I never did get to learn to speak them fluently though but may try when I have time and the money. I think it would be good for americans to learn other languages now, especially since we have many hispanics and other nationalities living in our country.
@anja31 (708)
• Canada
4 Jan 07
I speak English, Dutch and German. My german is poor, but I can speak it. in canada the children will learn also french.
• United States
4 Jan 07
I speak Engish and very little spanish (but I'm trying to learn).
@haranv (571)
• India
4 Jan 07
im from India.In my school English is my second language,so im good in that .I know two languages"tamil and english"
2 people like this
@alexiuss (377)
• Romania
4 Jan 07
i know Romanian, my native language, and English (advanced), French(intermediate), Italian(intermediate), Spanish (a few phrases)
2 people like this
@kathy77 (7486)
• Australia
4 Jan 07
Yes I live in Australia and we do encourage our children to learn other languages, while kids are in school. I speak four languages not fluent but enough to get by my main language is English though, but I do think it is great to understand other languages.
2 people like this
• Philippines
4 Jan 07
I'm from the Philippines, so i could speak more than 1 language. Aside from Filipino, which is our national language, I also speak Illonggo, one of our many native languages. I speak English because it is a very important language in our country. I have some friends who speaks 5 languages or more. They know more native languages and have been thought French and Spanish in school.
2 people like this
• India
5 Jan 07
I speak abt 5 languages, Hindi, English, Tamil, Kannada & Marathi There are more than 112 languages in my country
• United States
6 Jan 07
Wow, 112!!!? That is amazing! I knew there were a lot but not that many! Thanks!
• United States
7 Jan 07
It would be kind of mind boggling to figure out what you should and shouldn't learn!!! lol
• Romania
4 Jan 07
I am from Romania, and i speek normaly romanian language, but also i know and english,because is international language. If I must to in other country, i must to know english,bacause if i don't know any language i can't speek with other people, and i cannot buy food.
1 person likes this
• United States
5 Jan 07
True. I guess we're lucky that English is the language that is fairly international or we US citizens would often be lost! I've always wondered how Romanian differs from Russian. Is there a huge difference?
• United States
5 Jan 07
True. I guess we're lucky that English is the language that is fairly international or we US citizens would often be lost! I've always wondered how Romanian differs from Russian. Is there a huge difference?
@Kaizun (21)
• United States
4 Jan 07
I myself, am an american, I only know one language, and thats english. I dont really care for other languages, but if i was given the option to choose a language I would like to learn, it would be either chinese or japanese. By the way was the pic really necesarry in your beginning post hockey? Unless that was you actually learning french. Otherwise i think you just want extra ka ching.
1 person likes this
• United States
5 Jan 07
I definitely want extra kaching! DUH! The pic was pertinent to the convo and definitely showed people learning a language. I put pics on everything I do to enhance the discussion. It's just my style and YES it's also because it adds money. I'm glad you're just here to talk and not make money. My entire reason for joining was to make the money and if you tell me otherwise I'd probably not believe it.
• United States
4 Jan 07
I speak English as a U.S. born citizen. Learned Spanish while living abroad in Spain. Learned Portuguese from my wife and am trying to learn Latin. Which I'm finding most difficult. ‹(°¿°)›
1 person likes this
• United States
4 Jan 07
the funny part is... supposedly English is one of the most difficult to learn... yet we find it extremely difficult as english first language speaking people to learn others!! lol
• United States
5 Jan 07
You're absolutely correct.
@moonmage (148)
• United States
24 Jan 07
I am endeavoring to learn Spanish. It takes a lot more than a few years of classes to become fluent in any language, after all. I try to pick up as much of other languages as I can when I'm in a position to be exposed to them. Really, a lot of Americans have lost the languages their ancestors spoke and are trying to regain them which is not easy. I used to know a bit of German. I'm afraid I've not had much luck being able to understood spoken French at all but then I never had any classes in it. I can pick out a few words or phrases that are obvious and slowly spoken but that's it. I know a small amount of (spoken) Japanese because I watch way too much subtitled anime (as well as imported 'regular' films) and eventually you get to the point that you can figure out some of what's being said without looking at the subtitles. Well, I should say, back to the French, I have been picking up new words thanks to genealogy research. Some of the records are in French. Oh, happy day!
1 person likes this
• United States
25 Jan 07
I've heard watching a lot of subtitled movies can truly help a lot to learn a new language.
@Zioghiro (11)
• Switzerland
23 Jan 07
I'm fortunate since I live in a country with 4 official languages: German, Italian, French, Rumantsch. I speak fluently all of them exept Rumantsch wich only a minority of people know, I speak English as well and I'm really interested in languages because I'd like to be a translator.
1 person likes this
• United States
25 Jan 07
I think being a translator would be such a neat job!