How many languages do you speak?

[Trackman]

Well, I've done French and German, not fluently as I get mixed up between the two of them. Always been obsessed with nouns in German, not sure why - saying that, if I wanted a dentist and said the word they would get the gist.
In the last year I have been learning Chinese Mandarin, I did because someone said it was easy to learn, and indeed it is. I've passed a beginner course with some sort of certificate but going on to bigger and better things now - thing is I forget most of it and have to revise, neglected it for a couple of weeks so need to keep my backside in gear.

What must really be a nightmare is someone learning English as a second language for the first time.

 

[Calthrop]

In the poll, I ticked "3" (taking it that that number, includes one's own English) -- maybe flattering myself somewhat: 50+ years ago now, I studied French and German at university -- my university course "crashed and burned" for me big-time; but I reckon that chiefly thanks to it, I have a fairish command of those two languages; though I've not actually used them a lot between then and now.

Wish that I were able to feel, that I could add another language to that number: viz. Russian. At school -- a voluntary-and-optional thing for sixth-formers -- I was in a tiny-numbers "set" who essayed that language. Was initially intrigued; but found the language's grammar diabolically difficult (and pretty radically different from those of the other languages which I'd encountered) -- freely admit that I'm a lazy so-and-so, and came to find the difficulty thereof onerous, rather than challenging in a positive way. Did two years of the lingo, by the end of which I felt more than a bit weary of the whole thing -- managed at end of that time, just to scrape a GCE O-Level in Russian (lowest passing grade). Have subsequently forgotten the great majority of what I learned thereof: which in principle, I regret -- wish I'd been more tenacious with same. I find Russian -- beyond strict grammar -- in many ways, an endearingly mad tongue; and, there can't be all that many Brits with a decent command of Russian -- having such, could be variously useful -- perhaps even remunerative; and I have always had rather a soft spot for Russia and Russians, "despite everything". However -- willing spirits / weak flesh, and all that.


"Computer going crazy", at least vis-a-vis computer-moronic computer-users such as myself -- I was responding to @Trackman's above post #31, when "things went doolally". Trying to resume -- he posts: "What must really be a nightmare is someone learning English as a second language for the first time".

I'd opine -- well, "yes, and no". English has the advantage that compared to most other languages which are big worldwide; its grammar is simple -- I'd tend to reckon that getting a crude-ish grasp of English, fine for basic communication: probably not all that hard for anyone not "linguistically challenged"; but on finer points, getting English idiom right -- what with English's huge vocabulary, many synonyms / homonyms etc., and enormous range and number of superficial idiomatic quirks -- and English's spelling-related ways are truly nightmarish, including for many of those for whom English is a birth-speech -- well, for sure, "swings and roundabouts".

 

[takno]

I've said 5+, although definitely not fluently. Obviously my English is okay.

I learned French at school and through university, although my pronunciation and listening skills were always awful. I spent a bit of time in Canada learning Quebecois and at that time I was quite good, although it's really rusty now. I can just about watch French TV with subtitles, and I could certainly get by in France but nobody is going to offer to listen to me murder their language

I learned Spanish through watching daytime TV at uni and evening classes. I certainly have been able to hold conversations in Spanish, although it's a bit rusty. It comes back a little bit easier than the French, although I struggle quite a lot with Spanish TV and subtitles.

Polish I've learned on and off for the past 15 years or so, initially pretty unsuccessfully through books, and later through Duolingo and Babbel. The most important tools though to be honest were probably TV and radio. I'd struggle to have a long conversation, but I can make myself understood and have a reasonable grasp of what's going on around me or in media.

Norwegian I've learned to a pretty good level of fluency over the past 5 years or so, and I'm quite happy listening to/reading books, watching TV, increasingly without subtitles, or keeping up with media and current affairs. I have no real issues getting around the country, and I've even taken to watching and enjoying Nytt På Nytt, which is the equivalent of Have I Got News For You. I'm less confident speaking and writing, but people tend to assume that I am Norwegian, so I'm obviously not terrible at it.

Swedish and written Danish I have learned bits of, but are quite quick to learn from a base of Norwegian. My Swedish is at a fairly good level. Spoken Danish is a bit of a challenge, even after working through a range of Norwegian dialects, but I aim to get better at that as well.

Otherwise I have a little awful German from school, and can have a go at Czech or very light Russian/Ukrainian, but mostly based on similarities to Polish.

I'd say learn. There's a world of cool media out there, and switching languages and cultures adds a bit of interest.

 

[DerekC]

English, enough French to get by and a little German. A Chinese interpreter gave me a sense of perspective. I asked her what other languages she spoke (as well as Mandarin and English). She promptly listed most of the languages of Europe. When I expressed admiration she said (with no hint of superiority) "well, starting from China, once you have learned one European language they are all the same, really".

 

[GusB]

Wish that I were able to feel, that I could add another language to that number: viz. Russian. At school -- a voluntary-and-optional thing for sixth-formers

I started to learn Russian at the end of my 5th year, in the time between Higher exams and the end of the summer term. I would liked to have carried on in 6th year, but the main subjects I chose didn't allow for it in the timetable. The trickiest bit for me was getting used to the Russian alphabet.

I did French up to Standard grade level and had to drop it, again because of timetable clashes with other subjects. I could probably still get by with it, although I'm by no means fluent.

Of course, these days we have magic of the internet, so it would be fairly easy to pick up where I left off.

I dabbled with Swedish on Duolingo, but I didn't go very far with it.

 

[Calthrop]

English, enough French to get by and a little German. A Chinese interpreter gave me a sense of perspective. I asked her what other languages she spoke (as well as Mandarin and English). She promptly listed most of the languages of Europe. When I expressed admiration she said (with no hint of superiority) "well, starting from China, once you have learned one European language they are all the same, really".

I'd suspect that she would likely have made an exception for Basque -- it's well-known that nobody but the Basques themselves, can make sense of that one ! The Basques -- not "shrinking violets" as regards their perceived national virtues and merits -- ascribe their highly upright and virtuous national character, to the Devil's having tried to learn Basque, in order to tempt them; but the task defeated even him.

I recall from Robert Graves's Goodbye To All That -- principally about his World War I experiences -- that one of the many people he met in the course of that conflict: was a highly skilled multi-lingual interpreter -- a Brit if I recall correctly -- who effectively, was competent in virtually all the languages of Europe. He admitted that his Lithuanian could have been better -- and re Basque, his position was, "forget it".

 

[takno]

I started to learn Russian at the end of my 5th year, in the time between Higher exams and the end of the summer term. I would liked to have carried on in 6th year, but the main subjects I chose didn't allow for it in the timetable. The trickiest bit for me was getting used to the Russian alphabet.

I did French up to Standard grade level and had to drop it, again because of timetable clashes with other subjects. I could probably still get by with it, although I'm by no means fluent.

Of course, these days we have magic of the internet, so it would be fairly easy to pick up where I left off.

I dabbled with Swedish on Duolingo, but I didn't go very far with it.

The Cyrillic alphabet put me off for ages, although it turns out to be a fairly small time investment compared to learning to fluently read other languages, and it's admirably well-matched to the actual sounds in most Slavic languages, so learning pronunciation is a good bit faster. Polish by contrast is a bit of a mess, with the written form having been developed by somebody who didn't appear to know what the latin letters should sound like.

The Swedish course on Duolingo is pretty poor - the Norwegian one is quite a lot better, and Babbel generally teaches you more. There's a decent amount of content on Swedish content on Netflix though, and if you're reasonably happy watching cartoons or kids TV then there's absolutely loads of accessibly simple stuff.

 

[D6130]

As well as English, I have a working knowledge of Italian - for which I am often complimented by Italians whom I meet - but I don't think it's that great. I quite fequently make errors with the genders of adjectives. My pronunciation and melody are fairly good for most regions of Italy....whereas my wife is more accurate grammatically, but tends to dissolve into a German inflection (her degree language0 as a conversation progresses. I also have a reasonable knowledge of French, having studied it at school up to SCE 'O' grade....and would have continued with it to a higher level had timetabling constraints permitted. Just for fun, I have a smattering of words and phrases in Gaelic, Irish, Welsh, Spanish, Czech, Danish & Dutch....and hundreds of German words and phrases, but I cannot for the life of me crack the grammar - especially the business of the verb usually coming at the end of a long and complicated sentence!

 

[Calthrop]

I started to learn Russian at the end of my 5th year, in the time between Higher exams and the end of the summer term. I would liked to have carried on in 6th year, but the main subjects I chose didn't allow for it in the timetable. The trickiest bit for me was getting used to the Russian alphabet.

The Cyrillic alphabet put me off for ages, although it turns out to be a fairly small time investment compared to learning to fluently read other languages, and it's admirably well-matched to the actual sounds in most Slavic languages, so learning pronunciation is a good bit faster. Polish by contrast is a bit of a mess, with the written form having been developed by somebody who didn't appear to know what the latin letters should sound like.

Not wishing to brag -- but, for Russian: the alphabet was for me, the easiest part. It was the grammar, that did me in -- and the "verbs of motion" -- as Ivan says, "Bozhe moi" ...

Cyrillic, indeed well-suited to the Slav languages -- Roman script, rather less so. If I have things rightly: this matter sorted itself out along lines of different interpretations of Christianity -- Slavic Orthodox nations used Cyrillic; Catholic ditto, Roman. (Bloody religion ! -- forgive me, please, O God.) It kind-of works both ways, even if awkwardly -- think I've read that re things politics-wise, in times and places: Romanian has been "done " in Cyrillic -- possible, but far from ideal. No doubt English could be handled in Cyrillic, if it absolutely had to be; though the letter for "shch", would be very largely redundant -- might come in handy for a certain one-time rail junction in Gloucestershire .

 

[takno]

Not wishing to brag -- but, for Russian: the alphabet was for me, the easiest part. It was the grammar, that did me in -- and the "verbs of motion" -- as Ivan says, "Bozhe moi" ...

Cyrillic, indeed well-suited to the Slav languages -- Roman script, rather less so. If I have things rightly: this matter sorted itself out along lines of different interpretations of Christianity -- Slavic Orthodox nations used Cyrillic; Catholic ditto, Roman. (Bloody religion ! -- forgive me, please, O God.) It kind-of works both ways, even if awkwardly -- think I've read that re things politics-wise, in times and places: Romanian has been "done " in Cyrillic -- possible, but far from ideal. No doubt English could be handled in Cyrillic, if it absolutely had to be; though the letter for "shch", would be very largely redundant -- might come in handy for a certain one-time rail junction in Gloucestershire .

Is there a single letter for szcz? I've got to admit I can touch-type much better in Cyrillic than I can read it, and I never got fully clear about what was a sz and what was a ś in Russian anyway.

 

[Calthrop]

Is there a single letter for szcz? I've got to admit I can touch-type much better in Cyrillic than I can read it, and I never got fully clear about what was a sz and what was a ś in Russian anyway.

(My bolding) -- there is -- as I often say, I'm likely the world's worst computer-using computer-idiot; were that not so, I'd relay it to you -- as things are, I just have to say: log onto some site giving and explaining the Cyrillic alphabet.

 

[bspahh]

I did O level French and German and a year of Latin. I worked in Germany for 6 months. I've never been taught Italian or Spanish, but I can get by in supermarkets, public transport and restaurants.

I was interested in motorsport, and learnt the German vocabulary for that pretty quickly, after initially taking an hour per page, looking up every third word in a dictionary. I was never interested enough to learn the vocabulary for politics.I find the podcast from Easy German useful. They speak clearly but at a normal conversational pace, which helps if I try to follow normal conversations. I work with a number of Germans, but it doesn't make sense for me to speak to them in German. They are scientists, so they have to be able to speak English, so my spoken and written German is much worse than my listening and reading.

 

[oldman]

Is there a single letter for szcz? I've got to admit I can touch-type much better in Cyrillic than I can read it, and I never got fully clear about what was a sz and what was a ś in Russian anyway.

There is a cyrillic letter щ. At school we were taught to pronounce it as shch (Polish szcz) as in fisz-czips, but actually in Russian it is pronounced more like Polish ś. In Ukrainian it is pronounced shch, in Belarusian it doesn't exist. Simpleś.

One advantage of learning Russian online is not having to learn cursive handwriting which causes extra problems e.g. on a keyboard or screen lower-case T just is a small T, but hand-written it's m.

 

[takno]

There is a cyrillic letter щ. At school we were taught to pronounce it as shch (Polish szcz) as in fisz-czips, but actually in Russian it is pronounced more like Polish ś. In Ukrainian it is pronounced shch, in Belarusian it doesn't exist. Simpleś.

One advantage of learning Russian online is not having to learn cursive handwriting which causes extra problems e.g. on a keyboard or screen lower-case T just is a small T, but hand-written it's m.

Ahh, that makes sense - I was taught that as ś to start with, although the shch thing rings a bell.

 

[jmh59]

Other than English I know enough French to not get lost or starve - reading is ok but not particularly good at listening. That comes from it being drilled into me at school but it is such a shame that school and I didn't really get along and I missed out on the languages side because it was made so boring. I have been trying to learn Mandarin for ages. Seems I'm just not very good at learning (or perhaps just not good at saying focussed!)

 

[Cloud Strife]

Polish by contrast is a bit of a mess, with the written form having been developed by somebody who didn't appear to know what the latin letters should sound like.

Polish is a mess, it fits neither Cyrillic or Latin. The nasal vowels ą and ę bear no relation to what's actually said, and the orthography is a mess because of yer no longer being present among other reasons. Hus's Czech alphabet would be far more suited for Polish, not least because palatal consonants are clearly marked, as well as vowel lengths. Polish on the other hand seems to have been designed by someone who didn't really know what they were writing, or who was stubbornly trying to stick with Latin despite Cyrillic being better suited for it.

Anyway, I speak Scots, English and Polish fluently, with a smattering of Catalan too. The one useful thing about Polish is that it's remarkably easy to get by in Western Ukraine or Slovakia for example, and you can easily function in the Czech Republic with Polish too. Even Croatian is pretty easy to comprehend as a Polish speaker.

 

[dangie]

Only English fluently, but wherever I've been in Europe I make sure I can order a beer (or two) in the local language.

Following on from this, I remember once in a bar in Austria asking the waiter for two large beers. Using my practiced and best German accent I said…..

“Zwei große bier bitte”
He replied with “Two large beers coming up….”

 

[takno]

Polish is a mess, it fits neither Cyrillic or Latin. The nasal vowels ą and ę bear no relation to what's actually said, and the orthography is a mess because of yer no longer being present among other reasons. Hus's Czech alphabet would be far more suited for Polish, not least because palatal consonants are clearly marked, as well as vowel lengths. Polish on the other hand seems to have been designed by someone who didn't really know what they were writing, or who was stubbornly trying to stick with Latin despite Cyrillic being better suited for it.

Anyway, I speak Scots, English and Polish fluently, with a smattering of Catalan too. The one useful thing about Polish is that it's remarkably easy to get by in Western Ukraine or Slovakia for example, and you can easily function in the Czech Republic with Polish too. Even Croatian is pretty easy to comprehend as a Polish speaker.

Yup, having chosen to learn Polish I tend to look very jealously at the rather neat Czech alphabet. I've found Polish great for Czech, and I'm managing quite well with some Netflix stuff that's dubbed into Ukrainain (I can't deal with lektor, so Polish dubs are generally a waste of time). I couldn't get anywhere with Slovakian though.

There's definitely a sense with Nordic and Slavik languages of "learn one, get two free"

 

[Cdd89]

Enough to count upto roughly a 100, and ask for some amenities.

Suerely you can count up to at least 999,999,999; it’s only a couple of additional words

 

[oldman]

Yup, having chosen to learn Polish I tend to look very jealously at the rather neat Czech alphabet. I've found Polish great for Czech, and I'm managing quite well with some Netflix stuff that's dubbed into Ukrainain (I can't deal with lektor, so Polish dubs are generally a waste of time). I couldn't get anywhere with Slovakian though.

There's definitely a sense with Nordic and Slavik languages of "learn one, get two free"

There's a entertaining series of short videos on Youtube where a Pole and a Czech talk each in their own language (with subtitles) about the words for different things e.g. this one about coffee culture. It's amusing what they don't understand as well as what they do.

 

[181]

Polish is a mess, it fits neither Cyrillic or Latin. The nasal vowels ą and ę bear no relation to what's actually said, and the orthography is a mess because of yer no longer being present among other reasons. Hus's Czech alphabet would be far more suited for Polish, not least because palatal consonants are clearly marked, as well as vowel lengths. Polish on the other hand seems to have been designed by someone who didn't really know what they were writing, or who was stubbornly trying to stick with Latin despite Cyrillic being better suited for it.

But even so, Polish orthography still manages to be much better than English in that once you've learnt a few simple rules you can usualy look at an unfamiliar Polish word and pronounce it well enough to be understood.

The one useful thing about Polish is that it's remarkably easy to get by in Western Ukraine or Slovakia for example, and you can easily function in the Czech Republic with Polish too.

Although some caution is advised -- I understand for example that the Czech word for 'fresh' means 'stale' in Polish, and that the Polish word meaning 'to look for' ('szukać') can mean something not to be said in polite company in Slovak.

To answer the OP's question, I speak nothing fluently except English, but have varying levels of non-fluent knowledge of a variety of languages: French (read moderately well with some effort, can have quite a long conversation if the other person is sympathetic), German (basic tourist level), Polish (probably more basic*), Latin (can remember quite a lot of words but not enough grammar to read much), Spanish (can read surprisingly well given how little I've studied it -- it's like Latin with easier grammar -- but have little experience of the spoken language) and various small smatterings of others.

*I once got as far as chapter 4 in Teach Yourself Polish and the accompanying tape before it was time to set out on my travels, so I never got beyond a brief glance at the perfective and imperfective verbs in chapter 5, but chapters 1-4 have been reinforced by several visits over the years, whereas my similar progess with Romanian largely faded away after my one visit.

Only English fluently, but wherever I've been in Europe I make sure I can order a beer (or two) in the local language. Plus of course 'hello, goodbye, please, thank you' etc....

'Do you speak English [or other language]', or even just 'I don't speak [local language]' can be useful -- they seem politer than just addressing people in English to start with.

A Chinese interpreter gave me a sense of perspective. I asked her what other languages she spoke (as well as Mandarin and English). She promptly listed most of the languages of Europe. When I expressed admiration she said (with no hint of superiority) "well, starting from China, once you have learned one European language they are all the same, really".

With some knowledge of at least one language from the Germanic, Romance and Slavonic groups (and a basic idea of the Cyrillic and/or Greek alphabet -- memories of Greek letters in school maths lessons can be useful here) it's often possible to make at least a little sense of most major European languages, at least when you see them written (writing, speaking and understanding native speakers are harder).

 

[BeijingDave]

I have been trying to learn Mandarin for ages.

It's an incredibly difficult language. You need daily practice otherwise you won't have proper command of the tones. Immersion is the only way. I was forced to by working in a smaller Chinese city with almost no expats and very few English speakers.

 

[scotrail158713]

Two partially, as well as English. I studied French up to Higher at secondary school and I did Spanish on Duolingo for around nine months in 2020. I’d struggle to hold a conversation in Spanish but I’d manage to read things accurately enough.

 

[Cloud Strife]

With some knowledge of at least one language from the Germanic, Romance and Slavonic groups

I would agree with this, especially if you can add the Cyrillic alphabet to the mix.

I couldn't get anywhere with Slovakian though.

This is interesting, because for me, Slovak is quite easy to understand. The Western dialects are a bit closer to Moravian and so a bit more difficult, but the Eastern ones sound like Polish as it's spoken by Ukrainian speakers. Having said that, I think I'd struggle to speak Slovak properly for that reason.

 

[takno]

This is interesting, because for me, Slovak is quite easy to understand. The Western dialects are a bit closer to Moravian and so a bit more difficult, but the Eastern ones sound like Polish as it's spoken by Ukrainian speakers. Having said that, I think I'd struggle to speak Slovak properly for that reason.

I think it might have been a lack of good media in the language and a lack of interest on my part to be honest. Heavy accents and dialects in already-small languages can also be pretty demotivating for me when learning, and without any particular attachment to the country it's easy to just move onto the next challenge

 

[Ashley Hill]

I took French at school because I thought it would be easier than German but I gave it up after the second year. I can still give directions or ask for some ham or a petrol station. Nowadays I wished I had learnt German,I suppose it’s not too late to learn.

 

[Gloster]

I took French at school because I thought it would be easier than German but I gave it up after the second year. I can still give directions or ask for some ham or a petrol station. Nowadays I wished I had learnt German, I suppose it’s not too late to learn.

It is never too late to learn. It may be a bit more difficult to get started (“I don’t want to go back to school/look at exercise books again”), but once you get going you should be better disciplined and organised.

 

[takno]

It is never too late to learn. It may be a bit more difficult to get started (“I don’t want to go back to school/look at exercise books again”), but once you get going you should be better disciplined and organised.

On the topic of exercise books, I don't think I've ever hand-written a single word in a foreign language for 20 years. The tools available now from apps, on YouTube and elsewhere are so much better than it used to be fighting your way through a Teach-Yourself guide.

The really good thing about not being at school is that there's no consequence to failure. You can set yourself goals and targets, but if you don't hit them then you haven't really lost out.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I've no real facility in speaking languages, but think I do better when reading, in German and French at least.
I can usually spot where a word is similar in other languages, and I can read Cyrillic (slowly) after a scientific Russian course in the 6th form.
Then you find that Ukrainian is not Russian!
I wonder how many schools can offer anything in Mandarin or Arabic, today's desirable languages?
I've learnt a bit of Welsh since living here, and I'm always baffled why seemingly so few English residents can pronounce Welsh place names.

Hungarian is hard.
But once you realise that "sz" is just an "s", and an "s" is a "sh" you are on your way...

 

[dangie]

Just to deviate slightly, but still involving language.

My daughter in law’s sister married a French Canadian. He of course speaks both English & French. They live in the UK.

They have a son who is now 12 years old. What I’ve always found disappointing is that they’ve only ever spoken English in their everyday lives. Having a French speaking parent would have been perfect for bringing up the child to speak both French and English fluently. What a missed opportunity.