Languages - How Many Do You Speak?

I speak English, a smattering of French (tres petit et tres, tres mal), a bit of Hawaiian pigdin and Mom-ese. I can also interpret Toddlerese as well.

Wish I'd taken Spanish though!

This is always an interesting question for me. I can speak Spanish, French, Italian, and German like a native- but by reading it off only. Latin also. I took semesters of diction classes when earning my music degree. I have no clue what I'm actually saying. Stick a German art song or an Italian aria in my face and I'm all over it. :)

I am a native English speaker, I can speak/read German, and know ASL. My sister took French in HS, so I know 'you are very, very annoying' in French. And I spent many years in South Central NM, so I have enough Spanish to get by or tell if I'm being insulted ;-) All of my kids can get by with Signing, but none are fluent. They all also speak Korean and some Sino Korean (they learn it at Martial Arts). My (2) elementary kids are learning Mandarin, and the (2) older kids are learning Spanish. I think language acquisition is SO important for everyone! And starting young just makes it easier to learn more.

I speak English and Japanese fluently. I can ask for directions to the train station and whether the carrots are sweet in German (4yrs of HS German classes, baby). Currently learning Korean, just for fun.

I wish I could speak Spanish. If I ever give up on Korean, Spanish is next on my list.

I took French in high school and college, just enough to get the credits needed to cross that off the requirements list. I used it when I was in Paris 15+ years ago but other than a phrase here or there, I don't use it.

I also took a year (or two?) of Latin in high school, which I found very useful.

I never took Spanish but between French, Latin and working in the restaurant industry for many years, picked up enough that I can ace my kids' Spanish 1 tests. Can't really say more than basic conversational phrases and industry-specific phrases such as "emergencia, emergencia, fuego!" or "piso mojado" or "donde estas las llaves?" or "plato caliente!" And of course curse words LOL.

Love this question!!

I speak and understand some Spanish and I did speak fluent Portuguese but its been a very long time. I can get myself in trouble with my Italian. =)

i'll bet chinese is tough. my family has a pretty high aptitude for language, and i've got a brother in the foreign service who's a big ol' polyglot. but he really struggled with japanese.
i wish i would have learned more languages when i was younger and my brain was more agile. i have reasonably good schoolgirl french, enough to make myself understood, and to understand if the speaker is kind enough to go lentement, et avec les mots tres petits. :)
and i was a latin prodigy back in the day, but doubt i could translate much virgil today. even though i can STILL decline latin nouns not only forward, but backward.
a veritable repository of useless skills, i am.
:) khairete
S. (who really does need to learn homeric greek)

In the business I was in, everyone spoke English more or less.
Some of the heavy Scottish accents were tough to understand.
Anyone who needed to translate anything used online translator programs.
I took Spanish in high school but I wouldn't say I speak it.
If you don't use it you tend to lose it.
The languages I was most concerned with were Fortran, Pascal and Cobol.
I was completely fluent in them for several years (Cobol for several decades).
Most useful language class I ever took in college: Greek and Latin Roots.

My grandfather was gifted with languages.
He spoke Polish, German, Yiddish, English and knew some sign language.
In WWI, his job when he was in France was to sit down with a German prisoner of war with a pitcher of beer between them and talk.

My Mom only taught me a few words of Polish.

I speak Spanish - toyed with it when my mother decided to teach us and herself a few phrases, started classes in 7th grade, majored in it in college. I'e used it everywhere - travel, working in a clinic & healthcare facility, working in community organizations, a singing in choruses (in Spanish and in Ladino, the Spanish-based language of Sephardic Jewish music), working in large offices with bilingual staff, and just in daily life (stores, visiting people in hospitals, all kinds of opportunities). I try to keep up with it through Spanish language TV stations when real-life opportunities are thin. But it is and has always been the 2nd language of this country so I think it's the absolute best one to learn and the easiest one to practice on a daily basis.

I started learning Hebrew about 20 years ago and while my speaking is poor, I do sing a lot and have learned to read (so I can read the Bible in the original language) and sing a lot of music in various traditions.

One thing that's nice about both languages is that they are phonetic - so if someone is starting out with another language, that's something to consider! I don't think people realize how incredibly difficult English is to learn - there's no consistency in how letter combinations are pronounced (think of all the words that end in -ough, for example) and verbs don't conjugate with consistent rules.

I have to say that your question is a refreshing one! It's great to see someone celebrate the learning of other languages as a nice alternative to the screaming about "English only!" out in the world! Celebrating various cultures and learning other languages is such a valuable exercise!

In addition to English, I am fluent in Spanish. I also speak Hebrew and Yiddish and can get by in Italian and French.

I took Latin (elementary and college) and Greek (college), so I can read these but don't speak them.

Before traveling to Ireland a number of years ago, I studied some Gaelic and used a few phrases here and there with some of the old locals. They were very kind with my attempts.

I know some very basic sign language.

I love words and prose. I'm a language geek, and my dream job would be to travel around the world observing and interviewing people in their own language.

I would love to learn Chinese.

ETA: One of my best friends is from South Africa. She's taught me words and phrases in Afrikaans, but some of these things I would not want translated into English! It's quite entertaining to listen to her and her mother speaking to one another.

Sorry to say...I really only speak/read/write english!

When I lived in germany, I developed a good speaking vocabulary, and then when we went to france for a few weeks, GERMAN came out of my mouth (rather than the french I had studied for years).

I spent a summer in spain, and managed to get by (with a LOT of 'mime').

The other countries I have been to, I learned some of the basics ("Where is the bathroom?"..."How much does this cost?"..."May I have a beer please?"...etc). My issue was that I really LEARNED the accents. People often fired back at me, thinking I knew much more than I did because I 'sounded' good. lol

I will explore languages soon...once megan is off to college.

I am thinking, given MY age, latin might be helpful...it being a 'dead' language and all!

best!

I speak broken Spanish, and I can use American Sign Language. (Not fluent, but I can communicate.)

I would LOVE to learn Japanese, because I'm an anime nerd and would love to be able to watch without subtitles. (Nerd problems. Lol.)

For practical purposes, I would like to be fluent in Spanish and German.

I am fluent in Russian, speak French and Spanish to a degree (used to be very good but don't use them now) and can get by in Italian. Was teaching myself Japanese for fun when living in Russian with a Russian to Japanese text book.

Does Pig Latin and gibberish count? 😉

I always admire people who can speak more than one language though.

Fun question! I can speak/read/write French pretty well. I used to be fluent, but practice opportunities are few and far between in Arizona! Between French, English, and living in the southwest, I have picked up a bit of Spanish. I also know little bit of Japanese, Swedish, and Swahili. I would love to learn any or all of those last three fluently!

I speak, read, and write fluently in English and French. I can speak nanny/gardener Spanish (living in California, you have to). I'd like to learn to read and write in Spanish, as well as learn a bigger vocabulary.

I am fluent in ASL (sign language) but thats all besides English that I can claim I speak fluently. I'm sure bad words don't constitute fluency in other languages.

It's pretty much only English
I can mutter through some Spanish, a very little bit of French, some random Japanese and know a weird handful of German words. I remember a little bit of sign language from a class I took and from using basics with the kids when they were little.
I have always wanted to learn Japanese but I never get that far. It would make watching anime so much easier though!

I grew up here in the states in a French household, all of my family is French. So, I speak, read and write French. I have lived in Florida most of my life and have picked up some Spanish, Portuguese and in recent years we have had a flux of Haitians which speak French Creole. So that's fun :). My daughter attends an elementary language academy and is in the French program. The other programs at her school are Spanish and Vietnamese. We have a small Vietnamese community in the zoned area of the school, so I have also learned a few words! The only Chinese I know is from the preschool character Kai-Lan! Haha... I would love to learn more too. Good for you, sounds fun!!

I speak English and German, my wife speaks English, Swedish, Russian and Croatian. Our two daughters also speak Croatian and a huge reason we were able to adopt them was because of my wife's job and language skills so I hope to learn the language soon!

Uno. I know a tiny bit of Spanish, und ein bisschen deutsche.

I also know some swears in Portuguese.

I can speak and read Spanish. I may occasionally get a verb wrong though. I wish I could speak German--looking into getting a course on it that I can study on my own. I'm Danish so I would love to also learn Old German as well. I do know a few words in German and Polish but no where near fluent.
I had Spanish in college and learned NOTHING but very basic stuff. I learned Spanish by talking to my sisters in law. My husband is not really a good teacher.

I can also understand some French and Italian but mostly due to the realtiohsip with Spanish.

I know Chinese (two dialects) and French. As you mentioned, language is a very perishable skill if you don't use it. I wish I used Chinese more often. And I need to find the time to teach it to my kids.

Kudos to you for learning Chinese! It truly is a difficult language to learn. Have you checked out any of the Rosetta Stone software? I think you can even borrow it from the library. It's actually pretty good if you want to learn conversational Mandarin. Chinese people are tickled when Westerners make the effort to speak their language. They must love you!

I can speak and read English fluently. I do OK with speaking and reading German. So, I'd say I "have" 2 languages.

I can also read and speak a teeny bit of Korean (I am working on it).
I can speak and read a little Spanish - mostly picked up from living Colorado 20+ years. I can read a bit of French (I used to be able to speak it well but didn't practice). I know a handful of Tslagi (Cherokee) and Navajo niceties (hello, good morning, thank you), but wouldn't say I speak those languages.

ETA: I can also "speak" a bit of Signed English, and know a bit of American Sign Language too. But I am not remotely fluent.

You have me beat!! I only speak, read and write English.

My daughter took 4 yrs of Spanish from middle school to high school. She's not fluent but she can understand and ideal some phrases.

I know 1 phrase I usevwhen j have contractors who act like they don't know what I'm talking about but they miraculously understand me whe I say "no comprendo.... No pay"

Interesting question!!!

Nice question. I speak,read, and write fluently Spanish, French and Portuguese. English is my second language. I love learning new languages, they are very useful! I would love to learn Japanese.
A quick note for birdsfreakmeout: para los acentos usa esto en tu teclado:
Alt 160, Alt 161, Alt 162, Alt 163, Alt 164, Alt 165, Alt 130. Estos son para los acentos la letra enie. Aqui no puedo usarlos por algun motivo, pero tu podras hacerlo en tu PC.
A. :)

English is my native tongue.
I speak, read, and write some French and some Spanish.

I speak only English, but my kids read, write and speak fluent French.

English, Russian and Azerbaijani (not so well).

I speak Albanian, Serbo-Croatian, and English. I took German and French as well in high school/college but can't say a word, especially in French.
I can get by with some basic Spanish, though my desire is to learn Italian. I'm wondering if I should get the rosetta stone software.

I wish I spoke more! English is the only language I am fluent in. I speak mediocre Spanish - maybe at a mid high school level, but with really bad grammar. I took four years in high school but haven't studied it since, so it's really rusty.

I know a handful of words in Chinese but not enough for even a simple conversation.

I speak, read, and write Spanish. (wish I could figure out how to get my keyboard to make the accents and ~)

I only speak English. I'm too shy to go out on a limb and be "wrong", which I think is nearly essential when trying to learn a new language.

English is my native tongue. I studied French and Spanish in Jr. and Sr. high school and college. Last year, I started learning Mandarin because I lived in China. I will be learning Portuguese, when we move to Angola this month. Afrikaans was fun, I can't speak it but I can figure out what is written.

I speak English and Spanish. I took some German in college but it was so hard, just have some basic stuff with that. I would love to really learn any new language, but number one right now is Portuguese (I know a tiny tiny bit). I love being able to speak Spanish as it comes in handy so frequently. One goal as a parent is to make sure my daughter learns at least one other language fluently growing up. She is starting Kinder next year and that is one of the deciding factors in which school she goes to.

English, German and Yiddish. very rusty on the German and can speak it much better than read it. College was quite some time ago...sigh. :-) S.

Three. Love that this forum is so heavy with polyglots.
Thanks for asking. Good for you for acquiring more.

Best,
F. B.

I lived in Southern California, so Spanish was a must.

Here in Red Neck country, I'm learning Red Neck! LOL

My oldest and I are going through the Rosetta stone and picking up Latin. Learning more about words and their meanings that way.