Multi-lingual?

How many languages (and dialects) can you speak? I thought about this while thinking of Pope John Paul II...I believe he's fluent in 8 languages.

Here are mine:
Pangasinan
Tagalog
English
Spanish

Finnish
Swedish
English
Spanish
German

..not fluent in Spanish and German yet, though.

I speak fairly good english, and enough spanish to get something to eat, something to drink and get my face slapped, or sometimes get lucky.

I speak English, French and Spanish. Plus Scottish, after a few pints anyway!

english, Spanish, French and a bit of German.

>>>I believe he's fluent in 8 languages.

Not wanting to be picky but shouldn't this be past tense.

Any mine are English, Spanish (a bit), French (a bit less), finnish (Virtually none), bulls#*t (Fluent)

It's interesting to see who can speak what

You know there was some research done recently in the UK which showed that a bi/multilingual prowess was found to be the most attractive asset a man can have (please forgive my referencing capabilities, I've no idea where I originally heard this). Of course, I'm sure it's the same for women.

I can do high school French, but I am ashamed to say that although I have the ability to guesstimate quite a bit of written and spoken Spanish, I am only fluent in grammatically incorrect (Cumbrian/Yorkshire) English - oh and the international language of the sheep(s) of course ... baaaaa

Typical Us education I'm ashamed to say -
English; school French - meaning I can read and write far better than speak; Spanish - the speaking ability comes only when I've been lucky enough to be immersed in the language - reading just doesn't cut it - and, when I've had a few glasses a wine, a smattering of Hawaiian. :o

English, Spanish, French, Italian and Darija (the Moroccan dialect of Arabic)

I actually didn't learn a second language in school. So that makes US education look worse. lol I am making it my choice to try to become fluent in Spanish. So im fluent in English and I know enough Spanish to get by! lol

You guys are a hoot!

My first language is Spanish, followed by English. I am bi-lingual in both of these languages. I can read and write French, Italian and Portuguese, which I exercise often, because I like to read an author in his own tongue. I can understand Galego, the mother tongue of my Father, and paternal grandparents, and if pressed will respond appropriately. But I am by no means a fluent speaker in these tongues. While the Italians and Portuguese were very kind to me and praised my level of fluency, the French people I encountered on my travels to France, made it very clear that I should not speak their language. :eek

At this late date, I am learning Latin, a fancy of mine. Just in case I get an invite to visit the Vatican Library I can then read the prophecies of the end of the world!

Jo-Ann, I envy you your Ewe fluency! Baaaa!

Interesting thread...
As for me-
English
Spanish
ASL (American Sign Language)

kelly

For me, in order of fluency:
English
French (especially reading, writing and speaking. I don't get enough opportunities to hear spoken French--a week or two in France helps a lot.)
Italian (actually, my first language, I understand more than I can say. I speak great Italian for a 4 year old.)
Spanish (enough to get by--but I speak it with an Italian accent. Once, in Pontevedra, the lady at the tourist office, upon hearing my request for information [in Spanish], apologized that she had no tourist information in Italian--but wanted to know if I spoke English!)
ASL but I've forgotten a lot. American Sign Language is a fascinating, beautiful language.

Very interesting thread....I feel envious of our European members who are fluent in so many languages.

ASL is definitely a tough one to learn as a 2nd language. I was lucky, my mom works in Deaf Education, and she both signed and spoke to me when I was little so I grew up around ASL. I ended up deciding on a career in speech-language pathology so that skill has certainly come in handy . Sign language, particularly ASL (as opposed to signed english) is beautiful, if you ever have the chance to see anything like Deaf theater or native signers in action, dont miss it!
Kelly

Let's see...I speak English (native language), Spanish, Italian, some French, and the dialect of my husband's home region of Italy (Molise). This last one came about out of necessity...I needed to know what my in-laws were saying about me. I also can read Hebrew...although I don't remember what the words mean anymore...just can read and write it (much like the moaxajas... poetry of Spain in the middle ages...for me, writing with Hebrew characters that when pronounced aloud...actually create English words)

I was born and raised in NYC.

The only language I am fluent in is English but after living here in Madrid for the past year, my Spanish has improved dramatically. I can hold my own in a SLOW conversation in Spanish. I will be living here for 2 more years so hopefully, I will be much improved before I go back to the states.

Jo-Anne writes: I would guess that this research was done by the Foreign languages department of some obscure University by over the hill Foreign language teachers who have never been out in the 'real world.' Or it may have been a Graduate Student sucking up to his/her Committee Head by doing a Thesis on the Subject.

I have never considered a woman sexy just because she was bilingual or multilingual.

So we sit at the Terrazas, drinking wine and tirando piropos at all the pretty ladies. Very amusing, Jo-Anne!

My native language is (American) English. I took French 3-years in High School and through 17th Century French Literature at University. My knowledge of French was one of the reasons I was picked for a job in Morocco.

I used a French-Moroccan Arabic Phrasebook to get along there, also; so one might say I have a smattering of Darija although I do not read Arabic.

I studied German (recommended for Engineering / Science Majors) when I changed my Major.

Later, I took several semeters of Spanish (in Spain) and am considered fluent in Castellano.

My 'Base' was 3-years of Latin in High School.

I'm fluent in English and French (like a Good Canadian should be )

I can understand Serbian/Croatian...can speak it very slowly, and can read/write, but with some difficulty...

I can understand the jist of what is being said in Spanish if spoken slowly...I can also get the jist of a paragraph written in Spanish, and can speak enough Spanish just to get by...as the same with my German...

Spanish is my language of birth but by the age of 4 English became my dominate language. Although I speak Spanish well enough and read it well enough, I have trouble with the written grammer.

I also have studied Italian and can carry a conversation with someone. Like Booklady (my dear Doña Libros) I have been fascinated with Latin and find it a very lyrical language.

Im also proficient in ASL. I used to be an interpreter for our church when I lived in Los Angeles. I agree with Kelar419, ASL is very expressive and is very beautiful. When I was learning ASL many of the young deaf were being taught SIGLISH (exact signing), I don't know if this is still the trend, but the older deaf friends I have prefered ASL.

Since my other passion is for Japanese culture, learning Japanese or at least some Japanese is my next project.

This is a great thread, very interesting to see such a variety of languages spoken by our members.

My first language is English and I consider myself to be fairly fluent in Spanish. I learned most of my Spanish in Spain, but my Hispanic students always have something to say about my "vocabulary and accent from Spain." There are students from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Columbia, Honduras and Argentina at my school here in the U.S., so I'm constantly learning something new.

I studied some French and some German but that was soooooooooooo many years ago.

marilisa

English, and some what I call a mixed wad of Spanish and French. I studied Spanish for 6 years during Middle and High School but never used it then a 1 year of French in College and never used it. So now I have a very messy ball of language in my head and when I am SO sure that I know the right word, it comes out in the wrong language. I don't know if it's Spanich or Frenish! :p

I do manage to get my needs communicated after either the puzzled stare or the laughter stops!

Osomajor, i too started learning japanese, but had to stop when i started work full-time as i didn't have time to go to the lessons. (They were afternoon ones.)
It's a fascinating and lovely language, and they have two alphabets, one for informal and one for formal use. I fully intend to learn it when i get the time. (Probably when i retire!!!)

English, Spanish, Piglatin, Ebonics

Ihay enceymay .. owway igpay atinlay, Iway usedway otay itewray ecretsay otesnay inway atthay atway oolschay inkingthay atthay
onay-oneway ouldway understandway emthay. Ofway oursecay eythay idday! Owhay embarrassingway!

Sally-Anne – my brother has lived in Japan for 15 years and I first visited him there 3 years ago. For some reason it hadn’t crossed my mind that he would be speaking Japanese! I was so impressed when he started talking in this amazing language .. my little brother, talking pretty pictures! Amazing.

Ojay

baaaaaaaah

English
Danish
Swedish
Dutch
German

Hur kommer det sig att du kan holländska, svenska och danska ColinK?

Mencey, are you really fluent in ebonics? I'd like to improve mine

Pia- Jeg boede i Danmark i syv aar. Og spillede ishokey i Sverige og Nederlands.

I can speak English, some Spanish (enough to get
along) and of course, Appalachian, the dialect of
Southeastern Ohio.

Wow, Colin K. Låter intressant.

I can speak,read and write fluently in four different languages:

1.Spanish
2.English
3.Spanglish(very difficult)
4.French

Out of the four,my favorite is French.I just love the way it sounds.It's like music to my ears.

Here,try pronouncing this...

la mer
qu'on voit danser
le long
des golfes clairs
o des reflets d'argent
la mer
des reflets changeants
sous la pluie

la mer
au ciel d'ete
confond
ses blanc moutons
avec les anges si purs
la mer
bergere d'azur
infinie

voyez
pres des etangs
ces grands roseaux mouilles

voyez
ces oiseaux blancs
et ces maisons rouillees

la mer...

Aaah music,the best therapy.

1. English-Fluent
2. Spanish-Intermediate
3. Italian-Intermediate
4. Russian-Beginning
5. Japanes-Beginning
6. Tagalog-Fluent
7. Arabic-Beginning
8. Portuguese-Beginning
9. Swahili-Beginning

Native American English,
a bit of German,
...and of course, un poco español.

Why is it so exciting about how many languages we can speak? I am glad to meet some people who have interests in languages!

My attempts:

1) Vietnamese (learned it as a kid, but my pronounciation is so bad that I'd rather not speak unless forced to)
2) English (mostly cussing)
3) Chamorro (the native language of Guam that is almost extinct, which we had to learn in high school and now I've forgotten, go figure...it's a combo of Latin, Polynesian and Spanish)
4) Japanese (can't remember anymore)
5) Spanish (but my Spanish boyfriend can't understand me)
6) Catalan (so that I could get into the study abroad program in Barcelona)
7) French (so that I could understand Catalan better and can't remember either)
8) Hawaiian/Hawaiian Pidgen (hey brah, why don't you hele ova hea?)

I've tried to learn other languages on my own such as Italian, Arabic, Mandarin and American Sign Language but my mind can only absorb so much.

Spanish, English, and Japanese...
My girlfriend - Japanese, Chinese (Mandarin), English and now some Spanish

Irish
English
Spanish
French
Italian
Swedish
Malay
Polish

Can someone please define "fluent" for me?

I am a native speaker of English, with sub specialties in Southern and Ebonics.

In Spanish, I consider myself intermediate-advanced. But, hey, I can put a lot of sentences together and discuss politics and sex.

What truly defines whether or not someone is fluent in a language?

GoMadrid, there are so many degrees of fluency, bilingualism, and biculturalism that it would take a dissertation to explain them all. A basic level of fluency would be communicating in a language but biculturalism, for example, to its fullest extent, is very difficult to obtain. So, in my opinion, if you can communicate on some level beyond hand gestures, you're on your way. Whether that warrants marking the bilingual box on a job resume, well that's a different story. But everyone has a personal threshold for which they would consider themselves bilingual. Some make the threshold a lot lower than others. In Germany, for example, the people are very keen on perfection with the language and rarely will say they are fluent despite their almost perfect English. If I had their English skills, I would personally consider myself fluent. There are a few standardized tests that can measure your skills on an internationally recognized level such as the Cervantes exam for Spanish. Other than that, you're left to your own and others' assessment of your skills.
Here are some quick, not well thought out, descriptions of fluency:
Basic-can travel in a Spanish-speaking area
Advanced beginner- can converse on normal topics
Intermediate- can converse on a wide variety of topics with a high level of comprehension
Intermediate/advanced- has the skills to be able to work, live, and socialize in a Spanish-speaking environment with ease
Advanced- (this can vary a lot)...I think it's difficult to obtain and many are quick to consider themselves advanced when they are not. I think it depends on the setting for which you are evaluating the level of fluency...is it for travel/social or academic purposes? I think an advanced level for the former is much easier to reach than academic.

Thanks El Marques de Concha Espina - I read La Mer aloud and realized I can still pronounce French correctly! And you are absolutely right - I had forgotten how melodic French is.

And it so nice to see another Pidgon speaker on board