How many languages do you speak?

[Zauriel]

I am fairly fluent in at least 7 languages. English, French, German, Italian, American Sign Language, Tagalog and Klingon

[Kara_Nari]

Nice thread. I put down four, but three of them are Intermediate or a little higher than survival level.
I was really surprised that sign language wasnt an international language. I started to study Korean sign language, quite interesting, but then I have only seen 4 deaf people since I have been here.
I would have thought it would have been easier to make it international, that way they can have friends all around the world, have fun travelling, and it would just seem so much easier. When I worked in tourism, I came across several deaf Japanese, I knew basic Sign Language that my mother had taught me when I was younger, but their translator told me that it was completely different.
I was rather confused.
I love learning languages, I wish that I had been more studious at school.

[Mike Cash]

I was really surprised that sign language wasnt an international language.
I would have thought it would have been easier to make it international, that way they can have friends all around the world, have fun travelling, and it would just seem so much easier.

The thing is, though, that signing is a manifestation of man's innate linguistic abilities, not merely an assemblage of gestures which can all be fit to some international standard. I have heard of at least one case of a non-deaf child with two deaf parents in which the child learned signing in the same way that babies learn spoken languages. I also recall hearing about a national gathering of deaf people from all over Japan in Tokyo at which many of the participants were surprised to find that they often had difficulties communicating with deaf people from other areas of Japan. Yes, even though they largely used the same basic signs they had developed regional dialects.

[Zauriel]

I was really surprised that sign language wasnt an international language. I started to study Korean sign language, quite interesting, but then I have only seen 4 deaf people since I have been here.
I would have thought it would have been easier to make it international, that way they can have friends all around the world, have fun travelling, and it would just seem so much easier. When I worked in tourism, I came across several deaf Japanese, I knew basic Sign Language that my mother had taught me when I was younger, but their translator told me that it was completely different.
I was rather confused.
I love learning languages, I wish that I had been more studious at school.

You have met 4 deaf people?

By the way, I am deaf. I went to Gallaudet University in the U.S.A and studied ASL (American Sign language) there.

[Limonette]

English and some German. Just starting Japanese again. I love languages and occasionally start to learn, but don't finish. When I was a kid I started making up my own language, I started with a base of Tarzan's language, then added on. I didn't get too far though. I'm going to learn some Hindi before I go to India, and want to learn Spanish too. (South American Spanish)

I didn't know sign languages were different either - interesting. It'll be interesting to find out what other people here speak - good topic.

[Tsuyoiko]

I speak English, some French, some Spanish and I am learning Japanese. I also speak nonsense, but I don't think that is a language.

[Kara_Nari]

Haha, Tsuyoiko lets make it a language. Im fluent in that.
I forgot to put what I can speak....
When I was younger I studied German, because my mother was shipping me off to Germany for high school, but I chickened out a week before I was supposed to leave, so that put a stop to that.
I learnt Maori all through school, started learning Japanese when I was 8, then in high school I gave it up, and restarted at 20. Started Korean when I was 7 or 8 (around the time of Olympics) but gave that up too, and restarted 3 years ago, but not seriously... now I have no choice but to speak it on a daily basis.
When I was in Thailand I learnt basic Thai, would love to continue with that, same with Khmer (Cambodian). Learnt a bit of Chinese, but havent put it to use for a year or more. Had a fascination with Spanish for a bit, Portuguese too but I wouldnt count any of the last 5 as being worthy of putting it on the poll.

[Kara_Nari]

Wow thats really amazing, Thanks for telling me that.
I just thought it would be easier for them to travel the world if it was a little more internationalised.
Its interesting about the development of regional dialects too. I think I will look into this more. Once again thanks a lot :)

[Maciamo]

If speaking a language is at least understanding what they are talking about in the news on TV or in a movie, then 7. If it means being able to speak the language fluently with native speakers without hesitation, then 4 (6 with a bit of training).

[Jungle Boy]

Only one because I'm a ignorant bastard

One day soon I hope to ship off to University and start learning. Maybee one day I'll get up to around 4-7 wich is my target.

[Kara_Nari]

OH I have met alot more than 4 deaf people, but in Korea I have 'seen' (from a small distance) only 4.
My mother studied Sign language intensively in NewZealand, and sometimes the students would all meet at our house. It was very interesting to watch, hence the reason why I have some interest in it.

[Ma Cherie]

I can speak conversational Japanese and I can some French. However, I tend not to speak French because my level of the language is that of a nine year old.

I know several people that are deaf, and from what I've discovered they could read lips.

[Mike Cash]

I can speak conversational Japanese and I can some French. However, I tend not to speak French because my level of the language is that of a nine year old.

You mean you have a fully developed knowledge of the grammar, an extensive vocabulary, and an easy facility with understanding and producing speech?

[Ma Cherie]

Not quite mikecash, I don't have an extensive vocabulary. My knowledge of grammer is fairly good, but it's not excellant.

[innerfire]

Hmm....nice thread....I can speak Chinese and English, can read a little Japanese(in many cases Japanese simply use Chinese characters without making any change in their meaning), and of course I'm fluent in pascal, delphi, c, java and basic etc......:

[Zauriel]

Kara_Nari, oh, i see.

Ma Cherie, well not all of us deaf can read lips.

[Dutch Baka]

Dutch native
english not bad
japanese Practise more, but i can have short conversations
german well understand 60-80% of it, and speak it a little bit
daves This lanquage is really difficult, i talk it in my sleep most of the time it goes like ttrrr trrutt tturruu ttturrru ttuuurrr uuurrtt * one time i woke up, was E.T. standing besides me,, damm he scared the hell out of me that TRRTTTUTTT

[Ma Cherie]

Dutch native
english not bad
japanese Practise more, but i can have short conversations
german well understand 60-80% of it, and speak it a little bit
daves This lanquage is really difficult, i talk it in my sleep most of the time it goes like ttrrr trrutt tturruu ttturrru ttuuurrr uuurrtt * one time i woke up, was E.T. standing besides me,, damm he scared the hell out of me that TRRTTTUTTT

Oh, dutch I don't mean to laugh but I find this kind of funny. Are you sure it wasn't your imagination?

Just kidding.

[Mike Cash]

I was just sort of wondering if nine year old French kids also refrain from speaking French because they speak like nine year olds....

[Lóstrego Galego]

Galician (native) Spanish, portuguese and catalan.

[Gregory]

Depends on what you mean by "speaking a language".

- I can speak fluently, read and write poetry and essays without any problem in 4 languages: French, English, Arabic and Darija (more commonly called Moroccan dialect, or Moroccan Arabic but it's very different from Arabic actually).

- My German is not too bad according to some of my German friends. I can read works by Franz Kafka (with a dictionary of course), but I still find it very difficult to read Thus Spake Zarathustra by Nietzsche for example.

- My Japanese and Dutch are good (or bad !!) enough to allow me chat on msn, or read some texts, but with some difficulty in both cases.

- My Spanish is the victim of my constant procrastination and laziness. It's getting worse everyday !!!

Hmm... I have a long list of languages to learn.. 20 languages I think. I wonder if I'll live long enough to learn them all !!

[Minty]

How many do you think???

[khatrineluz]

English, Filipino, Spanish...

[raja3]

fluent in English, Telugu,french, malayalam

[TheCaptain]

It depends on what "speaking a language" means.

I am fluent in two languages: Danish and English.

I can read German pretty well, since it's close to Danish, but my knowledge of the grammar isn't so good that I can say I'm fluent in German.

I speak some French. I was pretty good back in high school, but now it's a bit rusty...

Moreover, the Scandinavian languages are mutually intelligible, so I understand Norwegian and Swedish as well. Norwegian is VERY easy for a Danish speaker, since the written language (and vocabulary) is almost the same, the accent is just different.

So I only speak two languages fluently, but I understand five or six...