Are you a Polyglot? Which Languages Can You Speak?

13 years ago

I speak Spanish and English. I tried learning German back in high school but found it hard. I would like to learn Italian.

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Alex Barboza 13 years ago

Originally Posted by Alan Petersen

I speak Spanish and English. I tried learning German back in high school but found it hard. I would like to learn Italian.

Is Spanish your native language or how did you learn it?
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- Alan Petersen 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Alex Barboza
  
  Is Spanish your native language or how did you learn it?
  
  I was born and raised in Costa Rica. My Mom was Costa Rican, Dad American so I grew up speaking both.
  
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Alex Barboza

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Greg Wildermuth

I speak Japanese and English. Japanese is my second language and I think it's one of the world's toughest... If I studied Spanish or something, I'd probably have gotten fluent in 1/4 of the time.

Great! Did you attend a language school or you learned in Japan? Spanish is more difficult than English but definitely easier than Japanese so you sure can learn it quickly

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Sumit Menon

13 years ago

I can speak four languages pretty well- English, Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam, whatever that makes me. But, I'm also trying to learn Spanish online.

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em20346

Banned 13 years ago

english, Spanish

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aussieroo1

13 years ago

I only knew English and Tagalog (native language) and I can say that I am fluent speaker with those two languages but given a chance I would like to learn how to speak French.

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HeySal

13 years ago

I used to speak enough German and French to get by when I lived in Germany - and I took a year of French in college after I got home. I barely remember any of it as there was nobody to speak it with. I actually spoke German in the culture for a year and a half, but I remember more French for some reason. If I were going to learn another one it would be Russian. That's my Mother's ancestry and my grandfather wouldn't allow it spoken when I was growing up because of the cold war. He was scared stiff the family would be hauled off to a concentration camp. So I never got to learn more than 3 or 4 words - mostly the derogatory ones that my grandmother would whisper under her breath about the neighbor lady, LMAO.

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popgals

Banned 13 years ago

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thunderbird 13 years ago

I can speak English, Spanish, and Mandarin. I speak all of them like they're my second language, including English. That is a far cry from making me a polyglot. I knew a guy by the name of Powell Alexander Janulus who spoke over 40 languages and served as a court interpretor for several of them.
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dinhdai88

13 years ago

I read and write English, Vietnamese. I know the French translation, but I do not communicate.

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ussher

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Greg Wildermuth

I speak Japanese and English. Japanese is my second language and I think it's one of the world's toughest... If I studied Spanish or something, I'd probably have gotten fluent in 1/4 of the time.

Wow, I wouldn't call Japanese difficult. I feel like the Japanese trying to learn English have a harder time than English speakers trying to learn Japanese because there is so much slang in English.

Japanese seams to me, for the most part, to be pretty logical and structural.

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TLTheLiberator

13 years ago

I wish I spoke another language in addition to English but that is not my fate.

I hear that French is the best language to curse in.

TL

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Alan Petersen 13 years ago

Originally Posted by TLTheLiberator

I wish I spoke another language in addition to English but that is not my fate.

I hear that French is the best language to curse in.

TL

You can learn to curse in 50+ languages...

Swearing - YouSwear.com
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HeySal

13 years ago

Originally Posted by TLTheLiberator

I hear that French is the best language to curse in.

TL

I disagree. French makes even cussing sound polite, even romantic.

I like to cuss in German - very guttural and emphatic. Gets the real feel of swearing into what you are saying.

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seasoned

13 years ago

Originally Posted by HeySal

I disagree. French makes even cussing sound polite, even romantic.

I like to cuss in German - very guttural and emphatic. Gets the real feel of swearing into what you are saying.

Some FRENCH can sound guttural! And some German sounds pretty and far from guttural. It really depends on who is speaking. Even ENGLISH, especially with some british accents, can sound BAD!

Steve

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TroelsJepsen 13 years ago

Originally Posted by TLTheLiberator

I wish I spoke another language in addition to English but that is not my fate.

I hear that French is the best language to curse in.

TL

I wonder if that's the reason for the expression "Pardon my French"
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Razarulz

13 years ago

i can speak indo , and chinese as my second language i guess, but now im trying to speak fluently in english, maybe i should try to communicate with another people..

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Bradley J Anderson

13 years ago

I did very well with French in school, but over the years I don't remember much at all. I do know some basic 'traveler phrases' in a number of languages, though, if that counts.

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Thomas

13 years ago

I'll bet I'm the only one here that can speak Irish.

I have enough German to get by too.

And I can just about do a passable impression of something that vaguely approximates English too.

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thunderbird 13 years ago

Originally Posted by Thomas

<snip>

And I can just about do a passable impression of something that vaguely approximates English too.

Me, too. My accent is representative of something foreign, maybe not of this earth.
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Alan Petersen

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Thomas

I'll bet I'm the only one here that can speak Irish.

I have enough German to get by too.

And I can just about do a passable impression of something that vaguely approximates English too.

That's still around?

I've always been intrigued with that language. Sorry if this is a dumb question but is Irish Gaelic and Welsh similar?

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Thomas 13 years ago

Originally Posted by Alan Petersen

That's still around?

'Tiz.

Originally Posted by Alan Petersen

...is Irish Gaelic and Welsh similar?

'Tizn't.

(They're not mutually intelligible, at least not nowadays; they're both insular Celtic languages, but of two very distinct and different branches. In fact, I'm not sure if they ever were mutually intelligible, to be honest.)
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Jurrie

13 years ago

i speak dutch , english , french and some german
Dutch is my naitve language, but i can truly say english is becoming close to be my second native language, lol , courtesy to my american friends

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Snappinn

13 years ago

I speak Icelandic (Native language) English (Second) then I had to learn Danish in School from the age of 10 to the age of 18 I hated it. I always speak English to a Danish person and i bet they don't like it sins we use to be their colony, I can read Danish Norwegian and Swedish and will understand pretty much what I am reading.

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seasoned

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Snappinn

I speak Icelandic (Native language) English (Second) then I had to learn Danish in School from the age of 10 to the age of 18 I hated it. I always speak English to a Danish person and i bet they don't like it sins we use to be their colony, I can read Danish Norwegian and Swedish and will understand pretty much what I am reading.

Well, norwegian, and Swedish ARE close to danish. If not for the slang, the accent, and the choices of alphabets(ALL added dfferent letters to the basic latin alphabet), they may be virtually IDENTICAL. Funny how things change.

I was once in denmark, with my danish aunt and a few of her danish friends and I asked if all danes could speak english as well as she could. One of her friends laughed and said NOPE! I met a woman at the train station and, having a little trouble understanding her accent, I asked her "Taler Du tysk?" "Taler Du fransk?" "Taler Du Engelsk?" And she said Nej to each one! If she wasn't kidding, MAN! How do you go on vacation? I guess she could go to flensborg, or a scandinavian country, but that is IT. Of course, I was on a train with 3 danish teenagers, and they spoke english well, even if THEY didn't think

I travel in the US a LOT, and haven't kept up like I wanted, but I speak a little spanish, French, german, and danish, in addition to my native english. I HAVE tried hindi also. But it is REAL easy to find yourself having to relearn some simple stuff. All languages I mentioned have VERY simlar alphabets, and the letters don't change. Hindi has MORE letters, and they DO change. I once estimated about 150 variants. And some may sound different to indians, but they don't sound different to me. Of course, the language was revived from sanscrit which was probably once dead, and most indians learn it as a second language, if at all.

Steve

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Patrician

13 years ago

I speak only English and Broken English.

Seriously since the US has gone 'Global' and of course The World-Wide-Web, I am speaking to more and more people speaking Broken English.

After awhile I start speaking Broken English - it's pretty cute.

The new Valley Girl Speak. omigod - broken english

Now Fractured English, yes I can speak that also.

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hardraysnight

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Patrician

I speak only English and Broken English.

Seriously since the US has gone 'Global' and of course The World-Wide-Web, I am speaking to more and more people speaking Broken English.

After awhile I start speaking Broken English - it's pretty cute.

The new Valley Girl Speak. omigod - broken english

Now Fractured English, yes I can speak that also.

US Has gone global or the english language in its many fgorms has gone global.

Many students are flocking to Australia and New Zealand, as well as the UK to enhancetheir English Skills.

English, the language is global yes.

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Bradley J Anderson

13 years ago

Are 'Pig Latin' and 'Ubby Dubby' languages?

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whateverpedia

13 years ago

I can speak English, but with a variety of accents.

The Queen's English, Yorkshire, Geordie, Brummie, Cockney, Welsh, Irish, refined Australian, Ocker (slang Aussie), Kiwi, Texan, Californian, Bostonian, New Yorker, Canadian, South African, Indian and probably more but can't think of them right now.

All picked up by talking to people from those places, movies and TV.

In high school my French teacher told me I was the first non-native who could speak French with a French accent she'd ever met. That was a long time ago though, and I've forgotten most of it by now.

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seasoned

13 years ago

Originally Posted by whateverpedia

I can speak English, but with a variety of accents.

The Queen's English, Yorkshire, Geordie, Brummie, Cockney, Welsh, Irish, refined Australian, Ocker (slang Aussie), Kiwi, Texan, Californian, Bostonian, New Yorker, Canadian, South African, Indian and probably more but can't think of them right now.

All picked up by talking to people from those places, movies and TV.

In high schooll my French teacher told me I was the first non-native who could speak French with a French accent she'd ever met. That was a long time ago though, and I've forgotten most of it by now.

Well, most American English accents aren't even really shown anymore. One TEXAS guy had a texan accent, tried to get into the movies, etc... , and apparently people had a BIG problem with his accent! He finally started getting good roles AFTER he adopted a BRITISH accent!

John Hillerman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Odd, HUH? Look at hugh laurie(sp?) He played the nice even tempered father on stuart little, and the arrogant jerk like character on House, but he did it by LOSING his british accent! And it WASN'T because it was an american drama/movie. PLENTY have british accents or even seem to be 100% british.

As for indian, do you speak INGLISH also? There are some common, seemingly TAUGHT mistakes that make it almost like another language at times, so I call it INGLISH!

Steve

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whateverpedia

13 years ago

Originally Posted by seasoned

Well, most American English accents aren't even really shown anymore. One TEXAS guy had a texan accent, tried to get into the movies, etc... , and apparently people had a BIG problem with his accent! He finally started getting good roles AFTER he adopted a BRITISH accent!

John Hillerman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Odd, HUH? Look at hugh laurie(sp?) He played the nice even tempered father on stuart little, and the arrogant jerk like character on House, but he did it by LOSING his british accent! And it WASN'T because it was an american drama/movie. PLENTY have british accents or even seem to be 100% british.

As for indian, do you speak INGLISH also? There are some common, seemingly TAUGHT mistakes that make it almost like another language at times, so I call it INGLISH!

Steve

My Indian accent is more of a parody than genuine Inglish.

All good actors have to be able to do a range of accents these days.

Some examples - Meryl Streep doing an Aussie accent in Evil Angels; the American cast members of The Lord Of The Rings doing a variety of British accents; Nicole Kidman doing American accents in a number of films; Leonardo di Caprio doing a South African accent in Blood Diamonds, and so on, and so on.

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hardraysnight

13 years ago

Originally Posted by whateverpedia

My Indian accent is more of a parody than genuine Inglish.

All good actors have to be able to do a range of accents these days.

Some examples - Meryl Streep doing an Aussie accent in Evil Angels; the American cast members of The Lord Of The Rings doing a variety of British accents; Nicole Kidman doing American accents in a number of films; Leonardo di Caprio doing a South African accent in Blood Diamonds, and so on, and so on.

Anthony Hopkins in 'The World's Fastest Indian,' adopted a southern New Zealand accent, with varying success. We gave him 8 out of 10.

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focused

13 years ago

Actually very few Hollywood actors can pull off an effective accent. They aren't trained to do so, and when they do make the attempt it's often laughably bad.

Originally Posted by whateverpedia

My Indian accent is more of a parody than genuine Inglish.

All good actors have to be able to do a range of accents these days.

Some examples - Meryl Streep doing an Aussie accent in Evil Angels; the American cast members of The Lord Of The Rings doing a variety of British accents; Nicole Kidman doing American accents in a number of films; Leonardo di Caprio doing a South African accent in Blood Diamonds, and so on, and so on.

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mologic

13 years ago

english, spanish, c#, little bit of ebonics

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espe

13 years ago

english, spanish and portuguese

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Alex Barboza 13 years ago

Originally Posted by espe

english, spanish and portuguese

Portuguese is the language I will learn next. After that, I probably try Esperanto. I think I can be called a polyglot speaking 4 languages, or do I need more?
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Pauline60

13 years ago

Dia duit a Thomas, conas atá tú? You are not the only one, but my Irish is very limited.

Pauline

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Roaddog

13 years ago

I speak every language in the world, except Greek...

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Alex Barboza 13 years ago

Originally Posted by Roaddog

I speak every language in the world, except Greek...

seriously?
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- Roaddog 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Alex Barboza
  
  seriously?
  
  Go ahead, ask me about a particular language.
  
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  Alex Barboza 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Roaddog
  
  Go ahead, ask me about a particular language.
  
  Do you speak Esperanto (I think it's Speranto in English)?
  
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  Roaddog 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Alex Barboza
  
  Do you speak Esperanto (I think it's Speranto in English)?
  
  That's Greek to me
  
  Actually I speak English, Spanish and Tagalog...all equally badly.
  
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  Alex Barboza 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Roaddog
  
  That's Greek to me
  
  Actually I speak English, Spanish and Tagalog...all equally badly.
  
  lol! I should have imagined that you were planning a joke
  
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Dennis Gaskill 13 years ago

Originally Posted by Roaddog

I speak every language in the world, except Greek...

I'm a little like you, I speak every language in the world, too ... as long as it's English.

Good joke you had, Jim.

Actually I only speak English and Nonsense, but I'm really good at Nonsense.
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tiwi

13 years ago

I speak Korean ^^... and English and Spanish. Now I am studying Japanese..

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Brazilraider

13 years ago

hey Alex,

I'm an American living in Brazil. I am working on becoming fluent in Portuguese.

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seasoned

13 years ago

As I recall, chinese is FAR harder than Japanese. It is like when I and two others compared the ways to say pony. The chinese person said it was show ma(little horse). As I recall, the last a has to go down in pitch and then back up. If it doesn't, he said it would sound like a swear word! He didn't say which. 8-( Luckily, when HE said it, the pitch change was obvious. I still wouldn't trust listening to another. I don't THINK japanese has that problem.

And chinese has more characters, right?

Steve

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thunderbird

13 years ago

Originally Posted by seasoned

As I recall, chinese is FAR harder than Japanese. I

<snip>

No, way, José. If someone isn't tone-deaf, Chinese is far easier than Japanese, especially for an English speaker since Chinese grammar structure is remarkably similar to English (but quite a bit simpler). Japanese grammar is very complex and the verbs change according to who you're speaking to, whether they're older, younger, boss, underling. In contrast, Chinese grammar is very simple. Far simpler than, say, French or Spanish (none of that masculine, feminine words, future and past tenses, etc. etc.)

Originally Posted by seasoned

And chinese has more characters, right?

Steve

Nope. Japanese incorporates Chinese characters along with two other alphabets.

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seasoned

13 years ago

Originally Posted by thunderbird

<snip>

No, way, José. If someone isn't tone-deaf, Chinese is far easier than Japanese, especially for an English speaker since Chinese grammar structure is remarkably similar to English (but quite a bit simpler). Japanese grammar is very complex and the verbs change according to who you're speaking to, whether they're older, younger, boss, underling. In contrast, Chinese grammar is very simple. Far simpler than, say, French or Spanish (none of that masculine, feminine words, future and past tenses, etc. etc.)

Nope. Japanese incorporates Chinese characters along with two other alphabets.

OK, I hadn't known that about the japanese grammar, although some chinese ARE known for making such mistakes, and I was surprised but finally understood when I heard that about the language. As for the alphabet, I heard the other two were FAR simpler, and only part of chinese was used. I'm going to have to look at that again. I have books on both languages at home, but that is far from here. 8-(

As for tone deaf, I guess that is in the eye of the beholder. I am FAR from tone deaf. I can tell if someone is even slightly off on a note, and was able to tune the pitch on a tape recorder to computer precision even a year after hearing one tuned like that. I've been told my danish accent is beautiful, by several danes, and my uncle asked me not to speak danish at the border because they may take me as a dane. They don't use pitch to convey meaning any more than english, but it IS a strong part of the accent. And the danish border officials don't dislike danes, obviously, but import restrictions are harsher for danish residents than they are for americans. My uncle was a smoker and, as an American resident, I was allowed to take more cigarettes into the country. As for singing, I can sing well too.

Still, at least one chinese person gave me a few examples, and swore he wasn't kidding, and I couldn't hear the difference. I have EVEN read theories that speak of babies having parts of the brain, like one to discern pitch, where the ability basically degrades quickly if it isn't used.

Steve

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thunderbird 13 years ago

Originally Posted by seasoned

<snip>
Still, at least one chinese person gave me a few examples, and swore he wasn't kidding, and I couldn't hear the difference. <snip>

Since you have a good ear for musical pitches, you could easily learn to discern the difference in Chinese tones at any age. Hearing it once, sure, you might not pick it up right away. Hear it over and over again, and you will. I don't care if you're 85 (provided your brain is in good shapel). I don't have a particularly good ear for music and notes, yet learned Mandarin in my twenties. I could learn just about any language within a span of months, I'll wager, and I'm not good at languages. People don't learn other languages, not out of any inherent inability, but due to simply not making the necessary effort to do so.
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dagaul101

13 years ago

It's great to be able to speak multiple languages, especially as the net has made boundaries non-existent

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focused

13 years ago

english, german, latin

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bravo75

13 years ago

I speak fluent German and reasonable Dutch.

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hardraysnight

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Greg Wildermuth

I took a semester of Chinese in college and I now speak Japanese, so here's my 2 cents (2 yen, whatever... okay 2 yen is about 3 cents now I think):

Chinese is really hard to pronounce but far easier to understand, and the grammar is like English (subject-verb-object). It's also way simpler grammatically than most European languages.

Japanese is really easy at the outset - easy to pronounce and grammar is really simple. Then as you begin studying it, it destroys your brain entirely and you have to learn entirely new ways of thinking. But it's a cool language because it's so unique.

And by the way, Japanese has 4 writing systems all used within the same sentence sometimes - Japanese characters, two different alphabets and also English letters.

But the big thing about Chinese, is the Chinese love your trying to speak Chinese, very encouraging and patient.

I live in China and can speak enough Chinese to get by, shopping, travel, food. and compliments.

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thunderbird

13 years ago

Originally Posted by oncewerewarriors

But the big thing about Chinese, is the Chinese love your trying to speak Chinese, very encouraging and patient.

I live in China and can speak enough Chinese to get by, shopping, travel, food. and compliments.

What city do you live in? China must be very different from when I was there, at a time when I had to go to a 5 Star hotel if I wanted to have a decent cup of coffee. I gather there are Starbucks all over the place now.

I got different reactions from people in China. I think often it was like as if they saw a talking dog, hearing the words but not believing their eyes. Sometimes, the reaction was more like, of course the "big nose" speaks the "common language" (pu tong hua), that's why it's called the common language, duh.

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sterndal

13 years ago

if you speak Spanish and Portuguese you're still not a polyglot

you're just bilingual

the only person i know who is a certified polyglot is Dr. Jose Rizal, the Philippines' national hero

he speaks 22 languages!

can you imagine how many languages are that?

plus he also knows plenty of dialects

now that is true a polyglot

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Adriana Copaceanu

13 years ago

I speak Romanian (my mother language) and English. And I understand 20%-30% Spanish, depending on the subject of the conversation.

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albertosm

13 years ago

does sign language count?

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thunderbird 13 years ago

Originally Posted by albertosm

does sign language count?

Absolutely it does.
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derekwong28

13 years ago

I am in Hong Kong and nobody winces anymore when they hear a Westerner speaks perfect Cantonese or Mandarin. I have met a number of Westerners who speaks much better than Cantonese than myself. The methods used for teaching Westerners Chinese must have improved dramatically in recent years.