Language Poll

[icantdraw]

Seems to me that people from countries other than the US seem to speak more than one language more so than people from the US. Please take this poll and or post your opinion on the subject. I am from the US and speak only english...Suprise, Suprise.


NOTE: OTHER LANGUAGE SPOKEN IN ADDITION TO ENGLISH MUST BE SPOKEN FLUENTLY OR NEAR FLUENTLY

[freddie]

OK let's say that I know slovenian, croatian and english

I also understand quite a bit of german (I just can't seem to learn it properly) some italian and "get" something from most of the slavic languages (not polish 'though:D)

I think that all you native english speakers out there are very fortunate, 'cause you don't have the need to learn another language. English is spoken all over the world.

[KooReeT]

I believe knowing many languages is a beautiful thing. I am fluent in Spanish, a little Italian and now I am trying to get into Russian and German. I'm gonna take some classes around June/July for Russian though.

[icantdraw]

see thats another thing, seems that people from US have no need to learn different languages, but ive been to europe, where it would make sence to know multiple languages, as the countries are much smaller and more interconnected with each other.

I would love to learn more languages, but im no good at it, i took 3 years of spanish, which is supposedly easy to learn, but i never caught on, Im also interested in Latin, but that would be usless to learn since the uhhhh...romans arnt around anymore...

[Ghalib]

The more languages that you speak will eventually make the world less intimidating and less ignorant.

I am fortunate to speak Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi, Farsi, Mir Pur, Arabic ...:dknow:

Living in the UK has exposed me to elements of Spanish, French and German. :done:

When you translate into how many the countries that these languages are spoken in then you will see that the world is really a very small place. :heh:

[Charles]

Monolingual US citizen here.

It is too bad the US education system assumes you don't need to learn another language. The only case where I know another language is truely required in the US is at the college level for some fields (German for chemistry for example).

I've spent about six weeks in Paris. In preperation I took a year of French in college. I couldn't speak it worth a damn, but I could understand some, and read fairly well. I figured if I was going to be there, I should have a clue at least. One of my favorite memories was a couple from Texas talking very loudly, and very slowly asking for direction. A group of eight to ten Parisians were gathered around acting like they didn't understand the Texans. The two Texans just talked louder, and slower like that would help. In my experience, given 10 random Parisians, there is someone who speaks English. Moral of the story: the French are fiercly proud of their language, and if you act like the ugly american while abroud, expect to be treated poorly.

[Echoed]

No offence to Parisians, but my friends have been to Paris, and the locals were less than welcoming. And we're French-speakers, in a mainly francophone province. Lol.

I'm polylingual. And I love it. *Dances.* Of course, knowing more than one language makes me mix things up sometimes. And then, I end talking three languages at the same time and confusing all my friends. :D Yay!

~Echo.

[shizzo]

Also polylingual, though I might doubt the existence of that adjective. ;)

I convinced a Hungarian once that I was also Hungarian. Absolutely the proudest ten-minute conversation in my life. :D

[Echoed]

Lol. The word doesn't exist. Someone said "polylingual" to me once and it just stuck. So I use it all the time. Hee.

Mr. cniaju is a crazy linguist. :D He r0x0rz.

~Echo.

[YLuelniaa]

i dont like this poll because i come off as dumb...cause i know other languages but i am not way nearly fluent in em' doh

[russkayatatu]

same here...not with Hungarian though (which is a lot harder than any languages I know) :). In Russia I pass for a Russian; I was once questioned by a suspicious babushka who thought I was dressed too casually, but by the end of the conversation she was convinced that I was visiting from Moscow :)

Languages are a lot of fun.

[freddie]

I'd like to see a foreign person pass as a slovenian. I'd give him a medal immediately. It's one of the harder languages (if you're not slavic). Let me just mention that we are the only ones who don't have just "singular" and "plural", we also have special rules for double (two persons - it's not plural yet).
I know some americans who live in Slovenia for about 20 years and they still sound completely american.

[goku]

Well, as for me, I fluently speak Russian, French, and English..

I'm learning Japanese too! :done:

[marko86]

I am from Canada and I speak English perfectly. I also speak Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian...

[lem0n]

I am canadian.. although I live in the US now.. and am happy to say Freddie, that for 19 years of my life, I passed as slovenian every summer, in fact, I had a hard time convincing new people I met there that I was Canadian.

:D

I speak.. english, french and slovene... I understand croatian but I would be lying if I said I was fluent ... I would love to learn Italian next =)

[Ripptyd]

I'm from the US and speak English (Sometimes fluently. *grins* Just kidding!) I've taken 2 years of Spanish and will take my 2nd year of Latin next year. Also, taking Russian from a Ukrainian teacher at school with our own free time (A nice, small school club). She rocks. :)

[dare2dream28]

I'm from the U.S. but have taken 5 years of French during school. Bad part is we never spoke it so I can read it without any trouble, can sometimes write it, but ask me to speak it and I'm like "Uhh, could you write that down?" LOL I wish I could speak another language fluently though. I think it's awesome that there are so many people on this forum that speak (well, type anyway :p) English so well you would never be able to tell it was their second language. :done:

[freddie]

Originally posted by lem0n
I am canadian.. although I live in the US now.. and am happy to say Freddie, that for 19 years of my life, I passed as slovenian every summer, in fact, I had a hard time convincing new people I met there that I was Canadian.

:D

I speak.. english, french and slovene... I understand croatian but I would be lying if I said I was fluent ... I would love to learn Italian next =)

Then I must congratulate you. I've never seen anything like it.

[teeny]

Funny question:)

Being from Denmark I'm pretty near fluent in danish..:heh:
but does that count as the one language besides english? Perhaps not, but in that case I understand german, but don't speak it very well.

I can understand swedish and norwegian too.. (not hard for a Scandinavian though)

[Tatu fan stefan]

I speak English and Dutch, a little German and French
I'm from the nethetlands

[pacmangirl]

Well i can say i speak spanish and english fluently, and french nearly fluent.. well i can carry on a conversation. i, too, thanks to our lovely t.A.T.u. girls, am trying to learn russian :) italian is also on my list... woohoo for knowing 5 languages!! :D

[Libertarian]

Russian, English, French and German all fluently, and I live in USA.

[Poked]

I speak some French and Japanese... but not near fluently...heh.... -.-;;

[Charles]

I saw this and laughed. It nicely sums up the typical US attitude on foreign languages.


A Swiss man, looking for directions, pulls up at a bus stop where two Americans are waiting.

"Entschuldigung, koennen Sie Deutsch sprechen?" he asks. The two Americans just stare at him.

"Excusez-moi, parlez vous Francais?" he tries. The two continue to stare.

"Parlare Italiano?" No response.

"Hablan ustedes Espanol?" Still nothing.

The Swiss guy drives off, extremely disgusted. The first American turns to the second and says, "Y'know, maybe we should learn a foreign language."

"Why?" says the other. "That guy knew four languages, and it didn't do him any good."

[shizzo]

Ouch - talk about harping on a stereotype.
[I love that joke, though. :D]

[afireinside12]

im from uk and i speak english and french fluently, and german near-fluently, and im learning russian and swedish

[KillaQueen]

ok... i am from romania and speak: romanian (duh!), english, french, spanish and italian quite well if i do say so myself.

did 7 years of german yet i don't remember almost anything lol and i also know a bit of russian, just a few little tiny words lol.