Agnostic.com

11 2

Do You Speak A Second Or More Language(s) Fluently?

Good Morning and Happy Friday To All.
It Is Said that America is one big melting pot consisting of immigrants from across the globe.

I was curious how many of our citizens are fluent in a Second or More Language(s)?


Being Canadian born, I can speak and write French. I will admit that i am a bit rusty as i have been in the USA and Texas for nearly 30 Years and do not speak French unless
I am speaking with relatives or visiting Canada or France.

My Mom is originally from India and speaks fluent Hindu and French.
My Dad is originally from Morocco and speaks Fluent Arabic and French.

Although i can understand and speak Hindu and Arabic fairly well, i am not Fluent in either.

twshield 8 Jan 25
Share

Enjoy being online again!

Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.

Create your free account

11 comments

Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.

0

I am pretty good with SQL, Python, C#, C++ and Java. 🙂

0

I speak bad Spanish, poor French, lousy German, and pigeon Latin, Russki, and Italian. Plus, I can say caca in seven languages!

0

My perception is a VERY low percentage of Americans can speak a foreign language. That seems to be tied into a lot of ethnocentrism here. Most people think American is the "right" way, and everybody else is wrong for some reason. I see this very clearly when I travel and then return to the U.S.

0

I speak Polish, English, French and basic Russian.

@Byrdsfan Polish is intimidating and so hard to pronounce! Good luck!

1

I speak English fluently, I am a native French speaker and I learned Spanish. Both my kids are trilingual too. Fr/En/Sp, they were at the International School where Monday and Wednesday all the lessons were in Spanish, Tuesdays and Thursdays in French and they got a break on Friday with English. During those days, all the lessons, Math, History whatever was in that language. When they were little like 5, they would speak to the gardener in Spanish swearing they were speaking to him in English (Which he did not speak). Every summer we spend time in France and Spain so we can all practice.
People here fight languages, if the US were bilingual En/Sp the whole population would benefit, many studies have shown that speaking multiple languages has benefits for the brain.

3

I lived and studied in Quebec and learned French well enough for people to think that it was my native tongue. I'm rusty now, but do speak some still. I learned Spanish well enough to get by in Mexico long ago, but it's rusty too. I've studied many more languages and remember some words in each. I will expand my language abilities in the future if an opportunity comes up.

Ah les Québécois!

@twshield Montreal, Laval, Trois-Rivieres. I think that I liked Quebec City the best, but I would really like to explore Quebec much more.

@twshield I bet you mean: "parc plaines d'abraham"

0

I'm learning Spanish since forever. Maybe you need to be young. Or live there.

0

I only know bits and pieces of languages. In some I might know what you are talking about but cannot speak the language myself. With 20 years in the Houston, Texas area I never fully learned Spanish. Again, just bits and pieces.

2

I speak, write, read, and/or understand multiple languages. (Including sarcasm and swear words.)

I speak the swear one too, my mother is always shocked. I on purpose add a few in just for show.

1

Like you, I’ve been out of Canada a long time. My French is incredibly rusty. My home city had a large German and Ukrainian population so I grew up speaking but not writing.

2

I am tri-lingual. I was born and raised in Eastern Europe. I spoke Russian to my mom, and Romanian to my dad. I translated a book into Russian in 2008, and haven't done any written translation since. I do interpret medical calls during the week from home as a VOP interpreter. My dream was to be a synchronized interpreter at the UN. It didn't happen as I got married and my ex-husband didn't allow me to work ;( I am divorced now and pursuing an interpreting career again. My Spanish is not at the level that I could bravely put on my resume as my 4th language!

Well done, keep at it!

@twshield you are correct! Russian is a very difficult language with 6 cases, 3 genders, and an amazingly rich vocabulary, which is often excruciatingly painful to translate word to word. Oh, the nuances of this language! As a Russian interpreter, I always keep in mind the cultural aspects of my LEP (limited English proficiency) clients. There are so many expressions that truly do not have any English equivalents. I am always on the lookout for those, as it is so important to relay them at a snap of one's fingers. Some days I am on top of it, some days I blank like a dumb idiot. I decided to save those expressions in my notes so I can easily type them in and find them. I hate asking my client to gather my notes, LOL! I've met a handful of English speakers who've mastered Russian beautifully without actually living in a Russian speaking country, or community. Those individuals are polyglots, dedicated to their hobby. Very far and few ...Unless one is dedicated to a language learning routine, 20-60 minutes a day of exposure to the language in any form (written, oral), I do not see how it is possible to master a foreign language. I am lucky to have grown up speaking Russian and ROmanian. Had I not, I doubt I'd bother learning either one of them. They are very difficult languages. Magyar is a total bear, Mandarin is not even on my list of language I'd love to learn and I work with Chinese students daily. Thank you for the comment!

Write Comment
You can include a link to this post in your posts and comments by including the text q:273324
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.