How many foreign languages do you speak/read?

tehno

I'm pretty fluent in English and German.My Russian needs a significant improvement,however.

jtbell

Might want to mention your native language, for a point of reference, while you're at it.

As for me, (American) English is my native language. My "best" foreign languages (the ones I try to keep up with by reading regularly, at least) are German and Finnish, so I'll put down "two". I've also studied some Spanish and Russian, so I can read street signs and other simple stuff, but I can't say I know them well.

BobG

My native language is English.

I have the literacy of a two-year-old in about three others.

Kurdt

English is my native language but I speak German and am fairly competant at French.

radou

My native language is Croatian. It's obvious what's the first non-native language I speak, und hier ist auch die zweite solche Sprache.

(...et mon Francais est terrible. )

brewnog

Fluent in English English, can read French, and can speak 'holiday French'. And I can say "cheers" in Finnish!

BobG

Good point. I'm fluent in American English and semi-fluent in English English - at least I know the difference between a zebra crossing and a pelican crossing.

tehno

Croatian is my native language.

Anttech

Finnish? Have you tried Hungarian also? The ugric language group is fascinating as it sounds NOTHING like any other European language

Quaoar

It's surprising to me that 2 foreign languages has the most votes at the moment. Also, whoever made the poll should not have made it legal to select multiple options :D

Kurdt

Is that a good surprise or bad surprise?

radou

Pozdrav, zemljache!

Actually, most of the people speak 2 foreign languages, at least based on my experience.

Quaoar

Good surprise

I kinda doubt this one...perhaps on this forum where most people are intelligent and affluent that's true, but I'm not sure if it's true in general. I would think that most people speak one foreign language because they're either forced to learn a second language in school (my case), or their parents are immigrants and speak another language at home. And unless you spend a significant amount of time in another country that speaks the language you learned in school, it's doubtful that you're going to be fluent in that language.

Jimmy Snyder

My native language is English. I am fluent and literate in Japanese. When I was young I was fluent and literate in Hebrew, but I have forgotten it, so I only gave myself credit for one foreign language. My wife's native language is Chinese. She also speaks Taiwanese and Japanese. She had a hard time when she came to the US as we could only find schools that teach English as a second language.

radou

You're right, but I was actually referring to 'well-educated' people in general (whatever that term is supposed to mean).

brewnog

To speak true English English you must also know the difference between a toucan crossing, a pegasus crossing, and a puffin crossing.

Anttech

I think you would be surprised, in Europe at least the only mono-linguals are typically Francophones and Anglophones. The rest of Europe speaks at least 2 langauges, typically.