# Do you speak 2+ languages? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 17, 2003, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-2-languages/202127 "2003-09-17T13:38:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![the\_Scarlet\_Pimpernel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f1d935/32.png) [@the\_Scarlet\_Pimpernel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_Scarlet_Pimpernel)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2003, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-2-languages/202127/21 "2003-09-18T11:10:41Z")
I speak English fluently, Danish and German almost-fluently, read and understand a bit of French, and now Im starting on Dutch and Italian. It is definitely addictive. I have a huge list of languages I want to learn. I used to be much better in French than I am now - could carry on conversations and everything. I learned French after I learned Danish. I dont remember having any particular problems learning it (Im all for the immersion method - if you dont eat unless you ask for your dinner in that language, you learn _real fast_), but neither do I remember my Danish being a particular help. My French _is_ helping me with Italian, and the other three with Dutch. So far Im having no problems keeping the two separate, but I dont know what it would be like if I tried to learn two Romance languages at once, or two Germanic ones. I agree with **universe** - it’s all about getting to the point where you think the way the language requires, rather than consciously translating. In my experience, once I get to that point, learning the language goes _much_ easier and faster. ---
**Author:** ![Dragon\_Phoenix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@Dragon\_Phoenix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragon_Phoenix)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2003, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-2-languages/202127/22 "2003-09-18T11:17:30Z")
I’m fluent in Dutch, English and German, and can manage in French. My wife is fluent in Shanghainese, Mandarin and English. I have tried to learn Mandarin, but got nowhere beyond 100 words. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2003, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-2-languages/202127/23 "2003-09-18T11:47:38Z")
Native Speaker of English and Hebrew. Learning two completely different alphabets early on in life makes it easier to pick up additoinal ones - I have no problem reading Cyrillic (phonetically - I generally have little to no idea what it means) And, when I was in South Korea, I amazed my hosts by picking up Hangul in three days from looking at bi-lingual signs (Korean Hangul with English transliteration of names). Again, can’t understand a word for the life of me, but after a week I was capable of pronouncing most of what I saw written. In addition, I took French in high-school. Makes me capable of communication (two way) in French, and of understanding Italian and Spanish fairly well if written or spoken S-L-O-W-L-Y ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2003, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-2-languages/202127/24 "2003-09-18T12:30:15Z")
I’m only fluent in English, but I have varying degrees of competency in Spanish, French and Irish. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2003, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-2-languages/202127/25 "2003-09-18T12:50:09Z")
Native speaker of English here. I agree with everyone upthread who said that studying languages can become habit-forming. **Empress Jolrael** , there are a number of people of these boards who speak Esperanto. I got into it about five years ago, and found that it kinda greased my brain for languages, and as a result all the French I had in public and high school has become much more accessible. So much so, that I’ve just signed up for French lessons! 🙂 At the placement test to determine what level of French lesson I would start in, I was amazed to discover that I could understand pretty much everything the lady said to me, but I couldn’t really respond. She said I had a large ‘passive’ vocabulary. I was enormously heartened by this. I was also exposed to German in high school, but didn’t get nearly as far in it as I did in French. But after French, the next language I want to study is Japanese. Sumerian cuneiform? **overlyverbose** , that is _tres_ cool. 🙂 One thing that helps, I found, is to follow one’s interests into a new language. I’m into cartoons, and both French and Japanese have _major_ cartooning cultures. ---
**Author:** ![Blackeyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f6c823/32.png) [@Blackeyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackeyes)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2003, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-2-languages/202127/26 "2003-09-20T03:43:04Z")
I’m learning Latin. It’s a neat language to learn, because everything sounds sophisticated when in Latin. Try some popular phrases and translate them. As soon as I learn how to say, “Journey freakin rocks, man!” I’ll be set. To read it is only moderately difficult, but to communicate it to someone else is as hard as hell. Did you know there are 36 forms of one adjective word, depending on how the noun it modifies is used in a sentence? Or that nouns and verbs all belong into different conjugations, with different endings for each case? I am beginning to learn French, and amazingly I know more immediately useful information than from my greater experience in Latin. In a couple years I plan to learn Arabic Mandarin, and to try Persian. ---
**Author:** ![wei](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90ced4/32.png) [@wei](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wei)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2003, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-2-languages/202127/27 "2003-09-20T04:58:58Z")
English is my primary language, but I can speak Mandarin fluently, although I have a limited vocabulary, and to a certain extent, Spanish. As for greasing my brain, I’ve signed up for classes in Mandarin for school, just for kicks and to a bit to extend my vocab. ---
**Author:** ![Zenpea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Zenpea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenpea)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2003, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-2-languages/202127/28 "2003-09-20T16:21:18Z")
Yeah, it does become an addiction. I taught myself the entirety of the Esperanto grammar last week. Do it - it’s really easy. I think the entire world should be forced to learn esperanto grammar in school and walk around with a dictionary because you just can’t go wrong with it. But other than that, I do German fluently, French not so fluently (since I muddle with German) and Japanese in a vague stumbling fashion. I did an Arabic course but got sick and missed two classes so I’ll start that again this year. Languages are easier to learn if you don’t translate them into your native language. Instead of thinking of the object that the word ‘cat’ refers to in English as a cat, think of it as ‘eine Katze’ or ‘la chat’ or ‘neko’ or whatever. If you keep doing that you’ll find that words start to stick. It’s tough to get used to the idea and I find it almost impossible for really outlandish languages but there’s no way to pick them up quicker. -James ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2003, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-2-languages/202127/29 "2003-09-20T20:30:49Z")
_Saluton_, **Zenpea**! Antauxpretigxu por eniri la Verdstelan Zonon! 🙂 Time to make a T-shirt: “Esperanto greased my brain.” 🙂 How many of those learning languages had exposure to more than one language when you were young, especially before puberty? They started me on French when I was in grade seven (I think), and I continued with it until grade 12\*, so I’ve got it kinda buried back there waiting for revival. And of course in Canda there’s always the bilingual packaging, which we see on a daily basis. How much more difficult would it be to pick up a new language if you had _never_ seen any language other than your birth tongue until adulthood? Just knowing that there is more than one way of thinking is an important step; actually starting to learn another language and experiencing for yourself that it’s different is another. OTOH, how many people does that apply to, apart from maybe North Koreans? If you live in a large city anywhere, you will encounter more than one language. [sub]\* I just read in _l’Actualité_\*\* that Ontario schools are starting the English-speaking kids on French in grade one. Wish I’d started then. I might have gotten fluent in high school… **Like _Macleans_** \*, but French. _ **Like Time or Newsweek, but Canadian** _\*. \*\*\*\*I like footnotes. So there.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_With_The_Golden_Gun)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2003, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-2-languages/202127/30 "2003-09-20T20:45:32Z")
No Nein Non ? Não ? Geen ??? ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2003, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-2-languages/202127/31 "2003-09-21T06:07:14Z")
I grew up speaking only English, but I can get by pretty well in Hebrew, and to a slightly lesser extent, Spanish. (Used to be better at both, gotten worse due to lack of use.) I can read other Romance languages pretty well, even French, which I cannot understand spoken _at all_. Yes, it is an addiction, although I’ve never thought of it as such til now. I took Arabic for a while last year, and while I’d love to continue it, I think I need to work on my Hebrew and Spanish first, and finish what I’ve started. I also want to learn Persian. ---
**Author:** ![Medievalist2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e19adc/32.png) [@Medievalist2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Medievalist2)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2003, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-2-languages/202127/32 "2003-09-21T09:38:37Z")
I studied Spanish in elementary school. I’ve studied French since ninth grade. I’ve also studied Latin, German, Old English, and Old Norse, and I’m starting on Italian and classical Greek. I’d definitely call it an addiction, but it’s one that will be helpful to me in my chosen field. ---
**Author:** ![chattywine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5daacb/32.png) [@chattywine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chattywine)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2003, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-2-languages/202127/33 "2003-09-21T10:47:22Z")
English is my primary language followed closely by Italian. I took Italian eons ago in college, of course forgot all but the simplest of phrases until I moved here to Italia. Studied German in college as well, I know enough to be polite. Picked up conversational Punjabi and Hindi from my ex, understand written and spoken Spanish and Portugese and written French (from the help of learning Italian I’m sure). Currently attempting Hebrew. Little did I know the vowels are not written. Makes it that much more of a challenge. I envy my daughter she’s bi-lingual, well tri is you count Sicilian as an actual language as opposed to dialect and she seems to be picking up Hebrew and Japanese, the first from me playing the language learning CDs, second from cartoons. Yep, I’d say tis an addiction 🙂 **alterego** if you ever make it down to the NAS Sig area [look us up](http://www.etnahash.com) ! ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2003, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-2-languages/202127/34 "2003-09-21T13:01:23Z")
My first language is **English**. I started **French** in pre-school (in rural Quebec) and continued in French immersion through elementary school (in Winnipeg). I had regular French classes in middle (still in Winnipeg) and high school and cegep (in Montreal) and became fluent while living with a Quebecois and working in a French environment. I learned **Esperanto** by myself while in cegep. I started **Spanish** in cegep, did my minor in Hispanic studies at uni, and took my advanced spanish course in Valladolid, Spain. Also at uni, I took beginner’s and intermediate **Italian** , with some success, as well as **German** , which was a dismal failure. I also decided I really like **Catalan** , which I found I could read with slight difficulty when I was in Barcelona, and would very much like to learn to speak it. ---
**Author:** ![Rashak\_Mani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@Rashak\_Mani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rashak_Mani)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2003, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-2-languages/202127/35 "2003-09-21T13:05:35Z")
Portuguese Speaker here. I also speak English and Spanish… modicum of French. Any Portuguese speaker that learns another language “opens” up a bit and can easily get along with Spanish… Brazilians that speak only portuguese funny enough have a harder time with Spanish. ---
**Author:** ![Blackeyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f6c823/32.png) [@Blackeyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackeyes)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-2-languages/202127/36 "2003-09-22T08:15:55Z")
Old English. I had the opportunity to hear some Friday. That’s a language I want to know how to speak. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-2-languages/202127/37 "2003-09-22T11:27:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by chattywine \* > **alterego** if you ever make it down to the NAS Sig area [look us up](http://www.etnahash.com) ! \*\* Yikes that’s an 8-hour trip by train car and ferry! =) You can hit me up on AIM if you want, ‘USS Spanky’ ---
**Author:** ![karomon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@karomon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/karomon)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-2-languages/202127/38 "2003-09-22T11:46:13Z")
I am fluent in English and Polish. I had the basic high school French and now I’m learning Korean. I found that knowing both Polish and English helped me in my French, as I was more open to a different grammatical system. Also, the three languages are somewhat related - I could “French up” either an English word or a Polish word, and odds are that one of these would be correct. Korean is something else. The alphabet is groin-grabbingly easy to learn, but as for the vocabulary and the grammar, it’s like pulling teeth. ---
**Author:** ![xejkh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/22d042/32.png) [@xejkh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xejkh)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-2-languages/202127/39 "2003-09-22T15:31:19Z")
I am fluent in English, Mandarin Chinese, and enough Japanese to survive in Japan. I can also speak one and a half Chinese dialects. I grew up speaking these languages except for Japanese, which I learnt (and am still learning) in school. I don’t think I’m addicted; I do enjoy learning and picking up languages - though not successfully. But once you start thinking about how languages work you’d be amazed by how we actually manage to communicate with each other. ---
**Author:** ![xejkh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/22d042/32.png) [@xejkh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xejkh)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-2-languages/202127/40 "2003-09-22T15:40:14Z")
I am fluent in English, Mandarin Chinese, and enough Japanese to survive in Japan. I can also speak one and a half Chinese dialects. I grew up speaking these languages except for Japanese, which I learnt (and am still learning) in school. I don’t think I’m addicted; I do enjoy learning and picking up languages - though not successfully. But once you start thinking about how languages work you’d be amazed by how we actually manage to communicate with each other. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-2-languages/202127.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-speak-2-languages/202127.md?page=3)