# How many languages are you fluent in?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-languages-are-you-fluent-in/422093
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [October 9, 2007, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-languages-are-you-fluent-in/422093 "2007-10-09T14:54:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2007, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-languages-are-you-fluent-in/422093/21 "2007-10-09T20:23:59Z")
Fluent in (including speaking, writing and reading):
1. English
2. Spanish
Somewhat fluent in (including speaking, writing and reading):
1. French
2. Italian
Can converse and read but not write in:
1. Portuguese
I’d really like to learn Hindi or Gujurati, but most of the courses around are only during the day time. I think I’ll need to get a private tutor.
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### Author:  [@Isosleepy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isosleepy)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2007, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-languages-are-you-fluent-in/422093/22 "2007-10-09T20:33:52Z")
Fluent:
English
German
Dutch
needs some work, but used to be fluent - French
actually, scratch that. My French is pretty much lost forever.
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### Author:  [@Timchik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Timchik)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2007, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-languages-are-you-fluent-in/422093/23 "2007-10-09T20:44:25Z")
English and Russian.
Someday I may add French to the list.
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### Author:  [@Euryphaessa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euryphaessa)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2007, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-languages-are-you-fluent-in/422093/24 "2007-10-09T20:53:00Z")
I’m a native English speaker, and provincially certified as an “Advanced” French speaker. 😃
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### Author:  [@CateAyo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CateAyo)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2007, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-languages-are-you-fluent-in/422093/25 "2007-10-09T21:26:21Z")
literate and fluent- English
semi-literate and semi-fluent- Mvskoke (Creek) and Tsalgi (Cherokee)
semi-conversational- Spanish and French
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### Author:  [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2007, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-languages-are-you-fluent-in/422093/26 "2007-10-09T21:27:58Z")
English
Finnish
I also read Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, and French. I could speak French with a friendly and patient native speaker.
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### Author:  [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2007, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-languages-are-you-fluent-in/422093/27 "2007-10-09T21:29:46Z")
[QUOTE=Tapiotar]
I could speak French with a friendly and patient native speaker.
[/QUOTE]
Is there such a thing? 😛
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### Author:  [@lobstermobster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobstermobster)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2007, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-languages-are-you-fluent-in/422093/28 "2007-10-09T22:00:42Z")
[QUOTE=OneCentStamp]
Is there such a thing? 😛
[/QUOTE]
whoaaaaa zing of the daaaaaay! kidding.
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### Author:  [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2007, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-languages-are-you-fluent-in/422093/29 "2007-10-09T22:01:19Z")
Besides English, which is my native language, Spanish.
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### Author:  [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2007, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-languages-are-you-fluent-in/422093/30 "2007-10-09T22:13:23Z")
All of them,
as long as its american.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Socks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Socks)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2007, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-languages-are-you-fluent-in/422093/31 "2007-10-09T22:40:44Z")
I can speak English fluently, am relatively converstional in Spanish, I hope to be fluent in a few years, and can read any language that uses the Latin alphabet, and I can comprehend quite a bit of it.
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### Author:  [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2007, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-languages-are-you-fluent-in/422093/32 "2007-10-09T23:33:45Z")
Common, Elvish, Dvarvish, Ogrish, Thieves’ Cant, and my alignment tongue.
Also, English and Czech. Working on Spanish.
And Orcish.
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### Author:  [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2007, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-languages-are-you-fluent-in/422093/33 "2007-10-10T01:03:49Z")
I’m an anglophone who, according to his high school diploma, is fluent in French.
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### Author:  [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2007, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-languages-are-you-fluent-in/422093/34 "2007-10-10T01:06:44Z")
[QUOTE=pravnik]
Common, Elvish, Dvarvish, Ogrish, Thieves’ Cant, and my alignment tongue.
Also, English and Czech. Working on Spanish.
And Orcish.
[/QUOTE]
Ogres speak Giant, you silly billy.
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### Author:  [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2007, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-languages-are-you-fluent-in/422093/35 "2007-10-10T01:26:44Z")
1. English, although recent threads call question to the degree of fluency of that.
2. Japanese, spoken, written and writing with the help of a word processor
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### Author:  [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2007, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-languages-are-you-fluent-in/422093/36 "2007-10-10T01:27:57Z")
1. English
2. German (by your definition)
However, by no means would I consider myself a fluent German speaker. By your definition, I am. I can (and have) converse with native German speakers, and I can understand them, and they can understand me. I also can listen to German news broadcasts and watch German movies and understand them. I’m currently reading the entire Harry Potter series in German (I finished them in English, so why not read them auf Deutsch!). I can write in German too.
However, I consider fluent to mean it is as natural to me as my native tongue, and German certainly isn’t to me. I probably write German on a 2nd grade level, and when I speak, I often use the simplest words, as I don’t know even close to a comprehensive list of synonyms for most German words. I can understand native speakers, but I often miss certain words and have to get the full meaning from the context of what I do understand.
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### Author:  [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2007, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-languages-are-you-fluent-in/422093/37 "2007-10-10T02:51:00Z")
1. Español (native)
2. English (almost as if)
My extremely limited school French and German are lost in the mists of over a quarter-century of non-use (none of the spoken French was coming back to me when I was in Québec this summer; though I \*could \* get a general sense of what some written materials meant).
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### Author:  [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2007, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-languages-are-you-fluent-in/422093/38 "2007-10-10T04:19:38Z")
English and Finnish, although the grasp of the latter is fading badly from non-use.
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### Author:  [@ASAKMOTSD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASAKMOTSD)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2007, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-languages-are-you-fluent-in/422093/39 "2007-10-10T04:23:17Z")
Including COBOL? (or is that considered a dead language?)
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### Author:  [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2007, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-languages-are-you-fluent-in/422093/40 "2007-10-10T04:29:48Z")
English and trying to learn Spanish. I know enough SoCal Spanish to get by at my taco stand (“Dos tacos de asada por favor! Para llavar!”) but I’d like to be fluent.
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