# What language can you speak? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 13, 2004, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-can-you-speak/259618 "2004-08-13T00:20:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![gouda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c77e96/32.png) [@gouda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gouda)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-can-you-speak/259618/21 "2004-08-13T10:24:57Z")
I speak English very fluently Hindi, not really all that well Ich kann Deutch, anscheinend besser als ich mich vorgestellt habe. Hablo Espanol, pero solamente un poco I can read Dutch (yes, I know no one asked what I can read) ---
**Author:** ![auRa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@auRa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auRa)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-can-you-speak/259618/22 "2004-08-13T11:01:01Z")
Suomi on äidinkieleni. English is my second native language. J’ai aussi etudié le français pour 12 ans, mais il fait longtemps que je l’ai parlé. Svenska har jag aldrig läst i skolan, men jag har lärt det mig själv. Ich spreche auch ein bißchen Deutsch, aber nur ein bißchen. Um… I guess that’s it. I also know a few phrases in Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Swahili and Hebrew, but not enough to get by in. ---
**Author:** ![Spiny\_Norman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Spiny\_Norman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiny_Norman)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-can-you-speak/259618/23 "2004-08-13T11:48:38Z")
Dansk er mit modersmaal. I like to believe I speak comprehensible English. Ich spreche mehr oder weniger verstehbares Deutsch. Je parle en peu Francais. - and I can modify my Danish to a sort of Inter-Scandi pidgin when I need to communicate with Swedes and/or Norwegians, but it ain’t pretty. ---
**Author:** ![noname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58f4c7/32.png) [@noname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/noname)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-can-you-speak/259618/24 "2004-08-13T12:14:24Z")
I speak English. Aur Hindi mein bhi vartalaap kar sakte hain. Hoon Gujarati pan boli shaku choo Malayam le samsarikyu (though not that much) Nepali (Kosta cho, saathi?) wa khalilan min al-arabiya (extremely little) ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-can-you-speak/259618/25 "2004-08-13T14:22:22Z")
Mein bhi Hindi bolthi hoon. Noname, kya haal hai? Also English. Hablo espanol. Panjabi vi bollenniya. And a little Japanese. ---
**Author:** ![noname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58f4c7/32.png) [@noname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/noname)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-can-you-speak/259618/26 "2004-08-13T14:31:46Z")
> [@Elenia28](#): > > Mein bhi Hindi bolthi hoon. Noname, kya haal hai? Bilkul Theek Hain/ Ek dum bhale hain > [@](#): > > Panjabi vi bollenniya. Kidda fair? Changa? > [@](#): > > And a little Japanese Wax on, wax off _runnig for cover_ sorry, couldn’t resist ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-can-you-speak/259618/27 "2004-08-13T14:36:37Z")
_chucks things at noname_ ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-can-you-speak/259618/28 "2004-08-13T14:42:21Z")
Wow, I’m so embarrassed. I can only speak English, but I did pick up enough of other languages to, in the past, order up to four beers in just about any European or Mid-East country. Q: What do you call someone that speaks more than one language? A: Multilingual. Q: What do you call someonethat can only speak one language? A: American. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-can-you-speak/259618/29 "2004-08-13T14:59:23Z")
English - natch (that’s _English_ English with no accent dammit) and Franglais 🙂 Twenty something posts and no-one speaks Klingon? ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-can-you-speak/259618/30 "2004-08-13T15:27:07Z")
我会普通话. (I know Mandarin Chinese.) (But my reading and writing suck, so it took me like five minutes to find the right characters for this silly message.) ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-can-you-speak/259618/31 "2004-08-13T15:36:19Z")
The only language I speak fluently is English, but I can get by in French (especially if it’s on a cereal box, being Canadian), and almost get by in Japanese. I can understand a bit of Welsh, if it’s spoken slowly, as well as Italian, Spanish and Portuguese (three years of Latin, an Italian-speaking mother and Portuguese sister-in-law). ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-can-you-speak/259618/32 "2004-08-13T16:34:27Z")
_Je parle français couramment. (Pis j’jase en québécois pas pire à part de ça.)_ (I speak French currently. (And I speak in québécois pretty well, too.)) _I speak English okay enough I guess._ (I speak English okay enough I guess.) _Nihon-go mo ryûchô._ (My Japanese is fluent also.) _Hablo español pero ya no tengo mucha oportunidad de practicar._ (I speak Spanish but I don’t have much occasion to practice anymore.) I can also get by to some extent in Mandarin, though my reading skills are _much_ better than my spoken abilities. ---
**Author:** ![Ghanima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Ghanima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ghanima)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-can-you-speak/259618/33 "2004-08-13T17:05:31Z")
Iay ancay eakspay igpay atinlay. I can also speak english. I gots the good Oaktown pidgin, foschizzle, homes. Aks anyone. Ich can ganz gut Deutsch sprechen. Yo hablo un poco espanol. ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-can-you-speak/259618/34 "2004-08-13T17:12:34Z")
My first language is English. But I speak Spanish fluently, Italian slightly less fluently, French a bit, and Portuguese some. I also speak Catalan, but I’ve always considered that just Spanish with a twist (though I’m sure a native of that area would be more than happy to flame me over that). I also read Sumerian cuneiform (I can read some Akkadian, but not enough to claim to be able to read it that well) and speak and read Latin. I’m now learning to speak Hindi and hopefully will learn some Gujarat as well for when I visit my husband’s relatives in Bombay and Rajkot. (P.S. I know I don’t really need to learn Hindi - most Indians speak English as well as Hindi and their regional language, but it seems only polite to learn _some_.) ---
**Author:** ![av8rmike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@av8rmike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/av8rmike)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-can-you-speak/259618/35 "2004-08-13T20:28:54Z")
אני מדבר עברית I speak Hebrew, but only a little. I took 5 years of French in high school, but don’t remember enough to even write _that_… ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-can-you-speak/259618/36 "2004-08-13T20:48:20Z")
Hmm. English (duh!) Je peux parler francais, mais je ne l’etuderai le semester prochain. (sorry no accents, I’m lazy.) Mein Deutsch ist viel besser als mein Franzoesich. Y puedo hablar espanol como un etudiante de la primera (year). Maybe not even that well. ---
**Author:** ![Ghanima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Ghanima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ghanima)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-can-you-speak/259618/37 "2004-08-13T21:46:00Z")
And the winner for all-around most appropriate username goes to… **overlyverbose**!!! ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-can-you-speak/259618/38 "2004-08-13T22:00:35Z")
**English** and learning Koine Greek (but I can’t figure out the font modification :mad: ) ---
**Author:** ![EnginNerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ea924/32.png) [@EnginNerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EnginNerd)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-can-you-speak/259618/39 "2004-08-13T22:12:58Z")
English is my native language. I am getting close to fluency in Japanese (and after only 10 years of studying it!) I can usually read and listen to Spanish, but I have trouble speaking it (Japanese words with Spanish verb endings come out for some reason since I use Japanese a lot more than Spanish) ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-can-you-speak/259618/40 "2004-08-13T22:14:08Z")
> [@Ghanima](#): > > And the winner for all-around most appropriate username goes to… > > **overlyverbose**!!! Yay!!! I won, I won!!! Woo hoo! You know, I knew I was doing the right thing getting a masters in linguistics. :wally [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-can-you-speak/259618.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-can-you-speak/259618.md?page=3)