# What languages do you know? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 14, 2010, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092 "2010-04-14T18:16:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/41 "2010-04-15T02:34:42Z")
Fluent Spanish (but not anywhere near bilingual). Read French, and speak it badly when I brush up on it. I took a year of German in college, but I haven’t used it in so long that it’s virtually gone. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/42 "2010-04-15T03:13:47Z")
I picked only Spanish because it’s the only language other than English I can read, write, _and_ speak. However, I can also read a fair amount of Italian and Portuguese too. ---
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/43 "2010-04-15T03:42:07Z")
My best other language is Polish. I lived there for over 2 years and I only spoke Polish during that time, so I got pretty darn good at it. My second best language is German. I studied it in college and then we moved there for a while. My third best language is Spanish. I took it for 6 years in school, but I haven’t used t much so I’ve forgotten a lot. Although I live in Tucson and so I hear it a lot. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/44 "2010-04-15T06:58:37Z")
Spanish: I’m not saying it’s pretty, but I can function. (8-12 grade, five years living in New Mexico). French: I can (and enjoy) reading it and listening, with a patient speaker. Bad things happen when I try to speak French. (3 semesters in college, mostly reading it). Latin: Given plenty of time, I can piece together the general meaning of a text, but I don’t claim to truly _know_ the language. (A couple after-school classes in high school, self-taught on-and-off). Greek: Ancient only. I still remember a surprising amount of Attic Greek and can even come close to an accurate pronunciation. My Homeric Greek is much rustier, but I can still do more than most non-classicists. And somewhere there’s a trace of Koine Greek rattling around, but it’s in a part of my brain that really hasn’t been on speaking terms since an unfortunate incident with the Book of Job. (three semesters in college with visitation rights throughout the remainder of my studies). ---
**Author:** ![VanillaGorilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@VanillaGorilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VanillaGorilla)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/45 "2010-04-15T07:14:28Z")
Voted _other_, for my first language, swedish, and german, though please don’t make me prove I speak it. ---
**Author:** ![footballisplayedwithyourfeet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9f8e36/32.png) [@footballisplayedwithyourfeet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/footballisplayedwithyourfeet)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/46 "2010-04-15T08:35:05Z")
Dutch (since I am dutch), German, French (to some extent) and the ‘other’ is Slovenian. I would also be able to survive in Croatian (and thus als Serbian) but saying I ‘know’ or ‘speak’ the language would be a blatant lie. ---
**Author:** ![Weedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/weedy/32/301_2.png) [@Weedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weedy)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/47 "2010-04-15T08:41:40Z")
Auslan (Australian sign language), Dutch and a smattering of French. I’m full of admiration for Johanna. I;ve alays wanted to be able to speak lots of languages, and I’ve studied, Spanish, Latin and Thai, but never managed to become proficient. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/48 "2010-04-15T08:48:00Z")
I speak decent French from living in Cameroon for two years. My Mandarin (Sichuan dialect) is okay after two years in China. I speak a small amount of Fulfulde, a west African language. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/49 "2010-04-15T10:10:37Z")
From _the George Burns and Gracie Allen Show_ (radio) George) I didn’t know you spoke French Gracie) I speak it well enough to get by, with people who don’t understand it at all 🙂 And now back to your regularly scheduled thread ---
**Author:** ![Panurge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@Panurge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Panurge)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/50 "2010-04-15T10:14:04Z")
French and German. Other: Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Sanskrit. ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/51 "2010-04-15T12:17:26Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > As US-centric as this board is, I’m really surprised that there are so few Spanish speakers. Spanish is by far the second biggest language in the country, and the most popular one to study. But as of this writing more Dopers (including, presumably, American Dopers) speak French and even German! Go figure… > > (That said, I’m an American who’s never studied the language, either. Even so, I understand and can speak a little bit, just through cultural osmosis - as is probably the case for a lot of Americans.) I think it might be just where in the US you’re from. What I understand is that the closer you are to the Mexican border, the more you need to know Spanish. Californian and Texan dopers would need to know it more than Chicagoan and New Englander dopers, and I _think_ we have more of column B than column A here (partly due to the fact that TSD is based in Chicago) ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/52 "2010-04-15T13:23:44Z")
True - as I grew up about 10-15 miles from the Canadian border learning French made a lot more sense to me than learning Spanish. If I had grown up in Texas I’m sure the reverse would be true. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/53 "2010-04-15T13:48:12Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > I know you’re being clever, but I’ve never actually heard Spanish referred to as Castillian. I’ve never been to Spain, so maybe it’s common there, but in the Spanish-speaking countries I’ve been to (the US, Mexico, and Colombia), it’s always just been Spanish. I suspect that the term is used by speakers of other languages in Spain, such as Catalan and Galego (Galician). ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/54 "2010-04-15T13:53:41Z")
I know some French, although it’s pretty rusty. I know a smattering of German and Hebrew; I took a course in each in university, but I’ve forgotten almost all of it since then. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/55 "2010-04-15T14:11:46Z")
I was expecting more Portuguese speakers… ---
**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:** [April 15, 2010, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/56 "2010-04-15T14:28:52Z")
Hebrew (native) and French (basic, can just get by in Paris.) ---
**Author:** ![purple\_cow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b487fb/32.png) [@purple\_cow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purple_cow)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/57 "2010-04-15T14:45:21Z")
In my experience (early 80s, New York), we got the choice in 7th grade of studying French or Spanish in school. The almost universal choice was French for the top students and Spanish for everyone else. Spanish was considered easier and French was considered classier, as in you’d choose it if you were expecting to move in educated circles when you were older. Since then French has lost much of it’s cachet and i’m sure almost all of us wish we had picked Spanish. I’m guessing, the younger people are (at least in the US), the more likely they will have learned Spanish. ---
**Author:** ![Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angel_of_the_lord/32/2949_2.png) [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_the_Lord)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/58 "2010-04-15T15:04:22Z")
English. Conversational-but-not-fully-fluent Spanish. Enough to explain to Iberian Airlines that I wanted to change to an earlier flight to the same destination, clarifying that I only had carry-on bags. Honestly, with the demographics in my area, it would have been irresponsible for me _not_ to learn it. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/59 "2010-04-15T15:04:59Z")
> [@purple\_cow](#): > > In my experience (early 80s, New York), we got the choice in 7th grade of studying French or Spanish in school. The almost universal choice was French for the top students and Spanish for everyone else. Spanish was considered easier and French was considered classier, as in you’d choose it if you were expecting to move in educated circles when you were older. Since then French has lost much of it’s cachet and i’m sure almost all of us wish we had picked Spanish. I’m guessing, the younger people are (at least in the US), the more likely they will have learned Spanish. Not necessarily. My roomate during vet school (mid-20’s, same as I), also had the option of French and Spanish. French was considered the classier, and so she took it. The “French is classier” thing annoys me to no end (it also happens with Spanish speakers learning another language). ---
**Author:** ![chromaticity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@chromaticity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chromaticity)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/60 "2010-04-15T15:25:08Z")
Japanese, a tiny bit of Chinese, lots of less widely spoken Indian languages (Kannada, Tamil a bit), and a little bit of Braille. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092.md?page=4)