# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/81 "2010-04-16T15:22:52Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Except that we’re using English here exclusively. If you’re speaking entirely in English and say, “I went to New Mexico and spoke español, to Louisiana where I spoke français, and I picked up a little Deutsch in Pennsylvania, ‘Arabiyah in Michigan, and Nihongo in California” it would sound incredibly phony and pretentious. Those all have perfectly good names in English. But for some bizarre reason, we’re now supposed to drop the word “Persian” which has been in the English language for like 1,000 years and call it Farsi? Makes no sense. I find it interesting that Iranians themselves feel offended to hear English speakers appropriating “Farsi” and they insist than in English the only correct name for it is Persian. The Iranians I know have very strong feelings about that. I agree, it _would_ sound weird and pretentious to use those other examples. I have no idea why people speaking English often refer to Persian using its own word for itself. It’s really pretty weird. I haven’t had the experience of Persians not liking English-speakers calling it Farsi, though. I took Persian all last year and that particular topic never came up. (And most people in the class were heritage speakers…which kind of sucked for those of us who weren’t, incidentally.) ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/82 "2010-04-16T16:53:14Z")
Woleaian and Ulithian (slightly different dialects) in the western Pacific Carolinian chain of islands. There are maybe between three and five thousand people who speak them, tops. And with the rising oceans they maybe obsolete or under water in the not too distant future. And since they are, for the most part, unwritten languages… ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/83 "2010-04-16T17:17:29Z")
I know enough of American Sign Language to have a conversation. Not a good one, but I can get by. ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/84 "2010-04-16T17:23:46Z")
Spanish - I used to be OK but I don’t use it much these days, however I can follow a conversation. I know one phrase in Russian which will get my ass kicked. ---
**Author:** ![wellanuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@wellanuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wellanuff)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2010, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/85 "2010-04-17T02:58:37Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > I have no idea why people speaking English often refer to Persian using its own word for itself. It’s really pretty weird. Speaking for myself, I didn’t know until now that “Farsi” was the Persian word for “Persian.” When I have used the word “Farsi,” it was with a secret inner pride that said “Hey, look at me, I’m not some ignorant doofus who thinks people in Iran speak ‘Iranian.’” Now I see I was an ignorant doofus of just a slightly higher level. ---
**Author:** ![Nocturne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9fc348/32.png) [@Nocturne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nocturne)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2010, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/86 "2010-04-17T05:24:42Z")
Well-versed in both Italian and French and I know enough Welsh to get by. Soon I start learning Spanish! ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2010, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/87 "2010-04-17T05:34:25Z")
> [@wellanuff](#): > > Speaking for myself, I didn’t know until now that “Farsi” was the Persian word for “Persian.” When I have used the word “Farsi,” it was with a secret inner pride that said “Hey, look at me, I’m not some ignorant doofus who thinks people in Iran speak ‘Iranian.’” > > Now I see I was an ignorant doofus of just a slightly higher level. At least you knew that Iranians don’t speak Arabic. Talk about things that Persians find insulting… ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2010, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/88 "2010-04-17T06:01:22Z")
I didn’t vote in the poll, because if I’m honest, I don’t really “know” any languages except English. I can follow Japanese conversations, and order in restaurants and such, and I know more Japanese grammar and morphology than most Japanese natives, but I don’t consider myself a Japanese speaker. Similarly, I can follow the gist of conversations in Welsh, because my grandparents spoke it extensively for the first 30 years of my life. My girlfriend speaks to me a lot in French, which I seem to understand well enough as well (8 years of it in school, and pretty much all Canadians have great cereal-box French: “I’ll have the flacons de mais aux lait, s’il vous plait”). I’m learning Mandarin now (since I’m traveling to China a lot), but if my experiences with Japanese are any indication, I doubt I’ll ever have better than very basic level Chinese. (On the other hand, I’m waaaaay ahead of the other non-native speakers in reading!) ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2010, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/89 "2010-04-27T23:05:32Z")
> [@KarlGrenze](#): > > I was expecting more Portuguese speakers… How come? Other than parts of MA, RI and a couple of states out west, there aren’t many places in the US where you find many Portuguese people. And other than Portugal, Brazil, Bermuda, Cape Verde, and the Azores, I doubt that there are too many places in the world where Portuguese is something you hear many people speak. > [@dhkendall](#): > > 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) There are a lot of Spanish speakers in southern New England. Probably a lot more than there are French speakers in northern New England. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/90 "2010-04-28T00:30:22Z")
There’s nothing limiting this poll to just the United States. We have a number of people on this board who live in non-English speaking countries. And while Portuguese isn’t spoken in a lot of countries, Brazil blows the curve for the number of speakers. Portuguese is the seventh most popular language in the world. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/91 "2010-04-28T01:32:15Z")
I read French easily and can sort of speak it, but I have great difficulty understanding the spoken language. I had three years of German in college and cannot speak it worth a damn. I know one sentence of Danish (Jeg sprog ikke Dansk–I speak no Danish). I could once count to ten in Japanese. That’s about it, real language ignoramus ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/92 "2010-04-28T02:15:42Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > How come? Other than parts of MA, RI and a couple of states out west, there aren’t many places in the US where you find many Portuguese people. And other than Portugal, Brazil, Bermuda, Cape Verde, and the Azores, I doubt that there are too many places in the world where Portuguese is something you hear many people speak. What **Little Nemo** said. Brazil. I expected a few more Brazilians, a couple of Portuguese dopers (hey, we already have Spaniards), plus a few more who, like me, learned it as a second (or third, or fourth) language. BTW, right now, there are double the number of Portuguese speakers than they were when I made that comment (there were only 3 then, and I was one). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/93 "2010-04-28T03:00:19Z")
> [@](#): > > I expected a few more Brazilians, a couple of Portuguese dopers One thing I was surprised to find when I was checking this is that Portugal has only the third largest population of Portuguese speakers. Angola is second. Still Portugal did better than England, which is only in sixth place for English speakers - behind the United States, Pakistan, India, the Philippines, and Nigeria. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Rosetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Green\_Rosetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Rosetta)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/94 "2010-04-28T03:16:37Z")
Spanish and Portuguese here, in addition to my native language of English. I don’t get to practice my Portuguese much though, so I fear I’m losing it. I learned both from living on the Uruguay/Brazil border, so I used to get a lot of funny looks when I was in Montevideo, but my Spanish is pretty Mexican-ified now because that is who I am generally speaking to when I speak it now. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/95 "2010-04-28T03:49:11Z")
I had five years of Hebrew school so I can get by in that language. After the strange alphabet and backwards writing system and uncommon sounds of Hebrew I found Spanish deliciously thrillingly easy. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Meme\_Chose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2acd7d/32.png) [@Meme\_Chose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meme_Chose)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/96 "2010-04-28T05:03:44Z")
Besides the ones i marked, jeg snakker litt norsk. ---
**Author:** ![auRa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@auRa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auRa)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/97 "2010-04-28T11:37:06Z")
I ticked off French, German and Spanish - in addition, Finnish (native), English (native, for all practical purposes - I’ve been speaking and reading it since age 4 and my entire education has been in English) and Swedish. From that, I could also say I know Norwegian and Danish, though my Danish is written-only. I have trouble understanding my Danish relatives. Also a smattering of Russian and Estonian, but only enough to get by in a restaurant or the like. ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/98 "2010-04-30T03:37:35Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > So who’s the other person who knows Esperanto? 🙂 You know, I threw down Esperanto, because I studied it at one point. But it now looks like there are seven or eight of us, though not many have copped to it. (Don’t see anyone for Volapük, though. And if **Johanna** comes along and says she speaks it fluently, I’m going to scream.) ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/99 "2010-04-30T04:00:57Z")
Czech and Spanish, although my Czech is very rusty and my Spanish is pretty rudimentary. I did decently on a trip to Mexico City last year. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092/100 "2010-04-30T15:14:27Z")
I’m good with spoken Spanish, enough to offer help translating basic stuff. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-know/536092.md?page=6)