The degree to which you know the language is up to you, however, if you took one semester of Spanish back in college and all you remember how to say is “chimichanga”, then you probably shouldn’t check that box.
So, under that criteria, all I speak is English. I wish I spoke more Spanish, and I really regret not sticking with German in college (so I got a book from the library Saturday!). I also started trying to teach myself Russian, but that’s a slow process that I’m not putting 100% into.
So, what do you speak? Do you speak that language as a native speaker (dual nationality household, etc) did you study it in school, learn it on your own, or just pick it up while living in an area for a while?
English as a native speaker.
Reasonably fluent in Spanish, but not close to bilingual. I took one year each in high school and college, but didn’t become conversational until I moved to Panama.
I can get by in French, but I would need to brush up to really use it. I took three years in high school; I’ve used it in Africa, France, and Switzerland.
I didn’t count:
German. I took a year as an undergraduate but don’t remember much of it.
Portuguese. When I was in Brazil last year, I found I could speak it well enough that people usually understood what I said; but I often couldn’t understand what they said in reply.
English. French, Mandarin and a West African local/trade language called Fulfulde. All learned as a Peace Corps volunteer. They have a top-notch language learning program that is followed by two years of total immersion. It’s a great way to learn a language.
English, Spanish, plus “Other” (Polish). I didn’t count Portuguese because, even though it’s my first language, it’s also rusted to the point of uselessness.
I spoke Italian fluently as a child, now I can understand much of it but only communicate fairly simple things. I suppose if I were to go back to Italy some of the skill could return.
Oops, I forgot to include English. English and Italian, but soon I will be taking Russian classes. I’ve already learned the alphabet, now onto the hard part!
Edit: I’m the same way, Queen (and my name is Regina, btw :p) – Italian is actually my first language, but after age 5 or so, I would only respond in English. Now, even though I took 4 years of Italian in high school and 2 in college, I can still understand it much, much better than I can speak it. It’s very frustrating.
Having spent the last 20 years studying national anthems, I’ve been able to figure out a lot of the lyrics by reading them (which helps a bit when I’m searching for information on the anthem in a website (or other information) written in a foreign language), but by no means to I consider myself a speaker in any language other than English.
I like to say that “singing the anthem in downtown Budapest won’t get me to a washroom.”
I took one year of French in 7th grade, and don’t remember more than a few words and numbers. Four years of Spanish in high school, 95% of which I have forgotten. I can speak more Mandarin than French and Spanish combined, but that isn’t saying much. Ting bu dong.
As far as “well”–it’s only English and Polish. As far as knowing enough to get around (vocabulary of at least a thousand words and knowledge of grammar, sentence structure, key phrases): Hungarian, German, French, and Croatian (and pretty much most Slavic languages I can pick up the gist of in a couple weeks via my Polish). I have this annoying habit of picking up a foreign language very quickly, but only learning exactly the minimal amount required to function in that non-English environment. And sometimes, the vocabularies get quite specialized: my Hungarian vocabulary for herbs, spices, cuts of meat, and other foodstuffs is far more advanced than my Polish for those words, even though I grew up with Polish as my first language and my Polish is basically fluent.
Native English speaker, but I speak/communicate fluently in Spanish. I’d hesitate to call myself truly bilingual, though.
I didn’t vote for German, because I can’t speak it today. However I know from experience that when immersed in it, it comes back pretty fluently. I just takes some exposure.
I hope to add Mandarin to my list within the next 12 months, because although I don’t mind brief visits to places where I don’t speak the language, living in such a place would be too overwhelming.
Native English speaker. I also speak Bulgarian. I didn’t click any other languages, but I can do okay in Spanish as well, and speak a smattering of several other languages. (I really like learning languages but am a bit flighty when it comes to really following through.)
I spent the weekend at a gathering of people from another forum I frequent, one of them is a native Navajo speaker, what a fascinating language! Very tonal, very subtle.
I speak English and French, having learned both since I was a baby. My mother is francophone and my father is anglophone, and they raised us by each speaking only the one language to the kids. I did my schooling in English, so it’s my stronger language. I consider myself to be fully bilingual, in ability and identity. My francophone in-laws disagree
I can, with great difficulty, manage a simple conversation in French. I can order a meal or get a hotel room in German. And I know one sentence of Danish: Jeg sprog ikke dansk (I speak no Danish). That pretty much exhausts my foreign language repertory.
