# What languages do you speak? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 7, 2011, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-speak/573789 "2011-03-07T16:36:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-speak/573789/21 "2011-03-07T19:46:56Z")
Native English speaker. After having lived in Spain, I would say I speak Spanish fluently, although there is the occasional grammar screw-up that I recognize two seconds after it has left my mouth. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-speak/573789/22 "2011-03-07T19:52:05Z")
I picked the ones where I was able to get by in the countries. In order fluency: English French Spanish German Japanese Hindi Mandarin I usually need a little mental refresher, but it comes back to me pretty quickly. There are some others that I’ve worked on (Cherokee, Russian, Arabic, Gaelic-Irish) but I wouldn’t trust myself at all to attempt to use them. ---
**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:** [March 7, 2011, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-speak/573789/23 "2011-03-07T19:54:20Z")
Previous [poll](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=559651&highlight=languages+poll) on the same topic. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-speak/573789/24 "2011-03-07T19:59:38Z")
I only speak English fluently. I spoke German to my grandmother, who lived with us, and I minored in it in college (only had to take one course, as i got college credit for my high school work). I am pretty rusty, although I found I picked it back up pretty fast when I became friends with a German family who lived across the street from us. I had two years of high school French, and I used to be able to read Greek (I studied it in school for a year, so as to be able to read the New Testament). Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-speak/573789/25 "2011-03-07T20:09:09Z")
I only checked the English box beause that’s the only one I _speak_. Over the last 15 or 20 years I’ve taught myself to read French and now I can do so pretty much fluently. Spoken French is still largely a mystery to me, both in comprehension and production. I can usually get the gist but not much more of written Latin, German, and Spanish. I have studied several other languages, but not to the point that I could get much meaning out of them. ---
**Author:** ![Grapefruit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@Grapefruit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grapefruit)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-speak/573789/26 "2011-03-07T20:36:40Z")
I speak both English and Chinese fluently, but since the poll specified that Chinese was Mandarin, I clicked “other” for my Cantonese dialect. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-speak/573789/27 "2011-03-07T20:37:41Z")
English fluently, of course. Next, in order of fluency: Spanish, French, Portuguese. In fact, I doubt that I could carry on a any conversation in Portuguese now, since it’s been 16 years since I lived there. I can still roughly translate the basics, though, _pois nao_. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Onimous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea5d25/32.png) [@Ann\_Onimous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Onimous)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-speak/573789/28 "2011-03-07T20:43:46Z")
English (native), ASL (hearing-impaired family) and Latin (classes). Can sing in French, Spanish, German and Russian, although I have no clue what I’m singing. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-speak/573789/29 "2011-03-07T21:01:12Z")
The only languages I’m fluent in are English and C, but I can also get by in Latin, BASIC, Java, or Fortran. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-speak/573789/30 "2011-03-07T21:03:32Z")
English, Spanish, French and Other (AKA Hebrew). I think I could probably insult somebody in Russian enough to get my self beat up. ---
**Author:** ![\_mostly\_Harmless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/9d8465/32.png) [@\_mostly\_Harmless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_mostly_Harmless)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-speak/573789/31 "2011-03-07T21:07:32Z")
In order of Fluency: English Spanish Farsi Portuguese And hopefully more to come! ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-speak/573789/32 "2011-03-07T21:16:46Z")
English. I can get by in Spanish and French as long as I don’t leave the bar. ---
**Author:** ![PookahMacPhellimey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pookahmacphellimey/32/3175_2.png) [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-speak/573789/33 "2011-03-07T21:17:59Z")
English and Dutch fluently. Italian - I can get by but it’s far from fluent. I can sort of manage in German in an absolute emergency. ---
**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:** [March 7, 2011, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-speak/573789/34 "2011-03-07T21:18:45Z")
English is my native language. I can also communicate effectively enough in Spanish, though it’s admittedly a little rusty, and has _never_ been fluent. I can hold a conversation, though it won’t be precise, and is sometimes subject to gaffes (such as, for instance, the time I told someone they had a tax on their library card, rather than a fine). ---
**Author:** ![A.Gwilliam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea5d25/32.png) [@A.Gwilliam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A.Gwilliam)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-speak/573789/35 "2011-03-07T22:19:01Z")
I ticked “English” only. I used to have a decent command of Spanish, but it’s so rusty now that it’s ridiculous. I was by no means fluent, but had enough to read a newspaper, and to otherwise function happily in a Spanish-speaking environment. One day I’ll get back on the horse… We were allegedly taught French at school. I also took German classes as a teenager; after two years of learning the language with pretty much no formal teaching of its grammar, we then had another two years of almost nothing but grammar. As a result, I left school unable to speak German. I can read Cyrillic, though! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-speak/573789/36 "2011-03-07T22:36:39Z")
I’m unclear what the point of listing English was - if we don’t speak it, how could we answer the question? Anyway, ticked other - I’m learning Swedish. Currently am up to about A2 so still pretty basic, but am doing a month of total immersion training in Sweden during the summer which should help a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-speak/573789/37 "2011-03-07T23:01:31Z")
I know a little German. He’s sitting over there. ---
**Author:** ![KennerTheGreat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a8b319/32.png) [@KennerTheGreat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KennerTheGreat)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-speak/573789/38 "2011-03-08T05:23:53Z")
English and (kinda sorta maybe sometimes) French. I can read and write French fairly well, and if you ask me a question in English, I can respond in French, though I’ll have to pause to think of some of the word tenses. But if you ask me something in French, and you’re not speaking slowly, I’m likely to sit there and say…_peut-etre?_ (Maybe) I have a Francophone wife and my two kids are (or will be going, in my son’s case) in a French school. I am the third best French speaker in my household, but my four year old son will pass me before Christmas. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-speak/573789/39 "2011-03-08T05:45:33Z")
English I know a bit of Spanish from living in New Mexico and listening to Chilean music but not enough to carry on a conversation. As far as German goes I’ve got quite a bit of words but they are all associated with a dictator, a terrorist group, and birdseed. (I guess if I ever learned to converse that could get interesting.) ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-speak/573789/40 "2011-03-08T06:03:14Z")
English natively. I’m taking German for 2 years in college now and I can get by in conversation but not fluent. I can read Latin and Greek but I couldn’t speak them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-speak/573789.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-do-you-speak/573789.md?page=3)