How many languages you speak?

[Skaramunga]

English for dealing with you normal people.

Sindarin in case i meet a hot elf.

Quenya in case i meet a gay wizard.

Khuzdul in case i need to use the warranty for my custom dwarf battle axe on my roof rack.

 

[bovw]

Spanish? No way is that a key language. To me the two biggies would be Chinese and German. Aside from touristy reasons I've never found a use for knowing Spanish.

Rob, I do have a Brother-in-Law in AZ trying to get a job back in San Antonio. He was going for a Human Resources manager at the new Toyota plant and was told he didn't get the job because he didn't speak Spanish. It's all in location and what you do I suppose. The irony is that his Grandparents were illegals from Mexico, his Father retired from the USAF, but wouldn't allow his children to learn Spanish.

 

[95.D1.Rick]

Spanish? No way is that a key language. To me the two biggies would be Chinese and German. Aside from touristy reasons I've never found a use for knowing Spanish.

Really? I've found myself unable to communicate, several times in the past 12 months, in this country because I cant speak Spanish. Miami, Puerto Rico, Texas, I'm working on it though. I was in Central America recently, and was surprised by how little English was spoken, and Spanish was required for all basic communication. According to the 2000 census, Chinese & German together add up to 1/10 of Spanish speakers in this country. There isnt a 'Chinese' language to complicate things, rather there are many Chinese languages spoken in mainland China, and Taiwan.

This is interesting:
USA Census statistics Language Spoken At Home (2000)
English only 82.10%
Spanish 10.71%
Chinese 0.61%
French 0.61%
German 0.52%
Tagalog 0.46%
Vietnamese 0.38%
Italian 0.38%
Korean 0.34%
Russian 0.26%
Polish 0.25%
Arabic 0.23%
Portuguese 0.21%
Japanese 0.18%
French Creole 0.17%
Greek 0.13%
Hindi 0.12%
Persian 0.11%
Urdu 0.10%
Cantonese 0.09%
Gujarati 0.08%
Armenian 0.07%
Hebrew 0.07%
Mon-Khmer, Cambodian 0.06%
Kru, Igbo, Yoruba 0.06%
Yiddish 0.06%
Navajo 0.06%
Mandarin 0.06%
Hmong 0.06%
Dutch 0.05%

According to the 2000 census,[9] the main languages by number of speakers older than 5 are:

1. English - 215 million
2. Spanish - 28 million
3. Chinese languages - 2.0 million + (mostly Cantonese speakers, with a growing group of Mandarin speakers)
4. French - 1.6 million
5. German - 1.4 million (High German) + German dialects like Hutterite German, Texas German, Pennsylvania Dutch, Plautdietsch
6. Tagalog - 1.2 million + (Most Filipinos may also know other Philippine languages, e.g. Ilokano, Pangasinan, Bikol languages, and Visayan languages)
7. Vietnamese - 1.01 million
8. Italian - 1.01 million
9. Korean - 890,000
10. Russian - 710,000
11. Polish - 670,000
12. Arabic - 610,000
13. Portuguese - 560,000
14. Japanese - 480,000
15. French Creole - 450,000 (mostly Louisiana Creole French - 334,500)
16. Greek - 370,000
17. Hindi - 320,000
18. Persian - 310,000
19. Urdu - 260,000
20. Gujarati - 240,000
21. Armenian - 200,000

 

[noee]

Uno.

 

[Ballah06]

2.5 here, Russian, English and Spanish (being the half)

 

[Rugbier]

Italian
Spanish
French
Portuguese
Hebrew
English *LOL*

 

[sven]

Deutsch und English

 

[Leslie]

English for dealing with you normal people.
Sindarin in case i meet a hot elf.
Quenya in case i meet a gay wizard.
Khuzdul in case i need to use the warranty for my custom dwarf battle axe on my roof rack.

See, that's the problem, w/ the influx of orc immigrants, Black Speech would be so much more useful. Or Numenorean / Dunedain / Westron.


:rofl:



Seriously, tho'..... I wish I was fluent in many languages, it's just not been high on my priority list to become 'fluent' in other languages yet.... maybe one day I'll carve out the time....

English, yes. Spanish, I can barely get by w/.... would *not* claim any level of fluency, but I could get myself directions and fed. I've forgotten all I knew of Russian. If you don't use it you lose it, and there was no one w/ whom to practice here.

Dad took a few years of German but then later, only one year each of Japanese and Chinese (you can't become fluent in those two in a year!)


Spanish would be top of my list in languages to hone, given its predominance south of us, and via immigration. Russian would be my second with German a strong third.

Mandarin would be the more likely Chinese language I'd want to learn, but Cantonese, Shanghai, Taiwanese, there are several others that might be valuable. (If I remember correctly, I've heard that there's, over 2000 dialects in Chinese?) Japanese would also be good.

French and Dutch, there's quite a few countries that use them, I'd not mind picking them up after getting Spanish down better, but for my own personal needs, aren't ranked as high, then followed by Italian, and Portuguese (If I was working for Ducati, sure, I'd reorganize that list...)

Esperanto? lol.....

Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, there's a whole list of other languages that could be useful, depending on your travel needs. Greek, Turkish, etc.

Personally, I wouldn't mind to learn Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, though their practical applications would be limited for me.

 

[57loboy]

English, German and some Spanish...

 

[Lucasd2002]

1.2

English and a little Spanish but 0.2 is probably being generous for describing my knowledge of Spanish.

 

[simon]

Spanish, English and a little bit of Portuguese... easier than Italian and French...
and I can curse in Polish! LOL


Simon.

 

[apg]

Well, for the important things - like ordering beer and asking where the bathroom is - a dozen or more. Used to be fluent in French and learned to speak, read and write Arabic, but like many other skills, use it or lose it. Arabic is particularly challenging for non-native speakers: something like 28 characters in their alphabet, all of which can be pronounced as any of three vowels or one consonant.

 

[brianhoberg]

I dated a girl from Indiana for 4 years who had a friend/dork/whatever that decided he was too intellectual to study modern languages and chose to study Navaho and Sioux (sp?) as languages. I thought that was weird, until she told me that he was also inventing HIS OWN language. I never knew there was a culture for it, but evidently there are people who make up their own languages so they can only talk to themselves.

On another note, Gaelic, Kimmerick, and Irish would be really fun to learn but yeah their practical application is limited. In schools in Northern Scotland, they still require the youth to learn Gaelic and English equally and then a third language as their foreign language. It's part of the Scottish Gaelic Language Initiative.

:twocents: ,
Brian.

See, that's the problem, w/ the influx of orc immigrants, Black Speech would be so much more useful. Or Numenorean / Dunedain / Westron.


:rofl:



Seriously, tho'..... I wish I was fluent in many languages, it's just not been high on my priority list to become 'fluent' in other languages yet.... maybe one day I'll carve out the time....

English, yes. Spanish, I can barely get by w/.... would *not* claim any level of fluency, but I could get myself directions and fed. I've forgotten all I knew of Russian. If you don't use it you lose it, and there was no one w/ whom to practice here.

Dad took a few years of German but then later, only one year each of Japanese and Chinese (you can't become fluent in those two in a year!)


Spanish would be top of my list in languages to hone, given its predominance south of us, and via immigration. Russian would be my second with German a strong third.

Mandarin would be the more likely Chinese language I'd want to learn, but Cantonese, Shanghai, Taiwanese, there are several others that might be valuable. (If I remember correctly, I've heard that there's, over 2000 dialects in Chinese?) Japanese would also be good.

French and Dutch, there's quite a few countries that use them, I'd not mind picking them up after getting Spanish down better, but for my own personal needs, aren't ranked as high, then followed by Italian, and Portuguese (If I was working for Ducati, sure, I'd reorganize that list...)

Esperanto? lol.....

Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, there's a whole list of other languages that could be useful, depending on your travel needs. Greek, Turkish, etc.

Personally, I wouldn't mind to learn Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, though their practical applications would be limited for me.

 

[wturner]

Jeg snakke litt norsk! = I speak a little Norwegian!

But I am moving back to Texas in two weeks so I will forget it all soon.

 

[EJB90]

English & some spanish, enough to get by if I only had to listen to people or read.

 

[slangel]

English and French. My daughter and I are learning Chinese presently, my son is fluent in english, french, and spanish. After we nail down chinese, italian is on the list.

 

[disco99]

English, Portuguese, and Spanish. I can read and get along in French and Italian, and am working on German now and Chinese next. I speak a lot of Portuguese and Spanish to my baby girl.

 

[rovercanus]

You only need one language, American. If they can't understand it, repeat yourself louder.
Edit. Gestures are helpful also for getting your point across.

 

[nosivad_bor]

Really? I've found myself unable to communicate, several times in the past 12 months, in this country because I cant speak Spanish. Miami, Puerto Rico, Texas, I'm working on it though. I was in Central America recently, and was surprised by how little English was spoken, and Spanish was required for all basic communication. According to the 2000 census, Chinese & German together add up to 1/10 of Spanish speakers in this country. There isnt a 'Chinese' language to complicate things, rather there are many Chinese languages spoken in mainland China, and Taiwan.

This is interesting:
USA Census statistics Language Spoken At Home (2000)
English only 82.10%
Spanish 10.71%
Chinese 0.61%
French 0.61%
German 0.52%
Tagalog 0.46%
Vietnamese 0.38%
Italian 0.38%
Korean 0.34%
Russian 0.26%
Polish 0.25%
Arabic 0.23%
Portuguese 0.21%
Japanese 0.18%
French Creole 0.17%
Greek 0.13%
Hindi 0.12%
Persian 0.11%
Urdu 0.10%
Cantonese 0.09%
Gujarati 0.08%
Armenian 0.07%
Hebrew 0.07%
Mon-Khmer, Cambodian 0.06%
Kru, Igbo, Yoruba 0.06%
Yiddish 0.06%
Navajo 0.06%
Mandarin 0.06%
Hmong 0.06%
Dutch 0.05%

According to the 2000 census,[9] the main languages by number of speakers older than 5 are:

1. English - 215 million
2. Spanish - 28 million
3. Chinese languages - 2.0 million + (mostly Cantonese speakers, with a growing group of Mandarin speakers)
4. French - 1.6 million
5. German - 1.4 million (High German) + German dialects like Hutterite German, Texas German, Pennsylvania Dutch, Plautdietsch
6. Tagalog - 1.2 million + (Most Filipinos may also know other Philippine languages, e.g. Ilokano, Pangasinan, Bikol languages, and Visayan languages)
7. Vietnamese - 1.01 million
8. Italian - 1.01 million
9. Korean - 890,000
10. Russian - 710,000
11. Polish - 670,000
12. Arabic - 610,000
13. Portuguese - 560,000
14. Japanese - 480,000
15. French Creole - 450,000 (mostly Louisiana Creole French - 334,500)
16. Greek - 370,000
17. Hindi - 320,000
18. Persian - 310,000
19. Urdu - 260,000
20. Gujarati - 240,000
21. Armenian - 200,000

Yes, nothing of power or influence is done in the spanish language. There are few if any major banks, militarys, powerful global companies, etc. that use Spanish as their first language Spanish. If you find you need to speak it its not for any major business or important purpose. Take that

 

[I HATE PONIES]

Fluent in English, Spanish, and (Chapman will enjoy this) French.
Minor in German

I had a few French lasses in high school. I have forgotten most of them now though.

I will never leave the U.S.A. English is the only language I will use or learn. What I cannot believe is the phone support from a different country cannot speak the English language. After all they called me. They are shocked when I ask for someone I can understand. I will not bone up on my Mandarin Chinese to fix my computer.