How many languages can you speak

Ohnoezfail · 30 Mar 2012 at 15:17

English
Punjabi

Okay at Hindi.. can only read English though, I really should learn! Better get my fluency up too since my grammar is terrible >.<

Abraxaz1 · 30 Mar 2012 at 15:21

i speak two langauages english and welder/mechnical, the latter is more a series of grunts, gutteral noise and timed flatulence

Mark A · 30 Mar 2012 at 15:34

Telescopi said:
If there are french and germans on the server surely the english isn't for your benefit, they need some shared tongue (oooer).

I meant that sometimes its me and 3 German guys and sometimes me and 3 French guys on L4D2 survival (4 player) . Often its mixed also, which isn't as bad.

Phage · 30 Mar 2012 at 15:41

@Abraxaz1 - Brilliant.

I speak English and bad French only.
My Grandfather spoke most of the Europaen languages. He always said that it was German for business, and French for culture.

Xordium · 30 Mar 2012 at 16:23

timebomb26 said:
I loathe people who genuinely think everyone should speak English.

Why? It's the most efficient language in my opinion. Go around any museum and look at all the multilingual text. Which one says the same thing in the smallest amount of words - English.

Lopéz · 30 Mar 2012 at 17:06

English, Welsh, conversational German, slightly conversational French

, bits of Spanish, Italian and Greek but nothing remarkable.

timebomb26 · 30 Mar 2012 at 17:13

Xordium said:
Why? It's the most efficient language in my opinion. Go around any museum and look at all the multilingual text. Which one says the same thing in the smallest amount of words - English.

Ridiculous argument. It's the most efficient language because you speak it.

Castiel · 30 Mar 2012 at 17:15

timebomb26 said:
Ridiculous argument. It's the most efficient language because you speak it.

Yet he doesn't.....at least not natively.

Not so ridiculous when you consider that.

Xordium · 30 Mar 2012 at 17:17

timebomb26 said:
Ridiculous argument. It's the most efficient language because you speak it.

Bisho'ur

timebomb26 · 30 Mar 2012 at 17:19

Ok fair play, he's learnt the language. I didn't know this. He obviously misunderstood by original post then. It was directed at people (english native speakers) who believe it isn't worth there time to learn another language, because everyone else should learn English.

Jony27 · 30 Mar 2012 at 17:20

english,philippine languages, sarcasm.

valkia · 30 Mar 2012 at 17:23

only one for me

learnt bit of French & Romanian.

Girlfriend knows 3

Romanian - Native
English
Spanish

part fluent in

Italian

Krono5 · 30 Mar 2012 at 17:26

One and a half. English and enough German to get by. Also the odd word in french/Spanish/Polish.

Xordium · 30 Mar 2012 at 17:32

timebomb26 said:
Ok fair play, he's learnt the language. I didn't know this. He obviously misunderstood by original post then. It was directed at people (english native speakers) who believe it isn't worth there time to learn another language, because everyone else should learn English.

Except that was not what your post said was it you said you loathed anyone who held that view - I hold that view. In this day and age there is no real need to speak any other language as it is so freely spoken all over the world pretty much exclusively in the professional domain with maybe the exception of German publications for engineering etc.

Why should a native speak bother with speaking another language to a non-fluent level when the people they will be conversing with have made all that effort to make the communication work. In my opinion time allotted for education would be better spent on science and mathematics being as they are so poorly taught in this country. Oh and look in the next museum you go to you'll find I am right and English is the one that predominately takes the less words to convey the same message.

timebomb26 · 30 Mar 2012 at 18:15

Xordium said:
Except that was not what your post said was it you said you loathed anyone who held that view - I hold that view. In this day and age there is no real need to speak any other language as it is so freely spoken all over the world pretty much exclusively in the professional domain with maybe the exception of German publications for engineering etc.

Why should a native speak bother with speaking another language to a non-fluent level when the people they will be conversing with have made all that effort to make the communication work. In my opinion time allotted for education would be better spent on science and mathematics being as they are so poorly taught in this country. Oh and look in the next museum you go to you'll find I am right and English is the one that predominately takes the less words to convey the same message.

Yes, on the surface that's what my post said, but it was aimed towards arrogant English speakers. I have heard many people say that everyone should learn English just because it is "better", and this is simply not true. Yes, it the predominant language for business and that is why most people learn it, but that doesn't mean it's better. Many English people hold the view that foreigners coming in to our country should make an effort to speak the language, so why would it be any different for us going abroad? I genuinely get embarrassed when I see an English person abroad making no effort at all.

Also, so what if someone only ends up speaking a language to a non-fluent level? Does that mean they shouldn't bother trying to better themselves? When I lived in Japan if I didn't work my ass off studying the language I wouldn't have got anywhere or done anything. Why would I rob myself of the privilege of exploring such a wonderful country? And re the museum thing, I don't really see your point, "less words"? If you're trying to say English is a simple language, it isn't. I could argue that Japanese is much simpler, in that everything has to be in very explicit terms.

Castiel · 30 Mar 2012 at 18:21

Japanese is certainly not simpler than English, at least not from a lingustic perspective.

Quite the opposite.

timebomb26 · 30 Mar 2012 at 18:28

In terms of grammatical structure and pronounciation it is.

craarc · 30 Mar 2012 at 18:28

try writing it...............

timebomb26 · 30 Mar 2012 at 18:30

Haha, yeah I suppose it can be a bit daunting at first, but Hiragana and Katakana aren't difficult at all, and once you get stuck in to Kanji it gets a lot easier.

Castiel · 30 Mar 2012 at 18:36

timebomb26 said:
In terms of grammatical structure and pronounciation it is.

Given that it is a 'respect' language I would disagree....Not to mention that each character has various pronunciations, in some cases dozens...added to that the need to marry this up within two separate syllabaries and the inconsistancy of the rules regarding the structure and even native speakers complain of difficulty in understanding the messy grammar system.

It is not as straight forward as Chinese in grammar, although pronunciation in Chinese is all about tone and inflection which makes it far more difficult in that regard.

However, the point is that you claim Japanese is much simpler than English, and this simply is not supported lingustically, especially grammatically.