Language Poll

[bandgeek]

I need to collect some very loose, unscientific data about how others feel about their language abilities (or lack thereof) for a linguistics course I'm taking this semester. I'd really appreciate it if you'd take the time to fill out this short poll:

ETA: By "speak" a language, I mean to be able to hold a simple conversation with someone in that

Comments

[sarah]

I ticked "three or more" languages but I'd sooner say "two and half" because my French isn't what it used to be. (And it never was much to begin with). But I can hold a mini conversation in French. My English is much better and I have no problems holding fluent conversations or writing in English.

[tvor]

I had french from school but i don't know if i could hold a conversation in it. Possibly ifit was very simple and slowly spoken lol I did try to learn Italian but i doubt i could converse in it though might be able to figure out some written.

[apel]

By your definition I speak four languages: English, Swedish and German fluently and tourist French.

There's a perception that people in Europe on average speak more than one language more often than people in the US. It would be interesting if you could check if your answers confirm or deny that.

[mactavish]

And I'd wonder how much it depends on which countries in Europe (and which folks in the UK consider themselves in Europe ;) ).

[thisficklemob]

It's possible... on the other hand, one video we watched in college French showed French people who claimed to be bilingual, and said they spoke English, able to say almost nothing in English. Hello, basically. I'd bet more Europeans than Americans actually are bilingual, but there's also the self-image of being multi-lingual that, in those cases anyway, had little basis in reality. I obviously speak some French, but since I don't have any confidence in it, I said I spoke one language.

Also, for all that Americans are deservedly considered monoglots, there's a large and growing Spanish-speaking minority, many of whom are also fluent in English, plus all the people who are immigrants, and all the people who've preserved their immigrant parents' and grandparents' languages.

[bandgeek]

They seem to somewhat, but of course I'd need a much larger sample size (and a community that wasn't only internet-based) to obtain a good answer. I've heard that, too, though.

[perfectbound]

I answered no to the "use your skills" question because I almost never speak my second language (French). I do read it, and use my knowledge of it to fake it with other European languages I don't read, every day at work, though.

Also YAY LINGUISTICS!

[bandgeek]

Gotta love faking it. I use my Latin to do that a lot. And in the Netherlands, I felt like I was always reading almost-German. Kind of fun. :)

[klrmn]

at various points in time i've studied 5 languages other than english. three of them never got to the point where i could hold a coherent conversation. spanish got pushed out when i learned hebrew, and i'm still trying to get it back, now that i've moved back to the states. it took me 3 years living in israel before i felt like i could speak hebrew above the level of a three year old, but after living there for six years i feel i can hold my own. it's now slowly slipping away for lack of practice, but i feel it'll come back if needed.