How many languages do you speak fluently ?

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All uphill

Still rolling along
Location
Somerset
English and Dutch.

I can sort of get by in French and I'm working on improving that.

If you're interested in how we deal with two languages "The Bilingual Brain" by Albert Costa is a great book.
 

scragend

Senior Member
In all honesty I can only claim the one.

I should be better at languages than I am; it was always my strength at school and I find languages interesting. I just don't have the time/opportunity/perseverance to learn them properly.

I was reasonable at French but pretty rusty now. I can still do the sentence structure but I forget the words. For the last few years I've been dabbling at learning Dutch, and I can do a bit, but probably not to the level where I could hold a conversation in it. Doesn't help that the buggers insist on speaking English because their English is way better than my Dutch! I was told by a Dutchman (in Berlin, somewhat ironically) last year that my Dutch was passable. "You have a bit of an accent but it's understandable". I'll take that as a win.

I've never learned German other than a few words, but I find that learning Dutch has scuppered any attempts I might make to speak German, because I can't help but pronounce the words Dutchly.

My strengths in foreign languages are I would say, in descending order, reading, speaking, writing, listening. I feel like with full immersion in the language I would get better at the listening but with only occasional exposure to it I struggle. I've tried watching TV in those languages but again I don't have the perseverance I'm afraid.

Oh and I can say "my hovercraft is full of eels" in Hungarian.
 

Emanresu

I asked AI to show the 'real' me.
Was in Valais, the French speaking part of Switzerland with my daughter this summer. When we got to the hotel to book in, they didn't speak English so I lapsed into French. My daughter was amazed. "French - and sentences too...." It's been years since I used it and like most skills, you need to constantly refresh them.

I have been using this site on and off. The guy that runs it isn't a linguist but has a knack of analysing any language he turns his mind to. Well worth having a dip into a few of the first parts of your language of choice - or music. It's an odd way of looking at it, but it seems to work for some.

https://soundcloud.com/languagetransfer
 

Jameshow

Veteran
0000000!
 

DCLane

Found in the Yorkshire hills ...
I get away with mixed English peppered with a variety of bits collected over the years (Nottinghamshire / Ulster twang/ Smoggie / Yorkshire) and abysmal attempts at the local language wherever I'm going. My experience of this in French is that I usually get responses of "thanks, but please stop. You're ruining our language".
 

All uphill

Still rolling along
Location
Somerset
In all honesty I can only claim the one.

I should be better at languages than I am; it was always my strength at school and I find languages interesting. I just don't have the time/opportunity/perseverance to learn them properly.

I was reasonable at French but pretty rusty now. I can still do the sentence structure but I forget the words. For the last few years I've been dabbling at learning Dutch, and I can do a bit, but probably not to the level where I could hold a conversation in it. Doesn't help that the buggers insist on speaking English because their English is way better than my Dutch! I was told by a Dutchman (in Berlin, somewhat ironically) last year that my Dutch was passable. "You have a bit of an accent but it's understandable". I'll take that as a win.

I've never learned German other than a few words, but I find that learning Dutch has scuppered any attempts I might make to speak German, because I can't help but pronounce the words Dutchly.

My strengths in foreign languages are I would say, in descending order, reading, speaking, writing, listening. I feel like with full immersion in the language I would get better at the listening but with only occasional exposure to it I struggle. I've tried watching TV in those languages but again I don't have the perseverance I'm afraid.

Oh and I can say "my hovercraft is full of eels" in Hungarian.

Easy Dutch is a great free YouTube channel that you might enjoy
 
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