How many languages to do speak/use?

Question

And, if more than your native language, why and when did you learn the other(s)?

Answer 1

English-b/c I'm American-probably when I was around 1 yr old
Spanish-b/c its everywhere-probably started around 5 yrs old
French-b/c I took it in school-8-10th grade
German-b/c I live in Germany now-about 1 yr ago
Italian-b/c I'm going to be visiting Italy a lot-about 1 yr ago

Answer 2

English, French, Spanish, Italian, Mand. Chinese and some Hebrew. When I was 16, i moved from the USA to Belgium. I was a foreign exchange student for a year. Traveling all over Europe was hard because the languages changed so frequently. I hated not understanding what others were saying and so I began learning one by one. Now I'm a modern Lang. major in college and will be a french teacher.

Answer 3

English--native
French--I grew up in Montreal, in the French part of Canada, so had to take it in school (from kindergarten on, I think; a lot more in grade 5 and 10 & 11) and talk to people. I moved to the German part of Switzerland 5 years ago so I actually speak French less but still hear it (my husband's first language, and therefore one of my kids', and on tv) and read it (food labels, etc. --easier than German!) quite a bit.
Italian--in university, my program required a language other than English or French. I went with the eenie-meenie-miney-moe strategy as far as I recall. I took it for 3 years, don't remember much.
German--I took a couple classes in Canada, after university, no particular reason. Then moved here, and am still working on it. I would say I "use" it everyday but not usually to much effect.

Answer 4

I speak 3 fluently, 6 fairly well. Started Spanish at 19 years old - for a girl I liked. Learned I was good at languages. Kept studying them. Married the girl - now my wife.

Answer 5

I know English, Arabic, and Farsi, although Arabic is my native tongue, it's weaker compared to my English because I got used to using the language more often, since I'm partly Persian, I've been hearing some members of my family speak Farsi, I understand it yet don't know how to read, write, or speak it fluently.

Answer 6

English - at home
Welsh - in school (9 yrs old)
French - in school (11 years old)
Spanish - in school (15 years old)

I learnt the other ones because languages are important in a world which is getting smaller. We need to know about other languages and cultures. It is more important than ever!

Answer 7

Spanish is my native. I started English at school when I was a kid. I learned Esperanto a few years ago because it was an interesting idea. I started Norwegian last year because there is a possibility of going work there.

Answer 8

Speaking and using a language are pretty different things to me. I learned to speak German in high school and am semi-fluent. I use Malay, and two dialects of Chinese (Hakka and Mandarin) on occasion. I know only hand-fulls of words of each of the other languages and can certainly not hold a conversation in any of them, just a few sentences here and there. I can sometimes follow conversations in Malay if I can see the person who is speaking by their body language and by picking up on certain words.

My mom is from Malaysia, my dad met her there and is fluent in Malay, so the two of them would speak in Malay if they didn't want us kids to know what they were talking about, but we usually figured it out. My mom is Hakka (Chinese), so I picked some up from her and our family when we visited them in Malaysia. I also took a course in learning Mandarin in college.

Answer 9

Ebonics- Native language
Basic English- learned from school
Spanish- learned from freinds
French- learned from school

Answer 10

English - native language
Italian - learned in school and from travel.
Urdu - from the parents.