2006-10-01 14:25:16 · 11 answers · asked by Bob 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
That depends on how early in life your 20 years are starting! When you start at 3 or 4 (or earlier?), you can start a new language every new year, while keeping up with the [previous] ones. But you need to keep them alive by constantly using them.
If you are 18 or so (or even older), it might be only one or two, because your brain is so adjusted to only one language by then, it is very hard to learn to think in another pattern.
I am multilingual, and I have tutored people several times, therefore have made some experiences with them. Adults often think they just take an english sentence, translate that word-by-word into the other language, and then they think they have a sentence in the other language. (Of course that does not work, it still is english, just with foreign words.)
Children don't think that way, they are still open to start thinking in a completely different language pattern, and that is where the success lies.
2006-10-02 07:53:48 · answer #1 · answered by albgardis T 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
20 Years. It's too much time.
Damn.
I think If someone really need to learn languages he can probably learn more than 20 languages in that much time.
To me, it took about 12 months to learn English and 6 months to Spanish. Now I can even talk with a portuguese. If I spend about 2 months where there are Portuguese speaking people, I am sure I would be speaking Fluent Portuguese.
1 more thing: I speak 7 Languages fluently (without Portuguese).
2006-10-01 21:45:08 · answer #2 · answered by Who am I? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As many as the person is willing to learn. If people need a common language they will learn it, they will have to, like they now learn English for internet. The Madrid-born singer Julio Iglesias speaks English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian and German. He struggled eight years to learn English. The best way to learn a language is to live in a country where they speak it for 6 months or a year. Unfortunately, that's not always practical. Language learning is best done young. Five year olds are quite capable of speaking two or three languages and keeping them distinct in their minds. Most adults would be hard-pressed to do the same. Multi-language skills, learned young, also change the way the brain is developed. It gains extra capacity to know and understand, largely because the demands of language force the extra connections to form. Language learning boils down to doing it.
2006-10-01 22:14:39 · answer #3 · answered by JFAD 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
i have 3
2006-10-01 22:05:28 · answer #4 · answered by yayaloyaya 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'd say 6. I have 2 friends in there 20's and 30's and they both speak 6 languages.
2006-10-01 21:28:08 · answer #5 · answered by nytrauma911 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It doesn't matter how many languages one can speak. Most importantly as long as the whole world is able to speak one language and understand it. That would be the most ideal than trying to learn many languages and eventually nobody understands.
2006-10-01 21:35:30 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
5-6 languages an average person it depends on the teacher and school and how the person learns
2006-10-01 21:30:08 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
As many as they try to and practice with speakers of the individual languages.
2006-10-01 21:26:54 · answer #8 · answered by *babydoll* 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
i'm 60 and still havent mastered the english language
2006-10-01 21:27:57 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
As many as they're commited to and capable of.
2006-10-01 23:56:44 · answer #10 · answered by leviathia 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋