I have a friend who says he's bi-lingual in four languages, but I'm not sure whether to believe him or not?

Answer 1

I assume this is a trick to catch out people who don't read carefully enough.

Answer 2

Perhaps he means that he is able to relate to one of these languages at a time with regard to another i.e. he can translate from Spanish into French, or German into Italian. Speaking in four languages is no big deal. In some countries you are brought up bi-lingual to start with and you acquire two others in secondary school, so it is possible he is multi-lingual.

Answer 3

That's really a blast! BI-LINGUAL in FOUR languages? That's the funniest thing I've heard in a decade! Bi-lingual means knowing and able to use TWO languages. After two you might say TRI-lingual for three, but then one would say POLY-lingual for any more than that. One might even say POLY-lingual for the ability to use languages. But BI-lingual. HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!

Whether you believe him or not doesn't matter. It's his life and it's either true or it isn't. Let it go and forget about. What he says about himself in no way affects your life. Live yours and let him have his own illusions.

Answer 4

well, to test if he is fluent or not, looking up common words in the languages and asking him for the translations isn't going to work, a person in the beginning stage of learning the language would still know.

And since you are not fluent, it's hard to tell, because when you can't speak a language, anyone carrying on a conversation in that language looks more impressive than it probably is.

Getting a native speaker to talk with him if you run into any could be good as long as you make them say the truth, some are just so amazed that someone is learning their language that even with someone bad they're reassure them how great they are.

You could also use common sense and ask yourself where he would have learned these languages. Did he grow up in another country, spend a great deal of time abroad, have foreign parents, did he study languages at school at an advanced level? How old is he anyway?

Answer 5

My dear, somebody who is able to speak 2 languages is a bilingual more than two he cannot be grammatically called a bilingual but a polyglot or a multilingual.

It's no surprise if a person can speak 4 languages. I speak 5. I am fluent in English and French, I can speak two native tongues and I am in a country where I am obliged to learn and speak another native tongue.

I have heard of a person who is able to speak 10 languages!
The human brain is capable of managing all that.

Answer 6

I knew this 4 years old Maltese girl who could speak fluently Maltese cos it's the language of Malta , then English cos it's the second language in Malta , then Arabic cos his father was egyptian and Italian cos Maltese people watch a lot of Italian TV and become quite fluent in it.

In South Africa I met these children who could speak Afrikaans , since it was their first language , English , for obvious reasons , and then Tswana , cos their nanny was a Tswana woman.



Obviously BILINGUAL refers to 2 languages , but sometimes people use words to mean something even if the real meaning is not that correct . so if he's quadrilingual , well it could be , as you see someone who's quadrilingual do exist

Answer 7

lol thats a contradicition. the root word bi means two. Therefore when your bi-lingual, you can speak two languages. As for testing him in the four languages, just look up a few common words/phrases in the languages he claims to know and ask him to give their english translation.

Answer 8

Evidently he's lying, since bi-lingual means you speak just 2 languages. XD

Answer 9

I doubt if you should believe him, if he has mastered 4 languages he would qualify as multi or quadri lingual and not bi as that means two if he does not know this English is already a language he has not mastered.

Answer 10

Can he name the languages and actually speak them ?
Maybe he knows little bits of each language he says he can speak, but not speak them all fluently.
I'm from Africa - because of all the different languages there, I've grown up to know ten languages (pretty fluent in them all) - Had I been born in the US or Britain, I doubt I'd know any more than english fluently.
He must be very clever to know four languages all from different countries..

Answer 11

I wouldn't believe him either becuz being bi-lingual means he speaks just two different languages, multi-lingual is three or more, seven or more is a linguist or they r linguistic.