People who speak 2 languages

I only speak 4. *intentional bragging*. 5 if you count the language of love

 

A language is the gate to one's culture. Would you like to learn a certain language to visit the country where it is spoken one day? Go for it! It's such an enriching experience, and interestingly you suddenly get another feeling for your own culture.

 

That brings it to the point!

The language reflects the way of thinking within a culture.
Without speaking the language, you always stay a "foreigner"

 

I do speak 3 languages; Latvian (my native), Russian and English.

Oh yes! Right there! Stroke it like that! It feels so good down there on my ego.

 

In a LOT of countries, people learn their language + english.

 

Tack

Besides my native Swedish, English is the only language I'm relatively fluid in (although I'm sure you'd pick up an accent if you heard me speak). I can usually understand Norwegian but Danish is difficult for me to understand (unless written).

I've studied both German and Italian but can't speak those languages today (except for some words that I still remember). You need a lot of exposure over a long time to learn a language and if you don't use it you lose it.

But I know a few words in quite a lot of different languages. I once read a sentence in french and managed to figure out what it meant even though I don't speak french. It was the french translation of "the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist".

I think that learning a little bit of different languages teaches you how languages work.

 

i grew up speaking 2 languages so it comes naturally.

i speak 4 now.

 

Except in a LOT of countries where english is "their" language

 

I'm enthused by a person who can speak 3. I myself speak 2, maybe even 3 if you consider Hindi to be different language from Urdu and I'm planning learning another language. I'm not sure on what I should learn yet, I was thinking about learning Spanish because it's a romance language and it should come easy to me. I don't think that knowing more than one language makes you any more mature or sophisticated because I'm the complete opposite apparently.

I've met plenty of Africans that can speak multiple languages and it's surprising to me because they have a 3rd world education and yet they're so smart.

 

What a beast. I worked with someone like that. Do you speak all of them fluently?

 

Good to hear such an opinion! But it is nothing that special, I never considered being proud of it.
I speak English, Russian, German and Turkish on a fluent (Russian somewhat, got really rusty) level.
Because I speak all of these languages nearly daily (Russian multiple times per week), I have the problem that I have an accent in all of the languages except in German. People like my Turkish or Russian, or even English accent though, but it gets clear that I am not "native".
I aim to expand my Russian skills. Perhaps some Spanish as well? Who knows.
I am able to somewhat understand countless more to a decent degree, like dutch etc., but that is only passive understanding.

 

For many people in the world it's natural to speak multiple languages.
And the more languages you speak, the easier you also can learn other languages.

But I realize that especially in the english-speaking countries, some people really only speak english, nothing else ?

 

Yes this is true I would have to say mate lol..

 

That is true. Native British and Americans are not forced to learn other languages thoroughly and therefore it is correct, yes.

 

Couldn't agree more my friend

 

Many say they speak different languages, but in reality they speak different forms of their native language. African languages seem to cluster together and neighboring countries and similar tribes from different countries can speak the same language. Not to mention most of them are purely oral languages. Similarly Europeans can speak other languages which are similar to their own.

 

True, the same applies to my case. I can somewhat understand the language of other tribes in my country, yet I can't speak it due to their different phrasings and pronounciations.

 

Yes, for example, German & Dutch, or Romanian & Italian are very similar, but you still need to train and learn it.
Maybe Czech & Slovak are the most similar languages in Europe.

And then, some dialects are so extreme, that they are almost like another language.
For example, Swiss German is so different to Germany German, that they even make subtitles in TV

 

I speak two languages, English and Amharic (Ethiopian language). I lived in Ethiopia for 3 years growing up and that's what helped me learn how to speak the language lol I had no choice but to learn. I was living in the village area and not the capital city (Addis Ababa) so the majority of the people down there didn't really speak English.