| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Poll: How many languages can you speak fluently? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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wonita (X)
China
Local time: 16:20
I assume 3 because I take interpreting jobs for German-Chinese and English-Chinese.
German: Since I've been living in Germany for around 16 years, German is the language I am most fluent in at the moment, though I speak German with a slight accent and some grammatical mistakes.
Chinese: Chinese is my mother tongue, but in some areas I did miss the development in the language in the past years, and it can take some time before I get me familiar with a certain topic, but it is ... See more I assume 3 because I take interpreting jobs for German-Chinese and English-Chinese.
German: Since I've been living in Germany for around 16 years, German is the language I am most fluent in at the moment, though I speak German with a slight accent and some grammatical mistakes.
Chinese: Chinese is my mother tongue, but in some areas I did miss the development in the language in the past years, and it can take some time before I get me familiar with a certain topic, but it is not so difficult. Mother tongue remains mother tongue.
English: English is the weakest language among the 3. I normally interpret at business meetings between Germans and Chinese, but I can imagine that I do have difficulty, say, talking about the recent bus accident in Switzerland with a Brit. Can't imagine what vocabulary he would use.
All in all in all these 3 languages I can communicate and make me understood.
[Edited at 2012-03-15 10:21 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Michael Harris 
Germany
Local time: 22:20
Member (2006)
German to English
| not necessarily | Mar 14, 2012 |
patriciacharnet wrote: very true, it depends on the level of fluency - I feel comfortable in French and English, and would use them in life emergency situations without thinking but as for Spanish and Italian - I would be worried about saying something wrong  I'm very skeptical about people who claim to speak so many languages fluently, I personally find it quite a challenge just to keep 2 at a very high level - lots of people think fluent means basic conversation in my opinion
Last year, I saw a program where someone (extremely talented) was give one week to learn Icelandic. He had never spoken the language before!!
After a week in Iceland, not even the locals could tell him appart - there are always exceptions
| | | | Diana Coada (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:20
Portuguese to English
+ ...
| Fluency in a week??? | Mar 14, 2012 |
Michael Harris wrote:
Last year, I saw a program where someone (extremely talented) was give one week to learn Icelandic. He had never spoken the language before!!
After a week in Iceland, not even the locals could tell him appart - there are always exceptions
I'm sorry, but this is rubbish.
| | | | Mario Chavez (X)
Local time: 16:20
English to Spanish
+ ...
| Fluency is not the same as literacy... | Mar 15, 2012 |
...or writing skills in a language. Some educated people can read perfect English (or any other language) but not necessarily speak it with fluency. Conversely, some people may have an atrocious accent or feel insecure in conversation (ie, interpreting situations, for example) but can write a good piece.
Of course, I am not trying to stray from the topic at hand, which is language fluency.
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Balasubramaniam L.
India
Local time: 01:50
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
I am fluent (bilingual) in two languages - English and Hindi, which are also the languages in which I translate.
In addition to these, I also know Malayalam, Tamil and Gujarati, but I can't claim any fluency in them.
We are Tamils who have been residing for generations in Kerala, a Malayalam speaking area (up to my generation that is; my family moved out of Kerala into Hindi-speaking areas when I was a child), so we speak a curious mix of Tamil and Malayalam at home, w... See more I am fluent (bilingual) in two languages - English and Hindi, which are also the languages in which I translate.
In addition to these, I also know Malayalam, Tamil and Gujarati, but I can't claim any fluency in them.
We are Tamils who have been residing for generations in Kerala, a Malayalam speaking area (up to my generation that is; my family moved out of Kerala into Hindi-speaking areas when I was a child), so we speak a curious mix of Tamil and Malayalam at home, which is sometimes called Pattar-Tamil. It is basically Tamil spoken with a Malayalam accent and with a lot of Malayalam words. I am quite fluent in this language (or should I call it a dialect?), but neither Tamils nor Malayalis will be able to hide a smile when they hear this Pattar-Tamil being spoken. I have not counted this language (or dialect) in the languages in which I am fluent.
Malayalam is the first language I formally studied at school for may be three years, and so I can read and understand Malayalam quite well, including advanced texts like philosophy, literature, and humour. But as to speaking formal Malayalam, I wouldn't claim any level of fluency in it. Recently, I was in Kerala and my experiences would be illustrative. I could perfectly understand any Malayalam that was addressed to me and I could speak a bit of Malayalam and hold extended conversation but always fumbled for words and often substituted Hindi or English words where the correct Malayalam word did not occur to me, but my listeners could understand what I was trying to say. None of them looked askance at me, nor did any one break out into derisive laughter at my Malayalam, so probably I was not mangling Malayalam too much!
Regarding Tamil, as I said, I speak the Pattar-version of Tamil, and find it difficult to understand the chaste Tamil that one hears in TV news and films. I read the Tamil script with difficulty and my vocabulary in Tamil is very limited. Needless to say, I can't understand high-level texts in Tamil much.
As for Gujarati, I was exposed to this language late in my life, when I was in my late twenties. I lived in Gujarati-speaking Ahmedabad for over 20 years, but to this day I can't speak a single sentence in Gujarati. But because Gujarati is very similar in vocabulary and grammatical structure to Hindi, I have almost cent-per-cent comprehension of Gujarati. I can read Gujarati (the script is very similar to the devnagari script of Hindi) and understand high-level texts in Gujarati. When listening to Gujarati, I can understand what is being said almost completely, but always reply in Hindi which comes more naturally to me. I regularly translate from Gujarati to English.
Hindi and English are my main languages which I have formally studied (Hindi up to Master's level) and I consider myself bilingual in them - in all departments, speaking, reading, writing and understanding. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Jessie LN
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:20
Spanish to English
+ ...
It used to be three (English, Spanish & Portuguese), but I think the last time I spoke Portuguese was when I met a couple of Brazilians at a hostel in Spain in 2007 or so...
I could probably get by in Portuguese>English translation as I can read it well, but I'd feel like a fraud since my aural comprehension and ability to speak it have deteriorated a huge amount.
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