Uni students, how many languages do you speak?

English/French/Indonesian, bit of Welsh, bit of Spanish


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How many languages can I speak fluently (ie. pretty much native/native level), or how many languages can I speak at a decent/pretty good level (eg. holding conversations about most topics, getting by in the language, enough skills to live decently in the country etc.).

If it's the former, then three/four - my native languages, English, Bangka, Indonesian (+/- Spanish)

If it's the latter, then ... seven - English, Bangka, Indonesian, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Malay.

Taking up Russian as a minor as well as extra classes in French methinks, so the languages I'd know would be bumped up to nine! Hopefully in the next few years more will me added into my 'fluent' list!!

Gonna answer three/four if you're classifying it as the former!

Awesome!

It isn't awesome really I lived in Malaysia for ten years where I had friends who didn't like speaking in English, so to hang out with them I had to pick up Mandarin. I also learnt how to write it because my father forced me to attend six years of Mandarin tuition. I've forgotten most of it now that I'm living in the UK, but it'll flood back I'm sure. (Also because I was in Malaysia I spoke Malay a lot - people tend to discriminate against Indonesians there, so I had to adapt my language appropriately.)

My father comes from Hong Kong, so we would spend our year end holidays in Hong Kong every year. The apartment I lived in had many Japanese expatriates, and I befriended their kids. As a kid myself, I had to adapt to their language else I couldn't play with them Since these expatriates used to come and go, there were never the same ones each time I visited Hong Kong. So I used to call myself 'Megumi' and pretend I came from 'Osaka' - never mind that I had no idea where Osaka was! Though I probably was too young to even realise that I was in a foreign language environment ... only when I was 12 and went to Japan did I realise how much I did know and how much I could speak! Haha I'll have to brush up on my Japanese again because it's gotten rusty.

Spanish was the first language I consciously made the decision to study, so after starting to learn it on my own one and a half years ago, I begged my college to let me take it as an A-level. They were extremely reluctant, but I did work hard at the language even though I had no tutor. I think that in terms of fluency/sophistication, my Spanish triumphs over my Japanese and Mandarin hundreds of times over, because I did spend ages poring over grammar, drooling over films/TV shows, reading newspapers/literature and speaking with companions/language exchange buddies. I'd say my Spanish is pretty mid-way now, which was why I was still hesitant to place it under my 'fluent' list even though it's eons better than the other languages I had "picked up".

I'm learning Russian now, and I'd say that it's progressing very well ... by June next year, with the work I'm putting in, I can expect it to be at the level of my Spanish right now. I can't wait, but until then I'm going to be obsessing over all things Russian

Wow, that was long! I am a real language geek, as you can probably tell

You are a legend, miss.