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Number of languages humanly possible? | ||
Tags: Number of Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| mpete16 Diglot Groupie Germany Joined 5524 days ago 98 posts - 114 votes  Speaks: Tagalog, English* Studies: German | Message 9 of 27 31 December 2009 at 11:40pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Not necessarily. "Native Fluency", in my opinion, only means being able to use words just as a native would. (although I know others will disagree with me) For instance, take Francois. If you read the transcript of his interview with the BBC, you couldn't tell that he's not a native English speaker. His choice of words would not be classified as a "non-native's choice of words". On the other hand, if you actually hear the interview, you could tell that he's a french native speaker. But he speaks much clearer than the average frenchman. (or Swiss). But I would say that he's reached "native fluency". But, then again, that's just my opinion. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| ymapazagain Senior Member Australia myspace.com/amywiles Joined 6961 days ago 504 posts - 538 votes Speaks: English* Studies: SpanishB2 | Message 10 of 27 01 January 2010 at 12:17am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I also have only met one person who I thought was a native English speaker but was not. And he was also German. I think there are a lot of people who have English as a second language, who are very highly educated in English, but who retain at least a slight accent. Finding an exception to this is very rare.
I agree with you. I think that so long as your grammar, vocabulary and use of idioms are sound and that you speak articulately and clearly (so that you are easily understood) then you can be considered to have native fluency even if you retain a slight accent. Think about how many different accents there are throughout the English language (for example) anyway. In the UK it seems as though every town has it's own accent! I think that having an accent from another country is just another variation of that. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5483 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 11 of 27 01 January 2010 at 1:58am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I agree with datsunking. I think that the sky is the limit with languages. Being native as in growing up with the language and using it as YOUR OWN NATIVE LANGUAGE has a limit, but not with those that you can LEARN to native fluency. I think it depends on how hard you work and how you learn that limits the amount of languages you can LEARN fluently. Edited by ruskivyetr on 01 January 2010 at 1:59am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Envinyatar Diglot Senior Member Guatemala Joined 5538 days ago 147 posts - 240 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 12 of 27 01 January 2010 at 2:53am | IP Logged | ||||||||
If someone speaks Spanish with an Italian accent she could pass easily for an Argentinian so that's one extra point for Hashimi. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| genini1 Senior Member United States Joined 5470 days ago 114 posts - 161 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 13 of 27 01 January 2010 at 4:55am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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If a Boston accent passes as English then any other languages accent should be accepted. There is no letter r in the word wash. Coffee in not pronounced qua-fee.
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| adrian Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5488 days ago 8 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Polish, German | Message 14 of 27 01 January 2010 at 12:07pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Yes, I agree with mpete16's second quote and ymapazagain that it is not necessary to lose one's accent to have native or near-native fluency in a language. I have heard people talking of the importance of "speaking with an native English accent" when really what they mean is "having an excellent understanding of English phonetics and pronunciation and demonstrating this when speaking". I also agree with ymapazagain and genini1 regarding the diversity of "native" English accents. There are people in many different countries speaking English as a first language with accents that some (uninformed) people might not consider to be "native". 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| snoppingasusual Quadrilingual Hexaglot Groupie Lebanon Joined 5569 days ago 49 posts - 65 votes Speaks: Arabic (Egyptian), French*, English*, Arabic (Written)*, Arabic (Levantine)*, Spanish | Message 15 of 27 01 January 2010 at 1:33pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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If a person can imitate the linguistic abilities of a college professor who teaches a
particular language, then I would say that he speaks his target language fluently. In general, college graduates have a very wide vocabulary; however, they usually do not know how to use the subjunctive, start their sentences with coordinating conjunctions, end their sentences with prepositions, use double negatives, and misuse homophones. Now, I know that some of the aforementioned grammatical errors are considered to be acceptable by a number of writers; although, it is mostly agreed that they are grammatical errors. They may be negligible errors, but I can attest that they weaken your writing. This is simply my opinion, so I acknowledge disagreement. Anyway, a lot of people in Lebanon can imitate the linguistic abilities of a college professor in three languages. Furthermore, educated Lebanese businessmen learn Spanish and Italian because they want to expand their profession. Thus, most Lebanese people can speak three languages fluently, and a large portion of Lebanese people can communicate with four or more languages. If one learns languages with effort, then he will probably be fluent in a lot of them. Edited by snoppingasusual on 08 January 2010 at 4:07pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| zerothinking Senior Member Australia Joined 6374 days ago 528 posts - 772 votes Speaks: English* | Message 16 of 27 01 January 2010 at 10:21pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Luxembourgish is sort of a distant dialect of German. It's considered a language but it's
very close in comparison with other language such as French. "The person has an accent that is indistinguishable from a native speaker's." - Unless they learn all the languages from a young age, many people never achieve this no matter how hard they try. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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