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How common is your language combination? | ||
Tags: Number of Languages | Usefulness | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
 Mae Trilingual Octoglot Pro Member Germany Joined 4992 days ago 299 posts - 499 votes  Speaks: German*, SpanishC2*, Swiss-German*, FrenchC2, EnglishC2, ItalianB2, Dutch, Portuguese Studies: Russian, Swedish Personal Language Map | Message 17 of 59 11 January 2013 at 1:07am | IP Logged | ||
That's right up my alley! It doesn't matter which language story I'm gonna pick, but they all have one thing in common - the following reactions: "Why on earth would you start learning [Insert language here]???" or "But the only foreign language you need nowadays is English!" I stopped caring about what people think about me/my life/my family/my hobbies. I know the initial question was about language combination: learning Guarani, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian, and Swedish (even if some of them are quite common now). Hm... I actually get the worst reactions when the language in question is Swedish: "But you don't need to learn Swedish! All Swedes speak English anyway!" *aaarrrggghhh* Edited by Mae on 11 January 2013 at 1:10am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| vonPeterhof Tetraglot Senior Member Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4773 days ago 715 posts - 1527 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Japanese, German Studies: Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Turkish | Message 18 of 59 11 January 2013 at 5:22am | IP Logged | ||
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Back in my high school years I had a combination of "only" four languages (Russian, English, Kazakh and German) which, I believe, isn't that uncommon in Kazakhstan. Both Russian and Kazakh are official languages, and thus compulsory to learn at school (I'm not entirely sure if English is compulsory by now, but it's definitely the most common "unofficial" language), and German is a popular choice of "other foreign language" for those who choose to take one. But then I added Japanese and Norwegian to the mix and made it all weird :) Edited by vonPeterhof on 11 January 2013 at 5:36am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| zerrubabbel Senior Member United States Joined 4601 days ago 232 posts - 287 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Mandarin | Message 19 of 59 11 January 2013 at 5:31am | IP Logged | ||
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it seems fairly common to find someone online who can atleast converse in japanese, but as far as actual numbers, I
dont think its too common except in pockets around the states... as for languages Ive dabbled in, Mandarin, and Spanish, I feel they are both far more common, But I cant converse well in either of them yet... yet. If I can be at least somewhere in the intermediate range in both of them by the years end, I think overall I will know a more normal range of languages 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| arturs Triglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 5272 days ago 278 posts - 408 votes Speaks: Latvian*, Russian, English | Message 20 of 59 11 January 2013 at 7:08am | IP Logged | ||
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My current combination is quite "conservative" and "boring", apart from the Yiddish part. Since I started to learn it not long ago, I haven't had any stupid remarks or questions yet.
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| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6152 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 21 of 59 11 January 2013 at 9:47am | IP Logged | ||
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In any given year, nobody will know what languages I'm studying - including myself. That's wanderlust for ye. Edited by DaraghM on 11 January 2013 at 9:48am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5208 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 22 of 59 11 January 2013 at 11:04am | IP Logged | ||
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French and Italian is almost a cliché, although maybe not as much so as French and Spanish. Of course I plan to eventually know all three. The difference in perceptions is interesting though - British people seem to think of Italian as a good language to learn, and never react strangely when they find out that I study it, but with Italians I very often get the whole "why the hell are you learning our useless language?!" spiel.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6910 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 23 of 59 11 January 2013 at 12:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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How common is my language combinations?
It depends on which ones I mention (and how many). Nobody thinks French/German are non-mainstream, nor French/Spanish, Spanish/Portuguese... maybe German/Russian or French/Russian (and any Romance language+Esperanto). All are major European languages. If I mention any of my languages plus Mandarin or Irish (or some of my flirts), I'd be considered a language geek. Wait a second, I think I already am... Edited by jeff_lindqvist on 11 January 2013 at 4:49pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| NC181818 Tetraglot Newbie Hong Kong Joined 4350 days ago 17 posts - 24 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 24 of 59 11 January 2013 at 1:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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Most people in Hong Kong can speak Cantonese, English and Mandarin. Japanese is the most studied language here. In my list, only Spanish is unusual for Hongkongers.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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