Are you multilingual?

[Fen]

Norwegian is my native language. Due to that I can also understand Swedish and Danish most of the time. But I cant speak them fluently really. I'm also able to understand a few German words. And occationally sometimes I can pick up the meaning of a Dutch word. But thats rare. English is my second language.

As for the bonus question, thats a hard one. But I think either Spanish (european), Japanese, German or Arabic. Spanish and Arabic due to the areas it would cover language wise in the world. German is always a good language to know work wise, since Norway deals a lot with Germany from my understanding. Japanese since I've always liked the sound and their history fascinates me.

Suppose that Esperanto would be pretty cool to learn too. Just because its very unique. And I got the impression that it's community is very tight. And of course the fact that its a good way to learn other languages. Such as German and Spanish.

Funny enough I could have learned French, Spanish or German in middle school. But I decided to pick additional English lessons instead. Since I was bad at it back then.

 

[rfm8os]

Native English. Formerly fluent Portuguese...

Interesting comment made earlier about the ability to think in another language. I definitely think in portuguese when I'm using it. I dream in it too. Also somewhat in Spanish and fleetingly in French.

I was born in the US but my first language was Portuguese as both my parents and my whole family emigrated from Portugal. I was a very early speaker and it was 100% Portuguese until I was about 3-4 years old or so when my parents moved us to the suburbs and the neighbor kids told my parents they couldn't understand me. My Dad told my mom realized they had to switch to English at home so that I would be able to go to school so I eventually lost a lot of the Portuguese. My family all understood english so even if my grandparents or whatever were speaking to me in Portuguese I could respond in English.

The results is that I can understand it almost 100% on a street dialog level and can read a good portion of it if the level isn't too high or technical. I can watch a Portuguese soap opera and follow the plot pretty well. When hearing it or reading it I am thinking in Portuguese as I don't need to mentally translate. I have also dreamt in Portuguese on occasion. But conversationally I would have trouble generating a lot of dialog with the correct grammar on my own and would fumble around a bit. I know if I was immersed in the language by going to Portugal or whatever it wouldn't take me long to get fluent but I just don't have enough exposure to it these days.

 

[Alacrity59]

English and profanity. Actually I was raised in Quebec and have the papers to prove I'm bilingual. Having said this my French friends asked me not to speak their language because it makes their ears bleed.

I had to rescue some cousins from Maryland who got rained out while camping close to Montreal. They called from a hospital and credited having taken two years of French in school with their ability to find a pay phone by following the signs saying "Sortie".

 

[Owen Bawn]

English and profanity. Actually I was raised in Quebec and have the papers to prove I'm bilingual. Having said this my French friends asked me not to speak their language because it makes their ears bleed.

I had to rescue some cousins from Maryland who got rained out while camping close to Montreal. They called from a hospital and credited having taken two years of French in school with their ability to find a pay phone by following the signs saying "Sortie".

I used to live in New Hampshire, to which many of the old people had emigrated from Quebec when they were young. They spoke two languages- broken French and broken English... often in the same sentence. I remember a woman once stopped me in the supermarket and said "Excusez moi, but where se trouve le Skippy Crunchy Peanut Butter, and also ou trouver les sacs of the vacuum cleaner." I answered her and a few minutes later she was back again looking for the vacuum cleaner bags and she said, no kidding, "Where sont elles?"

 

[dieselfuel79]

I grew up in an English speaking household, but my mother spoke fluent German and my father spoke fluent French. I studied french from K-12 and can carry on a conversation with my Dad. I understand German but do not speak it very well.

My children are both in French Immersion.

It’s always fun listening to my parents bicker in their respective languages and then have them ask my brother and I to translate what the other had said.

My wife’s side of the family is very Italian and I’ve picked up a little bit over the last 20 years. I wish I was much more fluent in Italian and Spanish. Heck, if I could speak every language, I’d love it.