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There are entire countries where everyone speaks >= 3 languages. This poll would be more meaningful if we banned the Swiss. Also, most educated people from Indi
by mahmud 16y ago
There are entire countries where everyone speaks >= 3 languages. This poll would be more meaningful if we banned the Swiss. Also, most educated people from Indian subcontinent speak three language; their local tongue, the nation's lingua franca, and English.
Rule of thumb is: sizable minority language + official/ruling language + one international language:
Cantonese / Mandarin / English
Swedish / Finish / English
Tamazighi / Arabic / French
Basque / Castilian / English
I speak 3 and read another 3. My father is fluent in 5 and can bullshit in Russian. My maternal grandmother speaks 7; but she can't read or write :-)
- solipsist 16y ago> My maternal grandmother speaks 7; but she can't read or write :-) Very interesting to hear that. What are the languages that she speaks?
- mahmud 16y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harar#People http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harar#People (+ arabic and turkish)
- cloudhead 16y agoMost Swiss don't speak more than one or two languages.
- sushumna 16y agowell said and very true "Also, most educated people from Indian subcontinent speak three language". I speak TELUGU,ENGLISH,HINDI (S/R/W), TAMIL(only S :)
- copper 16y ago> I speak 3 and read another 3 Doesn't that mean you can speak 6? The Indian subcontinent usually gets complicated, as there are usually a /lot/ of local dialects that people speak, and some of them may arguably deserve to be separate languages - at least, the speakers usually think so :)
- mahmud 16y agoDoesn't that mean you can speak 6? No. It's possible to read formal prose in a language without speaking it. Polite/learned communication, specially in writing, is often contrived and limited, often resembling an archaic form of the language. It's very possible to read formal text in a language, and glean meaning from it based on your expertise in the language family. Though you would be helpless in the street.