I think it would be fairly easy to be fully fluent in four or five languages if one lived in the right settings - Switzerland, for example, or Finland. The problem is that maintaining fluency requires constant practice, and so most people won't maintain that level in a large number of languages unless they're, say, UN interpreters, and even they usually specialize in two or three languages only. My Chinese back in law school was good enough that I took a class on Chinese law in Chinese (no English in texts or conversation), but right now, after about ten years of non-use, my Chinese has diminished considerably. However, when I did go to China on business back in 2007 most of it came back in a remarkably short period of time. Of course, on returning to the US most of it sank beneath the waves of the Lethe again (sorry, it sounds pretentious in English but I'm thinking of a common Russian phrase - кануло в Лету).
Yeah, Switzerland, or the friend I mentioned who grew up in Luxembourg - that country is kind of unique at least in the West in the way its division between languages is based more on different domains of life than on linguistic groups. Luxembourgian children are taught in Luxembourgian, French and German at different stages of their education, and people generally use all three of those languages in their daily lives. Throw in the inevitable English, and I guess that makes four without too much effort.
Not sure Finland is such a great example - you could suppose that they're all trilingual Finnish-Swedish-English, but in my very limited experiences, not that many Finns are genuinely fluent in all three, even if they all have some knowledge of the three.
It does come back, fortunately, relearning something is so much easier than learning it the first time.
As it is, Russian alone has been tremendously useful for me in business.
No doubt. My company does some trade with Russia (plus Ukraine and Kazakhstan), and that's all done in Russian, they're apparently not too willing (or able) to do very much in English.
/Simple Question: at what point do you tell people you "know" a language or "speak" it?
24/06/2011 02:49:51 AM
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Here's what I tell various people
24/06/2011 03:09:45 AM
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It's interesting that you focus on the literary side
24/06/2011 03:29:36 AM
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I do that because I make some money from translations, so I have to "know" at least one other, no?
24/06/2011 03:41:24 AM
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Re: /Simple Question: at what point do you tell people you "know" a language or "speak" it?
24/06/2011 01:21:52 PM
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I think if you would be able to make not just basic needs known...
24/06/2011 04:58:05 PM
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Very good question.
24/06/2011 08:22:47 PM
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I had a feeling you might enjoy the survey.
24/06/2011 10:50:47 PM
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What can I say, I'm predictable?
25/06/2011 01:00:49 AM
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Two words: constant practice
25/06/2011 02:34:52 AM
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True.
25/06/2011 04:13:06 PM
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"Sank beneath the the waves of the Lethe" is an incredible phrase. *NM*
26/06/2011 06:01:00 AM
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If you have at least an elementary school understanding of the language
24/06/2011 10:19:45 PM
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My own survey answers
24/06/2011 11:07:12 PM
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Funny how your taste in languages still to learn parallels mine to a great extent.
25/06/2011 01:04:36 AM
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Yeah, and I realized that last list should include Farsi and Arabic.
25/06/2011 02:24:06 AM
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Oh, and Hawaiian. I have about seven books on Hawaiian. All bought in Hawaii, of course. *NM*
25/06/2011 02:35:43 AM
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I suppose Farsi must be easier than Arabic.
26/06/2011 11:18:23 AM
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Re: /Simple Question: at what point do you tell people you "know" a language or "speak" it?
29/06/2011 11:25:42 PM
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