How Many Languages Do You Have At Least A Working Knowledge Of?
My native tongue is Finnish and I have received all my formal education in it from primary school to university.
The foreign language I know best is English. If we are to believe testyourvocab.com, my passive English vocabulary is clearly smaller than that of my peers (middle aged, university educated) in Anglophone countries but it's similar to the average 25-year-old who has English as their first language. I've never spent longer than a couple of weeks at a time in any English-speaking country, which implies that the gaps in my vocabulary are most likely to a substantial degree in every day vocabulary. I don't cook, do housework, buy domestic appliances, go to the doctor or dentist or my file tax returns in English. If my passive Finnish vocabulary is standardized at 100 (relative to my peers), then I'd say my passive English vocabulary is at 50 to 60.
Swedish is the second national language in Finland. A lot of other kids didn't like it in school. But I didn't really mind because Swedish is a very easily approachable Germanic language. It's basic grammar is simpler than that of German while its vocabulary is made up mostly of cognates of German words with a little bit of French and English loan words thrown into the mix. I did really well at it but my Swedish is a bit rusty from not using it much for over 25 years. I'd say the size of my passive vocabulary is about 25 to 35 out of 100.
I had German as an elective subject since middle school (eighth grade). I wouldn't say I have a working knowledge of it but I'm sure I could become functional in it with 6 to 12 months of intensive studying. Vocabulary is my weak point. I still have some grasp of the basic grammar of German as well as the core vocabulary but I have to rely on the Internet quite heavily if I use it. I'd put my vocabulary size at 10 out of 100 relative to my native tongue.
I've studied enough Russian to not be completely helpless. I know about 1000 words passively. I have knowledge of the basic grammar. I can read the alphabet.
It would be interesting to know whether foreign language skills are commonplace in some corners of the world like Africa where there are often many different peoples living in the same country. Is it the case that you typically know English or French, a regional lingua franca and one or two languages spoken by your neighbors in addition to your own native tongue? Is this the situation in India, too, which is another densely populated country with many different groups speaking many languages? What about where you live?
Twitter: https://twitter.com/markku_jantunen/status/1279419097772515328
Lets say two 😁
5-6
English and whatever else is important in your area/country/
3 in my case. I'm a native English speaker but studied French in Candian schools up to nearly getting a minor in university. But, I forgot a lot of that French because I don't use it living in Korea. I speak Korean instead, but my French probably has more vocabulary and better pronunciation (learning it younger and being much more closely related to English has an inherent advantage).
I always feel like I let myself down by not learning to be fluent in a second language. I know a little bit of a several, counting and asking for stuff etc. Always annoyed me. Closest I ever got was swahili when I worked in Zanzibar but since that was 10 years ago much knowledge fade. Have spent most of quarantine learning Japanese to try and push myself. Can read a lot of one of their alphabets now and improving on another. I think as a native English speaker we are very lazy linguistically
Necessity is a great motivator.
it really is