| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Off topic: Answer this Poll on LinkedIn Thread poster: Clara Robin
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I'm hoping to get an idea of how many languages the average person speaks. Please post your answer to this poll on LinkedIn and enter the languages that you speak in the comment box below the poll.
How many languages do you speak?
Link to Poll:
http://linkd.in/SFcc42
| | | | Andy Lemminger 
Canada
Local time: 13:06
Member (2002)
English to German
A post on a translator site won't give you the correct answer since the "average" person only speaks one language...
Best regards
Andy
www.interlations.com
| | | | Clara Robin
United States
Local time: 15:06
TOPIC STARTER | Thanks for the reply! =) | Oct 26, 2012 |
Andy, thank you so much for your input. I did consider that about translators and 'average people'; however, I believe that with so much immigration going on all over the world and people taking up language classes in universities, etc... perhaps the answer for the average person is more than one... ?
Besides, translators are average people too. We just have specialized skills =)
Anyway, just thought I would throw the poll out there and see what results come up in a mon... See more Andy, thank you so much for your input. I did consider that about translators and 'average people'; however, I believe that with so much immigration going on all over the world and people taking up language classes in universities, etc... perhaps the answer for the average person is more than one... ?
Besides, translators are average people too. We just have specialized skills =)
Anyway, just thought I would throw the poll out there and see what results come up in a month. So far, it is trending towards 3 languages.
=) ▲ Collapse
| | | | John Fossey
Canada
Local time: 15:06
Member (2008)
French to English
+ ...
The statistics department of the government should be able to answer that question more reliably than a poll on LinkedIn. It's one of the questions asked on most censuses.
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Allison Wright (X)
Portugal
Local time: 20:06
| Translators judge themselves differently | Oct 26, 2012 |
Andy Lemminger wrote:
A post on a translator site won't give you the correct answer since the "average" person only speaks one language...
Best regards
Andy
www.interlations.com
Judging from what some people put down as "languages they speak" on their CVs and Facebook (and what I know about their level of the mastery of those languages), I know that as a translator, I treat my answer to this question with a great deal more delicacy that "the average person", whoever he or she may be - but presumably someone who does not consider themselves a professional linguist or translator/interpreter.
For example, while I have a reading knowledge of 5 (plus another 2 where I think I get the gist of what is written and one or two others where I have the lightest smattering imaginable), I translate from 3 into my mother tongue (English). Of those three source languages, I can only claim to speak one with any degree of intelligibility to native speakers of that language, but do not consider myself fluent yet.
The short answer then to how many languages I *speak*: one and a bit. Pretty average, then, I suppose.
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Slightly, or more, off topic, but how can you translate from three languages when you "only claim to speak one with any degree of intelligibility to native speakers"?
Allison Wright wrote:
I translate from 3 into my mother tongue (English). Of those three source languages, I can only claim to speak one with any degree of intelligibility to native speakers of that language, but do not consider myself fluent yet.
I speak, read and write Italian with a pretty good degree of intelligibility, but have as yet to add that language as an SL. Until I feel I have an almost perfect command, it seems like too much hard work.
But maybe I should add Norwegian and Danish as SLs . Today I spend a couple of hours on the phone teaching a Norwegian colleague how to use a piece of software - all in Scandinavian, i.e. me Swedish, him Norwegian. We only once had to resort to English to clarify a minor detail. As we were almost fully intelligible, maybe I should add Norwegian (and Danish) as an SL?
| | | | inkweaver
Germany
Local time: 21:06
French to German
+ ...
Reading/understanding and speaking/writing are not the same, in my opinion.
While I read/understand French and Italian very well (at least that's what I think), I don't feel very confident in speaking/writing these languages, simply due to a lack of practice. Personally, I think there can be a huge difference between receptive and expressive language skills in a foreign language and I don't think it is absolutely necessary to have perfect expressive skills in a foreign language as ... See more Reading/understanding and speaking/writing are not the same, in my opinion.
While I read/understand French and Italian very well (at least that's what I think), I don't feel very confident in speaking/writing these languages, simply due to a lack of practice. Personally, I think there can be a huge difference between receptive and expressive language skills in a foreign language and I don't think it is absolutely necessary to have perfect expressive skills in a foreign language as long as your receptive skills are excellent and your expressive skills in your target language are excellent. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | In the European Union | Oct 27, 2012 |
The Spanish Instituto Nacional de Estadística has a page with data about number of languages learnt by pupil in the UE. Surely other national institutes have more information on the subject, but you can check yourself here if you speak some Spanish.
As it seems, in 2010 and in the 27 countries of the UE, the number of languages students learned at a high-school level wa... See more The Spanish Instituto Nacional de Estadística has a page with data about number of languages learnt by pupil in the UE. Surely other national institutes have more information on the subject, but you can check yourself here if you speak some Spanish.
As it seems, in 2010 and in the 27 countries of the UE, the number of languages students learned at a high-school level was 1,4.
I also agree with the colleagues that a translator portal is not representative of the population as a whole... ▲ Collapse
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| Level of fluency? Foreign language or mother tongue? | Oct 27, 2012 |
I think the question will yield irrelevant results for two reasons:
A. You do not say "fluently" or a similar expression of the ability using the language. People will count their individual phrases and holiday communication successes as speaking a language. It feels a bit like if you were asking "Would you say that you are a good person?" instead of "Over the last year, have you spent more than three days or the equivalent of three days of your income helping other people?".
... See more I think the question will yield irrelevant results for two reasons:
A. You do not say "fluently" or a similar expression of the ability using the language. People will count their individual phrases and holiday communication successes as speaking a language. It feels a bit like if you were asking "Would you say that you are a good person?" instead of "Over the last year, have you spent more than three days or the equivalent of three days of your income helping other people?".
What your question is asking is How many languages do you think you happen to speak at any level?. By adding "fluently" or a similar expression of ability, you can easily reduce the level of subjectivity in the poll, since most people are honest (more often to the rest of us than to themselves, that is), and thus obtain a figure that is a bit more real and interesting.
B. Another issue is the fact that you do not specifically refer to foreign languages, which is probably what you meant to say since you are in a monolingual country. In Spain, 25% of people would answer 2 languages at least, but both would be mother tongues, like Catalan/Valencian/Balearic+Spanish, Galician+Spanish, Basque+Spanish, etc.
The same situation happens in countries like Belgium or Switzerland, where a second language is not necessarily a foreign language and children learn the two, three or more official languages in the country in school.
All in all, I really think that at the very least the question should be changed to something like:
- How many foreign languages do you speak fluently?
Or maybe better:
- How many languages other than your mother tongue(s) do you speak fluently?
(This one would account for immigrants and languages that exist in your country, and hence are not foreign, but you do not speak as your mother tongue, like Italian for a German-speaking Swiss, Welsh for a Londoner, or Galician for a Castillian person.)
[Edited at 2012-10-27 07:40 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Allison Wright (X)
Portugal
Local time: 20:06
| Why not, indeed. | Oct 27, 2012 |
inkweaver wrote:
Reading/understanding and speaking/writing are not the same, in my opinion.
While I read/understand French and Italian very well (at least that's what I think), I don't feel very confident in speaking/writing these languages, simply due to a lack of practice. Personally, I think there can be a huge difference between receptive and expressive language skills in a foreign language and I don't think it is absolutely necessary to have perfect expressive skills in a foreign language as long as your receptive skills are excellent and your expressive skills in your target language are excellent.
To inkweaver's neat response to Madeleina MacRae Klintebo's question, I should like to add the following points:
- I am a translator. My skill lies in translating into my mother tongue, in which I write very well. I am not an interpreter.
- The crew on Air France, for example, all tell me that my spoken French is very good, as do passengers with whom I normally converse. I beg to differ, since I know that it was once better, and has become a little rusty. I do not believe this has any bearing on my ability to translate, because my level of understanding has not deteriorated at all.
- I write English (my mother tongue) better than I speak it. Those who have heard me speak think me most articulate. However articulate I may be considered to be does not alter the fact I am better at writing than speaking.
As I said, it is a question of the standards one applies. If I could speak any one of my source languages 80% as well as I can my mother tongue, then I would consider myself entitled to declare that I "speak" those languages. As the situation stands, I cannot do that in all honesty.
| | | | | Threshold tests | Oct 28, 2012 |
I realized that a few self-tests could be devised on this issue.
Top languages:
How long would it take for a native and resident of X-land to state that you are neither a native nor a resident there?
Usable languages:
If you travel to X-land, can you get by and stay out of trouble, say, for a week, speaking only X-ese (no matter how badly) on you... See more I realized that a few self-tests could be devised on this issue.
Top languages:
How long would it take for a native and resident of X-land to state that you are neither a native nor a resident there?
Usable languages:
If you travel to X-land, can you get by and stay out of trouble, say, for a week, speaking only X-ese (no matter how badly) on your own, without any help?
Barely usable languages:
If you travelled to X-land, and were mistakenly arrested by the local police as an internationally wanted criminal, would you be able to explain yourself in X-ese to get released before an interpreter arrived?
Non-languages
Would the X-land police (from the previous test) lock you up until an interpreter were brought in? ▲ Collapse
| | | | Allison Wright (X)
Portugal
Local time: 20:06
| Important tests | Oct 28, 2012 |
José Henrique Lamensdorf wrote:
I realized that a few self-tests could be devised on this issue.
In that, case, perhaps I do speak more than one-and-a-bit languages. It is all so confusing, really.
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Nicole Schnell
United States
Local time: 12:06
English to German
+ ...
In memoriam | The results will be very restricted and hardly representative | Oct 28, 2012 |
Not everyone is a LinkedIn member. I am, but I haven't visited this site in eons, and I have no idea where I wrote down the login information.
| | | | | More data on Europe | Oct 28, 2012 |
Self reported number of languages spoken in the EU in 2007, according to Eurostat (you can easily check this yourself):
- No foreign languages spoken: 37,5% of people
- 1 language: 34,9%
- 2 languages: 19,9%
- 3 or more languages: 7,8%
In the case of Spain:
- No foreign languages spoken: 46,6% of people (57,2% in rural areas)
- 1 language: 35,4%
- 2 languages: 13,6%
- 3 or more languages: 4,3%
[Edited at 2012-10-28 17:31... See more Self reported number of languages spoken in the EU in 2007, according to Eurostat (you can easily check this yourself):
- No foreign languages spoken: 37,5% of people
- 1 language: 34,9%
- 2 languages: 19,9%
- 3 or more languages: 7,8%
In the case of Spain:
- No foreign languages spoken: 46,6% of people (57,2% in rural areas)
- 1 language: 35,4%
- 2 languages: 13,6%
- 3 or more languages: 4,3%
[Edited at 2012-10-28 17:31 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | I'm surprised | Oct 28, 2012 |
Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote:
In the case of Spain:
- No foreign languages spoken: 46,6% of people (57,2% in rural areas)
- 1 language: 35,4%
- 2 languages: 13,6%
- 3 or more languages: 4,3%
[Edited at 2012-10-28 17:31 GMT]
I'm surprised. There are six million people in Catalonia, plus the Basques and the people who live in Galicia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands. I can't believe only 13.6% of the Spanish people speak two languages.
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