Re: OT: How common is it to speak 5+ languages?

On Mon, Jan 10, 2005 at 01:36:31AM -0800, B. Garcia wrote:
> On various mail and online message boards, I see lots of teenagers or
> young adults who claim to speak 5+ languages. My _personal_ definition
> of being able to "speak" is more on the conversant side, rather than
> being able to say a few sentences and ask for basic things.
>
> So, how common would you say it is for someone to be conversant enough
> in 5+ languages where it's more than what your average "teach
> yourself" book is going to prepare you for?
[...]

Can't say, except that of the 4 languages I'm conversant in, I'm most
fluent in English rather than my L1 (scarily enough). My fluency
distribution is roughly as follows, on a scale of 1-10:

               Comprehension  Fluency
Hokkien (L1) - 10             8
Mandarin     - 9              7
English      - 10             10
Malay        - 8              5

My Malay used to be much better, but has rusted and declined through
lack of use over the past decade.

Besides these, I know enough Korean phrases to impress someone at
first meeting, but I can't construct sentences or carry out any
conversations. I can probably only understand 1-5% of a conversation
carried out in Korean. On the same scale of 1-10, I'd say my Korean
fluency is only about 1 & 1.

I can also understand about 30% of a Cantonese conversation, but my
Cantonese-speaking level is less than Korean. My Cantonese score would
be about 2 & 1.

ObConlang: I used to be able to speak Ebisédian without needing to
refer to the lexicon, but not anymore. Again, lack of use can really
take a toll on your fluency. As far as Ebisédian comprehension goes, I
can understand 90% of written Ebisédian without needing to consult the
lexicon, but spoken Ebisédian, maybe only 60% (mostly due to an
unrealistic phonology, which is one of the reasons Ebisédian is on my
backburner now.)

I'd say that my Tatari Faran is only barely above my level of Korean
in terms of vocabulary (unfortunately), but better than my L1 in terms
of grammar (isn't that scary? :-P). My comprehension of written Tatari
Faran is about 80%. I've not tried spoken Tatari Faran (it's kinda
hard to do it alone y'know? :-P), but I suspect it would be around 60%
to 70%.


T

--
Only boring people get bored. -- JM