How many?

[JessiFox]

It's fairly safe to say all of us here are eager to be at least bilingual, but if you had to say, what do you think is the best number of languages to know?

[GamerPerson]

I would say two or three. Being able to have a few options are nice. For me, I would have to go with Spanish and Japanese because of the fact that I want to be able to talk to my boyfriend's family in Spanish. There's also the fact that it'll be the main second language you would hear in the US; so that'll give me more of an edge in getting a job. My third language would be Japanese because of the fact that I'm heavily interested in their culture after it started off with just a mild interest because of anime.

[thewakeupcall]

I agree with Gamer, by having two or three languages under your belt, you can communicate with two or three different countries/continents. By doing this, you're able to make businesses there, help people, or tell a good joke.

[spacetimecontinuum]

It's fairly safe to say all of us here are eager to be at least bilingual, but if you had to say, what do you think is the best number of languages to know?

If there are roughly 230 countries on the planet, I wish to know ALL the languages, even the "click" ones. What could be a more awesome Super-Power than being able to communicate with everyone?? That even beats the ability to fly, I reckon. :wacky:

[Muthoni]

I would like to know at least three foreign languages. Children are at an advantage because they are able to learn new languages more easily than adults. I think we all have different abilities to master languages and one should do their best to learn as many as possible.

[AExAVF]

Realistically, a person can learn up to a maximum of three languages.  Mastery of each and every language must cover everything, from learning the basic grammar rules, vocabulary, linguistics, other rules regarding the spoken language, etc.  It also depends on the person's willingness and desire to learn the language.  Another factor which may affect the person's language skills is lineage.  In my case, my mother speaks Cebuano in addition to Tagalog, but I cannot speak the former.  I could understand a few words, but I'm not fluent in Cebuano.  On the other hand, my desire to learn Nihongo is because of my exposure to anime and other Japanese drama series.  In addition, I also have a manga in Nihongo which I can already appreciate reading.

[Baburra]

As many as possible would be the best but for a minimum two or three would already be nice enough. With only one other language apart from your native language you could already make a good living as a translator or at the very least it should already feel enriching enough in terms of broadening your perspective on different cultures.

[Rosa]

In terms of master languages, I wouldn't go beyond three. Others may be able to feel comfortable with higher numbers but the way I am I would probably start getting confused and just messing up everything.

[Dora M]

I would say that it all depends on what you want to do or achieve in life. If you love travelling and getting to know different people and cultures from around the world, the more languages you speak the better.

If you want to be a translator or work in a business where other languages are a bonus, you might consider acquiring at least one or two languages, in order to further your income. And, if are generally interested in languages for their own sake, then, obviously there is no limit.

[Verba]

It's fairly safe to say all of us here are eager to be at least bilingual, but if you had to say, what do you think is the best number of languages to know?

Personally, I believe if one has a knack for languages, by all means s/he should learn as many as s/he can manage. I have a friend who is very good at learning languages. Her native tongue is English but she knows about 4 more and she teaches 2 of these 4 languages. She learns really fast. She soon plans to take another foreign language so that she can also possibly teach it in the future.

The French teacher of my child can speak English, German, Russian, French of course and Romanian because she's from Romania.

I've read about a person who learned 40-72 languages. So I think there is really no limit as to how many a person can learn. But it is all dependent on the ability to learn languages. See this link especially the last paragraph there: [ftp=ftp://mentalfloss.com/article/49138/how-many-languages-it-possible-know]http://mentalfloss.com/article/49138/how-many-languages-it-possible-know[/ftp]

[petrushka]

Realistically, a person can learn up to a maximum of three languages.

I think this is more the probable maximum for people who didn't have to grow in a multilingual environment though, don't you think? Because someone whose native language is English would need to learn two more languages, as opposed to someone who's had to learn their native language AND the English language since they were children. If they had an interest in learning a language, they'd have the advantage of time because they grew up bi- or multilingual already.

People like your mother whose native language is not the official language of their country would be sometimes be raised knowing three languages to boot, since they'd need to know their native ones (Cebuano), the official one (like Tagalog/Filipino) and English and sometimes, a dialect or so as well.

[elenamarie]

Honestly I want to learn as many language as I can infact I want to learn all the languages of the world. In that case, no matter where I go I will be able to understand what the native people of the specific place is saying. I know it’s not impossible but it could be hard.

[Meerkat]

I believe that there is no limit. You should simply work, 2-3 hours per day on any language you have chosen, and when it is complete, move on.

My list of languages, not including extras, now numbers in 28 languages. Will I learn them all? Probably not!

However, I have made an amusing abbreviated goal for myself. RAPID.

It stands for Russian, Arabic, Polish, Italian, and Dutch. Some of the most interesting languages(to me) in the world.

So, I'd say about 5, or more!

[InfiniteGeko]

Two or three languages is safe. I wouldn't mind knowing more languages. Once you get used to a single language you'll start notice that the next language isn't as difficult because it has the same roots. You can see this happening in Spanish, Portuguese, and French, or even Italian.

I would still exhort a person to top out at three languages if it's not work related because you'd need a lot of time in each culture to get used to how fast they speak and learn the most recent slang. Don't stop there, though! I'm sure each language has a sub-dialect in each small town of its origin.

[AureliaeLacrimae]

I believe that being fluent in at least three languages is a fair number. However, I also believe that being able to actively or passively use other languages as well is a great quality, so you should never stop learning. Try to accumulate as much knowledge as possible - it can never be too little. The more languages you speak, the more choices you have. Sometimes your knowledge of a particular language can be the decisive factor in many things - getting a job, for example.

But yes, three is a good number.

[Rosyrain]

It is becoming more and more important to be bilingual in society these days. Employers like to hire people who speak more than one language so that they can translate and help out the country. For me, I think it is most important to know English and spanish especially. Arab languages are becoming important too as many middle eastern people are immigrating to the US.

[jbepp]

I think four is the perfect number of languages. Your native language and three that you consider important. I've been bilingual for a long time and about a year ago I decided to star learning french. After I'm done with French I'll probably try to learn Japanese. Out of those I'll try to master French and Spanish.

[primalclaws1974]

I would say two would be sufficient, unless you had a particular reason to learn more. This would probably be based on a job where there were multiple people, and they needed translators. I don't think this would be very common, except in very large cities, like New York. I also think it takes a special kind of person to speak more than two languages fluently.

[sidney]

I think 3 or more would be ideal, like 5 at the most, since I'm already bilingual. I would like to learn the languages that would enable me to get better paying jobs in the BPO industry, so I guess that would take a couple of years to be fluent in one before proceeding to learn another language.

[elles-belles]

I think that it depends on the passion each individual has for learning languages so it really is up to each person to decide how many languages they want to learn and most importantly how many languages they can handle.

Personally I would love to know at least 5 languages fluently that way I will have the opportunity to interact and build relations with ease and precision. At the moment I speak quite a number of African languages such as Zulu, Xhosa and Afrikaans to name a few. Learning these languages was fairly easy for me to do as most African languages are really very similar.

I would love to polish up my French and learn Portuguese, Italian and maybe Mandarin.

[lushlala]

In an ideal world, I'd love to speak three to four international languages fluently I think that's a nice number of languages to see you through the big, wide global village. Those languages would be French, Italian, Spanish, Swahili (for the sheer beauty of the language) and maybe German. These days it pays to have linguistic skills. Prospective employers see you as being versatile and an asset, and you can do so much more!

[xHysteria]

I would say the recommend number of languages to know is maybe 4. English, French, Chinese, and Spanish. Those 4 languages are the main ones that I think should be learned.