Ok, Lemmy, let's play a game!
Post how many languages in which you can count to ten, including your native language. If you like, provide which languages. I'm going to make a guess; after you've replied, come back and open the spoiler. If I'm right: upvote; if I'm wrong: downvote!
My guess, and my answer...
My guess is that it's more than the number of languages you speak, read, and/or write.
Do you feel cheated because I didn't pick a number? Vote how you want to, or don't vote! I'm just interested in the count.
I can count to ten in five languages, but I only speak two. I can read a third, and I once was able to converse in a fourth, but have long since lost that skill. I know only some pick-up/borrow words from the 5th, including counting to 10.
- My native language is English
- I lived in Germany for a couple of years; because I never took classes, I can't write in German, but I spoke fluently by the time I left.
- I studied French in college for three years; I can read French, but I've yet to meet a French person who can understand what I'm trying to say, and I have a hard time comprehending it.
- I taught myself Esperanto a couple of decades ago, and used to hang out in Esperanto chat rooms. I haven't kept up.
- I can count to ten in Japanese because I took Aikido classes for a decade or so, and my instructor counted out loud in Japanese, and the various movements are numbered.
I can almost count to ten in Spanish, because I grew up in mid-California and there was a lot of Spanish thrown around. But French interferes, and I start in Spanish and find myself switching to French in the middle, so I'm not sure I could really do it.
Bonus question: do you ever do your counting in a non-native language, just to make it more interesting?
Dutch, English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Latin, Kmer.
Wow. Impressive list!
Yeah, no issue with counting to 10. The rest however... Im really bad in learning languages, I've had German and French in school for 13 years yet I can't speak either. I know English besides Dutch because of the internet and subtitles on TV. I wanted to learn languages like Norwegian, Latin and Russian but I gave up because I just don't remember words that well. Same with history, I remember stories but can't remember dates. I'm better at logic, like math and chemistry. But at least I know how to order up to 10 beers in multiple languages.
Critical life skills !
Most languages go all wonky after 10. German is pretty regular after 12 (12 is such an important number in human history!), French is absolutely insane. Conlangs like Esperanto are the really only highly regular ones.
German and Dutch (my native language) are similar systems. Still weird imo, naming the numbers in the wrong sequence: 32 is "two and thirty" instead of "thirty two".
Check out the system of Denmark. French looks rather normal after seeing the Danish.
I love this map!