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.

  1. My native language is English
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. I taught myself Esperanto a couple of decades ago, and used to hang out in Esperanto chat rooms. I haven’t kept up.
  5. 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?

  • ZeroGravitas@lemm.ee
    0·
    18 days ago

    I speak three languages and I can count in ten.

    Not a hard guess, to be honest, lots of people pick up numbers from popular culture (Spanish songs are big on counting, but weirdly, German ones as well). And if you study an Eastern martial art, chances are you’ll learn to count to ten in the corresponding language from your instructor.

    Or I don’t know, maybe my brain is weird and I’m collecting numbers, that’s a non-zero possibility.

  • Old Jimmy Twodicks@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    18 days ago

    English:

    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

    Spanish:

    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

    French:

    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

    German:

    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

    Italian:

    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

    Greek:

    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

    Mongolian:

    ᠐ ᠑ ᠒ ᠓ ᠔ ᠕ ᠖ ᠗ ᠘ ᠙ ᠑᠐

      • Lord Wiggle@lemmy.world
        0·
        18 days ago

        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.

        • 𝕽𝖚𝖆𝖎𝖉𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍@midwest.socialOP
          0·
          17 days ago

          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.

  • Chris@feddit.ukEnglish
    0·
    18 days ago

    Three: English, Welsh, German.

    I used to be able to do French, Italian and Japanese, but I’ve managed to forget everything above about five.

    • 𝕽𝖚𝖆𝖎𝖉𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍@midwest.socialOP
      0·
      18 days ago

      That’s my problem. I live in the US, and there’s essentially no opportunity to verbally practice anything. The only options, really, would be Hindi or Spanish, and where I live there’s a significant Somali immigrant community, but if you don’t use it, you lose it!

      My girlfriend in HS had a German mother and a Japanese father. Her mother left Germany when she was 16. After I came back from my extended stay in Germany, speaking fluid German, I visited her parents, and tried to have a conversation with her mother in German. After a few minutes, she said - a little sadly - that she just didn’t remember German anymore because it had been so long since she’d spoken it.

  • dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    17 days ago

    English, Spanish, French, Latin, Russian, German, Japanese, Cantonese, …

    So 8. 10 is not very high. I’d have Arabic too, but I can only get to 5 :)

    Edit: I can speak 3 of them, 2 passably, English natively. I took 5 of them in school. I had a Rammstein phase. 17 years Karate. And I dated a Hong Kong girl for 6 years and her family liked to play mah-jong but didn’t speak English.

  • Deconceptualist@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    18 days ago

    English, French, Spanish, German, Korean, Pig Latin, Oppish, Ubbi Dubbi

    So eight, if the last few count.

  • grue@lemmy.world
    0·
    18 days ago

    wa’, cha’, wej, loS, vagh, jav, Soch, chorgh, Hut, wa’maH

    (I can also do English, Latin, Spanish, French, and Japanese.)

  • letsgo@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    17 days ago

    I have four and so does my wife! English, French, German, Spanish/Russian (learnt before it was uncool).

    Edit: I remembered I can do Dutch as well. So 5 for me, 4 for her. I could only remember 4 and 5 in Latin, had to look the rest up.

  • grysbok@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    0·
    17 days ago

    4:

    • English (native)
    • Spanish (school)
    • French (school)
    • Korean (Taekwondo)

    Hopefully next week I’ll add Polish–I’m on day 3 of learning it in an app.