RoeschAnneK
rag. Gustavino BevilacquaInternational poll, so please boost for a wider sample.
How many languages can you read (and, of course, understand!) without the help of an online translator?
> 5
4-5
2-3
1
Poll ended at .
xrvs@GustavinoBevilacqua >without the help of an online translator
what about offline translator or dictionaries 
I don't think a lot of people will browse a paper dictionary, nowadays, except maybe for the few languages unsupported by google translator.
I'd count this as a +1, for the effort required.
Fred_S_at (2nd spare)
slideman@GustavinoBevilacqua @xarvos No, you’re assuming a paper dictionary takes more effort. If the dictionary is to hand, as it is to many linguists in many reading situations, to a user familiar with paper dictionaries the effort is often no greater, and the result often better: eg the ability to see several similar headwords in one opening v-à-v having to enter a fresh search term for another variant.
I'm aware of the advantage of paper vs. screen (and on maps is even higher), but the most of the working places I know, mine at first, are too cluttered even for a Collins pocket Dictionary… 🥴
@GustavinoBevilacqua @xarvos “Too cluttered for a dictionary” is a priority choice viz. you deem other things more important. If for whatever reason you *need* the paper dictionary, you move it up the priority list and stow something else to make space.
@slideman @GustavinoBevilacqua also assumed that an offline dictionary is necessarily on paper. though, in case of some languages not written in latin alphabet (especially one like chinese or japanese) arnd the text is not on a computer, you’d still have to know a good chunk of the language either way
Caspar Fairhall@GustavinoBevilacqua @xarvos You get a lot more out of a good dictionary. Speed and convenience doesn’t equate to better or deeper knowledge.
Peter Sullivan@xarvos @GustavinoBevilacqua Still cheating, I would've said. Bu then, it's not my poll!
splicer@GustavinoBevilacqua I can’t read French without frequently consulting a dictionary but you specified “online translator” so I counted it.
EllieHow many languages can you read (and, of course, understand) without the help of an online translator?
Perl, python, go, C ... 👩🏼💻
Je m'appelle une chatte 🐈⬛
At what difficulty level?
None - I have a system!
Poll ended at .
Dźwiedziu
Kluthulhu' XOR 1=1--@ellie Please tell me the second option was deliberate 😂🤣😂
@kluthulhu I had a few hours of French instruction a week for 5 years of elementary school. It didn't stick.
François Caron 🇨🇦@ellie @kluthulhu My problem is that it's my native tongue, but I'm neither a cat or female. 😁
@ellie let's just say that in French, just like in English, there is more than one meaning to puss.
das-g@ellie What does the last option mean?
Firehorseart Lives!@ellie
well, yes!
One if it's a literacy test without assistance.
If we include computer languages then it's add COBOL. If I'm allowed notes then also DB2 and Oracle SQL, IDMS, etc 
If we count holiday level language translation with a guide book - then French, Spanish, some German. 
Does pointing and gesturing count? 😂
Dr Grace Peng@GustavinoBevilacqua are we counting human languages only? Because the answer would be higher if I also count programming languages
void main() {
printf("I'm almost sure nobody toot in C language");
}
Elena ``of Valhalla''
Blippy the Wonder Slug (MOVED)@valhalla @GustavinoBevilacqua @gspeng
I've posted poetry in x86 ASM, so yeah, coding languages are languages, but I didn't count/include them for this poll. I voted 2-3 (English & German).
I hope most people follow suite, else results will be horribly skewed. Had I included coding languages, and languages I can read/speak at a child's level, it'd be well over 6+.
Lev Petrovitch
Gary@GustavinoBevilacqua @gspeng not counting programming languages is discrimination. :P
brocolie (tots not a vampire)@GustavinoBevilacqua @gspeng
int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
printf("Mon aéroglisseur est plein d'anguilles.");
return 0;
}
int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
printf("Mon aéroglisseur est plein d'anguilles.");
return 0;
}
Terry Wallwork@GustavinoBevilacqua @gspeng At least it's not C++ :0)
Larry Garfield@GustavinoBevilacqua How does one vote for one and a bit? :-)
Instructions are on the billboard at Platform 9¾ at King's Cross station 😁
@GustavinoBevilacqua @Crell oh, well. that's easier to get to than your average notice about the construction of a bypass over your house / planet.
Luis Crespo@GustavinoBevilacqua
If you know a Latin language, then similar ones are easy, e.g. Spanish, Italian, Catalan, Portuguese, Galician...
If you know a Latin language, then similar ones are easy, e.g. Spanish, Italian, Catalan, Portuguese, Galician...
Also Romanian.
@GustavinoBevilacqua I think Romanian is a bit harder... if you write some Romanian text I can try to guess it.
Max, overwintering bug@GustavinoBevilacqua Perfectly understand it's 2, but understand simple texts, or generally understand more complex ones it would be 4-5 (I entered 2-3 in the poll)
Gwenaël Le Bras@StrepsipZerg @GustavinoBevilacqua same here, it depends quite the language level. It's not quite the same to understand a basic newspaper article and a complex scientific text (which let me hesitate between 4 and 6...)
starfish@gwenbras @StrepsipZerg @GustavinoBevilacqua I'd struggle reading scientific papers in my native language... I'm glad it's all in english 😅
@starfish @gwenbras @StrepsipZerg
Scientificese is a totally different language 😁
Jennifer Moore 😷@gwenbras @StrepsipZerg @GustavinoBevilacqua Yes, I was thinking similar. With all except English, even if I can get the gist, there can easily be a word in the middle where I'm like "gonna have to look that up" :-)
trissc̈hen (old account)@unchartedworlds @gwenbras @StrepsipZerg @GustavinoBevilacqua I also sometimes have that in English or even my native language though …
And while most of the time it’s still understandable from context, that’s not always
And while most of the time it’s still understandable from context, that’s not always
You're right! In a way, it's only the frequency which varies. For me in English, I do sometimes look words up to be sure of them. But it would only rarely interrupt getting the gist of the meaning. Usually that would be in a specialist jargon context, e.g. if I'm trying to make sense of a medical paper (which isn't my field).
Mika on rails 
@unchartedworlds @gwenbras @StrepsipZerg @GustavinoBevilacqua As someone who natively speaks German I can "stare long enough" at Dutch texts and if they're not scientific stuff with loads of special terms I can usually get what its about but I wouldn't really count that (its not a skill I train much, most of the time I throw dutch into a translator regardless cause its faster to process for me)
Robert Brink@StrepsipZerg @GustavinoBevilacqua Same here; Dutch native, English and German fluent, for French I need to look up too many words, so have answered 2-3. My wife also speaks Danish (plus understanding of Norwegian and Swedish) and Spanish, she could safely answer 4-5
IrinaI took "understand" to mean "understand what I'm reading" not "understand when spoken" (which would immediately bring my score down by about 75%)
Julia in Fin(n)land 🟨⬜🟪⬛@irina Yeah, me too. I read a lot (A LOT) of languages. Understand when spoken, somewhat less than a lot (A LOT), but still >5 (I'm so proud!). But some of them only when spoken/enunciated clearly (newscast, voiceover in a documentary etc., as opposed to everyday "in the wild" situations).
@juliainfinland Yes, specifying "enunciated clearly" brings my "understand when spoken" count over 5 too (Dutch, English, German, Italian, Castilian Spanish, French, modern Greek, Galician, Portuguese, Romanian in approximate order of "can understand", some being absolutely ex aequo like Dutch/English and Italian/Spanish.) Also, I have to have some idea of what people are talking about. In the wild and/or with no prior information it stops after German.
@irina Wow, Greek, Romanian <3
(... while you're probably going "wow, Finnish"...)
Apropos of nothing, I'm taking an online class on colloquial Latin (Pompeian graffiti, sort of thing) this term and it's been both exhilarating and taxing.
@juliainfinland Yes! (about Finnish). I can sort of understand Swedish if I read it aloud as if it was Dutch, and then it sounds to me like Dutch with a horrible accent but I know what's going on at least; and Swedish from Finland is easier than Swedish from Sweden (this is because it's more old-fashioned, a Swedish friend tells me). I can read various flavours of Latin but not understand enough of it to make the list.
@irina That's exactly what a friend from university (Dutch, studied in NL and FIN) told me about how she learned Swedish! "Sort of like a weird dialect of Dutch+Finland-Swedish is easier than Sweden-Swedish".
I read Latin well enough for it to make the list, but colloquial Latin (in some cases, even "regular" Latin that hasn't been edited for use in schools) is something else. Especially in the original (horrid) handwriting. https://2.bp.blogspot.com/--PQR_rXI_-E/T64nHnpsFzI/AAAAAAAABA4/DoTZS4cMMSY/s1600/Secundus.jpg
@juliainfinland Latin makes my "can read" list easily, but not the "can understand when spoken" list (except in Catholic church services when I know more or less what they're saying)
@irina Fortunately one doesn't encounter many situations where one would have to speak Latin! I mean, outside situations where you're a Catholic monk/nun/priest trying to communicate with a Catholic monk/nun/priest with whom you have no other language in common.n
Karl Voit 
@GustavinoBevilacqua I'd have been better to choose 1, 2, 3, 4, more because the difference between 2 and 3 is the most important thing I'm interested here.
I think to make another one next week, going into more details, like languages understood: this will end next Saturday.
But feel free to make your own, if you're interested!
Pax Ahimsa Gethen 🏳️⚧️@GustavinoBevilacqua I'm a US-American and not proud of it. Only fluent in English, so I selected "1" in the poll. Though I do know some Spanish (studied on and off for decades), a tiny bit of German (studied for a year in college 30 years ago), and have been doing French lessons on DuoLingo for about six months.
The definition of "US-American" is laudable 
and it's not your fault if you were born there.
I've a friend for Argentina always stating "I'm American too!".
nomorsad@GustavinoBevilacqua I I answered 2 language, but in fact I regularly use a dictionary for both
Joris Meijer@GustavinoBevilacqua counting "it's slow and takes a lot of effort"
mborus@GustavinoBevilacqua pretty hard to answer. I sometimes even look up English stuff, on the other hand, I do online translating into English because it usually gets better results. Also sometime look up stuff in my native language. So, while being able to read at least 4, the answer could have been 0. (And I also have to factor in that some languages are similar enough to read, like if you know Danish, Norwegian text looks like text with a lot of typos)
Derick Rethans@mborus @GustavinoBevilacqua that's how I can read Danish 😅
orinbot reboostoot bot@GustavinoBevilacqua Fluent in 3 but I can also kinda read russian and mostly understand it without a dictionary so just barely falling in the 4-5 category