3d ago

Do you have to be fluent in these languages to be a polyglot, or am I considered one?

I can confidently say that I speak Portuguese, Spanish, and English to varying degrees. However, at a beginner level, I know Norwegian, Italian, and Polish. I also am probably at a very beginner level in Russian and French, both of which I’m learning and getting better at. I’m conversing with French people.

My fiancé says I’m a polyglot, but I don’t know if I’m just trilingual or not.

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You would be if Europe was the entire world.
- op would be conversational with a significant part of the world, and they're not to blame for colonialism. just by learning spanish, english and portuguese they would be able to talk to anyone south of rio grande in the u.s., and talk to some former british colonies in africa and asia. put some russian and french and you would be left with just perhaps middle east, east and southeast asia.
  knowing that and learning some arabic and chinese (throw in some language of some east or southeast asian country if they want) and there's not much left, but to discuss how colonialism brought the world to this situation.
  
  Most countries speak English so no need for all the fluff in that case. Spanish and French are the next most relevant. The rest is very much euro-centric.
  My biggest gripe is that all Euro languages have a shared Latin and Greek origin so OP's not really branching out to entirely different language systems.

Honestly, if you can have a conversation with other language you're already a polyglot. Going from 1 to 2 is harder than 2 to >3

A polyglot is anyone who speaks way more languages than you feel comfortable with. /j
- And the amount of languages grows by one each time I learn a new one

Only people who speak more languages or that feel like their intellect is somehow under threat by you claiming the title will try to gatekeep you from using it, so don't worry.
Edit: Also, you're not a polyglot because that would make me look bad. Have a nice day.
- Poly, many Glot, tongue
  If you know two, then you're polyglot.
- Thank you!!

IIRC it starts at 4 so you definitely make the cut. I'm jelly! 🤷😅
- I speak 4 too with English, French, Portuguese and Spanish
  
  Well, I'm jealous of you too, then! 😅

Just by origin of the word polyglot means you have many tongues. Tongues is of course well established as a stand-in for languages. If you can speak more than one, you fall under the definition.
I think people have attached more to the term than just that though. I'm thinking of well traveled and culturally sensitive as well. Somebody who would be alright no matter where you dropped them.
How many languages can your better half say good morning in? She might just be trying to pay you a compliment and you with your humilis gloriatio are not having it. In any case, I wouldn't recommend going back to her with arguments obtained from a random group of internet users to settle your interpersonal disagreement.

I think the title of polyglot is just silly. I speak 4 languages fluently but I would never introduce myself as a polyglot.
- Honestly, I only speak two languages, and to me, someone like you is definitely a polyglot. I get that you don’t wanna sound full of yourself or anything, but calling it what it is isn’t arrogant—it’s just being accurate. You speak four languages! That’s amazing, and you should own it. I'm bilingual, and sure, my native language is stronger, but that doesn’t mean I downplay the other one. Give yourself some credit, seriously.
  
  This is true not many people can say they can speak so many languages.
  
  The thing is, it doesn't matter how many languages you speak somehow you end up not being able to communicate anyway because of the language. Some anecdotal evidence:
  I speak Polish, German, Swedish and English. Me and my siblings went to Morocco for vacation, my sister was vegetarian and we wanted to order something without meat. The guy at the street food stand didn't understand and then he asked: Do you speak Arabic? No, Do you speak Spanish? No, do you at least speak French? Also no. None of the languages helped even tho the other guy also spoke 3 languages.
  After speaking 4 languages fluently I moved to Korea thinking it'll be easy to pick up another language. After 4 years of living here I still can't even have a very simple conversation. The language is so different that even after trying hard and spending money and time the learning doesn't move forward. And me working from home mostly with Europeans makes it even more difficult, but I can't get a local job without the language, chicken and egg problem.
  Every language is good to know, and I kind of agree with my grandfather that every language is like another hand you have to disposal, but somehow you end up in situations that even 6 hands are not enough ;)
  
  Agreed! What language do you speak that’s not English? :)

Je pense que ça compte même si tu ne maîtrise pas parfaitement toutes les langues.
- Merci !! Mon fiancé m’a dit que ça compte aussi et que je parle français. Ça aide que j’ai compris la majorité de ce que vous avez dit et que parle l’espagnol et le portugais.
  Mon ascendance est français :)
  
  Ok si tu a rédigé ce message tout seul ton français est très bon
  (petit conseil, ça se fait generalement plus de tutoyer sur les forums, plutôt que vouvoyer)

Jak będziesz umiał przeczytać to zdanie, zrozumieć i odpowiedzieć bez problemu, to myślę, że spokojnie możesz nazywać się poliglotą. Język polski jest trudny, nawet dla rodzimych Polakow.
- Dzięki! Jestem początkująca więc mogę przeczytać większość z tego. Lepiej mówię po francusku 😅
  Kocham twój język!

Just how often does the topic of what languaes you know come uo that you really must think about this?
- Since they speak multiple languages, they probably spend quite a lot of time thinking about the subtle differences in meaning between words, so the precise meaning of the word "polyglot" no doubt matters quite a lot to them.

30 comments