Baloney

Does it say how many people took the poll? There are a couple of people here who speak 3 languages fluently. If only five people took the poll, you'd only need two to make it 40%.

It doesn't quite add up to 40%, but then again the whole poll only adds up to 95%, so perhaps you should take the entire poll with a grain of salt.

Considering the demographics of this place, doesn't really help either.

Do you have some special insight into the demographics of this place? If so, please do share, with a statistical breakdown according continent and country in the form of a pie chart.

Substantial knowledge of 3 languages isn't at all uncommon outside of the Anglophone world, and even most of the native English-speakers who regularly post here on SiT genuinely do have knowledge of several languages. Inconveniently, too, "fluent" isn't a very precise descriptor: I've met people who can't string four English words together without a making a mistake who boast of their "fluency," and, on the other hand, people with excellent English who would modestly demure "I'm not fluent yet" simply because they make the occasional mistake.

I would like to quiz the 8 people who claimed to speak "6 or more languages," but I'm willing to give the rest the benefit of the doubt.

@ shiglia: Yesterday, a second before i posted, it added up to 40.1%. I just did the addition again and it still adds up to 40.1%
Over 450 answered the poll

@ zashibis

England, Australia and the US make the biggest bulk of posters. Countries not particularly popular for having tons of polyglotes, and if you go to YC you'll get a taste of that. I ocationally visit the south american branch and i can assure you that half the locals posting there are not "fluent" in english, just to give an example.

"Substantial knowledge of 3 languages isn't at all uncommon outside of the Anglophone world"

If you are talking about countries like Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium or Norway, then yes. If you are talking about Asia, South America or Africa, then no. Even in countries like the ones i mentioned, being fluent in 3 languages is most definately not the norm. Not even close.

Well, YC and Speaking in Tonuges are not exactly the same demographic, are they? Present OP excepted, the denizens of YC almost never show up on SiT. I'd wager most of them have never clicked on the branch even once, let alone answered the poll (which has been there ever since they released the most recent version of TT...two years now? More?)

And, by "not uncommon" I meant "not uncommon"; if I'd meant "the norm" I would have written "the norm." In some parts of China, for instance, you have few people who can speak anything other than Mandarin; in Yunnan province, on the other hand, you often meet people who know one or two minority languages, Mandarin, and English to boot. Or in the case of Peru, my Inca Trail guide was certainly fluent in English, Spanish and Quechua. Is he a "typical" Peruvian? Probably not. But he's probably typical of the thousands of people working the Andes tourist trade in Peru and Bolivia.

Did some of the people who answered the meaningless poll exaggerate their "fluency" (whatever that means)? Doubtless. But in general the SiT branch is frequented by folks who are language buffs, work in translation, or are long-term travelers or expatriates. This is the "demographic" most likely to have answered the poll, and for whom fluency in three languages is not particularly implausible.

"But he's probably typical of the thousands of people working the Andes tourist trade in Peru and Bolivia."

Really? After being born i raised in an andean country myself, i missed all those wonderfull polyglotes scattered throughout the Andes? How could i?

"Doubtless. But in general the SiT branch is frequented by folks who are language buffs, work in translation, or are long-term travelers or expatriates. "

Are those buffs the ones who are "fluent" in portuguese/spanish/german in the portuguese/spansih/german threads?
I am not a professional translator, but i do translations regularly because of line of work, and i'm an expat in a country where the locals do not speak my native language, so i fit the profile. Still, when i answer the poll, i'd have to go with the "Two, but with one inferior to the other".
That is precisely why i don't buy 40.1% of the people here are "fluent" in 3 languages or more, which is basically the point of the OP.

I work on a daily basis with people from Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, the UK, the US, China, Germany and the Netherlands, all of which speak english, as it happens to be the language in which the company does its business. In my experience, being "fluent" in 3 languages is ridiculously uncommon.

Bear in mind that a poll like this doesn't tell you anything about anyone other than the people who answered the poll. (Which is why I never bothered to click on it; I figure doing so would only encourage people to put up silly non-randomized polls.) You have no way of knowing whether the 450 respondents are mostly Australian, American, and UK. I suspect that they weren't, because 40% of them said they were fluent in three languages and as you say that would be unexpected among Anglophones.

Either that, or they are lying. My money is on the latter.

Luz, here's what I see, on the SiT front page:

3% One...barely. I'm struggling
12% One, but with panache
25% Two, but with one inferior to the other
18% Two
23% Three
9% Four
4% Five
1% Six or more
0% Infinity times infinity

But if you go to the "Polls" page, you're right that you're getting numbers that do add up to 40%.

I think this results in another option: the people who entered the poll didn't lie, but the poll is lying.