Baloney

According to the poll on the right hand side of this forum, over 40% of the posters can speak 3 or more languages fluently.
Can't be true.

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

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.

hi.
i recreated my profile.i used to post as dusheti before
and now i use my real name(sorry)

i myself speak 3 languages but not fluently.
i make lots of mistakes in english.but i am tring to make it better by
studing,posting and speaking here

and i dont understand why it is not possible to speak 3 languages fluently.(by 40 percent)

I think OP is overstating the significance of the survey. I'm sure it was intended as a bit of fun rather than as a serious, empirical study (the 'One...barely. I'm struggling' category tells us that, unless we're genuinely expecting a number of respondents who have Specific Language Impairment, for example).

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.

It's not at all uncommon to meet people from Asia (e.g. India) or Africa (e.g. DRC) who have a degree of fluency (whatever that means) in at least three languages. Many Indians, for example, speak at least one regional language, plus Hindi and English. Many Africans also speak their country's national language, their own regional/tribal language, plus other (contact) languages. Multilingualism is the norm in many parts of the world, as has already been indicated above.

"I'm sure it was intended as a bit of fun"

If your idea of fun is completing an online poll, then yes.

@archila

I'm not saying it is not possible. I'm saying it is highly unlikely.

no certainly no.i did not even vote on it.

Warning: threadjack.

Specific Language Impairment

# 11 What is this? Does it mean that someone can be impaired in a specific language and not in another? And what kind of impairment would it be?

Over 450 answered the poll

Not exactly, there were 450 answers to the poll. Some people around here have multiple handles and may have voted early and often. Some people may (gasp!) have not been truthful.

I can't imagine what else the survey would be for other then fun. Maybe there's a TT language conspiracy? What would one do with that type of info?

I believe specific language disorder is referring to people who have difficulty communicating verbally (in a medical sense).

So they become mimes?

It's usually called Specific language impairment. It's a developmental disorder-- the development of the ability to use or understand oral language is impaired. "Children with this disorder talk much later than other children, and they struggle with many basic concepts in language. Specific language disorder can impair a child's ability to understand language, and a child's ability to communicate. "

It affects around 5% of English-language children. It is not associated with things like neurological damage, mental retardation, or hearing loss, but there seems to be a genetic component.

If you define the term "fluently" rather loosely, I actually believe the poll. It's not uncommon at all to speak three languages fluently - I consider myself being one of them, being fluent in Slovenian, English and German (but I'm not fluent in French, although I can read books and can follow a conversation).

I would, however, be interested if there really are 9 posters, who speak six or more languages. Fluently!

Anyone around?

Old Riddle:

Q. What do you call someone who speaks two languages?
A. Bilingual.

Q. And someone who speaks three languages?
A. Trilingual.

Q. More than three?
A. Polyglot.

Q. And someone who speaks only one?
A. American

#19, the version I've heard ends with 'English'. ;)

Whenever I go to another country, I try to learn at least a little of the language there. Hence the reason I speak a little bit of them and would never be considered fluent. Although, I am trying to become more fluent in French. Unfortunately, a lot of English speaking people take it for granted that they will find someone who speaks at least a little English whereever they go, which is usually the case.

I think in many English-speaking countries, the people would have had some form of formal foreign language classes at school, say at secondary/high school, so their knowledge of another language besides English is not zilch, albeit very basic/rudimentary? I could be wrong though, just playing devil's advocate here....

I don't take polls like that seriously either, that's why I'm one of those who clicked on "One...barely. I'm struggling " (I think I was the first one).

#19 That's a very old joke, which probably exists in many versions. I once heard it ending with "French".

#23 -- That's probably true of most Americans. But almost 20% of Americans speak a language other than English as their native language, and the vast majority of those people are fluent in English (by most people's definition). So there are a fair number of true bilinguals here even if the foreign language teachers can't take credit for many of them.

#24 -- I was surprised to see no one claiming "infinity times infinity" for that reason.

Actually, two people claimed "infinity x infinity" but they account for only 0.4% , which is rounded down to zero. This might also explain why the whole poll doesn't add up to 100%.

By the way, "infinity times infinity" equals infinity.

I was about to go check "infinity times infinity" to see if I get it up to 1% but the poll isn't on my screen at the moment.

Countable or uncountable (infinity)?

Countable, no? You'd ask for half a dozen infinities, not a kilogram of infinity. (You might not get half a dozen infinities, at least not anytime soon, but it's what you'd ask for.)

And if someone offers you three infinities for the price of two, think again. You might be taken for a ride.

Specific Language Impairment
11 What is this? Does it mean that someone can be impaired in a specific language and not in another? And what kind of impairment would it be?

Nutrax has already provided clarification, but to add: it's specific (language impairment) rather than (specific language) impairment. In other words, 'specific' qualifies 'language impairment' rather than 'language' alone - the impairment is specific.

I speak English.

I speak Mandarin.

I speak Hainanese, Hokkien, Teochew, and Cantonese (4 dialects/languages from south-eastern China.)

I speak Malay, albeit not as fluent as when I took it as a Second Language in my secondary school days, with chunks of vacabulary having been returned to my teacher as the years go by.

I am from Singapore.

And there are many more people like me in Singapore and Malaysia.

Define "many". As a % of the population. I can't wait to hear, according to you, what percentage of the popluation of Malaysia is fluent in 6 languages/dialects and quite proficinet with another.

This should be fun.

VinnyD #29, I will not comment on the correct grammatical usage of countable, but in mathematics, there exist countable and uncountable infinities. The second one is much much larger than the first one. An example: a set of natural numbers or integers versus a set of real numbers: between any two integers, there is an infinite number of real numbers...

But you can probably ask for half a dozen uncountable infinities.

I was assuming that luZbelito was making a little grammatical joke, but you're right he may have been getting all Cantorian on us.

Only 460 people answered the poll, out of what? 100.000 Throntree members?

This would quite accurately reflect my gut feeling that only 0.5 % of the members are regulars who reply to questions (or polls), and who obviously are the most highly skilled individuals around here :-)

I took a closer look at the poll, and it seems that any figure is rounded down to the next integer. Even 1.956% (2.0%) becomes 1% in the list, so it would take three more people to get the count of "infinity" up to 1%.

@ vinnyd & mojcek

Actually i'd say i meant it as a joke but i was wondering which posters would actually get the mathematical meaning of it.