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?

  • Kazaxat@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    For this question exactly I can claim 6, but beyond counting to 10 I know very little in most of these.

    • English (native language)
    • Spanish (took a couple years in high school)
    • French (took one class in middle school)
    • Japanese (took a semester in college)
    • Malayalam (parents’ native language)
    • Hindi (popular old song with Madhuri Dixit where the chorus counts up to 13, lol)
    • 13? Another commenter said they’d learned counting to 7 in Chinese (Cantonese?) because of a song that cuts off at 7. And both 7 and 13 are significant in US culture, 7 being lucky and 13 unlucky… I wonder if there’s a relationship based on immigration and the cultural blending?

      13 is an odd number, though. 12 is widely significant, as are 5 and 10, but 7 and 13 are strange picks.