One of the questions I often get asked is, "How many languages do you speak?" If it were an easy or quick one to answer, I would happily respond to it everytime. However, to be accurate, it requires a lot of elaboration and it gets a bit tiring to type it everytime, so here you go (^- ^;;)
General[]
The quick answer: I speak 3-4 languages comfortably, I've learnt roughly a dozen. Of the languages I'm quite comfortable speaking, I only know two fluently (Dutch and English).
If you want to keep an exact count of how many languages I speak, it really depends on how you want to count.
- Can converse in person and written: 4
- Can write and basic converse: ~3
- Can read but not use (apart from set phrases): ~4
- Dead languages: 2
On a general note, I always read/write better than I listen/speak. I'm also a shy speaker who easily falls back to a language within the "comfort zone" (i.e. which I'm comfortable speaking) even if I am aware practice would improve my speaking.