@@maximusextreme3725 Pourquoi avez-vous dit ça? J’ai bien sûr visité la France et je parle français. Sorry if you don’t actually speak French but yes, I’ve been there and I do speak French 😂 I’ll say most French people I met speak some English, and they definitely speak better English than those of the Americans about the same age, been to college, been taking French/Spanish/German/Japanese/Mandarin for years. Like maybe the elderly ones don’t really speak English but I wouldn’t imagine an elderly American from a similar background being able to speak a foreign language anyways.
@@peterzhou372 I've lived on the border between France/Belgium for many years (I'm half-half, British/Belgian of origin). The English is weak in francophone countries, always has been. Other languages? Also pretty weak..after all the French are language-proud and see it as a 'world language'. That's true for Spanish in Spain as well. Everyone knows the youth have gravitated towards English more and more, ut it's nothing compared to say Norway or the Netherlands. Yet even there it's also generally just: native language + English, from necessity. maximusextreme is correct about French monoglotism, it's a constant theme in radio discussions, which you should know if you're a French speaker!
1. If you think Americans are the only ones who speak one language, you are severely unintelligent. 2. There are actually a ton of Americans who speak multiples languages. 3. This platform you're using to spout your opinion is American. 4. A lot of people don't have the time or resources to learn another language, especially if they don't need it for their job. 5. If this was meant as a joke, it's not funny, but disparaging, as if only knowing one language is some major character flaw.
@@rocinante4488 Yeah, maybe the differences lay in the economic and political backgrounds (?). Comparing Harvard, one of the world's most famous and prestigious universities, with the entire population of a non-world-power country seems unfair.
@@rocinante4488 you're comparing Harvard, one of the best university in the world with smart and rich people, to a emergent country with economic problems ???? Its supposedly that people who studies years and have grades to went for Harvard is able to speak 2 or 3 languages but you're not expecting it from a population w just elementary or high school level
I speak Hebrew, Arabic, Persian (Farsi) A little bit Spanish (I am a beginner, but it gets better) I also know very little Urdu and very little Tukrish and French would you consider me as a polyglot?
@@nitsanozdoba23456678 Then you speak at least 4 languages (including English). Seems most of the people consider 'polyglot is a person who speaks at least 4 languages at a decent level'(?) So, I think you're XD
@@nitsanozdoba23456678 it's a question open to interpretation. At what level you can say you speak a language? When you learn some words? When you know how to present yourself? When you can manage basic conversation? When you can manage complex conversation? When you are fluent? It's up to you to set the bar
why?? it doesn't mean he started studying when he was 16-17 he started learning english he wasnt stupid before he learned english he was getting educated in Croatian/German you know :DD and assuming he started harvard at the age of like 20 he had 3-4 years to learn it which isnt crazy either.
That guy is actually a UA-camr. His name is Samuel Bosch. He came to MIT for his PhD studies. Before that, he studied in Europe. So he had enough time prior to going to MIT to learn English
To the girl who spook Arabic. That was amazing! Both in grammar and pronunciation! Btw she also said "Good morning" but forgot to translate it haha. Good luck to everyone wishing and is learning any language. It is tough, but the result is just beautiful and satisfying :)
It was good but isn’t it generous to say it was AMAZING? She said صباخ الخير rather than صباح, which is completely incorrect, and her ع is aggressively thick.
@@_thatoneperson_9082 Hmm then I think I should have said INCREDIBLY AMAZING!!! It is okay for people to have some mistakes when talking a language that isn’t their mother tung especially Arabic. Her pronunciation is beautiful and there is nothing wrong with it. I am teaching Arabic to one of my friends here in the U.S.. I understand how hard it is to correctly pronounce the letters but it’s okay as long as I can understand what she is saying. We learn a language not to be perfect in it but to be able to communicate with people and see and taste the culture of the language we are studying and that’s the beauty of learning a new language.
@@revliete I mean yeah, I agree that it’s okay, especially when you’re learning a language as hard as Arabic, but you’re literally lying to her by saying that her pronunciation is amazing and that “it is beautiful and there’s nothing wrong with it” when she was struggling with major pronunciation mistakes, literally pronouncing the wrong letter. There’s a difference between supporting someone on their learning journey and lying to them to make them feel better. I’m just saying, if I was learning a new language and a native or someone else told me my pronunciation is amazing and flawless and beautiful, I would be hurt to find out that I was deceived and that I’ve actually been talking with a thick accent or even making many mistakes in front of others the whole time without even knowing. Walking around with false confidence and having it shattered is worse than walking around with no confidence.
@@_thatoneperson_9082 I understand your point that you want the truth, but if am not her teacher I can’t imagine myself telling her she is wrong in addition to knowing that these letters are hard to pronounce. Furthermore, saying aggressive is a bit harsh to be honest. Don’t forget that each person has a first language affecting their pronunciation. Learning a language is a journey. Sometimes in this journey you need someone to appreciate your hard work to keep going. And that is what I said. She did very good in a hard language like Arabic which is amazing. In addition, a letter like ح is one of the hardest if not the hardest for foreigners to say (from experience of teaching the language). At the end this is my opinion.
@@revliete I agree, you did well by showing appreciation. Every Arab speaker would understand what she was trying to say and her pronunciation sounds better than most Arabic learners so we should give credit where it’s due
i'm surprised about the lack of variety of languages. it seemed to be mostly Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German. i thought i'd see a lot more Chinese languages
Learning Chinese is pretty useless if you are not Chinese given how xenophobic China is; so, it doesn’t surprise, given how little utility the language has, even for white people. Mandarin sounds beautiful, it’s a pity really
@@liqhtless1191 aside from English, Chinese is the most commonly spoken language. it's also just an overall useful language to know. albeit, it is also difficult for non native speakers to learn so i kind of understand why people don't learn it
Since you're from Montreal, you at least know two languages (French and English) and maybe others like (Spanish or German) from school or your mother tongue. So I say you might speak between 2 and 4 languages. Let me know if I'm right. :-)
It surprises me how many Harvard students speak only one language or just "one and a half". I mean, in Spain you cant graduate from University without a B2 level (upper-intermediate) in a second language, and Im talking about every University in the country. I thought for Harvard you would need at least 3.
Yes, typical for Americans as well as British or any other nationality that speaks English as its native language. Most don’t have any motivation to learn foreign languages
As a german who had to learn at least 2 languages on top of german I have to say that just because you graduate with B2 doesn't mean you can actually speak the language. Obviously B2 in english was a requirement and I had the opportunity to get to that level in french and italian as well, but most peops who left it at B2 for english could barely communicate. I'd say without any knowledge of the english language and then spending half a year in an english speaking country and you'd probably be better off tbh
I’m 15 and I speak in kazakh, russian,English,turkish languages. I proud of that I’m from Kazakhstan. Because everyone in Kazakhstan knows or understands this languages very well
@@snowade I'd say that kazakh is more closer to japanese by sentence structures. I've been learning japanese for 1.5 years and at the beginning of my journey this a little bit of similarity helped me a lot
Hi baby!!! You are very good and respectful woman cause you are studying and making right things! I wish you wisdom, moral stability and good people around you!! 🤌 And i beg you no piercing and tattoo👉👈
Fun fact, which is also really surprising: The person at 1:16 is Samuel Bosch, he is known for being the youngest doctorand at MIT, having finished a practice at M&A with the salary of $15,000/month, and also for having the best A-Levels in all of Croatia.
I know his channel and he is not and was never the youngest PhD student at MIT. A quick Google search told me he started the PhD at around 25 which is not particularly young for the US. Anyway, the guy is impressive enough, even without that wrong fact.
I speak six languages: English, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian and a year of French in college. Covid allowed me the chance to spend three hours a day on three languages and I haven’t missed a day since!
@@lisaschutt7302 Lisa, it dawned on me one day that the time I would have normally spent going to the gym, was wasted. The gyms were closed and I was just sitting around watching TV. So I signed up for DuoLingo and the rest is history. It’s been a fantastic experience and that’s why I keep doing it. I recommend it. It’s never too late to start. See if you can dedicate a specific time each day for languages and you’ll find that you can do it, too.
@@danielgloverpiano7693 i'd hope to. see, i speak german and english fluently (learned spanish and russian in school for a few years as well) but there are so many languages I find so fascinating like danish or italian. Maybe I'll get to learn them.
Tirando a primeira dupla (a camisa do cara entrega que ele é de Brasília), a segunda garota se entregou ao falar o nome. Ela puxou o dAniela, e praticamente só um brasileiro teria um nome desses e pronunciaria puxando o A. Estadunidense costuma pronunciar o Ê, em vez do A, tipo dÊniel
I have a cousin in Switzerland who is seven and is fluent in seven languages. French, Swiss German, English, German, Irish, Italian and Croatian. Her mother is Croatian- French and her father is Irish who grew up in a Gaeltacht area (my blood uncle) and they lived in Italy for three years before moving to Germany for a couple months and finally landing in Switzerland. (Her father taught her Irish and they speak French and Irish + English at home and Croatian with their grandparents)
Love these types of videos. I'm an ongoing Korean learner and aspire to learn other languages in the future, like Spanish for one. Seeing so many other individuals who know or are learning two or more languages is so inspiring to see. Languages are such a beautiful thing🐢
Good luck with your learning! Btw,just wanted to tell you that Spanish is not as hard as it may seem,so don't be afraid of trying it out in the future!
Watching this incredible video, I'd like to share my little story of speaking a few languages too! I am 19, just got into an American university and super excited about how things will work out! Originally from Afghanistan, I entered the United States 4 months ago to start a new chapter of life. Besides my native language which is Persian/Dari, I can speak English, Pashto, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic, Turkish and some very basic Polish and Yiddish; and I am looking forward to take Russian classes at my university. I managed to learn to speak English properly with a relatively good accent in 20 months, started when I was 17. I was always encouraged by my parent's interests to speak more languages and they always used to tell me how my ancestors were tradesmen of the Silk Road, and how they would communicate with people, starting from China and ending to Greece and even Italy. Fast forward to the end of 2023, We had a general essay requirement for the university application and the theme which I selected for my essay was: My journey of learning English, by thinking in English. Because that's what I actually did! At the time when I was learning English, I practiced having an English language reaction to EVERYTHING I saw or heard, and I programmed my mind in a way that it could process just about everything I saw or heard, in English, so that I wouldn’t have to squander my time by starting a translation chain from Persian (the default language of my thoughts) to English and then speaking it out. I cannot even find the right words to express how impressed I was, and how much it affected my language learning journey. One thing I love the most about being multilingual, especially since I entered the United States, is the fact that everyone is just so invested into talking to you and interacting with you that you will never feel alone or sidelined, which would legitimately be my greatest fear. I always loved being social and socializing with a lot of people, and therefore jobs which require a lot of interacting with random people, like food service industry or drive-thru, seemed quite appealing to me. I wish everyone success in their language learning journeys.
Wow that's a fascinating story. Might I ask why did you learn specifically Polish and Yiddish? It just so happens that i'm thinking of learning them because my grandma speaks those languages lol.
This is so interesting because nowadays, basically everyone whose first language isn't English learn it in school, so they end up with a relatively fluent foreign language and their first language, oftentimes you're required a second foreign language as well. And I haven't even mentioned minority languages or immigrants/kids of immigrants who might speak yet another language at home. Obviously there's not as much of an incentive for Americans/English native speakers in general to learn one, but even just from a point of understanding how language works, it's hugely beneficial.
The woman who spoke in arabic did really well! Arabic is my native language so it was easier for me, but even Native speakers agree that its hard! Grammer was such a struggle but I love my language! One thing that makes it harder is that in the arab region we all speak in our own dialect that is different from what we learn in school!
Because most societies that call themselves Arab today are not actually Arab. Muslim Arabs assimilated and Arabized most of the indigenous societies around the Mediterranean. Levantines, Algerians, Moroccans, Libyans, Egyptians are not originally Arabs. That's why the Arabic they speak is very different from each other.
@@betul4833 yes 👍 and I think that’s why the GCC countries understand each other easily, bcuz these countries have similar roots that are originally Arab. I was told that the dialect of the countries that are originally Arab have the closest vocabulary to real Arabic!
@@morningglory7831 I'm also Korean Canadian, and my wife is Canadian who speaks fluent French, semi fluent in Japanese - she lived in Japan - passable Korean, and various languages at a beginner level. I'm fluent in English and Korean with some skills in French and Spanish. The point I wanna make is that I can't remember a time that we didn't constantly insert either words or phrases into our convo from various languages that we're fluent in or know words. I think learning new languages is not just super cool but good for the brain.
Again knowing small talk or basic sentence doesn't mean someone speaks a language. You need fluency or at least full comprehension to say you speak something. Knowing "hi", "how are you" or "my name is" is not speaking i a language. Speaking 7 languages is not a common things regardless of where you go.
@@jamesmason8436 in germany we learn in school that canada is a salad bowl of loads of cultures living together and making the most of it. And America is a melting pot of cultures, not able to celebrate each other, just mashing together, being an unidentifiable mass. Lol
Se tiver muita grana, não é tão difícil. E não tô zuando. Existe um exagero muito grande em torno de Harvard. Besteira essa supervalorização. Esse deslumbramento passa.
@@wallysls pior que não me considero nem beginner ainda, várias vezes penso em desistir, mas ainda estou de pé, não quero me desanimar, até por que eu só tenho uma ano de estudos ainda!
@@wallysls eu leio bastande mangas e manhas em ingles, entro em call com gringos, as vezes jogo cs go com poloneses, obs: no servidor europeu eles usam muito o ingles para se comunicar entre eles, entao e bem util.
@@Webstardarealone for being honest, yes, sometimes i forgot portuguese isn't a language exclusively spoken in Brazil But idk, her accent or something just bring me the Brazil vibe (problably portuguese people have the same accent but again, idk) Please reply my comment I love pratice my english
@@Lucas_Villarinho It’s kind of ironic, innit? That the country representing the Portuguese language on a global scale is actually Brazil. Also, I love how passionate you are about learning English, it’s truly inspiring. I really hope you reach a point where you’re as fluent as a native speaker someday. (English isn’t my first language either, but your grammar and usage are genuinely impressive. Keep it up amigo)
@@WebstardarealoneBrazil has like 85-90% of portuguese speakers. I'm mozambican. We speak portuguese but highly doubt she's mozambican. She sounds brazilian for sure
Such an incredible video!!! I really love your "how many languages do you speak?" videos because it's becoming more and more interesting to know and get involved into the language learning field, please keep it up. Looking for new things to not get bored is always exciting and even healthy. Studying at Harvard University is wonderful because of its cozy environment, its international students, its nice outlook and so on. Moreover, I would love to be reborn to become one of its students, it would have been very good and rewarding I'm 24 years old, but I can't leave my current university in my home country 😢. 🐢
Why can't you? Pass the tests and apply. Yes, it will take about a year of preps but if you are hard-working enough, then go and pursue your dream. My sister from Lithuania failed to get into NYU right after school, so she studied really hard for a year and got into HMS.
@@DS-ok2dc It would be fantastic being a bright student at Harvard University, but I don't feel mature enough to pass a high level test. We know Harvard University is a well-ranked study center globally and getting into there isn't an easy task either. It requires a long time to do so as well as looking forward to get a degree.
Yay! A Yiddish speaker! There aren’t enough of those anymore. I’m surprised he thinks German is hard when the two languages are almost mutually intelligible. Yiddish is a lot harder to learn if you’re not culturally Jewish and are starting from scratch. It’s like learning three languages at once. German, Hebrew, and Russian.
The woman who speaks Twi. She must be from Ghana. (Although maybe also Ivory Coast or Togo). And when you asked the lady at 9:40 to say something in French, her mouth immediately shaped into French mode - loved that!
Thank you for confirming that the person at 5:40 said she speaks Twi - I hadn’t heard of Twi so had to try to look it up. The caption claimed she said she speaks “cheap” 🤦
I love this sooo much. I am an ESL teacher and I speak English and Spanish but I DEFINITELY want to become fluent in atleast one more language. Thank you for this.
I am trying to gain fluency in German. I live in Wisconsin with a high percentage of people here having German ancestry and I’m finding it difficult to find people to speak it with. I have found a German pen pal overseas but it would be nice if people here would actually study it! Lol
@@mariabuchinger im German American and in Pennsylvania/New York if the person isn't Amish or Jewish they don't speak German P.S its my native language and I have never met another German speaker since I moved from Pennsylvania granted I live with Hispanics
Que orgulho dos brasileiros!! A primeira moça que fala 4 idiomas me impressionou, e a camisa do cara "pega o eixão, depois o eixinho, faz a tesourinha e sobe no balão" hahahaha entendi nada
I once was hired to work at an event in Switzerland. I am from Germany. The Swiss are known to speak German, French and English. I was pretty confident to be able to converse on the event (part of my job). But then... I heard swiss German. While I generally do understand stuff like news reports in Swiss German, i couldn't follow conversations, which i realized when on the event. EVERYBODY at that event spoke at least 2 languages fluently, they switched around with ease - i heard one person joke in French, English and German. Without fail anybody speaking swiss German switched to high German if they noticed me struggling. The main language of that event turned into English, so people who didn't speak German were included.
8:01 oh my, It feels weird to hear someone speak in my language but it's also kinda heart warming, Makes me feel actually known and acknowledged in the world, i hope anyone who wants to learn a new language has good luck learning it, and remember don't pressure yourself to learn it immediately Have a wonderful day ♥️.
I feel motivated by your videos because I am learning English and I see a lot of people who know other languages it's very motivated. Thank you for your work it is amazing. Greetings from Colombia.
4:06 i feel his struggle, my first language is french and i can speak english, my family is from vietnamese ethnicity and i'm struggling to learn this language, especially since i'm doing self-learn and my parents don't speak vietnamese at home
as an Eastern European, I am always shocked that people barely speak one or two languages here, even at a school like Harvard! I graduated from high school in Poland speaking 4, I later acquired a few more languages. Huge foreign language crisis in the US right now.
@@cynthiaromero5719 Polish, English, French, Italian, Spanish (fluent) I was also forced to learn Russian for 8 years due to our Soviet colonizers. I also studied Greek and Latin (in high school) and Japanese (college).
In the US, they have a limited language pool, due to the cultures around them Most people take Spanish and French, which makes sense since the neighbouring countries also speak it as well. If you go in a 1000 mile radius from the capital of the US and go the same from Rome. You end up going to 17 countries where in the US you would only end up in canada
@@BringerOfDeath12 that kind of an excuse doesn't hold well though, because the whole world speaks English. You could get by with that language anywhere. Learning a foreign language lets you understand that culture and their perspective. It's rarely just about being able to go to a restaurant in a foreign country. In case you are not aware, they are closing foreign language departments all over in US colleges, enrollment has been dropping dramatically. no interest.
@@minka6 not the whole world speaks english, majority but not all and since the us is a english based country with literally english all over, they have no intrest for that matter. I have seen more people take languages than ever, in high schools, colleges, and even online in the US Also they closing them because those are majors, no one realistcally is gonna major in a language, unless they on something. When was the last time you heard of someone being passionate about majoring in italian or French in college If you never travel, or you are not a fan of traveling, the language skill would go down I have a friend who knew how to speak french very well some would say better than a actual French. But because he would often hate travleing, due to sickness, and not just needing it at the most, he forgot alot of it. Now he sounds like a beginner. Nothing to do with him, if you are not needing it commonly you will start to loose that grip of that skill. That comes with literally any skill
he isn't one of those people that say they can speak 67 languages when in 66 of the languages they actually only know how to introduce themselves and order a coffee and croissant from a restaurant.
I loooove to learn different languages! ❤ I'm German,love to talk American English,had UK English in school. Im learning Dutch,Spanish,Korean, Polish and whatever i'm in the mood for. 😊 Just love it! Liebe Grüße und vielen Dank für Eure Videos. Hartelijk dank! ❤
I speak Portuguese fluently, it's my first language, but I'm also learning English (probably I'm in the intermediate level) and I really really want to study German and Greek in college - but I still have to get great notes in Enem (the Brazilian exam that gives you acess to the university). For all the people studying a new language: just keep going... you are already doing something that most people cannot, or doesn't see the importance of it.
Eu tenho o nível intermediário no inglês também, e no momento estou começando francês. Sozinha é um pouco difícil, mas eu gosto de aprender novos idiomas, então é divertido. Aliás, acredito que você vai tirar nota boa no enem, com esforço você consegue. Boa sorte!
Cara, se tu escreveu esse texto em inglês sem nenhum tipo de ajuda, teu inglês já está bem avançado, porém não sei como está sua questão em speaking, mas presumo eu que já está boa. Listening e reading acredito eu também que seja ótimo pois nesse vídeo temos vários sotaques diferentes e apesar de já sabermos o conteúdo, algumas pessoas ainda sim vão ter dificuldade em entender. Eu também achava q meu inglês era intermediário até eu ter que falar inglês com canadenses e australianos e eles falarem q meu inglês é extremamente bom.
This is a very telling video. I expected more polyglots at Harvard. Quite frankly, I had to stop to think of how many languages I speak in my level of fluency in each one. I think that we in the United States need to push more for multilingualism. The language struggle for me is Korean, but I love learning it.
Part of it is that most schools don't start teaching foreign language until halfway through middle school, but it needs to be a core part of the curriculum from the start
@@a-ramenartist9734 we don't even start until high school and even that we only have like 3 languages we can choose from but what can we do most Americans only learn 1 language and it's not like they can hire someone to teach french if they only know english ☠ and this is why i took matters into my own hands and is learning languages myself just by watching youtube videos i learned how to speak Korean fluently in 3 months and that was my 3rd language with my native being both english and Japanese although i still do make mistakes i practice when i have free time it's honestly not that hard as ppl make it seem they think after a certain age oh it's harder to learn and it's really not you just gotta try
@@Rosé16-q8e That’s so odd. I’ve been learning French for thirteen years (UK) and only at the end of this school year (equivalent to 10th grade I think) is it no longer compulsory to learn a language.
learning languages are very interesting!! spanish is my first language, and I know guaraní, english, some portuguese and I studying chinese… it’s amazing! 😊
Oh, I love getting asked this question as a language-nerd Norwegian with German as my mother-tongue. Getting to answer German, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, English, Icelandic, South Sami, Yiddish and Slovene feels great but also very cheeky, as I only struggled learning two of those languages since all the Germanic languages basically came for free with Norwegian and German (specifically Austrian-German, therefore the "free" Yiddish).
Learning a language in a different family is definitley a lot harder. As a fellow Norwegian I think I spent around 2-3 times as much time to learn Japanese as I did with other European languages like Spanish, French and German since a lot of things people take for granted like the writing system, sentence strucutre, grammar and syntax came for free unlike Japanese/Korean/Thai where you actually have to learn a completely new language without cognates (even the few "cognates" aren't really cognates since they have to follow the phonetical system of the language) or any real help.
I have it similiar. I a Czech say about myself, that I speak 4 languages. Czech, Encglish, Russian, Polish. Then as a Czech I ofc understand fluently to Slovak. Being Slav, who know 4 our languages, I can somehow understand to all Slavic languages, and when I learned about Interslavic, I always create Slav-mix language. Then also I understand to latin, spanish and a bit of italian, when I read wikipedia I understand to the concept. And I also have learned German, for 1 year
(I'm showing off here) Portuguese is the 6th or 7th language I am learning, and I am proud to say that I understood everything that was said in Portuguese in the video hihi (also understood taiwanese, which is basically like chinese, french and spanish but yeah) sooo gonna show off a bit more: I speak French, Chinese, and English all three fluently, then a bit less fluently goes Spanish, and lastly I'm learning Portuguese, Hebrew, Korean, and Russian.
I would have expected more people to speak at least a second language being at a business school. I consider myself lucky that I was brought up with another language. My mother was German and always spoke German to me and my sisters and my dad always spoke English. I can also read and understand some Dutch. I did French at school but didnt really continue with it which is a shame.
english is classified as germanic language.these languages have descended from a single common ancestor called Proto-Germanic.so english is like easier version of german.
As brazilian, It's really satisfying and makes me proud to see so many Brazilians around the world, especially studying at places like Harvard. Even though English isn’t our native language, we speak it well and that makes it easier to pick up other languages. I started with German, French, and Spanish, and now I feel like I can communicate in all of them. I'm also learning Mandarin!
I love languagessss ❤ I'm italian and I can speak English (C1), German (B2), French (B2), Spanish (B1) and Japanese (N4). I wish I could also speak some Swedish and Korean.
I'm fluent in Dutch, English and German and I can get around with French and Spanish in bars, restaurants and with friends. Like all Dutch of my age, I had to learn English, German and French at high school. We see a lot of Dutch under-titled English movies and during 40 years I had to speak and write English at work every day. I lived 10 km from the German border, did see a lot of German TV and had many trips to Germany. I even worked 1/2 a year in the German speaking part of Switzerland. I did not use French very much, only on holidays. I learned Spanish at age 50 following a typical Dutch high school course and now I live in the Dominican Republic with my Spanish speaking Dominican wife, who also speaks English and some Dutch/Flemish from her many years in Antwerp.
Bertin, when you speak Dutch and German you are speaking the exact same language . i am unsure how you guys rationalize that it is a "different" one. this is like speaking Italian and thinking spanish is a different language. if you understand another dialect from birth then its not an actual separate language.
Multilingual people are an inspiration. I learned Hindi & Punjabi in school for 7 years and can only just get by shopping and ordering food, although I can read and write both. I’ve now been trying to learn Spanish for years but no where near fluent. Envious of all these people!
5:21, what the lady was speaking is actually not so called Taiwanese but Hokkian, and it was widely recognized as an dialect from Southeast of China, Fujian. Not only used in Taiwan, but also in mainland China, Singapore, and Malaysia. Like American people are speaking ‘English’ instead of ‘American’
Not only this, when she was asked to speak some Taiwanese she actually couldn't say "University" in Hokkien, and said that in Mandarin Chinese instead.
It still amazes me how some people, especially teachers in Harvard speak only one language. Many homeless people on European streets speak at least English besides their own. People on campus speak at least three usually.
Not a flex at all, congrats on wasting all your time learning languages, People are able to make it to harvard because they spend their time studying less useless things
@ My parents speak to their own parents in 2-3 languages, and to me, so I’m already fed up with 3 languages + I live in West Europe. I’m not the type of person that says I can speak spanish because I have had 1 month streak on Duolingo lol. By the way, not all Harvard students are crazy mathematic nerds. There are a lot of students that love languages and literatur! It kinda hurts saying languages are useless…
i speak one language, english, but estoy aprendiendo español y es muy dificil algunas veces pero yo recuerdo lo que yo sabía hace unos pocos meses y yo se yo soy mucho mejor. language learning is complex and not linear. it takes true dedication and passion. i have much respect for anyone who goes out of their way to learn a second language, especially when they don’t have to
@@pedrocavalcante5822 Her sentence was "Harvard university (is) really awesome." "Harvard" is just English. "University" is Mandarin. "awesome" is a Mandarin colloquial term. "is" is not used in Chinese grammar. Only "really" is in Hokkien. It is perfectly possible to say the same sentence using actual Hokkien terms and pronunciation. Majority of young Taiwanese are just not fluent in the language. It's another absurdity resulting from inane political posturing. They want to lay claim to a language they call "Taiwanese" to distance themselves from the mainland, when it is clearly a Chinese dialect originating from Fujian province opposite Taiwan in mainland China (where it is referred to as "Minnan-ese"), and it is also widely spoken among the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia, particularly Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines, where it is called "Hokkien". And it is obviously nothing more than lip service for the vast majority of Taiwanese. The younger generations like this lady do not care to actually learn to speak it.
Once you speak 1 latin language like Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, it's a little bit easier to learn any of the others. This is why they all speak 2 or more languages. In my case 5.
The same counts for the Germanic language group or Slavic languages. But try to learn Japanese as a European and you suddenly struggle while it is a walk in the park for a Korean student.
@@aimeekaufmann9220 Is there actually any real difference between Norwegian and Danish or is it more on the level of "American English" versus "British English"?
@@tupG I would say it’s a little bit more complicated than with american and british english. norwegian took over the danish alphabet in the 19th century and pronounced it how it was written while the danish swallowed half the vowels. both languages have since had distinct developments that have made certain differences. what is also important to note is that there is a new ‘artificial’ way of writing in norwegian that is prominently used in the west (in a bilingual writing situation) and that norwegian has thousands of different dialects so there’s not one ‘norwegian’ to go off of :) this is my scandinavian minor/outsider view so take it with a grain of salt
@@aimeekaufmann9220 Dialects are in most European countries. I myself grew up in a diglossic environment, using a very strong dialect in my village that can't be readily understood by outsiders. Slight grammatical differences, terminology and intonation were so different that I had to learn how to speak "properly" at primary school. Yet i wouldn't class it as a different language. On the other hand, I frequently overhead coworkers in Abu Dhabi who speak Hindi happily chatting away with someone from Pakistan who speaks Urdu. There it is mostly national identity that define the language.
Oh my god, I loved this video! I'm brazilian and I'm still learning to speak english fluently, but watching this video give me more motivation to keep going. Thanks! :)
Who did it better... Boston or Harvard? 👀 (Watch next : ua-cam.com/video/Wbshn51ODwg/v-deo.html&)
haha, i knew the guy ,i subscribe his channel Samuel Bosch
Hi,my name Joe I'm learning English but I have many problems for learn.I wanna help for get the ability listen.thank you so much.
Speaking four languages does not make anyone a linguist 😂
Hey, Im here, I speak English, Russian and few other langs few phrases, just in case lol
@@alzmcfluffy what about a cunning linguist? 😁
If you speak two languages, you’re bilingual. Three languages? You’re trilingual. Only one language? Congratulations! You’re American 😂
Ahhh, I see you haven't been to France 😆
@@maximusextreme3725 Pourquoi avez-vous dit ça? J’ai bien sûr visité la France et je parle français. Sorry if you don’t actually speak French but yes, I’ve been there and I do speak French 😂 I’ll say most French people I met speak some English, and they definitely speak better English than those of the Americans about the same age, been to college, been taking French/Spanish/German/Japanese/Mandarin for years. Like maybe the elderly ones don’t really speak English but I wouldn’t imagine an elderly American from a similar background being able to speak a foreign language anyways.
@@peterzhou372 I've lived on the border between France/Belgium for many years (I'm half-half, British/Belgian of origin). The English is weak in francophone countries, always has been. Other languages? Also pretty weak..after all the French are language-proud and see it as a 'world language'. That's true for Spanish in Spain as well. Everyone knows the youth have gravitated towards English more and more, ut it's nothing compared to say Norway or the Netherlands. Yet even there it's also generally just: native language + English, from necessity. maximusextreme is correct about French monoglotism, it's a constant theme in radio discussions, which you should know if you're a French speaker!
1. If you think Americans are the only ones who speak one language, you are severely unintelligent. 2. There are actually a ton of Americans who speak multiples languages. 3. This platform you're using to spout your opinion is American. 4. A lot of people don't have the time or resources to learn another language, especially if they don't need it for their job. 5. If this was meant as a joke, it's not funny, but disparaging, as if only knowing one language is some major character flaw.
@@peterzhou372 how can a non native speaker speak English better then Americans? That would require years of study
Being Harvard students, I was expecting way more people to speak in at least another language. The only ones speaking two or more were the foreigners.
Harvard is unimpressive
Go to Brazil and ask normal people how many languages they speak. 95% only speak Portuguese.
@@rocinante4488 Yeah, maybe the differences lay in the economic and political backgrounds (?). Comparing Harvard, one of the world's most famous and prestigious universities, with the entire population of a non-world-power country seems unfair.
@@rocinante4488 you're comparing Harvard, one of the best university in the world with smart and rich people, to a emergent country with economic problems ????
Its supposedly that people who studies years and have grades to went for Harvard is able to speak 2 or 3 languages but you're not expecting it from a population w just elementary or high school level
@@rocinante4488 go to Greece and at least 40% speak at least 2 languages.
If you go to the polyglot conference and ask them "how many languages do you speak?", it would be very interesting :)
agreed!
I speak Hebrew, Arabic, Persian (Farsi) A little bit Spanish (I am a beginner, but it gets better) I also know very little Urdu and very little Tukrish and French would you consider me as a polyglot?
@@nitsanozdoba23456678 Then you speak at least 4 languages (including English). Seems most of the people consider 'polyglot is a person who speaks at least 4 languages at a decent level'(?) So, I think you're XD
@@nitsanozdoba23456678 it's a question open to interpretation. At what level you can say you speak a language?
When you learn some words? When you know how to present yourself? When you can manage basic conversation? When you can manage complex conversation? When you are fluent?
It's up to you to set the bar
ou yeahh, i speak kazakh, russian, english, turkish and learning arabic with korean
A quantidade de brasileiros em Havard é de impressionar. 🇧🇷
Sim kkkk, me animou muito!
os maiores, sempre ksksk
Fiquei muito contente em ver
já que no Brasil não se valoriza a educação e a ciência, os gringos levam os nossos talentos 🤷♀️
o Brasil é um grande exportador de riquezas...
The fact that the guy at 1:28 started learning English at the age of 16-17 and still made it to Harvard is crazy.
why?? it doesn't mean he started studying when he was 16-17 he started learning english he wasnt stupid before he learned english he was getting educated in Croatian/German you know :DD and assuming he started harvard at the age of like 20 he had 3-4 years to learn it which isnt crazy either.
That guy is actually a UA-camr. His name is Samuel Bosch. He came to MIT for his PhD studies. Before that, he studied in Europe. So he had enough time prior to going to MIT to learn English
Is not that hard...
💸💸
Basically every European kid wdym
I speak three languages: Argentinian, Peruvian and Uruguayan. And sometimes I understand Chilean, but it is very difficult.
Should be easy for you to pick up Colombian and Mexican, too!
Lol, woow chilean it's so difficult to understand, congrats!
puerto rican is definitely the most difficult that I've learned
hhahahah chilean is impossible 🤣
and you're writing this comment in English lol
Foreign students are the only speaking other languages 😂
Mostly, but there was also the older American gentleman who spoke Yiddish for instance
Not all the non white students are foreigners
@@Benjaminisfunny he must be Jewish. And must have gotten it from his family
@@chaole1000 No, but the ones with the big heavy almost unintelligible accents are.
@@JudgeHill What are you on about? There was not a single person in this video who spoke in any way unintellegibly.
love the purity of this video, not much unnecessary edit and annoying sound, just simple cut and really show the nuances of the video 🥰
To the girl who spook Arabic. That was amazing! Both in grammar and pronunciation!
Btw she also said "Good morning" but forgot to translate it haha. Good luck to everyone wishing and is learning any language. It is tough, but the result is just beautiful and satisfying :)
It was good but isn’t it generous to say it was AMAZING? She said صباخ الخير rather than صباح, which is completely incorrect, and her ع is aggressively thick.
@@_thatoneperson_9082
Hmm then I think I should have said INCREDIBLY AMAZING!!!
It is okay for people to have some mistakes when talking a language that isn’t their mother tung especially Arabic.
Her pronunciation is beautiful and there is nothing wrong with it. I am teaching Arabic to one of my friends here in the U.S.. I understand how hard it is to correctly pronounce the letters but it’s okay as long as I can understand what she is saying. We learn a language not to be perfect in it but to be able to communicate with people and see and taste the culture of the language we are studying and that’s the beauty of learning a new language.
@@revliete I mean yeah, I agree that it’s okay, especially when you’re learning a language as hard as Arabic, but you’re literally lying to her by saying that her pronunciation is amazing and that “it is beautiful and there’s nothing wrong with it” when she was struggling with major pronunciation mistakes, literally pronouncing the wrong letter. There’s a difference between supporting someone on their learning journey and lying to them to make them feel better.
I’m just saying, if I was learning a new language and a native or someone else told me my pronunciation is amazing and flawless and beautiful, I would be hurt to find out that I was deceived and that I’ve actually been talking with a thick accent or even making many mistakes in front of others the whole time without even knowing. Walking around with false confidence and having it shattered is worse than walking around with no confidence.
@@_thatoneperson_9082
I understand your point that you want the truth, but if am not her teacher I can’t imagine myself telling her she is wrong in addition to knowing that these letters are hard to pronounce. Furthermore, saying aggressive is a bit harsh to be honest. Don’t forget that each person has a first language affecting their pronunciation.
Learning a language is a journey. Sometimes in this journey you need someone to appreciate your hard work to keep going. And that is what I said. She did very good in a hard language like Arabic which is amazing. In addition, a letter like ح is one of the hardest if not the hardest for foreigners to say (from experience of teaching the language). At the end this is my opinion.
@@revliete I agree, you did well by showing appreciation. Every Arab speaker would understand what she was trying to say and her pronunciation sounds better than most Arabic learners so we should give credit where it’s due
i'm surprised about the lack of variety of languages. it seemed to be mostly Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German. i thought i'd see a lot more Chinese languages
Learning Chinese is pretty useless if you are not Chinese given how xenophobic China is; so, it doesn’t surprise, given how little utility the language has, even for white people.
Mandarin sounds beautiful, it’s a pity really
I don't think Chinese is worth it in Europe
Tbh those are the most commonly spoken languages sooo
@@liqhtless1191 aside from English, Chinese is the most commonly spoken language. it's also just an overall useful language to know. albeit, it is also difficult for non native speakers to learn so i kind of understand why people don't learn it
Chinese born students at US colleges don’t speak English, so they can’t be interviewed.
Chinese Americans just speak English
I can’t believe I’ve been in Montreal for 1.5 years now and Dan still haven’t asked me how many languages I speak 😢
you’re not him
How many languages do you speak
Since you're from Montreal, you at least know two languages (French and English) and maybe others like (Spanish or German) from school or your mother tongue. So I say you might speak between 2 and 4 languages. Let me know if I'm right. :-)
Do you speak Creole or know some words in Haitian Creole/Kreyol?
English isn't one of them...
0:27 he only speaks one language, bro had to point what language it was💀
That's not very harvard of him 💀
It surprises me how many Harvard students speak only one language or just "one and a half". I mean, in Spain you cant graduate from University without a B2 level (upper-intermediate) in a second language, and Im talking about every University in the country. I thought for Harvard you would need at least 3.
the US is a bit... unique shall we say
Yes, typical for Americans as well as British or any other nationality that speaks English as its native language. Most don’t have any motivation to learn foreign languages
@@robowisanveithasung6022 😂
As a german who had to learn at least 2 languages on top of german I have to say that just because you graduate with B2 doesn't mean you can actually speak the language. Obviously B2 in english was a requirement and I had the opportunity to get to that level in french and italian as well, but most peops who left it at B2 for english could barely communicate. I'd say without any knowledge of the english language and then spending half a year in an english speaking country and you'd probably be better off tbh
We've got Google translate - no need to learn other languages.
"I speak all the languages when I'm drunk" - a Croatian wisdom
You kill me oh my God 😂
The universal common tongue
2:02 As a Brazilian I felt so happy to see these two, It's so good to see Brazilian people around the world
Os brasileiros são os mais brabos hehe 🇧🇷🇧🇷
Simm kk só com ouvir ela falar as 4 linguas que ela fala eu pensei será? Dai quando ela falou português fiquei tipo bora Brasillll!
é o braza, não tem jeito
Mano, os EUA é o país com mais brasileiros fora do Brasil. Vc nn deveria ficar tão impressionada kkkkkkkkkkkkk
@@uebtonsilva1957 Não nos EUA, mas em Harvard ss
I’m 15 and I speak in kazakh, russian,English,turkish languages. I proud of that I’m from Kazakhstan. Because everyone in Kazakhstan knows or understands this languages very well
damn wow I'm korean and I wanna learn Kazakh but it sounds hard even tho our languages share the same structure
i respect you all guys for knowing many languages. this is very tough ability.
@@snowadewell better to learn Turkish first cause you will be able to easily learn any other turkic languages a specially Azerbaijain one
I want to practice my english with you , can I ?
@@snowade I'd say that kazakh is more closer to japanese by sentence structures. I've been learning japanese for 1.5 years and at the beginning of my journey this a little bit of similarity helped me a lot
The girl who spoke Arabic had a great accent but she’s so right that Arabic grammar is super difficult!
Hi baby!!! You are very good and respectful woman cause you are studying and making right things! I wish you wisdom, moral stability and good people around you!! 🤌
And i beg you no piercing and tattoo👉👈
lindieee
She is great and natural , but mispronounced ح as خ
Which most non-arabic speakers usually find hard to pronounce
@@mimimusa757 which dialect did she speak?
@@anon6881the standard Arabic
Fun fact, which is also really surprising: The person at 1:16 is Samuel Bosch, he is known for being the youngest doctorand at MIT, having finished a practice at M&A with the salary of $15,000/month, and also for having the best A-Levels in all of Croatia.
Cool
Having the best test scores in Croatia, is like being the tallest midget. It does not really matter
@@m1000-n8w No its like being the skinniest american
I know his channel and he is not and was never the youngest PhD student at MIT. A quick Google search told me he started the PhD at around 25 which is not particularly young for the US. Anyway, the guy is impressive enough, even without that wrong fact.
Wow damnnnn
I speak six languages: English, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian and a year of French in college. Covid allowed me the chance to spend three hours a day on three languages and I haven’t missed a day since!
Wow, what a missed opportunity for me honestly thats such a flex.
@@lisaschutt7302 Lisa, it dawned on me one day that the time I would have normally spent going to the gym, was wasted. The gyms were closed and I was just sitting around watching TV. So I signed up for DuoLingo and the rest is history. It’s been a fantastic experience and that’s why I keep doing it. I recommend it. It’s never too late to start. See if you can dedicate a specific time each day for languages and you’ll find that you can do it, too.
А какой родной язык?
@@danielgloverpiano7693 i'd hope to. see, i speak german and english fluently (learned spanish and russian in school for a few years as well) but there are so many languages I find so fascinating like danish or italian. Maybe I'll get to learn them.
@@MsMcStella мой родной язык - английский
É incrível saber quando uma pessoa é brasileira antes mesmo dela falar que sabe português😂
Só de ouvir a voz a gente já sabe
@@estan2035acho q por causa do sotaque
Tirando a primeira dupla (a camisa do cara entrega que ele é de Brasília), a segunda garota se entregou ao falar o nome. Ela puxou o dAniela, e praticamente só um brasileiro teria um nome desses e pronunciaria puxando o A. Estadunidense costuma pronunciar o Ê, em vez do A, tipo dÊniel
@@edsonborges7167só que essa é mesmo de Portugal, não é brasileira não.
@@edsonborges7167 verdade
Love seeing Brazilians at Harvard 🇧🇷
those are trust fund babies that bought their spot there.
@PHlophe just like everyone else there.
I have a cousin in Switzerland who is seven and is fluent in seven languages. French, Swiss German, English, German, Irish, Italian and Croatian. Her mother is Croatian- French and her father is Irish who grew up in a Gaeltacht area (my blood uncle) and they lived in Italy for three years before moving to Germany for a couple months and finally landing in Switzerland.
(Her father taught her Irish and they speak French and Irish + English at home and Croatian with their grandparents)
Oh that’s nice. Hopefully she won’t forget them as she grows.
She will
@@sandyvu9652 maybe some but not the ones she speaks at home, she’ll probably forget Italian soon.
However, Swiss German is not a separate language. In Swiss German you just pronounce „Standard German“ differently
Stop the cap
Love these types of videos. I'm an ongoing Korean learner and aspire to learn other languages in the future, like Spanish for one. Seeing so many other individuals who know or are learning two or more languages is so inspiring to see. Languages are such a beautiful thing🐢
Good luck with your learning!
Btw,just wanted to tell you that Spanish is not as hard as it may seem,so don't be afraid of trying it out in the future!
It is interesting to observe the answers of teachers and students. The teachers always specify the level of each language they speak.😊
Thanks for having me in the video 🙂 🐢
Are you the German/Croatian guy?
@@denizaran yep
Was machst du an Havard wenn du doch am MIT bist lol
Bro share your gym routine. Trebam misice brate.
@@Pero-zl4jp brat, I was thinking the same 😂
the energy at Harvard seems so positive and happy!
I'm Brazilian, and I loved seeing Brazilians at Harvard
Watching this incredible video, I'd like to share my little story of speaking a few languages too!
I am 19, just got into an American university and super excited about how things will work out!
Originally from Afghanistan, I entered the United States 4 months ago to start a new chapter of life.
Besides my native language which is Persian/Dari, I can speak English, Pashto, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic, Turkish and some very basic Polish and Yiddish; and I am looking forward to take Russian classes at my university.
I managed to learn to speak English properly with a relatively good accent in 20 months, started when I was 17. I was always encouraged by my parent's interests to speak more languages and they always used to tell me how my ancestors were tradesmen of the Silk Road, and how they would communicate with people, starting from China and ending to Greece and even Italy.
Fast forward to the end of 2023, We had a general essay requirement for the university application and the theme which I selected for my essay was: My journey of learning English, by thinking in English.
Because that's what I actually did! At the time when I was learning English, I practiced having an English language reaction to EVERYTHING I saw or heard, and I programmed my mind in a way that it could process just about everything I saw or heard, in English, so that I wouldn’t have to squander my time by starting a translation chain from Persian (the default language of my thoughts) to English and then speaking it out. I cannot even find the right words to express how impressed I was, and how much it affected my language learning journey.
One thing I love the most about being multilingual, especially since I entered the United States, is the fact that everyone is just so invested into talking to you and interacting with you that you will never feel alone or sidelined, which would legitimately be my greatest fear. I always loved being social and socializing with a lot of people, and therefore jobs which require a lot of interacting with random people, like food service industry or drive-thru, seemed quite appealing to me.
I wish everyone success in their language learning journeys.
Salam aleykoum akhi how are you now ?
Wow that's a fascinating story. Might I ask why did you learn specifically Polish and Yiddish? It just so happens that i'm thinking of learning them because my grandma speaks those languages lol.
به عنوان یه هم زبون امیدوارم در مسیر درستی باشی همیشه
This is so interesting because nowadays, basically everyone whose first language isn't English learn it in school, so they end up with a relatively fluent foreign language and their first language, oftentimes you're required a second foreign language as well. And I haven't even mentioned minority languages or immigrants/kids of immigrants who might speak yet another language at home. Obviously there's not as much of an incentive for Americans/English native speakers in general to learn one, but even just from a point of understanding how language works, it's hugely beneficial.
If you want to add arabic to your list I can help you , I want to practice my english with you , can I ?
Que loucura, não sabia que tinha tantos brasileiros em Harvard.
Pois é! Hahah
Verdade ❤
TAMO COLONIZANDO O MUNDO INTEIROOOOO 🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷
Maybe these persons are Portuguese too.
@@nomarruiz6883 Not in this video, they all speak the brazilian dialect
I like how the woman in the end when asked to speak French immediately hit him with the characteristic "euuuuuuhhhhh" 😆😆
She wasn't french though, she had a subtile American accent
@@SaladeDeFruittYes she's not French native
That's one of the reasons why I don't like french. They say uh too much it's annoying lol.
@@dangercat9188 🇺🇸🤮💩🖕
The woman who spoke in arabic did really well! Arabic is my native language so it was easier for me, but even Native speakers agree that its hard! Grammer was such a struggle but I love my language! One thing that makes it harder is that in the arab region we all speak in our own dialect that is different from what we learn in school!
Because most societies that call themselves Arab today are not actually Arab. Muslim Arabs assimilated and Arabized most of the indigenous societies around the Mediterranean. Levantines, Algerians, Moroccans, Libyans, Egyptians are not originally Arabs. That's why the Arabic they speak is very different from each other.
@@betul4833 yes 👍 and I think that’s why the GCC countries understand each other easily, bcuz these countries have similar roots that are originally Arab. I was told that the dialect of the countries that are originally Arab have the closest vocabulary to real Arabic!
I can speak Canadian, American, Englandish, Australian, and am currently learning New Zealandi. Wish me luck!
Don't use ur brain that much.😥
that’s literally what i was saying at 5 years old when I lied to my aunt to boast about my pretend knowledge of languages. 🥲 she wasn’t impressed
…all English 😂
You make as much sense as the girl who claimed taiwanese was a different language than Mandarin
@@mlml8018 it is 😂 totally different to mandarin
He needs to ask this Question to folks in Montreal. I've worked with Montrealers that speak as many as 7 languages. It's incredible!
The very first city where I asked this question!
ua-cam.com/video/GE6YyHZApu4/v-deo.html
@@morningglory7831 I'm also Korean Canadian, and my wife is Canadian who speaks fluent French, semi fluent in Japanese - she lived in Japan - passable Korean, and various languages at a beginner level. I'm fluent in English and Korean with some skills in French and Spanish.
The point I wanna make is that I can't remember a time that we didn't constantly insert either words or phrases into our convo from various languages that we're fluent in or know words.
I think learning new languages is not just super cool but good for the brain.
So Canada has no national identity. What a shame.
Again knowing small talk or basic sentence doesn't mean someone speaks a language.
You need fluency or at least full comprehension to say you speak something. Knowing "hi", "how are you" or "my name is" is not speaking i a language. Speaking 7 languages is not a common things regardless of where you go.
@@jamesmason8436 in germany we learn in school that canada is a salad bowl of loads of cultures living together and making the most of it. And America is a melting pot of cultures, not able to celebrate each other, just mashing together, being an unidentifiable mass. Lol
You should come to Luxembourg. It's impossible to find a monolingual person here.
I agree x2. My great grandmother was luxembourgish and spoke german (her mother tongue), french, english & spanish.
Not so surprising any more since most people in Luxembourg are now foreigners who need to adapt local standard.
Amazing ! As an American, I speak 3 languages. Spanish (Native Speaker), English and French. Learning langauges is something I love!
Stop lying
The jealousy is reallll lmao. Americans can be multilingual too@@Topsealguy
@@HollowBones16you don't know how many times people claimed to be multilingual and turns out all they did was get a 3 on the ap exam.
I really enjoy this series, it makes me really want to step up and learn more languages!
I'm there for you once you need to learn... I speak more 😊
chocada com a quantidade de brasileiros em Harvard!! fiquei super inspirada! i hope i can get to this level one day!!!!
Definitely you will, tenha fé.
verdade tá lotado! rs
Se tiver muita grana, não é tão difícil. E não tô zuando. Existe um exagero muito grande em torno de Harvard. Besteira essa supervalorização. Esse deslumbramento passa.
Quantos contaste? Eu não vi o video todo, mas só contei 2.
Iremos!!
A diva brasileira falando 4 línguas, ao lado do divo (bonitão). Parabéns, gente, que orgulho.
Incrível como a gente sempre vai reconhecer um brasileiro de longe kkk tanto pela aparência quanto pelo sotaque 😂❤
Muitos falantes de português! Fiquei impressionado.
A lot of Portuguese speakers. I'm impressed.
Então somos dois que estão impressionado Rodrigo.
So We''re two who are impressed Rodrigo.
😊😅😊😊😅😅
p
Né 😮
tbm fiquei!
pretty cool to see some brazillians there haha, BRASILSILSIL!
Brazilians are everywhere! 😂
Simmm
Pls dont take me to brazil😢
@@SirBojo4 gente pq não?
@@wallysls É um meme da gringa, mas não sei o sentido tb
The only ones who speak more than one language are the foreign students LOL
I love multilingualism, it's so fascinating. It fuels me on my quest of learning other languages.
Love street interviews thank you for making these
it's easy to see which languages are dominant
Orgulho do Brazil 🇧🇷, sei falar fluentemente português, inglês, espanhol, conheço o hebraico e Italiano
tipo, nao sou nenhum fluente e talz, mas fuicapaz de entender esse video, meu maior problema ta no listeling.
@@TanioGamer Acho que se vc já entendeu tudo do vídeo já é considerado intermediário pra cima
@@wallysls pior que não me considero nem beginner ainda, várias vezes penso em desistir, mas ainda estou de pé, não quero me desanimar, até por que eu só tenho uma ano de estudos ainda!
@@TanioGamer indico focar em podcasts sobre algum tema que você goste
@@wallysls eu leio bastande mangas e manhas em ingles, entro em call com gringos, as vezes jogo cs go com poloneses, obs: no servidor europeu eles usam muito o ingles para se comunicar entre eles, entao e bem util.
1:12 100% sure this woman came from brazil
Why the Brazilians thinks they are the only one who speaking Portuguese? The language was born and raised in “Portugal”.
@@Webstardarealone for being honest, yes, sometimes i forgot portuguese isn't a language exclusively spoken in Brazil
But idk, her accent or something just bring me the Brazil vibe (problably portuguese people have the same accent but again, idk)
Please reply my comment
I love pratice my english
@@Lucas_Villarinho It’s kind of ironic, innit? That the country representing the Portuguese language on a global scale is actually Brazil. Also, I love how passionate you are about learning English, it’s truly inspiring. I really hope you reach a point where you’re as fluent as a native speaker someday. (English isn’t my first language either, but your grammar and usage are genuinely impressive. Keep it up amigo)
@@WebstardarealoneBrazil has like 85-90% of portuguese speakers. I'm mozambican. We speak portuguese but highly doubt she's mozambican. She sounds brazilian for sure
Such an incredible video!!! I really love your "how many languages do you speak?" videos because it's becoming more and more interesting to know and get involved into the language learning field, please keep it up. Looking for new things to not get bored is always exciting and even healthy. Studying at Harvard University is wonderful because of its cozy environment, its international students, its nice outlook and so on. Moreover, I would love to be reborn to become one of its students, it would have been very good and rewarding I'm 24 years old, but I can't leave my current university in my home country 😢. 🐢
Why can't you? Pass the tests and apply. Yes, it will take about a year of preps but if you are hard-working enough, then go and pursue your dream.
My sister from Lithuania failed to get into NYU right after school, so she studied really hard for a year and got into HMS.
@@DS-ok2dc It would be fantastic being a bright student at Harvard University, but I don't feel mature enough to pass a high level test. We know Harvard University is a well-ranked study center globally and getting into there isn't an easy task either. It requires a long time to do so as well as looking forward to get a degree.
Yay! A Yiddish speaker! There aren’t enough of those anymore. I’m surprised he thinks German is hard when the two languages are almost mutually intelligible. Yiddish is a lot harder to learn if you’re not culturally Jewish and are starting from scratch. It’s like learning three languages at once. German, Hebrew, and Russian.
Your talent at locating folks to interview continues to amaze and delight me. Another superb video! Merci de nouveau.🐢
The woman who speaks Twi. She must be from Ghana. (Although maybe also Ivory Coast or Togo).
And when you asked the lady at 9:40 to say something in French, her mouth immediately shaped into French mode - loved that!
Thank you for confirming that the person at 5:40 said she speaks Twi - I hadn’t heard of Twi so had to try to look it up. The caption claimed she said she speaks “cheap” 🤦
I love this sooo much. I am an ESL teacher and I speak English and Spanish but I DEFINITELY want to become fluent in atleast one more language. Thank you for this.
Choose french.
@@jamespate5668 yup. Thinking the same.
@@orestes67 Might be fun to venture into less familiar languages, like an african, middle eastern or an asian language.
its weird how many german speakers are at havard. I grew up my whole life in the us and only met one maybe two other german speakers.
I live in a very immigrant-heavy/diverse area of US and have only met one.
Because they went to the US to study at Havard
I am trying to gain fluency in German. I live in Wisconsin with a high percentage of people here having German ancestry and I’m finding it difficult to find people to speak it with. I have found a German pen pal overseas but it would be nice if people here would actually study it! Lol
@@mariabuchinger im German American and in Pennsylvania/New York if the person isn't Amish or Jewish they don't speak German
P.S its my native language and I have never met another German speaker since I moved from Pennsylvania granted I live with Hispanics
I actually had a lot of German speakers at my school growing up
Que orgulho dos brasileiros!! A primeira moça que fala 4 idiomas me impressionou, e a camisa do cara "pega o eixão, depois o eixinho, faz a tesourinha e sobe no balão" hahahaha entendi nada
Maybe they are Portuguese
essa camisa é de Brasília! é uma referência à engenharia das ruas e avenidas da cidade.
@@frje77 No
@@frje77 they spoke with perfect brazilian portuguese
Só quem mora em Brasília entende a camisa, é tipo um código que os moradores de Brasília consegue se comunicar.
I speak five languages: Russian, Tajik, Kazakh, English, and now I learn Greek language:)
I once was hired to work at an event in Switzerland. I am from Germany. The Swiss are known to speak German, French and English. I was pretty confident to be able to converse on the event (part of my job). But then... I heard swiss German. While I generally do understand stuff like news reports in Swiss German, i couldn't follow conversations, which i realized when on the event. EVERYBODY at that event spoke at least 2 languages fluently, they switched around with ease - i heard one person joke in French, English and German. Without fail anybody speaking swiss German switched to high German if they noticed me struggling.
The main language of that event turned into English, so people who didn't speak German were included.
If you want to add arabic to your list I can help you , I want to practice my english with you , can I ?
5:06 I knew just by her pronunciation of Daniella that she speaks Portuguese!
8:01 oh my,
It feels weird to hear someone speak in my language but it's also kinda heart warming,
Makes me feel actually known and acknowledged in the world, i hope anyone who wants to learn a new language has good luck learning it, and remember don't pressure yourself to learn it immediately
Have a wonderful day ♥️.
I feel motivated by your videos because I am learning English and I see a lot of people who know other languages it's very motivated. Thank you for your work it is amazing. Greetings from Colombia.
How old are u?? What city are u from Colombia
@@ronaldoromerovergel8373might as well ask him for his number
8:11 omg finally I find someone is learning my native language 💛💛💛💛💛btw her Arabic is so good
6:39 whoever is this man he seems really cool and fun
4:06 i feel his struggle, my first language is french and i can speak english, my family is from vietnamese ethnicity and i'm struggling to learn this language, especially since i'm doing self-learn and my parents don't speak vietnamese at home
That's the thing, if you speak vietnamese with your parents since you were young you might be fluent in Vietnamese, but either way it's fine
@@megaxind16 that's the thing, I grew up speaking french with my parents, so it's kinda hard to learn it now
as an Eastern European, I am always shocked that people barely speak one or two languages here, even at a school like Harvard! I graduated from high school in Poland speaking 4, I later acquired a few more languages. Huge foreign language crisis in the US right now.
what are those languages? i am curious
@@cynthiaromero5719 Polish, English, French, Italian, Spanish (fluent) I was also forced to learn Russian for 8 years due to our Soviet colonizers. I also studied Greek and Latin (in high school) and Japanese (college).
In the US, they have a limited language pool, due to the cultures around them
Most people take Spanish and French, which makes sense since the neighbouring countries also speak it as well. If you go in a 1000 mile radius from the capital of the US and go the same from Rome. You end up going to 17 countries where in the US you would only end up in canada
@@BringerOfDeath12 that kind of an excuse doesn't hold well though, because the whole world speaks English. You could get by with that language anywhere. Learning a foreign language lets you understand that culture and their perspective. It's rarely just about being able to go to a restaurant in a foreign country. In case you are not aware, they are closing foreign language departments all over in US colleges, enrollment has been dropping dramatically. no interest.
@@minka6 not the whole world speaks english, majority but not all
and since the us is a english based country with literally english all over, they have no intrest for that matter. I have seen more people take languages than ever, in high schools, colleges, and even online in the US Also they closing them because those are majors, no one realistcally is gonna major in a language, unless they on something. When was the last time you heard of someone being passionate about majoring in italian or French in college
If you never travel, or you are not a fan of traveling, the language skill would go down
I have a friend who knew how to speak french very well some would say better than a actual French. But because he would often hate travleing, due to sickness, and not just needing it at the most, he forgot alot of it. Now he sounds like a beginner. Nothing to do with him, if you are not needing it commonly you will start to loose that grip of that skill. That comes with literally any skill
9:32 Eeeeeeeeeuuuuu 🥐🥐🥐🍷
20/20 You nailed French.
Next.
It's cool seeing a University edition of these!
I like how the first guy said he only speaks English but then goes on to say he can actually speak Chinese really well 😂
It depends , u only know a language if ur fluent, he said he’s not
he isn't one of those people that say they can speak 67 languages when in 66 of the languages they actually only know how to introduce themselves and order a coffee and croissant from a restaurant.
this makes me feel good thank you sir
I loooove to learn different languages! ❤
I'm German,love to talk American English,had UK English in school. Im learning Dutch,Spanish,Korean,
Polish and whatever i'm in the mood for. 😊
Just love it!
Liebe Grüße und vielen Dank für Eure Videos.
Hartelijk dank! ❤
I had a feeling that Isaac Asimov-looking professor was going to be able to speak Yiddish. Very cool video.
I speak Portuguese fluently, it's my first language, but I'm also learning English (probably I'm in the intermediate level) and I really really want to study German and Greek in college - but I still have to get great notes in Enem (the Brazilian exam that gives you acess to the university).
For all the people studying a new language: just keep going... you are already doing something that most people cannot, or doesn't see the importance of it.
Eu tenho o nível intermediário no inglês também, e no momento estou começando francês. Sozinha é um pouco difícil, mas eu gosto de aprender novos idiomas, então é divertido. Aliás, acredito que você vai tirar nota boa no enem, com esforço você consegue. Boa sorte!
your english is so good👏👏👏
Most gringos that speak english as well as you do would say they are at an advanced level! You are doing great, keep it up
just a tip: think a lot about learning german
ich muss sagen, es ist ziemlich schwer
jokes aside, keep on the good work!
Cara, se tu escreveu esse texto em inglês sem nenhum tipo de ajuda, teu inglês já está bem avançado, porém não sei como está sua questão em speaking, mas presumo eu que já está boa. Listening e reading acredito eu também que seja ótimo pois nesse vídeo temos vários sotaques diferentes e apesar de já sabermos o conteúdo, algumas pessoas ainda sim vão ter dificuldade em entender. Eu também achava q meu inglês era intermediário até eu ter que falar inglês com canadenses e australianos e eles falarem q meu inglês é extremamente bom.
This is a very telling video. I expected more polyglots at Harvard. Quite frankly, I had to stop to think of how many languages I speak in my level of fluency in each one. I think that we in the United States need to push more for multilingualism. The language struggle for me is Korean, but I love learning it.
Part of it is that most schools don't start teaching foreign language until halfway through middle school, but it needs to be a core part of the curriculum from the start
@@a-ramenartist9734 we don't even start until high school and even that we only have like 3 languages we can choose from but what can we do most Americans only learn 1 language and it's not like they can hire someone to teach french if they only know english ☠ and this is why i took matters into my own hands and is learning languages myself just by watching youtube videos i learned how to speak Korean fluently in 3 months and that was my 3rd language with my native being both english and Japanese although i still do make mistakes i practice when i have free time it's honestly not that hard as ppl make it seem they think after a certain age oh it's harder to learn and it's really not you just gotta try
@@Rosé16-q8e That’s so odd. I’ve been learning French for thirteen years (UK) and only at the end of this school year (equivalent to 10th grade I think) is it no longer compulsory to learn a language.
@@parsnip1 that sucks i honestly think everyone should know at least 1 other language on top of their native language schools are just changing now :(
Why
Hi, i'm from Brazil and i'm using your videos to learn English. I can not wait to the next video. Thank you so much.
E muito curto. vc precisa de pelo menos 1h por dia
learning languages are very interesting!! spanish is my first language, and I know guaraní, english, some portuguese and I studying chinese… it’s amazing! 😊
0:48 he couldnt even communicate his points in english
5:59 She's so pretty.
Oh, I love getting asked this question as a language-nerd Norwegian with German as my mother-tongue. Getting to answer German, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, English, Icelandic, South Sami, Yiddish and Slovene feels great but also very cheeky, as I only struggled learning two of those languages since all the Germanic languages basically came for free with Norwegian and German (specifically Austrian-German, therefore the "free" Yiddish).
Learning a language in a different family is definitley a lot harder. As a fellow Norwegian I think I spent around 2-3 times as much time to learn Japanese as I did with other European languages like Spanish, French and German since a lot of things people take for granted like the writing system, sentence strucutre, grammar and syntax came for free unlike Japanese/Korean/Thai where you actually have to learn a completely new language without cognates (even the few "cognates" aren't really cognates since they have to follow the phonetical system of the language) or any real help.
I have it similiar.
I a Czech say about myself, that I speak 4 languages.
Czech, Encglish, Russian, Polish. Then as a Czech I ofc understand fluently to Slovak.
Being Slav, who know 4 our languages, I can somehow understand to all Slavic languages, and when I learned about Interslavic, I always create Slav-mix language.
Then also I understand to latin, spanish and a bit of italian, when I read wikipedia I understand to the concept.
And I also have learned German, for 1 year
1:43 oh, that woman is actually brazilian
And she knows exactly the same languages I intend to learn, now she’s my inspiration 🗣️😅
8:00 That pronunciation was fantastic Juliette!
(I'm showing off here) Portuguese is the 6th or 7th language I am learning, and I am proud to say that I understood everything that was said in Portuguese in the video hihi (also understood taiwanese, which is basically like chinese, french and spanish but yeah)
sooo gonna show off a bit more: I speak French, Chinese, and English all three fluently, then a bit less fluently goes Spanish, and lastly I'm learning Portuguese, Hebrew, Korean, and Russian.
6 línguass, q sonho.
@@nalu165 haha obrigada :)
@@larabiancca é Francês
Nice show off👍 We have 6 common languages : Russian Korean English Spanish Taiwanese and Mandarin :)
@@mirae9163 haha nice :) i don't actually speak taiwanese since it's just mandarin but yeah
I would have expected more people to speak at least a second language being at a business school. I consider myself lucky that I was brought up with another language. My mother was German and always spoke German to me and my sisters and my dad always spoke English. I can also read and understand some Dutch. I did French at school but didnt really continue with it which is a shame.
1:17, for someone who started learning English at 16 the dude speaks it very well in my opinion.
english is classified as germanic language.these languages have descended from a single common ancestor called Proto-Germanic.so english is like easier version of german.
As brazilian, It's really satisfying and makes me proud to see so many Brazilians around the world, especially studying at places like Harvard. Even though English isn’t our native language, we speak it well and that makes it easier to pick up other languages. I started with German, French, and Spanish, and now I feel like I can communicate in all of them. I'm also learning Mandarin!
I love languagessss ❤ I'm italian and I can speak English (C1), German (B2), French (B2), Spanish (B1) and Japanese (N4). I wish I could also speak some Swedish and Korean.
I'm fluent in Dutch, English and German and I can get around with French and Spanish in bars, restaurants and with friends.
Like all Dutch of my age, I had to learn English, German and French at high school. We see a lot of Dutch under-titled English movies and during 40 years I had to speak and write English at work every day. I lived 10 km from the German border, did see a lot of German TV and had many trips to Germany. I even worked 1/2 a year in the German speaking part of Switzerland. I did not use French very much, only on holidays. I learned Spanish at age 50 following a typical Dutch high school course and now I live in the Dominican Republic with my Spanish speaking Dominican wife, who also speaks English and some Dutch/Flemish from her many years in Antwerp.
Bertin, when you speak Dutch and German you are speaking the exact same language . i am unsure how you guys rationalize that it is a "different" one.
this is like speaking Italian and thinking spanish is a different language. if you understand another dialect from birth then its not an actual separate language.
Multilingual people are an inspiration. I learned Hindi & Punjabi in school for 7 years and can only just get by shopping and ordering food, although I can read and write both. I’ve now been trying to learn Spanish for years but no where near fluent. Envious of all these people!
5:21, what the lady was speaking is actually not so called Taiwanese but Hokkian, and it was widely recognized as an dialect from Southeast of China, Fujian. Not only used in Taiwan, but also in mainland China, Singapore, and Malaysia.
Like American people are speaking ‘English’ instead of ‘American’
Not only this, when she was asked to speak some Taiwanese she actually couldn't say "University" in Hokkien, and said that in Mandarin Chinese instead.
It still amazes me how some people, especially teachers in Harvard speak only one language. Many homeless people on European streets speak at least English besides their own. People on campus speak at least three usually.
2:20 Representantes brasileiros em Havard 🇧🇷❤️
7:15 she looks so french with her sailor striped sweater
It´s lowkey such a flex being able to speak 6 and a half + reading arabic as a 15 year old. Like I expected sooo much more from Harvard students.
Not a flex at all, congrats on wasting all your time learning languages, People are able to make it to harvard because they spend their time studying less useless things
@ My parents speak to their own parents in 2-3 languages, and to me, so I’m already fed up with 3 languages + I live in West Europe. I’m not the type of person that says I can speak spanish because I have had 1 month streak on Duolingo lol.
By the way, not all Harvard students are crazy mathematic nerds. There are a lot of students that love languages and literatur! It kinda hurts saying languages are useless…
The French girl spoke Arabic really well
i speak one language, english, but estoy aprendiendo español y es muy dificil algunas veces pero yo recuerdo lo que yo sabía hace unos pocos meses y yo se yo soy mucho mejor. language learning is complex and not linear. it takes true dedication and passion. i have much respect for anyone who goes out of their way to learn a second language, especially when they don’t have to
Good job, buen trabajo che 👍
Dopo lo spagnolo puoi continuare con l'italiano o il francese, a causa della somiglianza nella loro grammatica
👍
Muito feliz de ver brasileiros por aí ❤
Sim, deixa o coração quentinho :)
I feel so proud to see so much of Brazil in such a respected college! VAI BRASIL!!! BRASILSILSILSILSISLLLL
Keep it up, Dan! I love that you're going to different places!
🐢 #SaveSoil nice video, learning languages can be fun
That lady used a grand total of 1 Taiwanese Hokkien word in her sentence.
She spoke in Mandarin then?
@@pedrocavalcante5822 Her sentence was "Harvard university (is) really awesome."
"Harvard" is just English.
"University" is Mandarin.
"awesome" is a Mandarin colloquial term.
"is" is not used in Chinese grammar.
Only "really" is in Hokkien. It is perfectly possible to say the same sentence using actual Hokkien terms and pronunciation. Majority of young Taiwanese are just not fluent in the language. It's another absurdity resulting from inane political posturing. They want to lay claim to a language they call "Taiwanese" to distance themselves from the mainland, when it is clearly a Chinese dialect originating from Fujian province opposite Taiwan in mainland China (where it is referred to as "Minnan-ese"), and it is also widely spoken among the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia, particularly Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines, where it is called "Hokkien". And it is obviously nothing more than lip service for the vast majority of Taiwanese. The younger generations like this lady do not care to actually learn to speak it.
Once you speak 1 latin language like Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, it's a little bit easier to learn any of the others. This is why they all speak 2 or more languages. In my case 5.
The same counts for the Germanic language group or Slavic languages.
But try to learn Japanese as a European and you suddenly struggle while it is a walk in the park for a Korean student.
right? i speak german, norwegian and swedish and understand danish and icelandic (icelandic because I had old norse at university)
@@aimeekaufmann9220 Is there actually any real difference between Norwegian and Danish or is it more on the level of "American English" versus "British English"?
@@tupG I would say it’s a little bit more complicated than with american and british english. norwegian took over the danish alphabet in the 19th century and pronounced it how it was written while the danish swallowed half the vowels. both languages have since had distinct developments that have made certain differences. what is also important to note is that there is a new ‘artificial’ way of writing in norwegian that is prominently used in the west (in a bilingual writing situation) and that norwegian has thousands of different dialects so there’s not one ‘norwegian’ to go off of :) this is my scandinavian minor/outsider view so take it with a grain of salt
@@aimeekaufmann9220 Dialects are in most European countries. I myself grew up in a diglossic environment, using a very strong dialect in my village that can't be readily understood by outsiders. Slight grammatical differences, terminology and intonation were so different that I had to learn how to speak "properly" at primary school. Yet i wouldn't class it as a different language.
On the other hand, I frequently overhead coworkers in Abu Dhabi who speak Hindi happily chatting away with someone from Pakistan who speaks Urdu. There it is mostly national identity that define the language.
Oh my god, I loved this video! I'm brazilian and I'm still learning to speak english fluently, but watching this video give me more motivation to keep going. Thanks! :)