MetaChat - How many languages can you count to ten in?

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

30 April 2009

How many languages can you count to ten in? Me, 7. English, Maori, French, Dutch, Spanish, German, Portugese. I expect there are a bunch of you who can do way more..?

post by: gaspode at: 09:59 | 25 comments

Only three (French, Spanish, English).

Though every time I try in a langauage other than English, I get that damn Kraftwerk song stuck in my head and it derails me.

posted by BoringPostcards 30 April | 10:02

French, Spanish, and English here, too, though last time I was in Belize I had the honour of having a couple of meals with a Mayan family in their home, and their little girl used the claws on my lizard tattoo to show me she could count to four in English and teach me how to do that in Q'eqchi'. Unfortunately, it didn't stick, because how cool would that be?

posted by elizard 30 April | 10:07

Kyrgyz, Russian, Polish, French, English, German, Bulgarian, Turkish.

That makes 8 - I claim current "King of the Hill" status.

Protip: counting is more or less the same in all Slavic languages - so in a pinch I could add Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian, etc. etc... Ditto for Turkic languages, if you can count in Turkish you can count in Uzbek, Azeri, Kyrgyz, Kazakh...

posted by Meatbomb 30 April | 10:13

Seven:
English
French
Spanish
German
Hebrew
Arabic
Japanese

I can also tap the ground with my foot like a clever horse.

posted by Hugh Janus 30 April | 10:14

Italian, French, Spanish, Hebrew and the English Pointer Sisters' version from Sesame Street. Whenever I need to count something, I do it with that tune in my head.

posted by Melismata 30 April | 10:14

Just two. English and French.

posted by essexjan 30 April | 10:16

Dog
Cat
Kid
Smaller Kid
Fully-Grown Pretentious Adult
Dolphin
Zoo Monkey

and Giraffe, pending funding.

posted by Lipstick Thespian 30 April | 10:33

I can say "I've seen the Angel of Truth" in Kobaïan but I can't even count to one.

posted by Hugh Janus 30 April | 10:41

Just English and Spanish, but I also know when to start counting from zero.

posted by danostuporstar 30 April | 10:46

Tres.

(Eng, Span, Ger)

posted by Atom Eyes 30 April | 10:56

Estonian, Russian, English, French, Finnish. That's five.

posted by Daniel Charms 30 April | 10:58

English
Spanish
Italian
French
Portuguese
Russian
Six! That makes six! I can count to three in German. I don't know four or beyond.

posted by msali 30 April | 11:03

What do I win?

posted by Meatbomb 30 April | 11:28

English, French, German, formerly Russian but I now find I can't remember how. Probably Spanish and Italian if I think hard.

posted by altolinguistic 30 April | 11:55

English, Mandarin, Spanish, German, and Russian.

Meatbomb, I'd love to learn how I can use Russian to make this list ridiculously long. ("Get Erudite Quick"?)

posted by halonine 30 April | 12:08

English and Spanish. But I can pretend to count in French pretty convincingly:

Une, dou, troix, qua, quin, sais, sette, oche, none, dez!

posted by Rhaomi 30 April | 12:33

English, French, and Spanish. The ONLY reason I can count to ten in Spanish is thanks to Sesame Street.

I used to know how to count to ten in Russian and Swahili also, but I am dumber now than I was then. "Moja" was "one" in Swahili. I remember that much.

posted by BitterOldPunk 30 April | 13:39

English, Spanish/Mexican and French as well. S/M thanks to a babysitter and French due to Junior High. I should have taken Spanish in school since I grew up in Southern California. ¡Yo era muy estúpido!

posted by deborah 30 April | 13:48

English, German, French, Russian, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, Greek are the ones I still remember. This is primarily because when I was a little girl, one of my ballet teachers used to mark the beat in various languages for us- enough repetitions to stick in my memory for over 15 years.

posted by notquitemaryann 30 April | 13:53

English, French, Spanish, Latin and ASL. I may have known ancient Greek at one point, but I certainly don't now.

Also, dig this.

posted by box 30 April | 14:35

halonine: just use your Russian numbers, in a Serb / Ukrainian / Polish / etc. context, with conviction.

posted by Meatbomb 30 April | 17:11

I'm most proud of my top three:

Indonesian satu dua tiga empat lima enam tujuh delapan sembilan sepuluh.

(And: lima is the same as the word for hand [get it? five fingers!] in Hawaiian - gotta love the Austronesian languages!)

Latvian (without diacritical marks): viens divi tris cetri pieci sesi septini astoni devini desmit.

Polish (without case/gender changes) jeden dwa trzy cztery pięć sześć siedem osiem dziewięć dziesięć.

plus Spanish, French and English.

For some reason, I always space on "four" in Indonesian and "seven" in Latvian.

posted by mdonley 30 April | 17:14

Paging Languagehat.

posted by ooga_booga 30 April | 18:29

English
Spanish
French
Flemish (aka messed up Dutch)

posted by meeshell 30 April | 19:37

Four (English, French, German and Thai)... which sucks because it means I've forgotten how to do it in Turkish. Grrr. I suppose it also means I've forgotten Bahasa Indonesia, but I think I forgot that the moment I left my last class...

That said I can order two beers in about 10 languages, which is more important.

posted by pompomtom 30 April | 20:48

← Finally, a reality show I'd watch. || Happy birthday to pieisexactlythree!! →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN