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A comment on The Mystery of People Who Speak Dozens of Languages. Parent comment

Re:The Mystery of People Who Speak Dozens of Languages by davidgay on Thursday August 30, 2018 @02:43PM (#17879513)
Well for Martina Hingis that's not too surprising:

- Czech parents (and lived there till ~7) - moved to (German-part of) Switzerland: the local language is Swiss German, but school is in German (i.e., everyone speaks both of those) - everyone in Switzerland is taught one of the other official languages, usually German in the non-German speaking areas, and French in the German speaking areas (fluency will vary, but for instance I had 7 years of German by the end of high school) - everyone learns English these days ;)

I would expect that most children who moved to German-speaking Switzerland at a youngish age would be fluent in at least 4 languages...

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Re:The Mystery of People Who Speak Dozens of Languages by pjmlp on Thursday August 30, 2018 @03:13PM (#17879810)
Yet many end up speaking in English between themselves, because they don't bother to continue learning the other canton languages after the compulsory period.

It is ironic that I know better French than some Swiss German and Swiss Italian friends, and better German than some Swiss Romande friends.

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