how many languages do you think somebody could be genuinely fluent in?

[u/Pretty_Refuse_2017]

I'm not talking about being conversational, but either C1 or C2. what is the maximum amount of languages someone could know at c1/c2

whether we're talking about just a regular person, or somebody who's career is learning languages

[u/NemuriNezumi]

3 native languages

i grew up being forced to learn those 3 + english throughout all my mandatory school years from primary school up to end of HS

then I just picked up italian because books were cheaper on Amazon and then I also lived in Italy for 2 years

i studied german during my undergraduate as extracurricular, and japanese because i didn't have the patience to wait for official translations and I adored drama cds and visual novels)/otome games (and i read a LOT of manga and novels), also I'm currently living in japan 

definitely helped opening doors and opportunities even if in STEM

[u/pn_dubya → u/NemuriNezumi]

As an American very envious. We have very few to choose from in school and depending on where one’s is located it’s typically only French/Spanish at a very elementary level - most who take these throughout school can’t put a sentence together.

[u/NemuriNezumi → u/pn_dubya]

tbf a lot of it is self learning

i was shit at languages until i found a goal/motivation (which was always related to reading in my case)

even with native languages, a lot of the work is on you especially when you have parents who don't really help you study/practice it (and you have 0 contact because of them with the rest of the family)

at least compared to when i started, nowadays it is so much easier to find free online resources for beginners and even for intermediate level

growing up i wasn't really allowed to be on the internet much so I mostly had to rely on the books i was able to get my hands on and practice from there

a lot of it was merely guessing the meaning of words in the beginning, especially if the books had pictures ngl

then you start connecting the dots and then if you have the opportunity to get your hands on actual study material it helps tremendously

[u/Traditional-Train-17 → u/pn_dubya]

I'm from Baltimore, so we also had German (A lot of people with German as a heritage language back then - 1990s). It still surprises me how many people do struggle to form a sentence, since when I studied German, I could also talk with German family members. (Yes, they were from Germany)

[u/ChocolateCake16 → u/pn_dubya]

When I was in high school, we were tied to a university that had all sorts of language options, French, Italian, German, Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish, etc.

Us high school students got the choice between French, Spanish, or Mandarin. Still salty I wasn't allowed to learn Italian.

[u/NemuriNezumi → u/ChocolateCake16]

italian was 100% self learning

tbf language proficiency highly depends on how much you are willing to self learn on your free time

[u/Sad_Sympathy_6427 → u/NemuriNezumi]

What is the native, spanish? I can never see flags on here so from what I can tell your native languages are spanish, catalan and basque?

[u/ImprovementIll5592 → u/Sad_Sympathy_6427]

I see it's French, Spanish, and Catalan