I think that these surveys typically have some degree of ambiguity to them. Some people that have learned a few basic phrases say that they can "speak the language".

Maybe a better quantifier would be to ask for the case of Japanese, for example, "Have you passed JLPT level 1". Not everyone that's good at Japanese has taken it, but at least it's a quantifiable measure of ability.

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be immersed

Stop bringing up that awful level 1 test!

Sorry, bad memories...

Ok, the first couple of times someone said this sort of thing, there were genuine ambiguities about how I'd phrased the question. now you're just trying to pick on me. I'm gonna dig in my heels.

Most of us who aren't native speakers don't speak the languages unless they've studied them. Therefore, I can be impressed by how many on the boards have studied those languages. I could even be more impressed how many achieved some proficiency. But the first statement was just fine, thank you.

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Occupy Babel!