Fifteen or Fifty?

I'm not going to learn fifty languages. I may end up with 15 out of the languages I've studied and maybe six more on a basic to intermediate level. This is not something for world records, but it is possible for people with a real interest in languages.

Ziad Fazah, Prof Arguelles, Barry Farber, and Stuart Jay Raj claim to have studied many languages. Arguelles and Fazah claim 50 or so (that's studying, remember) and Farber and Raj probably have studied at least 25 or so. Farber is not a linguist, the rest of the men use their languages in some way to make a living. Farber occasionally interviews in other languages, I think and Farber talks and writes for a living.

What do you think? Would you rather survey 50 languages or learn a smaller number well? If you could only choose 20 languages what would they be? In this "fantasy" you have access to the best materials, an understanding family or friends, the best teachers, etc. If you want to learn a clicking language or one of the languages of Chiapas, put that down, or tell us what languages you are likely to learn. Let's be anon or Guest one, guest two, etc.

Languages for me:
English, German, Norwegian, Dutch
Spanish, French, Romanian, Italian, and Portuguese
Japanese, Korean
Mandarin
Russian, Serbo-Croatian
Modern Greek
Hebrew and Arabic
Vietnamese
Swahili.
Some Navajo
Some Latin
Some Ukrainian

Spanish
Hungarian
Italian
Portuguese
English
Russian
Ukrainian
German
Japanese
Swedish
Quechua
Guarani
Korean
Armenian
Swahili

Spanish, Italian, Portuguese
German, English
Russian, Serbian
Interlingua, Esperanto, Klingon
Japanese
Vietnamese
Burmese
Hindi
Pashtu

Egyptian
American
Saudi Arabian
Guatemalan
Argentinian
Spanish
French
Austrian
Peruvian
Kosovan
British
Scotlandish
Irish
Canadian
Mexican
New Zealandish
Australian
Mozambiquesh
Indian
Pakistani
Californian

Dialects, i mean.

That means two types of Arabic, right? Are you an actor? Will you learn the languages or only imitate their ways of speaking in English?

I will learn their way of speaking English, that is. I am a fraudster and I need to know for my false identities.

Fraudster, actor. It's kind of the same thing, right? It seems that I use another word in English for "fraudster", ah yes, a "con artist"...

So far, it seems that Japanese, Russian, English, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish are on everyone's list. Interesting choices.

Why French isn't in that lists? French is very important and prestigious.

I'm the original poster and it's on my list. I did notice that it was absent from the other lists. Oh, and German was on all the lists as well. This is only a small sample. I'm curious about the languages that other people like beyond the ones we talk about everyday at antimoon.

Maybe it's the phonology. You really do have to speak French well to be accepted. Spanish speakers may think that Gringos sound awful, but they usually put up with bad Spanish. Russians and Ukrainians love to hear even a few words in their languages it seems. I am not making this up. I think they almost cry when I speak a little Russian to them. I hope it's nostalgia and not that I've said something hilarious.

I didn't include French in my list because I was forced to learn it at school and hold ill feelings toward it because all my teachers were pretentious and fatuous.

I heard that the Parisien look at you with disdain and nearly spit at you if you don't speak flawless French to them. Is it true?

Not, it's not true. I lived in France and no one ever spit on me.

Yes it's true, that's why I decided it's better not to speak French at all with them, and spit back in their faces. If they won't treat my efforts with respect I won't treat their country with respect.

well done.