## [Being able to speak 4 languages: It’s great … but not always](/en/blogue-blog/being-able-to-speak-4-languages) Posted on August 4, 2025 Written by [Sabrina Désir (About the author)](/en/blogue-blog/being-able-to-speak-4-languages#auteur-author) ![](/sites/default/files/blog_vivre-en-4-langues_376x250.png) I was born in Mexico. That’s where I spent the first years of my life and where I learned to say my first words. So I speak Spanish fluently, but I went to French school, starting in elementary. My mother, who is from Haiti, often speaks Creole with family and friends and listens to Caribbean music. That’s how I ended up inadvertently learning the choruses of many Creole songs from a very young age. For the past few years, I’ve been attending French secondary school in Quebec. But in the schoolyard, strangely enough, English is the language that reigns supreme. So I started speaking more in English with my school friends. In short, I navigate between four languages. “That’s great,” you might say. Yes, it is, but … ## Moments of anxiety followed by great victories The first few weeks at the French school where I started elementary were really difficult for the little six-year-old Spanish-speaking girl that I was. The teacher demanded that I speak only in French, and I’d have small but very real anxiety attacks when I had to ask permission to go to the bathroom. I must say that I used to cry a lot. And my mother’s “don’t worry, you’ll understand soon” didn’t comfort me. But by the end of the term, I had made spectacular progress, or so I was told. Four years later, when I arrived in Ottawa, I no longer had any problems with French. But even though I went to a French school, the accents were different. I was also overwhelmed by all the English conversations going on around me. Fortunately, I was once again surprised to find that I could understand everything after a few months. ## The advantages “You speak four languages? Whoa! That’s great!” These are some of the comments I often hear when people realize that I can switch from one language to another. And it’s true—it is cool. It’s also true that I have certain advantages over young people who can speak only one language. Whether I’m in Mexico, Haiti, Quebec or English-speaking Canada, I’m not worried about the language barrier. Being able to speak these languages also gives me access to a wider repertoire of music and film. I understand song lyrics I listen to, which allows me to appreciate them more. If I’m looking for a movie or series to watch, it doesn’t matter whether it’s available in English, French or Spanish. ## The disadvantages Sometimes, I lose my ability to navigate between all these languages. I literally lose my bearings and transpose words or phrases from one language into another. In French, for example, I sometimes call an intersection an *esquine* (*esquina* in Spanish) or a traffic circle a *rotonde* (*rotonda* in Spanish). I can’t remember how many times my mother has corrected me, but instead of saying *au début*, I still say *au principe* (*al principio* in Spanish), and instead of saying *lettre*, I still say *carte* (*carta* in Spanish). At least I don’t *salir* the garbage anymore (in Spanish, the verb *salir* means “to take out,” but in French, it means “to dirty”!). In English, I can also throw in some weird words that make my friends raise their eyebrows. For example, for the verb **to remind**, I might use **to record**, because in Spanish you say *recordar*. I’ve also embarrassed myself by using the adjective **embarrassed** when referring to a pregnant woman. In Spanish, **pregnant** is translated as *embarazada*. ## The limitations Don’t go thinking that I’m equally fluent in all these languages. Spanish is and will always be my first language. I think in Spanish. I dream in Spanish. Sometimes, I unintentionally create an awkward situation in the middle of a conversation when I start speaking Spanish with English or French speakers. It’s a knee-jerk reaction, and I can’t control the words coming out of my mouth. If I’m in a group with only one Spanish-speaking person, I automatically start speaking in Spanish, without taking into account the people who don’t understand Spanish. Here in Quebec, I often get scolded. It’s impolite, I know, but I don’t do it on purpose. I just can’t help it. As for Creole, it’s the language I’m least fluent in. The sentences I manage to say are short and awkward. But my pronunciation is pretty solid, and my comprehension is good. I understand almost everything—when only one person is speaking. But when it comes to lively discussions where everyone is talking at the same time, I might not understand anything at all. Honestly, I wouldn’t say that I speak Creole, but I have a good enough foundation to get by in a Creole-speaking environment. ## Multilingualism is an asset! Having heard it so often, I now know that growing up in a multilingual environment is a huge asset. I haven’t decided what career I want to pursue yet, but I’m drawn to communications. And I realize that I already have an advantage if I decide to pursue a career in the language industry. ## Disclaimer The opinions expressed in posts and comments published on the Our Languages blog are solely those of the authors and commenters and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Language Portal of Canada. - [Leave a comment](#article-comments) - [Read the comments (1) ](#comments) ## Get to know Sabrina Désir ![](/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/user_sabrina-desir.png?itok=CM_J-Ry0) ### Sabrina Désir Sabrina is a teen who loves music and Japanese anime. She also likes to draw and work with her hands. Sabrina plans to study communications at university and to continue learning new languages—she’s already quadrilingual, but she’d like to add Japanese to the list of languages she speaks. ## More posts by Sabrina Désir There are no more English posts by Sabrina Désir. ## Search by related themes Looking for more blog posts on the same themes? Click on the links below to see all the posts on the Our Languages blog that relate to the theme you selected. 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Read comments Submitted by Ann-Marie Friesen on August 8, 2025, at 11:48 i agree that knowing many languages has it's ups and downs - being born in canada to parents who knew 3-4 languages had an interesting home dynamic - my parents grew up in british ruled hong kong with ties to portugese ruled macau so they had english, cantonese, portugese and the lesser known macanese in their head - ensuring their children fit in we were only taught english but grew up around cantonese, portugese and macanese phrases in an informal way - we did attend a cantonese class in chinese town once but didn't like it so stayed with english and school french technology has allowed the learning of a language to be more accessible and even gamified in various apps - it's never to late to start and it's always good to know some basics which you can build on at your own pace as you see fit - [Reply](/en/comment/reply/node/102850/comment/7978) ## Related links - [Our Languages blog archives](/en/blogue-blog-archives) - [Write a post for the Our Languages blog](/en/blogue-blog/contribute-contribuer) - [Editorial policy for the Our Languages blog](/en/blogue-blog/politique-policy-eng) - [The Golden Quill: An initiative of the Our Languages blog](/en/blogue-blog/plume-dor-golden-quill-eng) - [Our Languages blog](/en/blogue-blog-index) (home page) - [Contact the Language Portal of Canada](/en/apropos-about-eng#a8) - 841 views Language English