> I find it interesting that people who speak several languages often carry on conversations in two or three languages all at the same time. As an example, my daughter, who speaks mainly English, but can also struggle along in Spanish and understands a little French, was on a cruise with her husband who is fluent in English and Spanish. They met a couple from Brazil, and as often happens on cruise ships, they quickly became friends. I asked her what language they used in conversation she said that she was speaking English, her husband Spanish and the Brazilians were using mostly Portuguese. She said it was no problem.

The same happened to me when I visited Norway. I speak Swedish fluently, but do not speak any Norwegian. Fortunately, Swedish and Norwegian are so similar that I could speak Swedish in Norway and the people could speak Norwegian back to me.