Now you know why I use the word "yo" so often.

There are five dialects of Thai:

- gutter thai (what you speak on the street)

- familiar thai (what you speak amongst friends)

- conversational thai (what you speak amongst equals)

- royal thai (what you speak when discussing official government business)

- Holy thai (what the Monks speak to each other)

English officially has one register. Much like English has only one gender, it provides for a lot of confusion and presents a real challenge to mastery. My daughter is currently in a daycare that uses a lot of spanish - and as a consequence, she has a smaller English vocabulary than a lot of her peers. She's also more likely to ask for more milk by saying "Mas?"

I speak one language well and maybe two I can muddle through enough to embarrass myself. I think - and this is an educated guess - that a foreign vocabulary takes up the same space as a native vocabulary and that if you hold everything else equal, I'll know more words in my one language than you will in that same language for the simple fact that you have another language taking up space.