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Tim from the US (PolyglotPal) on YouTube | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6918 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 121 of 204 11 May 2012 at 10:30pm | IP Logged | ||
Well, he did say in this video: NYTimes Video: Understanding Hyperpolyglots that he "learned" six languages over the summer. He probably meant "studied", but saying you "learned" something in English implies that you are finished learning.
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 Mae Trilingual Octoglot Pro Member Germany Joined 4990 days ago 299 posts - 499 votes Speaks: German*, SpanishC2*, Swiss-German*, FrenchC2, EnglishC2, ItalianB2, Dutch, Portuguese Studies: Russian, Swedish Personal Language Map | Message 122 of 204 12 May 2012 at 11:18am | IP Logged | ||
The positive thing is that many people are being inspired and encouraged to start their own studies. I have never read about serious polyglots like Tim and you speaking/writing about themselves as "super", because IMO you don't want to be idolized, but just inspire other people (which is fantastic). On the downside these kind of reports also discourage people from even trying to start learning a language, because they think the are not talented enough. Having the media reporting about people like Tim and you is good, the problem is that the media labels you as "super", "hyper" or geniuses (I understand that the media wants/needs to make well-selling reports). The average person then thinks "Oh, I am not that kind, I'll never make it! :-(" By the way, even in Argentina people speak about Tim :-) Las aventuras de un adolescente políglota en la Red Edited by Mae on 12 May 2012 at 2:05pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6702 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 123 of 204 13 May 2012 at 1:54am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't quite understand why people should react like that (though Mae may be right). After all the existence of top athletes, musicians and authors hasn't stopped people from being active at whatever level they can muster in those areas - actually they seem to become more active when they have some top names to inspire them. Personally I decided to return to language learning in 2006 after a long pause because it irritated me that people like ProfArguelles knew so many languages whereas I even had let some of my old ones slip away. And it still amuses me that there are people ahead of me - not because language learning should be construed as a competition, but because the videos and blogs of those ahead of me show me that there always is room for improvement
Btw. I learned one new word at the Argentine site you linked to - "piola"! Edited by Iversen on 13 May 2012 at 2:04am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5344 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 124 of 204 13 May 2012 at 2:26am | IP Logged | ||
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The animosity towards Tim strikes me as unwarranted. He seems to be a passionate and serious student who spends long hours with substantive books working on his languages and has already achieved a respectable amount. I don't see him claiming to be able to learn a language in a couple of weeks by making casual conversation or using ipad apps. His claim to be able to "speak" so many languages might be premature, but if he manages to maintain this level of study intensity no doubt he'll make good progress towards that goal.
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| Kakino Newbie Canada Joined 4701 days ago 7 posts - 16 votes Studies: English*, French, Japanese, German | Message 125 of 204 14 May 2012 at 5:06am | IP Logged | ||
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I used to wake up at 4:30 in the morning to study languages but decided to stop for while and learn only on
the weekends with a few words and some grammar study on the weekend. Unfortunately, I seem to have lost some writing skills in Japanese, and have not been studying German for 3 weeks--I haven't forgotten anything though...I think. I decided to learn French on my own after grade 9 (Canadian so I have to learn french till then) (I am now in grade 10 and I didn't do so well on the subject then). I now understand more things than they could explain in class and feel like I am advancing faster than before(after studying French for 10 years at school I can barely converse with my sister in the language). I became so attached to French that I started to throw a couple aside. In fact, I stopped learning Spanish to learn French. Why am I saying this? Well, u may want to ask how Tim is able to maintain all of his languages when focusing on a new one. How he keeps himself motivated and how he may be extremely tired after a 15 hours of studying. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Pisces Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4621 days ago 143 posts - 284 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish*, French, SwedishC1, Esperanto Studies: German, Spanish, Russian | Message 126 of 204 14 May 2012 at 10:06am | IP Logged | ||
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Personally I am very impressed by his being able to study for 15 hours a day. I wish I could do that, in any subject. He may count watching movies and the like as studying too, but it's still very impressive.
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| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6702 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 127 of 204 14 May 2012 at 10:32am | IP Logged | ||
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Saturday May 12 I also studied languages for at least 15 hours (from 9 morning to 4 in the night, minus meals, but including HTLAL time). A truly dedicated youngster like Tim can of course do the same thing once in a while (especially if someone brings him some food so that he doesn't have to stop his activities). The problem would be to find time for it often enough. And more importantly: avoid burn out symptoms. Edited by Iversen on 14 May 2012 at 10:34am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5333 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 128 of 204 14 May 2012 at 1:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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I can understand why some will find it offensive that someone claims to learn a language in a couple of weeks - but as so often in these discussions - it boils down to definitions of what it is to speak a language. I am probably at a A2 level in Russian, and depending on the circumstances, I can vary between not being able to say more than my name and that my Russian is really bad, until days where I get warmed up and can say quite a lot. I had several conversations in Ukraine at Easter where I not only spoke Russian, I even had to translate for my husband.
Does that mean I say that I can speak Russian? No, no way, because I would need to be at a B1 level before I felt I could say I speak it, and most of all I need to be able to speak it consistently, not just on a good day. But I did - in effect - speak Russian. Was it elegant? No. Was it correct? No. But I got my meaning through most of the time. I suspect that again, we are discussing apples and pears. Some feel that they are fluent when they get their meaning across. Some need to feel confident in the language first, and be able to discuss a wide range of subjects. The main point however is that we should be able to be happy for those who have an enthusiasm for languages, particularly when they are that young. Does it in any way diminish my acomplishments or affect my self esteem that someone else sets the bar slightly lower than I do for some of the languages they speak? Not at all. I think we all could have "spoken 15 languages" if we put our mind to it, and set the bar at A2. Do we want to? No, most of us do not bother to - but hey - my respect to those who do. As for Tim in particular I am in no position to judge him, but any kid who can speak 5-10 languages well and speak another 10 to some degree, will have my admiration. Let us applaud what he can do, and not judge him for wanting to learn more. Someone said that they did not understand why he was trying to learn all these languages, and I do not know if this is his reason for it, but I can see one very good reason for doing it. He is 16, so is my daughter. I am making her listen to French and Russian every day, because I know that she is at a critical age as to getting a good accent. He may be thinking the same thing, that it is easier for him to do it now than later. In any event I wish him good luck. I am of course insanely jealous that he can do all this at the age of 16, but I will not make that affect my good will:-) May he develop and prosper, and become a valuable part of the HTLAL community, and may his language studies bring him happiness and prosperity and inspire many others to learn languages! 7 persons have voted this message useful |
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