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Autistic Savants | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| Michael K. Senior Member United States Joined 5732 days ago 568 posts - 886 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Esperanto | Message 25 of 35 29 March 2012 at 6:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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Sorry, guys, I'm a sucker. I fell prey to the fallacy that if it's reported in the mainstream press, it's accurate.
I can understand why Tammet is a fraud. I've read the thread Splog started called "Languge Savants" , and I've borrowed Moonwalking with Einstein from the library to confirm Splog's reporting of the facts (plus it sounds like an interesting book). Tammet was trying to sell his book and other business ideas. I don't understand why there would be hyperbole about Taylor's ability, because it's not like he was doing it for self-promotion. Does anyone have any ideas why Taylor's story is so overblown? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6585 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 26 of 35 30 March 2012 at 7:14am | IP Logged | ||
Journalists will overblow any story they can get their hands on, something which is evident if you look at how science is reported in the general press. Scientist: It's possible these results, if confirmed by independent studies, might cause us to have to rethink some aspects of general relativity. Newspaper: EINSTEIN WAS WRONG, SCIENTIST SAYS Polyglot: I don't like the word "fluent", nor can I specify how many languages I "speak". I can converse freely and easily in half a dozen or so, make myself understood in another dozen and understand at least the gist of a text in perhaps thirty languages total. Newspaper: GENIUS FLUENT IN THIRTY LANGUAGES 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Michael K. Senior Member United States Joined 5732 days ago 568 posts - 886 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Esperanto | Message 27 of 35 30 March 2012 at 1:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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I get the point, but serious sources of news, like my linguistics textbook, reported Taylor knew several languages although he was retarded.
I can understand hyperbole from one source, but many sources? It's a bit troubling. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Journeyer Triglot Senior Member United States tristan85.blogspot.c Joined 6871 days ago 946 posts - 1110 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German Studies: Sign Language | Message 28 of 35 30 March 2012 at 1:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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From watching the video clip of Christopher Taylor, it seemed like the man studying him was doing nothing to refute claims of fluency in multiple languages, or at least claims of a deep level of knowledge.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6442 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 29 of 35 30 March 2012 at 6:24pm | IP Logged | ||
Sources tend to rely on each other. They're generally not all looking directly at the available evidence. It's quite common in the media for various outlets to rely to some degree on each other, getting further and further from any kind of accuracy in the process. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| dampingwire Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4668 days ago 1185 posts - 1513 votes Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Japanese | Message 30 of 35 31 March 2012 at 1:00am | IP Logged | ||
I remember the Horizon program from a few years ago where they sent him to Iceland for a week (iirc) and at the end of that he was interviewed on Icelandic TV. I've read some threads on various other fora that claim that all he's done is make use of standard memory techniques. If that's all he's used to learn (some level of functional) Icelandic in a week, then why are there so few people here who speak double digit numbers of languages? Or are there claims that he already knew at least some basic Icelandic? Just to be clear, I'm not bothered about what he or any one else claims he is. Just whether he picked up 9seemingly) quite a bit of a new language in a very short length of time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kman543210 Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4667 days ago 26 posts - 73 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, German | Message 31 of 35 31 March 2012 at 2:13am | IP Logged | ||
I saw that program where they showed him on Icelandic television as well, but I don't have an opinion on whether he is or isn't a savant. What I would like to know is what memory technique could he be using to get such seemingly good results? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Maecenas23 Triglot Newbie Ukraine Joined 4614 days ago 21 posts - 56 votes Speaks: Ukrainian*, Russian, English Studies: German | Message 32 of 35 10 August 2013 at 11:30am | IP Logged | ||
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Are there French speakers who can assess his French?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylTrm3x-DuY Edited by Maecenas23 on 10 August 2013 at 11:31am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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