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Certified polyglots

 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots Post Reply
21 messages over 3 pages: 1 2
Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6600 days ago

9753 posts - 15779 votes 
4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 17 of 21
14 April 2014 at 6:34pm | IP Logged 
jpmtl wrote:
unless you spend all of your time awake studying languages. It's one thing to be a polyglot,

That's exactly how people become polyglots. Most of them have jobs and/or interests that allow them to live a large part of their lives in L2. Some common ones are literature/translating/teaching/travelling.

In an ideal world passing a B2 exam shouldn't even require any special preparation if you're already at this level as described through the guidelines.
5 persons have voted this message useful



vb
Octoglot
Senior Member
Afghanistan
Joined 6425 days ago

112 posts - 135 votes 
Speaks: English, Romanian, French, Polish, Dutch, German, Italian, Spanish
Studies: Russian, Swedish

 
 Message 18 of 21
03 May 2014 at 9:03pm | IP Logged 
One should be required to pass formal C1-level tests in every one of one's languages _within the same year_ in order to claim any record for polyglottism.

Perhaps Brits may wish to take concurrent A-level exams, passing at A or above.

Edited by vb on 03 May 2014 at 9:06pm

2 persons have voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6600 days ago

9753 posts - 15779 votes 
4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 19 of 21
03 May 2014 at 9:42pm | IP Logged 
A-level is definitely not C1 though. And a vast majority of C1 exams don't expire.
Just scratching the surface here...

Edited by Serpent on 03 May 2014 at 9:44pm

2 persons have voted this message useful



vb
Octoglot
Senior Member
Afghanistan
Joined 6425 days ago

112 posts - 135 votes 
Speaks: English, Romanian, French, Polish, Dutch, German, Italian, Spanish
Studies: Russian, Swedish

 
 Message 20 of 21
03 May 2014 at 10:26pm | IP Logged 
Serpent wrote:
A-level is definitely not C1 though. And a vast majority of C1 exams don't expire.
Just scratching the surface here...


A paper qualification may not expire but one's skills do (or, at least, they are depleted), hence for the purposes of record-setting - and being entitled truthfully to claim that one is concurrently fluent in a large number of languages - there should be a recency requirement.
2 persons have voted this message useful





Iversen
Super Polyglot
Moderator
Denmark
berejst.dk
Joined 6706 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
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 Message 21 of 21
04 May 2014 at 4:02pm | IP Logged 
I don't claim any records for polyglottism, and that's lucky because I don't see any reason to boost the commerce of the certificate producing industry. If polyglottism was a sport where you could earn serious money then it would of course be relevant to set some formal standards, but for me at least it is just a hobby.

As for the recency requirement I support it, and when I indicate the languages I speak to the left it is equal to measuring my languages on my weakest skill here and now (which always will be speaking). I would be ready to start a monolingual holiday in any of these languages as soon as I could get my passport, and I could help a lost tourist right now if necessary, and for me that means that the recency requirement is duly met. But I might have to stay a day or so in a suitable place to feel totally at ease in a certain number of these languages. For instance I wouldn't claim that I could do for instance a test at the C1 level in Romanian right now - maybe B2 - but remember: this is my weakest skill. Passive skills don't get rusty nearly as fast as active skills, and reading Romanian is much easier than speaking it.

Somebody (maybe it was the Russian Spivak in his book about polyglots, maybe Kato Lomb) once defined the 'rule of seven', which roughly says that even hyperpolyglots only can have seven languages which always are fully functional - the rest must be refreshed before use. But that rule can only be taken seriously for active skills, and if you use for instance ten languages on a daily basis I can't see why they should get rusty. The problem is that it is hard to put yourself into a situation where that is realistic, and then you may have to accept a certain amount of rust. But not to the extent that a language becomes inoperative.

Edited by Iversen on 04 May 2014 at 4:32pm



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