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Tim from the US (PolyglotPal) on YouTube | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| Journeyer Triglot Senior Member United States tristan85.blogspot.c Joined 6867 days ago 946 posts - 1110 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, German Studies: Sign Language | Message 89 of 204 13 April 2012 at 6:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
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That's why I don't set a number limit. :-P
2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Rob_Austria Heptaglot Groupie Austria Joined 5001 days ago 84 posts - 293 votes Speaks: German*, Italian, Spanish, French, English, Portuguese, Japanese Studies: Croatian, Mandarin, Russian, Arabic (Written), Turkish | Message 90 of 204 15 April 2012 at 1:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
Your comment makes a lot of sense and actually coincides with what Luca wrote himself in the comments section of the video (I think he wrote that comment in Spanish, but don't remember right now). Luca made it also quite clear in his comment that he very much appreciates what Tim does. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Rob_Austria Heptaglot Groupie Austria Joined 5001 days ago 84 posts - 293 votes Speaks: German*, Italian, Spanish, French, English, Portuguese, Japanese Studies: Croatian, Mandarin, Russian, Arabic (Written), Turkish | Message 91 of 204 15 April 2012 at 1:19pm | IP Logged | |||||
Fair enough, but not everybody is as strict as you are. I have talked to people in German who probably had somewhat of a solid A2 level and I had no problem whatsoever communicating with them. Since I did not speak a word of their native tongue and they still managed to converse with me in German, I'd certainly say they were able to "speak" German. Well, if some "haters" don't appreciate his claim, I guess that is basically their problem. What makes them think their definition of "speaking" is the correct one? I have not found anything in the definitions used in the European Framework that would only remotely suggest that you start "speaking" a language only as from level B1 upwards. Edited by Rob_Austria on 15 April 2012 at 1:20pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| portunhol Triglot Senior Member United States thelinguistblogger.w Joined 6251 days ago 198 posts - 299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: German, Arabic (classical) | Message 92 of 204 15 April 2012 at 4:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
I agree 100%. Tim has found a groove, a system that works for him. I hope he continues and I wish him the best of luck! 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6918 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes Speaks: English* | Message 93 of 204 15 April 2012 at 4:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
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All of the YouTube videos are about learning languages. How about some videos with two people discussing topics other than how they learn languages. "Global Warming: Is it Real?", "How has the financial crisis affected your country?", "Describe the last book you read/movie you saw and why you liked it". I could easily do this in all five of my languages. I don't care about grammatical mistakes or a non-native accent. I'm looking for the ability to really think, express yourself and use the language for purposes other than introductory chit chat of the "How did you learn Chinese?, "Arabic is hard.", "Where is the Bahnhof?", I can speak 29 languages" parrot language variety.
If your goal is to just be able to exchange brief pleasantries with people in 50 languages, that's fine, but then don't pretend that that makes you in any way a language expert. Edited by translator2 on 15 April 2012 at 6:03pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Rob_Austria Heptaglot Groupie Austria Joined 5001 days ago 84 posts - 293 votes Speaks: German*, Italian, Spanish, French, English, Portuguese, Japanese Studies: Croatian, Mandarin, Russian, Arabic (Written), Turkish | Message 94 of 204 15 April 2012 at 6:48pm | IP Logged | |||||
Since this thread is about Tim, can you please tell me where exactly he ever said to be a language expert? I have watched all his videos, I have read his comments on other youtube sites, I have read news articles, watched the TV programs in which he appeared and listened to his radio interviews. It is one thing to criticize what he says and/or does but it is really sad that he keeps getting blamed for things he simply has NEVER EVER said. I do agree though that people sometimes say they speak a language after having learnt a very limited number of set phrases. Technically, they may speak the language but as for their communicative skills I don't think they would be able to hold a discussion. I just don't think Tim is one of them. And as I have said here and on other forums, I don't think ANYBODY can speak more than 10 languages at a C2 level all the time. I just wonder why people like Prof. Arguelles don't get the same amount of harsh criticism for their claims. Don't get me wrong, I know he is an accomplished scholar and he makes very interesting videos. Besides, he seems to be an extremely friendly and polite person. But so far I have seen only vids in English, with the exception of one short clip in Dutch. So, if all the criteria you and other people here base their judgment on when it comes to Tim are valid, what are your thoughts then about people like Prof. Arguelles? Or is it his academic title in linguistics (which by the way says nothing about a person's abilitiy to actually converse in any foreign language) that lets you shy away from criticizing him? As for your suggestion with regard to the youtube videos, I find your idea very interesting. I would love to talk to you about any of the topics you mentioned in either German, English, Italian, French or Spanish (these seem to be the languages we both "speak" as opposed to the languages we still learn). Let's make a start :-) Edited by Rob_Austria on 15 April 2012 at 7:02pm 10 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6918 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes Speaks: English* | Message 95 of 204 15 April 2012 at 7:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
First of all, I think we can learn a lot through discussion and debate without which this board would not be quite so entertaining or informative. I find some of Tim's comments to be extremely arrogant, misleading and, with a high-degree of certainty, utterly false (example: can read Arabic and Russian newspapers after studying each language for only 4 weeks). Really?? ἀλήθεια? The difference between him and someone like "The Professor" (and Mary Ann... here on...) is that the Professor is not claiming to have learned things overnight, in two weeks, or in four months. He has spent years working on languages and this makes his claims more plausible (he has also written several books). He may say to the world and the media: "Hey, I know or I can speak xx languages" (and that may or may not be true by any given person's definition), but he does NOT say "I can speak xx languages and I did it in one day!". If you want to get into specifics, Moses/Laoshu, Steve Kaufmann, Luca, Richard Simcott and the many others are not saying that they learned 23 languages in two years time. If you notice, the people I take issue with (Cesar, Ziad, etc.) all have this in common and I have either praised or said nothing about any of the others. Again, we are not talking about people claiming to speak numerous languages. We are talking about people claiming to speak numerous languages AND having done so in an impossible period of time and then presenting themselves on-line and in the media perpetuating the myth that language-learning is easy or something you can do in your sleep, at lightning speed, in no time, in a flash, in ten seconds, or any one of the various adjectives used by publishers of language courses designed for the unwashed masses. Edited by translator2 on 15 April 2012 at 10:09pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| tmp011007 Diglot Senior Member Congo Joined 6068 days ago 199 posts - 346 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese | Message 96 of 204 15 April 2012 at 10:09pm | IP Logged | |||||
wait, wasn't he a philologist?
awesome!! it would be nice to see that (SUBSCRIBED!!!) 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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