Moses McCormick’s admirable achievement (Lessons in Polyglottery) Language Learning Forum

Moses McCormick’s admirable achievement
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Language Learning Forum : Lessons in Polyglottery

221 messages over 28 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 3 ... 27 28 Next >>

laoshu505000
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5815 days ago
121 posts - 232 votes

Speaks: English*

Message 17 of 221

23 December 2008 at 9:58am | IP Logged

Hello Professor,

Thanks for your reply. I'm glad to be here also. I felt flattered reading most of the comments despite there being a few negative ones. I've noticed a few envious posts about my journey on learning languages. I just wanted to say that I'm sorry those posters feel the way they feel. Although they've said some pretty negative things about me, I'm still welcoming them to become friends. I just want to keep the peace and make friends with other people who cherish languages the way I do.

Yea, in your last post, you were pretty accurate about the languages I study. There're more that aren't in your list, but that's fine. They will come up later.

My major is indeed Chinese at the Ohio State University;however, I didn't study the language there. I took one advanced Chinese class and that was pretty much it. It was a spontaneous speaking class which I found to be very interesting.I was able to take placement testings for receiving EM credit for the courses I didn't have to take hence, being pretty much done with my major. I started school at the age of 22 which makes me a senior in college.

I basically learn language out of passion. Many people have other reasons such as, working for the government or just learning due to their heritage, but I just do it as a hobby pretty much. I would like become a professor/teacher of language. I didn't think I would be able to teach what I learn, but I've been doing it a bit now and I guess I'm getting better and better.

Don't get it wrong, I am veeery interested in Spanish, German, Italian etc. It's just as of for now I'm stuck on less commonly taught languages. I will eventually learn Spanish and others, but right now I'm stuck and can't get away from the ones I'm studying right now. I've just received Syriac,Estonian and Lithuanian resources in the mail last week so those will be my next targets. It's kind of random when it comes to language study and practice for me. Just yesterday I read a post by Stu where he said that 'Well, it depends. Once I get stuck into one language I sleep, eat and drink the language''. I thought that was funny because that's how I am at times-especially when things are going very well in the language. Things just get very interesting the further you go and it's hard to stop.

Well, I look forward to participating in more threads here. Like I said before, all advice and criticisms are warmly welcomed. Thanks for viewing my videos everyone. Peace!

Moses McCormick

ProfArguelles wrote:

Welcome to our forum, Moses McCormick! I am very pleased that you accepted the invitation to join us here, and I can see already from the thoughtfully detailed letters you have written that your contributions should add greatly to the quality of our discussions about language learning.

As you quoted my initial letter about you in full without correcting anything, I assume I got most of the facts right, but I presume that I may speak on behalf of others and write in the plural that we are all very curious to know more about you.

Are you majoring in Chinese or is it just a part of your program of studies, which I surmise to be at the graduate level? Likewise, is your ultimate goal to be a language teacher?

You must know that your ability to lay in the foundations of a new and utterly different linguistic system very rapidly, not just on the theoretical descriptive level, but on the active internalized level, is very rare. I assume that this is mainly due to the fact that you are going with great passion at something for which you feel a natural affinity, but perhaps your method and techniques of study facilitate this as well. Is this ability something that you believe you could teach to others?

As for yourself, is the list of languages that I drew up inclusive of all that you have studied? In any case, it is striking for its focus upon languages that are rarely studied. Do the more commonly studied languages of Western Europe pose no appeal to you?

I hope I am needlessly stating the obvious when I point out that you need not confine yourself to this thread, but should feel free to contribute to other discussions as well or to start some of your own.

Alexander Arguelles

2 persons have voted this message useful

Juan M.
Senior Member
Colombia
Joined 5898 days ago
460 posts - 597 votes

Message 18 of 221

23 December 2008 at 1:09pm | IP Logged

laoshu505000 wrote:

Thanks for your reply. I'm glad to be here also. I felt flattered reading most of the comments despite there being a few negative ones. I've noticed a few envious posts about my journey on learning languages. I just wanted to say that I'm sorry those posters feel the way they feel. Although they've said some pretty negative things about me, I'm still welcoming them to become friends. I just want to keep the peace and make friends with other people who cherish languages the way I do.

I hope you didn't take in a negative way what I wrote, as it was meant as a compliment.

I'm simply amazed at the range of languages you have tackled. With great grief and sorrow, I just recently abandoned my hopes of learning Sanskrit -a language and culture I'm powerfully attracted to- because of the scarcity of audio materials as well as the difficulty and inconsistency of its writing system(s). I wish I had your ability to successfully approach languages with few or inadequate learning resources -such as Syriac!-, and that's what I meant in my previous post. I'm sorry if it caused any misunderstanding.

Anyway, goodbye and good luck!

Saludos.
1 person has voted this message useful

JonB
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 6264 days ago
209 posts - 220 votes

Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Italian, Dutch, Greek

Message 19 of 221

23 December 2008 at 4:33pm | IP Logged

Mr McCormick,

I would just like to echo what JuanM has written in his last post: I really hope that you have not taken anything that I wrote in my earlier posts as being a criticism of you personally?
It's true that I made some negative comments about 'youtube polyglots'. However, I was certainly NOT referring to you!

Anyway, please accept my very best wishes for learning Syriac, Estonian and Lithuanian :-)

And I would also like to wish you a very happy Christmas!

--Jon Burgess
1 person has voted this message useful

laoshu505000
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5815 days ago
121 posts - 232 votes

Speaks: English*

Message 20 of 221

23 December 2008 at 11:38pm | IP Logged

Don't worry about it. Merry Christmas to all of you.
1 person has voted this message useful

aliebe
Diglot
Pro Member
United States
Joined 5834 days ago
59 posts - 63 votes

Speaks: English*, German
Studies: French, Spanish
Personal Language Map

Message 21 of 221

24 December 2008 at 1:39am | IP Logged

If it is not intrusive to ask, how much time do you invest in language learning? I am glad that you are on the forum, it is very interesting to read about your learning methods.
Thanks!
1 person has voted this message useful

solidsnake
Diglot
Senior Member
China
Joined 7040 days ago
469 posts - 488 votes

Speaks: English*, Mandarin

Message 22 of 221

24 December 2008 at 11:50am | IP Logged

Moses,

You are quite an amazing individual. Very rare is it that one actually does all the things one dreams of doing. Good luck in all your endeavors.

Jesse
1 person has voted this message useful

laoshu505000
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5815 days ago
121 posts - 232 votes

Speaks: English*

Message 23 of 221

24 December 2008 at 12:38pm | IP Logged

Hello there,

Usually when I start on a new language, the time varies depending on how busy I am with other things. For example, I went on break for school 3 weeks ago and I was able to put an enormous amount of time in studying Hmong and now I'm very conversant in that language. What I've been doing over the weeks is getting up about 9AM to start studying Hmong until like midnight. Sometimes I stop a bit earlier than that.If I'm busy with other things, I normally try and study the language for at least 2-3 hours. On top of that, when I start learning a language, I set goals. I tell myself that I would like to reach a fluent level by the end of 1 month. If I keep going at the pace for 3 months, I will have attained high intermediate-low advanced level. So after a six month period of studying the language hard, one should be able to reach the advanced level. Of course one will have to work hard and stay dedicated. I believe even if one is busy, this is still possible to accomplish.

aliebe wrote:

If it is not intrusive to ask, how much time do you invest in language learning? I am glad that you are on the forum, it is very interesting to read about your learning methods.
Thanks!

3 persons have voted this message useful

laoshu505000
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5815 days ago
121 posts - 232 votes

Speaks: English*

Message 24 of 221

24 December 2008 at 12:50pm | IP Logged

Hey friend,

Well, to be honest, I haven't really studied literature that much;however, I've studied classical Chinese ad I found that to be very interesting. I have a wide range of material here on some classical Chinese as well.I would recommend first getting used to modern Chinese before starting on a classical language.I feel that way for any language actually.

Yea, it's veeery difficult to learn a language without resources. I'm having that problem with Wolof. I have only a small dictionary for the Wolof language and I have been searching for new materials everyday with no success.The Wolof I learned was from people who I'd encountered years back when I worked at a gas station. I would just as them how to say some things, then I started getting a bit conversant after talking with them for a while. Anyway, I have a lot to learn in that language. Once I find some good resources, I'm looking to improve my level hastily in a short period of time. I think you should continue with Sanskrit since you have that much passion for the culture and stuff. I wouldn't be able to help you with that because I have no knowledge about that language besides a few things related to Tibetan and Hindi. If I come across anything pertaining to Sanskrit, I will let you know for sure. I think you should also try and find a community somewhere online where there are people who are just as interested in that language like you are.

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/sanskrit.htm

JuanM wrote:

Mr. McCormick,

I'd please like to ask you two questions. First, you have discussed the role of conversation, but how do you approach the great literature of each language? Have you studied any classical languages with few or no living speakers? What would be your recommendation in each case?

Second, and perhaps related to the above, how do you work on languages with poor, scarce or inadequate self-teaching resources?

Finally, just let me congratulate you on your achievements. A lot of people here (including myself :-) ) envy you.

Thank you in advance!

2 persons have voted this message useful

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