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’Must have languages’ for polyglots? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| justinwilliams Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6631 days ago 321 posts - 327 votes  3 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Italian | Message 33 of 149 03 February 2007 at 3:13am | IP Logged |
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It's more of a wishlists but...
English German French Chinese Japanese Arabic Russian Spanish and I'd be quite happy with it! Why did I choose Italian anyways? :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7147 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 34 of 149 03 February 2007 at 5:40am | IP Logged |
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Ardaschir had some interesting thoughts on what languages an educated person "should know" depending on one's origin. Edited by luke on 03 February 2007 at 2:11pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| winters Trilingual Heptaglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6986 days ago 199 posts - 218 votes Speaks: Croatian*, Serbian*, Russian*, English, Italian, Latin, Ancient Greek Studies: Greek, French, Hungarian | Message 35 of 149 03 February 2007 at 9:20am | IP Logged |
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What do you mean by "true" polyglot?
I am ready to accept as a polyglot any person who can speak two languages apart from their native one(s) to a high degree of fluency, and the concept that some polyglots are "more true" than others is not something I can accept. If you can speak two foreign languages to a degree high enough that you could live in a foreign country where they are spoken natively and use them in professional/working atmosphere (or in your education for the younger amongst us), matters of private and practical life as well as in 'cultural' ones (e.g.being able to read literature in original), you are a "true" polyglot by my definition regardless of whether those languages are French, Hebrew, Slovak or some other ones. However, if we speak about scholarly knowledge of languages, something which exceeds matters of everyday life and is required mostly in academic circles, then I do believe that one should have received an education in (not necessarily the active knowledge of) classical languages of their civilisation (Latin and Greek for Western civilisation, for example) and the international languages (English and at least one more, for example French or German, depending on one's specific field of interest and research as well as the personal and professional benefits that come from knowing that language), but that is the only thing I can think of - I do not believe I could 'prescribe' a list of must-know languages to anyone, for such a matter is highly individiual, culture-bound and depending on personal interests. I believe that one's choice of languages has very little to do with "trueness" of them being a polyglot. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Zorndyke Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6900 days ago 374 posts - 382 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Czech | Message 36 of 149 03 February 2007 at 10:51am | IP Logged |
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I think there are no "must have" languages for polyglots. For me the question whether someone is a polyglot or not is defined by the number of languages and the degree of fluency in them only.
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| adoggie Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6475 days ago 160 posts - 159 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese* Studies: German, Russian, French | Message 37 of 149 03 February 2007 at 8:02pm | IP Logged |
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I guess the languages that are selected depend on the polyglot. Some want to communicate with people from around the world, others want to travel, and yet others simply want to learn the languages as pleasure. So the motivations behind each polyglot is most likely what drives them to select their languages of choice.
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| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6539 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 38 of 149 04 February 2007 at 9:40am | IP Logged |
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I agree that there are no "must have" languages for polyglots. Except maybe English, but it depends on other languages the person speaks.
This thread reminds me on a conversation with my grandma. A French song was playing on TV and she said: "I've always wanted you to study French, this is such a beautiful language"... It's not enough for her that I'm studying English, Finnish, German and Latin and going to study Portuguese, Hindi, Polish, Belarusian, Danish and Italian... 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| adoggie Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6475 days ago 160 posts - 159 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese* Studies: German, Russian, French | Message 39 of 149 04 February 2007 at 8:05pm | IP Logged |
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French is one of the most commonly learned languages in the world.
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| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6539 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 40 of 149 06 February 2007 at 7:12am | IP Logged |
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Was that to me? I certainly know it is and I have nothing against this language in fact, it's just that I don't feel like studying it. If someday I do learn the languages I want to learn, will it make me a less true polyglot that I don't speak French? at least in my opinion it won't.
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