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How many unrecognized polyglots are there | ||
Tags: Polyglot | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5955 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes  Studies: French | Message 17 of 28 16 July 2010 at 6:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
Awesome discussion - I would be very interested in knowing the answer to whether the majority of the world's population can speak more than one language (just another way to measure how poorly I as a unilingual may fall short of world standards!)
I wonder whether you may be underestimating the number of people who are bilingual but not French-English bilingual. I believe that the number of French-English bilingual folks is considerably lower than those who are bilingual in English + some language other than French. I just had a very quick look at the 2006 census data, and while 94,000 Canadians report speaking both English and French at home, more than 406,000 speak English plus a non-official language in the home (and almost 59,000 report speaking French plus a non-official language in the home). My guess, living currently in Vancouver and having previously lived in Toronto, is that the combined number of bilingual people (who speak English + some other language other than French) in these two cities alone would outnumber the French+English population in Canada. Edited by Spanky on 16 July 2010 at 6:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| johntm93 Senior Member United States Joined 5326 days ago 587 posts - 746 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 18 of 28 16 July 2010 at 7:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5333 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 19 of 28 16 July 2010 at 10:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I would say there are quite a lot of unrecognized polygots around, and as it was stated above here, it is not exactly something that gains you fame and recognition. You are more likely to be considered a nerd than anything else.
When my daughter was 6 I asked her what she thought I was particularly good at. She said: "You are good at growing roses, your are good at cooking, and you are good at yelling at daddy". The fact that I am fluent in English, French and Spanish and can speak German and Italian in addition to my native Norwegian and have dabbled in a couple of other languages was not worthy of any particular notice. My guess is that the super polyglots with 10 or 15 languages do not fare any better. :-) 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| djc463 Heptaglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5800 days ago 51 posts - 74 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, German, Italian Studies: Mandarin | Message 20 of 28 17 July 2010 at 3:48am | IP Logged | |||||
I disagree. The majority of the people who I met in person who learned 3 or more languages to fluency started their first foreign language between the ages of 10-18. Age doesn't matter, motivation comes from love of learning languages. In fact, a woman I know who did learn 4 languages as a child can't find any motivation to learn another because she thinks its impossible now. I think it depends on your personal desire. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6702 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 Personal Language Map | Message 21 of 28 17 July 2010 at 9:18am | IP Logged | |||||
Google Translate (and its collegues) certainly have a long way to go before you can use its output for anything serious, if you are thinking in terms of communications. But I was actually thinking in terms of producing bilingual texts, where you translate FROM your target language INTO something you know (and where you easily can spot the errors). I have incorporated the use of such bilinguals texts as a permanent part of my study methods, and I would certainly prefer a faulty, but fairly literal translation made by Google to an elegant, but 'free' translation made by a human - though of course a correct AND literal translation would be even better. When I look back at my first language learning period the internet wasn't invented, and I had to settle for language which were represented at the local library .. in writing (apart from occasional films in TV). There is simply no excuse now for not becoming a polyglot. Unless of course you believe that English and Google translate also will take over the world when it comes to communication. Edited by Iversen on 17 July 2010 at 9:20am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| aarontp Groupie United States Joined 5266 days ago 94 posts - 139 votes | Message 22 of 28 17 July 2010 at 10:14am | IP Logged | |||||
I think that is sort of what I said. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| djc463 Heptaglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5800 days ago 51 posts - 74 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, German, Italian Studies: Mandarin | Message 23 of 28 17 July 2010 at 4:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Most polyglots I know learn their languages all at an older age. I give an example of one person I know who learned
4 as a child, but here at the University I know 5 people that learned all their languages after the age of 12, vs 1 who learned them as a child and refuses to learn at an older age because, "she can't". Of course this is a small population sampling so its of no statistical value, but it stands to show that age makes no affect on whether or not one becomes a polyglot. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| aarontp Groupie United States Joined 5266 days ago 94 posts - 139 votes | Message 24 of 28 17 July 2010 at 9:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
I don't consider 18-22 to be an "older age." By older age, I'm thinking of people who have finished their schooling and have full-time jobs. I think it's rare for people to undertake serious intellectual challenges that are not related to their work-- present company excluded of course. It's like philosophy. If you visit any philosophy or intellectual forum, you can find people capable of writing lengthy and thoughtful essays on the philosopher Frederick Nietzsche. But try to find someone in the real world (not college) who reads Nietzsche. It won't be easy. As for people who don't attend college, which is most people, I think it's even less common that someone will learn a second language after their schooling ends. Edited by aarontp on 17 July 2010 at 9:13pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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