AML Senior Member United States Joined 6831 days ago 323 posts - 426 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Modern Hebrew, German, Spanish
| Message 145 of 377 13 June 2006 at 12:31am | IP Logged |
No offense intended, but I find it to be very strange that neither Ziad nor
Dave M can type very well. And I don't want to hear excuses ("I'm not a
good typer.")
I would like to be able to look past this, but your message is getting lost
in the grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors. Having Ziad as an
English teacher would be like having a basketball teacher that can't make
a lay-up (I realize he doesn't teach you English, Dave - this is just an
example).
I understand that English is not Ziad's first language. Fine. But why
would anyone want to learn English from him? The fact that he can speak
57 other languages doesn't make up for the fact that someone learning
English from him would probably be better off learning from a native
speaker, or a brazilian English professor who doesn't sound like he's
using a computer translating program.
I'm honestly more impressed by a person who can learn three languages
to perfection instead of 10, 20, or 58 languages to suspect ability. That's
not to say 58 languages to suspect ability isn't impressive - just not as
impressive as perfection. Has it ever occurred to anyone that maybe
there's a good reason Ziad isn't well known? Has it occurred to anyone
that maybe Ziad speaks almost all of his other languages much stranger,
or worse, than he speaks English?
None of this is meant to take anything away from the fact that Ziad is a
good person. But at the same time, Ziad's bizarre English really makes
me question his abilities, despite Dave M's heavily-biased positive
remarks about him.
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winters Trilingual Heptaglot Senior Member Italy Joined 7050 days ago 199 posts - 218 votes Speaks: Croatian*, Serbian*, Russian*, English, Italian, Latin, Ancient Greek Studies: Greek, French, Hungarian
| Message 146 of 377 13 June 2006 at 6:49am | IP Logged |
AML wrote:
I'm honestly more impressed by a person who can learn three languages
to perfection instead of 10, 20, or 58 languages to suspect ability. |
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I tend to agree with this...
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Dave M Groupie United States bfmfightwear.com Joined 6932 days ago 56 posts - 63 votes
| Message 147 of 377 13 June 2006 at 9:08am | IP Logged |
You don't think I type very well????????
I'm an english and creative writing major from NY with lazy spelling at worst on the internet.
Ziad isn't well-known, and I will repeat this until the majority of you understand taking into account that most of you won't, is that he lives in a third world country with limited resources and no ability to advertise himself.
His english is formal and at times a touch strange in his use of thus and therefore but with a range of vocabulary and understanding of the intricacies of the language that is hard to comprehend without speaking to him personally.
I have also stated thta he is a better teacher of english than 90% of the Brazilians here because of him beaing a non-native and understanding the methodical progression of the language.
I also spelled out that some languages he speaks perfectly and some he speaks fluently but not quite as well as others. You,frankly, sound jealous.
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translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6925 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 148 of 377 13 June 2006 at 11:09am | IP Logged |
Link 1
Link 2
Link 3
Link 4 (Portuguese)
Link 5
Edited by translator2 on 13 June 2006 at 12:51pm
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lady_skywalker Triglot Senior Member Netherlands aspiringpolyglotblog Joined 6896 days ago 909 posts - 942 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, French, Dutch, Italian
| Message 149 of 377 13 June 2006 at 11:27am | IP Logged |
Are we sure that the 'Ziad Fazah' in the first two links is the same man as the polyglot?
Also, I've noticed that despite being so renowned, there are actually very few articles about him. I found a couple this afternoon but the majority of the hits on Google were carbon copies of the Wikipedia article (in English and a few other languages).
Why have so few people written about Ziad Fazah? I'm not necessarily doubting his existence but I'm surprised that so few people have written a substantial article about him. Unlike other modern-day polyglots, he's refrained from creating his own website and offering his words of wisdom. There are people who speak a handful of foreign languages and yet have offered more easily accessible advice on the Internet than he has. Maybe he likes his privacy...if it was me, I would probably enjoy drawing a bit of attention to myself after all that hard work. ^_^
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Journeyer Triglot Senior Member United States tristan85.blogspot.c Joined 6874 days ago 946 posts - 1110 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German Studies: Sign Language
| Message 150 of 377 13 June 2006 at 11:30am | IP Logged |
lady_skywalker wrote:
Unlike other modern-day polyglots, he's refrained from creating his own website and offering his words of wisdom. There are people who speak a handful of foreign languages and yet have offered more easily accessible advice on the Internet than he has. Maybe he likes his privacy...if it was me, I would probably enjoy drawing a bit of attention to myself after all that hard work. ^_^ |
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Actually he mentioned to me the other day on Skype that he is planning on changing this in the nearish future, to help him gather more publicity and hopefully more students.
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lady_skywalker Triglot Senior Member Netherlands aspiringpolyglotblog Joined 6896 days ago 909 posts - 942 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, French, Dutch, Italian
| Message 151 of 377 13 June 2006 at 11:38am | IP Logged |
Journeyer wrote:
lady_skywalker wrote:
Unlike other modern-day polyglots, he's refrained from creating his own website and offering his words of wisdom. There are people who speak a handful of foreign languages and yet have offered more easily accessible advice on the Internet than he has. Maybe he likes his privacy...if it was me, I would probably enjoy drawing a bit of attention to myself after all that hard work. ^_^ |
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Actually he mentioned to me the other day on Skype that he is planning on changing this in the nearish future, to help him gather more publicity and hopefully more students. |
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I hope so...I'm sure I'm not the only person here who could benefit from learning from him! Failing that, maybe a blog would be a good alternative? Keep us posted. :)
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AML Senior Member United States Joined 6831 days ago 323 posts - 426 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Modern Hebrew, German, Spanish
| Message 152 of 377 13 June 2006 at 11:50am | IP Logged |
lady_skywalker wrote:
Are we sure that the 'Ziad Fazah' in the first two
links is the same man as the polyglot? |
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yes. I have emailed with him, and his english is exactly the same.
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