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Do you consider yourself a polyglot? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6595 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 9 of 89 22 November 2011 at 5:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5379 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 10 of 89 22 November 2011 at 6:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think being at ease around languages and being able to communicate in real life situations in more than 2 languages would suffice to qualify anyone as a polyglot. Self-proclaiming yourself as a polyglot may seem intimidating in front of all the great polyglots on this site, but it remains nonetheless a fairly simple word with an unassuming definition.
So yes, I'm a polyglot. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5343 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 12 of 89 22 November 2011 at 7:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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1. no
2. yes 3. to be as comfortable and proficient in my new languages as I am in Spanish or English. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7154 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 13 of 89 22 November 2011 at 8:02pm | IP Logged | ||
1) Not really (I know how to use several languages to varying degrees but I don't readily agree with my multilingual friends who refer to me as a "polyglot") 2) It's never been a goal. I've always thought of my studies as the way to make myself fluent in handful of languages. The appelation of "polyglot" is incidental. 3) If I can fulfill the conditions of someone at B2 in my target languages at least 90% of the time, then I won't disagree with someone who would label me as a "polyglot". It doesn't really matter to me which languages are known for one to be labelled "polyglot". Someone whose abilities match best with B2 or above in each of French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish is a "polyglot" as is someone with the same level of abilities but in English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil. HOWEVER, I do recognize that someone whose linguistic abilities involve languages of divergent groups very likely needed to put in more work than someone whose linguistic abilities involve closely related or even typologically similar languages, even after accounting for upbringing or familial background. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5965 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map | Message 14 of 89 22 November 2011 at 9:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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1. Do you consider yourself a polyglot?
No. For me, this is a rather serious designation. After learning about polyglottery here and elsewhere, and meeting so many accomplished polyglot members here, I can't place my own skills in that category at all, not now. I do actively study several languages, but my mind is only beginning to learn how to handle several of them. Until three years ago, after all, I had only one foreign language. Becoming a polyglot is a worthy goal, though. So ask me again in ten years or so and perhaps I'll have an answer that pleases me much more! 2. Are you planning to become one? I'd rather say working toward polyglottery than planning. I know very little right now of any other obligations I'll have in future years. Plans are useful and necessary, but they go awry, almost inevitably (not always a bad thing, but still . . . ) I can say that certainly I'll continue to learn languages - it is a genuine committment, very rewarding, and a normal part of life for me now. Thus, if I learn well - and I'm finding out more and more all the time about how to do this - becoming a polyglot would be the logical outcome of this work. 3. If you are, what are you planning to achieve before you can call yourself a polyglot? Proficiency in several languages. I'm not comfortable at this time applying an official level to what I can do Self-evaluation is unreliable for me, because I'm not an accurate self-critic. I tend to believe that, despite all the study, my knowledge so far is just very, very bad! Objective testing would be helpful at some point,and of course, feedback from native speakers. And I also know that with work, improvement comes. I can plan for that, at least. I'm reminded of a proverb I read and have always liked: All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6781 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 15 of 89 22 November 2011 at 9:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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No, because some of them tend to be rather pretentious and I have no need to be in some
elite club where we look down on non-members. On this forum I recall there used to be a poll to determine how many languages you had to know to qualify and like some kind of comical arms race they kept trying to raise the bar to keep the club exclusive. Factually I am, but I don't call myself that. Edited by numerodix on 22 November 2011 at 9:36pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5379 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 16 of 89 22 November 2011 at 9:32pm | IP Logged | ||
Are you not a human either? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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