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Do you consider yourself a polyglot? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 6123 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish | Message 33 of 89 22 November 2011 at 11:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
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>Cathrynm, if it isn't too personal, I'd love to hear what your reasons for choosing >Finnish and Japanese are. As I mentioned, they are both on my list, too. Japanese is a >long story, but basically I just find the language mysterious and fascinating. Finnish >as well, but even more so due to its exotic-ness. Yeah, it's personal, but not the kind of personal I don't mind writing about. I chose these languages because they are my ethnic heritage. My parents were born in the USA, but both of my mother's parents were Finnish, and both of my father's parents were Japanese. My father entered grammar school in the USA only knowing Japanese, so it's his first language, but he never spoke this with me, and he never went to school in Japan. My mother is similar with Finnish. I did spend a summer in Finland as a child and heard my grandmother speak Finnish quite a bit with my mother, though me and my brother didn't pick up much beyond profanities. For me, they aren't exotic, but rather nostalgic. Both languages remind me of people who have died, or of old ladies chatting chatting away with each other -- they have that kind of emotional hook. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| 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 34 of 89 23 November 2011 at 1:09am | IP Logged | |||||
you said Finnish is not a good language for becoming a polyglot, well, it depends on how motivated you are;) with my huge love for Finnish (i list all my reasons;)) it has definitely been the best language to study:) i reached basic fluency faster than I perhaps ever will again, at least in the languages i'm already studying. Go for it<3 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| sipes23 Diglot Senior Member United States pluteopleno.com/wprs Joined 4868 days ago 134 posts - 235 votes Speaks: English*, Latin Studies: Spanish, Ancient Greek, Persian | Message 35 of 89 24 November 2011 at 7:13am | IP Logged | |||||
1. Given some of the accomplished people here, no. I know Latin decently well (if you're curious, video here), but the rest is pretty hodge-podge. 2. I'll settle for linguist. School starts in January. 3. Eh, we'll see when, if ever, we get there.
Rem in acu tetigisti. That's my read on what the question has become. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7013 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 36 of 89 26 November 2011 at 12:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
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1. Do you consider yourself a polyglot?
No. 2. Are you planning to become one? I'd rather be a polymath instead, although this probably includes the sub-set of polyglottery. 3. If you are, what are you planning to achieve before you can call yourself a polyglot? I'll never finish it in my lifetime so I don't think about it. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Uralte Morla Triglot Newbie GermanyRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4695 days ago 6 posts - 10 votes Speaks: German*, Spanish, English Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Catalan, Basque | Message 37 of 89 16 January 2012 at 9:54pm | IP Logged | |||||
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1) I don't know. I speak Spanish and English quite well and my passive skills in Swedish and Norwegian are very good. But I'm not very good at speaking, I lack practice. :) I think I can make it to a C1 in those languages, but this will take some time. I'm probably on a low B2 now. So... I wouldn't consider myself a polyglott yet, no.
2) Would be cool, indeed. If I got payed for learning languages, I'd be a full-time language learner. (But only in an open-plan office, otherwise I'd become really lonely.) ;-) Until now I prefer meeting up for a coffee with my (non polyglot) friends to sitting alone at home studying vocabulary. 3) I might call myself a polyglott when I've brought my Swedish, Norwegian and Catalan to a B2/C1-level. This would be 1 native language (GE), fluency in 5 languages (EN, ES, SE, NO, CA), intermediate level in 1 language (FR) and basic level in another 3 languages (DA, EU, FA). I think that's fine. :) But of course I wouldn't stop after that! ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5224 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 38 of 89 16 January 2012 at 10:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
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> 1. Do you consider yourself a polyglot?
No. > 2. Are you planning to become one? I'm planning to become proficient in two more languages, maybe three. That would sort of automatically qualify me as one, but I don't really mind about the label, but rather about putting my languages to some productive use. > 3. If you are, what are you planning to achieve before you can call yourself > a polyglot? C2 certified in at least two non-native languages. I like thinking I have higher standards, but I'd have to convince everyone that my standards are really better, so I'll settle for whatever the officially recognized tests are. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ligador Diglot Groupie United States Joined 4961 days ago 81 posts - 101 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 39 of 89 09 February 2012 at 6:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
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1. Do you consider yourself a polyglot?
No. 2. Are you planning to become one? Yes. 3. If you are, what are you planning to achieve before you can call yourself a polyglot? Very near native fluency in three languages or more, preferably from 3 different language families. Right now I am fluent in English and getting very very close to fluency in Spanish. I am testing the waters with Japanese right now, so I might be well on my way to 'polyglottery' within the coming few years. The only thing that bothers me about the label "polyglot" is that encourages people to refer to themselves by the title to impress others. This happens throughout society; people would love to be known as a doctor or a super spy but few people want to actually put in the work to achieve the title. Claiming to be a real life Dr. House or Jason Bourne is far easier than learning anatomy of the brain or going through extreme physical training. Similarly I would not label myself a mathematician just because I am taking linear algebra currently as that'd be an insult to the likes of Gauss, Euler, or really any professor who has done the work to earn his or her PhD and conduct meaningful research. I prefer to remain humble and unassuming. If someone asks me to prove my ability in a language I'll be willing and able to do so, but there is no reason to go around advertising myself as bilingual/multilingual/polyglot/insert title here. Labels are simply labels. They don't change anything. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4887 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 40 of 89 09 February 2012 at 9:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
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1. Do you consider yourself a polyglot?
No. Being tri-lingual seems somewhat common in the developing world, where people might know French or English, plus the national language, plus their tribal language. In my mind, I think of "one, two, three, many" - so I think I'd consider myself a polyglot if I were comfortable in four unique languages. About fifteen years ago I was living overseas, and regularly using Micronesian and Indonesian, and had a weak college-level background in French. I was close! But I haven't kept up in either language, and have no plans on doing so. 2. Are you planning to become one? Yes! Maybe. When I turned 40 I said that I wanted to be fluent in five languages by the time I turned 45. That didn't happen. So then I thought: Seven by 50. And, er ... "fluency" is harder than I thought it would be. Now I'm thinking I'll aim for "decent enough" in three languages, and "I can get by if you speak slowly" in lots of others. 3. If you are, what are you planning to achieve before you can call yourself a polyglot? Travel a lot! But honestly, for myself, I think I'd have to live overseas again to become truly efficient in a language. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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