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Tim from the US (PolyglotPal) on YouTube

 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots Post Reply
204 messages over 26 pages: << Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 14 ... 25 26 Next >>
fabriciocarraro
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russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French
Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese

 
 Message 105 of 204
16 April 2012 at 3:15am | IP Logged 
I know I'm a C1 level in my own language....

You're missing my point.

fabriciocarraro wrote:

My point is, you can't measure Tim's abilities in his languages by considering 1, 2 or 3 subjects, even if they're considered "routine". Maybe he'll be much more able to speak about language learning, computer games or rock bands than about global warming or fashion. The same to all of us. We all have different interests, and of course we'll be able to express ourselves better about something we like.

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hrhenry
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languagehopper.blogs
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Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese
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 Message 106 of 204
16 April 2012 at 3:55am | IP Logged 
fabriciocarraro wrote:
I know I'm a C1 level in my own language....

You're missing my point.

I got your point, actually. If anything, I was attempting to make it clearer by removing the native/C1 comparison nonsense (and the fact that you quoted Benny). It really has nothing to do with Tim's ability.

R.
==
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fabriciocarraro
Hexaglot
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Brazil
russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4715 days ago

989 posts - 1454 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French
Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese

 
 Message 107 of 204
16 April 2012 at 4:25am | IP Logged 
And what do you think about it, hrhenry?
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Pisces
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Finland
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 Message 108 of 204
16 April 2012 at 10:37am | IP Logged 
The CEFR criteria don't say that you have to be able to speak fluently on any routine subject. This is from the C2 description - it says a 'variety of subjects' and 'situations of everyday life':

In social and travel contexts, a Level C2 user can cope with ease with the language use situations of everyday life, including conversations on a variety of topics and in a variety of contexts. Lapses in understanding or appropriacy of language use which occur are likely to be minor, and users at this level have the strategies for repairing misunderstandings. They can also handle phone conversations with people they know on a variety of topics.
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Rob_Austria
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 Message 109 of 204
16 April 2012 at 10:38am | IP Logged 
translator2 wrote:
Yes, we could start the first "Language Battle" like on the show The Voice. :-)




I must admit I don't even know that show but I really look forward to chatting with you. This is not going to be any sort of battle but a pleasant and hopefully interesting conversation between two language enthusiasts. I will send you a private message with my skype id so we can try to get into contact. We can choose one language per topic or talk in those five languages about one topic switching between languages. Whatever appears to be more interesting and/or convenient.

I have not really done that before either, so I'm open for suggestions.

By the way, I have always enjoyed our discussion here on this forum so I hope you don't feel like I'm holding any kind of grudge against you. I don't know where you live so I'm not sure about the time difference. The best would be to try and have that chat on a weekend since I guess we both are quite busy during the week.

I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun.

Robert

Edited by Rob_Austria on 16 April 2012 at 10:40am

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hrhenry
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languagehopper.blogs
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Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese
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 Message 110 of 204
16 April 2012 at 10:39am | IP Logged 
fabriciocarraro wrote:
And what do you think about it, hrhenry?

About Tim's ability?

First, he's a young kid, just starting out in the world. Personally, I was nowhere as near driven with languages as he appears to be, although I possibly was with music at that age (I originally trained as a classical pianist). He's got a positive attitude from what I can tell. That, to me, is far more important in the the long run than any immediate praise he may or may not be receiving.

Aside from that, I take pretty much all Youtube "polyglot" videos with a grain of salt.

Hopefully, he can take the positive bits from all the comments and attention he's getting and work those to his advantage. I'd hate to see such promise fall by the wayside because of internet bitterness. No matter how strong a person is, it's gotta be tough to ignore all the nasty comments people tend to virtually sling around.

R.
==
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fabriciocarraro
Hexaglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
Brazil
russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4715 days ago

989 posts - 1454 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French
Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese

 
 Message 111 of 204
16 April 2012 at 7:06pm | IP Logged 
hrhenry wrote:

About Tim's ability?

First, he's a young kid, just starting out in the world. Personally, I was nowhere as near driven with languages as he appears to be, although I possibly was with music at that age (I originally trained as a classical pianist). He's got a positive attitude from what I can tell. That, to me, is far more important in the the long run than any immediate praise he may or may not be receiving.

Aside from that, I take pretty much all Youtube "polyglot" videos with a grain of salt.

Hopefully, he can take the positive bits from all the comments and attention he's getting and work those to his advantage. I'd hate to see such promise fall by the wayside because of internet bitterness. No matter how strong a person is, it's gotta be tough to ignore all the nasty comments people tend to virtually sling around.

R.
==


Well, I can say that I completely agree with you about Tim's abilities. But I also meant about the point raised up by translator2, implying that Tim (and also other polyglots, probaly) could not be able to talk in a decent way about "global warming", "how did the crisis affected his/their country", etc.:

translator2 wrote:
All of the YouTube videos are about learning languages. How about some videos with two people discussing topics other than how they learn languages. "Global Warming: Is it Real?", "How has the financial crisis affected your country?", "Describe the last book you read/movie you saw and why you liked it". I could easily do this in all five of my languages. I don't care about grammatical mistakes or a non-native accent. I'm looking for the ability to really think, express yourself and use the language for purposes other than introductory chit chat of the "How did you learn Chinese?, "Arabic is hard.", "Where is the Bahnhof?", I can speak 29 languages" parrot language variety.

If your goal is to just be able to exchange brief pleasantries with people in 50 languages, that's fine, but then don't pretend that that makes you in any way a language expert.


My point all along has been the fact that you can't judge Tim's or anyone's abilities, even to the point where you imply that they're (or might be) a "fraud", just based on some youtube videos about language learning.
That's exactly why I pointed out that I can't really say much about fashion, cars or global warming even in Portuguese, meaning that those things are not among my interests, and it might be the same case with Tim. On the other hand, I could talk for hours about language learning, football, astronomy, cinema, etc, etc...

I don't think translator2 was any polite or friendly in his statements, at least in this specific case.

Edited by fabriciocarraro on 16 April 2012 at 7:07pm

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Pisces
Bilingual Pentaglot
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Finland
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 Message 112 of 204
16 April 2012 at 7:28pm | IP Logged 
Well, if a person appears in the New York Times, on the BBC, and on the Today show, it's perfectly acceptable to examine or criticize the claims they make or are made for them (for which they are partly responsible, even though journalists are often silly).

I'm sure you could talk about fashion, cars and global warming in your native language, even though you say you couldn't. I don't know much about football, for example, but if I had to, I could talk about it. For example, I could wonder aloud about why other people are interested in it but I'm not, when I've had to play football at school a long time ago, how it's called soccer in the US, where people don't play it that much, what a football looks like, how this German guy I met a few years ago wanted to know where he could watch the World Cup in Helsinki, etc.

This isn't what people mean when they say 'talking about football' but it's still talking about football.


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