fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6127 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds
| Message 57 of 113 13 June 2008 at 4:59pm | IP Logged |
-
Edited by fairyfountain on 29 June 2009 at 9:19pm
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6664 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil
| Message 58 of 113 14 June 2008 at 3:26am | IP Logged |
fairyfountain wrote:
Sadly enough, I sacrificed Italian and German in order to pursue my goal which is native fluency in English. |
|
|
This is really sad. Especially if you live in Europe.
Edited by Marc Frisch on 14 June 2008 at 3:27am
1 person has voted this message useful
|
fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6127 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds
| Message 59 of 113 14 June 2008 at 6:48am | IP Logged |
Actually, I don't think it is, because I don't care about these languages any more.
I don't think I'm particularly gifted at languages and everybody knows that being gifted isn't the key to polyglottery, so I decided to focus on my priority, English.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6664 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil
| Message 60 of 113 14 June 2008 at 11:28am | IP Logged |
fairyfountain wrote:
Actually, I don't think it is, because I don't care about these languages any more. |
|
|
That's exactly what's so sad about it... That you lost your interest in the languages of your neighbors.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6127 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds
| Message 61 of 113 15 June 2008 at 10:02am | IP Logged |
Well, the UK is a neighbour alright. Plus, as you must already know since you speak several languages fluently, when you lose interest in a language, there's pretty much no turning back.
What would be even sadder is losing time trying to relearn those languages, because when you just don't care about a language, it's really hard to memorise anything that's linked to it.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
bluecollar Groupie United States Joined 6153 days ago 43 posts - 48 votes
| Message 62 of 113 25 June 2008 at 9:37am | IP Logged |
I think it is totally possible to attain native level fluency for 3 or more languages if you live near native speakers.,specially if you are young and have friends who speak the languages you are studying.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
sajro Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5995 days ago 129 posts - 131 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 63 of 113 03 July 2008 at 9:58am | IP Logged |
Well, now I feel really silly. I'm 13 and a native speaker of English, and I'm studying Spanish and Russian. I study Spanish at school and supplement it with Pimsleur/MT, as well as reading and a few grammars. I might soon get Assimil.
Russian I study alone for my own interest. I'm currently working on various grammars and Pimsleur. I may get MT or Assimil...which of these would be best to get first? I'm wary about MT, at least until they have a Russian Vocabulary Builder as they have with some of the other languages.
I've learned that used bookstores are a godsend, and a family member who works at a world-renowned private middle and high school has its benefits.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Olympia Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5980 days ago 195 posts - 244 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Old English, French
| Message 64 of 113 13 July 2008 at 8:23pm | IP Logged |
English is my first language as well and I could speak Spanish pretty fluently starting around age 16 (I'm now nearly
19 and have advanced fluency.), but I began to learn it in school around age 10 or 11. I thought this was good, but
now that I'm college I see that there are plenty of teenage college students who speak easily 3, 4, or 5+ languages
due to the high number of languages they've been exposed to. My roommate speaks French, English, and Arabic
due to where she lives and goes to school, and another friend speaks Russian and English (Raised in the US by
Russian parents), learned Spanish and German after many years of school classes, and is starting to learn French
and is picking it up quickly. There are plenty of polyglot children because many places in the world demand that
those who live there learn all of the local languages just to get by on a daily basis.
1 person has voted this message useful
|