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"Rule of Seven" | ||
Tags: Number of Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Louche Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6522 days ago 18 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Romanian, Swahili | Message 33 of 78 04 February 2007 at 7:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hmm, I dunno... I know someone who says she can speak 9 languages fluently, although I don't know how fluently because I haven't asked her, nor can I test her. I do know that she speaks French, English, and German fluently - she professionally translates those and I think more. She's been learning foreign languages since she was five, though...... She's learning a lot of other languages right now, though she doesn't seem to have attained fluency in any in the past two-three years since I've known her. When I met her, she said she spoke nine languages, and she still says that... I guess she has her work cut out for her maintaining the nine...
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| adoggie Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6536 days ago 160 posts - 159 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese* Studies: German, Russian, French | Message 34 of 78 04 February 2007 at 8:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think the rule of seven is more of a guide than a fact. From what I understand, most people probably don't even know 5 languages very well.
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| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7018 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 35 of 78 05 February 2007 at 5:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
By design or just a (lucky) victim of circumstance? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Louche Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6522 days ago 18 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Romanian, Swahili | Message 36 of 78 07 February 2007 at 3:03am | IP Logged | |||||
Circumstance. She said she can't really remember how she got interested in languages, but she did when she was 5. She recalls really liking the Cyrillic alphabet. Russian was her second language. I think she actually translates in all or most of her nine languages... she told me a today that she was translating a Russian text. Edited by Louche on 07 February 2007 at 3:05am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| guto2005br Tetraglot Newbie Brazil Joined 6142 days ago 13 posts - 13 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, GermanC2, Spanish Studies: Swedish, Italian | Message 37 of 78 06 February 2008 at 9:18am | IP Logged | |||||
gee... there is a German guy who can compute 83 ^ 9 in less than a minute. and maybe more.. he is like a real life mutant hehehe 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| atamagaii Senior Member Anguilla Joined 6209 days ago 181 posts - 195 votes Speaks: Apache* | Message 38 of 78 06 February 2008 at 9:54am | IP Logged | |||||
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He can count!
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| Nea Vanille Diglot Newbie Korea, SouthRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6168 days ago 28 posts - 48 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC1 Studies: Korean | Message 39 of 78 06 February 2008 at 9:57am | IP Logged | |||||
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If I could only ever hope to become fluent in 7 languages, I'd pick:
German (native) English (I wouldn't trade my English for any language in the world! :)) Korean (been slaving away for that one) Japanese Chinese (the king of Asian languages) French Spanish I fully plan on learning 10, though. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| robsolete Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5388 days ago 191 posts - 428 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin | Message 40 of 78 13 March 2010 at 5:04am | IP Logged | |||||
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This is an interesting rule of thumb, but I really think it depends on the languages and the person involved.
Someone who is fluent in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, and Dutch has accomplished something very different than someone who is fluent in English, Thai, Russian, Mandarin, Hebrew, Tamil, and Xhosa. In terms of the time spent learning vocabulary, grammar, and phonics, there's no comparison. Then you have the person involved: did their parents read to them a lot? Did they read or speak a lot as a child? Are they shy? Do they stutter? Do they have synesthesia or dyslexia? It goes on and on. So I think any claim of limiting you to "pick Seven" is totally arbitrary. Far too many variables involved to even make sense. Of course, now that this has become another "list thread" I'm always happy to oblige in the arbitrary game. :) My 15 year goal is to work my way through the six U.N. languages. So... -English -Spanish -French -Arabic -Russian -Mandarin And then #7? Either Hindi/Urdu, Turkish, Japanese, or Swahili. Depends on where life would take me I guess. Edited by robsolete on 13 March 2010 at 5:09am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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