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The youngest member on these boards! | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Members profiles |  | |
| yawn Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5370 days ago 141 posts - 209 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, FrenchC2, SpanishC2 Studies: GermanB1 | Message 1 of 71 16 January 2010 at 10:06pm | IP Logged |
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I actually have no idea if the statement in the title truly applies to me, but I think it's pretty safe to say that I'm among the youngest. :D
I'm 15 years old and am currently a junior in high school living in the U.S. state of Michigan. I am of Chinese ethnic origin; both my parents were born in Taiwan. I was born in Ontario, Canada, and moved to Singapore with my parents at age 2, when my dad got a job offer there. I grew up as a bilingual child as my mother began to teach me how to read and write simple Chinese characters around the same time that I began learning the English alphabet (age 3? 4? I can't remember - I need to ask), and my fluency in both languages was further established when I attended a local elementary school in Singapore. Those of you familiar with the Singaporean educational system will know that all students are required to study their "mother tongues" along with English in school. I excelled in both subjects, often having my compositions in both English and Chinese read aloud in front of my whole class. Shortly before my 8th birthday, I was sent to live with my grandparents in Montreal, Canada. There I attended elementary school for my 3rd grade year, and subsequently became fluent in French since every subject was taught in that language. After that year-long stint, I returned to Singapore again, but managed to retain my knowledge of French. At age 10, I transferred to an international school in Singapore that followed the American curriculum, and there I was required to learn another foreign language. I chose Spanish, and have been studying it since age 11. Though I never had the same kind of 24/7 exposure to native speakers as I did with French, I acquired Spanish at a rapid rate (skipped Spanish II prior to high school to enter Spanish III as a 9th grader, and skipped Spanish IV prior to sophomore year to enter AP Spanish Language as a 10th grader), and consider myself fairly fluent now. (On a completely random note, I LOVE the book 'Lazarillo de Tormes'!) Then at age 13, I expressed an interest in learning German. My mother was fortunate enough to find a private tutor for me, and after just one year of studying the language I passed the A2 level of the Common European Framework at age 14. I currently have the following proficiency tests under my belt as a 15 year old: -HSK Advanced (Chinese) -DALF C2 (French) -DELE Nivel Intermedio (Spanish) <-- I'm planning to take the 'Nivel Superior' test at the end of this year -5 on the AP Spanish Language exam (this is more of an American high school thing; I'm sure those of you living in the U.S. will understand it) -Start Deutsch A2 (German) I will also take the AP tests in French Language, Chinese Language, and German Language in May. The only reason I didn't take French and Chinese earlier was the fact that my previous high school didn't allow people to randomly sign up to take AP exams... There's me in a nutshell, albeit a rather large nutshell. I greatly look forward to meeting other people with similar linguistic interests and abilities! PS - Despite what my username suggests, I actually have a pretty solid work ethic. :P Edited by yawn on 16 January 2010 at 10:10pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| goosefrabbas Triglot Pro Member United States Joined 6312 days ago 393 posts - 475 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German, Italian Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 71 16 January 2010 at 10:19pm | IP Logged |
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Wow. All I can say is wow. This is very, very impressive. Do you plan on starting any other languages in the near future? It seems like you're proficient in all your languages except for German.
Welcome to the forums! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| yawn Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5370 days ago 141 posts - 209 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, FrenchC2, SpanishC2 Studies: GermanB1 | Message 3 of 71 16 January 2010 at 10:23pm | IP Logged |
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Yeah... although maintaining all my languages alone requires a tremendous effort, since NONE of my family members, not even those in my extended family, know how to speak anything besides English and Chinese. I was actually complaining to my grandmother a while ago, about the fact that even after all those years of living in Montreal, she hadn't ever bothered to learn French!
Thanks for the welcome; I really appreciate it. :) Edited by yawn on 16 January 2010 at 10:23pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Paskwc Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5621 days ago 450 posts - 624 votes Speaks: Hindi, Urdu*, Arabic (Levantine), French, English Studies: Persian, Spanish | Message 4 of 71 17 January 2010 at 12:04am | IP Logged |
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My brother, now 11, registered a while back before becoming inactive. Multilingualism at
a young age doesn't have to be extraordinary, particularly when one lives in multilingual environments and experiences a fair bit of migration. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
 Jiwon Triglot Moderator Korea, South Joined 6380 days ago 1417 posts - 1500 votes Speaks: EnglishC2, Korean*, GermanC1 Studies: Hindi, Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 71 17 January 2010 at 1:21am | IP Logged |
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Wow.. This is really awesome. Kudos on your achievement! :D
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| yawn Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5370 days ago 141 posts - 209 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, FrenchC2, SpanishC2 Studies: GermanB1 | Message 6 of 71 17 January 2010 at 6:16am | IP Logged |
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To Paskwc: That's actually not far from the truth. Many kids my age are also able to speak more than two languages. How fluent they are in each one, on the other hand, is a completely different story. (In Chinese: 两马的事！）I tend to strive for depth rather than breadth, hence the reason why I tend to linger on each language until my fluency is up to at least a B1 or B2 standard of the Common European Framework before even thinking of attempting a new one.
Jiwon, thanks for the kind words! :) Now for a random observation I've made after lurking around a little today: many of the posters here seem to be males. Does the love of languages and language learning appeal more to men than to women? Then again, this is the internet, so it's pretty hard to tell what gender someone is unless they explicitly state it themselves. ;) For those of you who are wondering, I'm a girl. Edited by yawn on 17 January 2010 at 6:59am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Halie Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6054 days ago 80 posts - 106 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 7 of 71 17 January 2010 at 8:00am | IP Logged |
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I was 15 when I joined here, so you're not the only one, FYI. :) I'm not as accomplished as you, but I did know French at the time and don't have the benefit of being born into a family that speaks another language.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5791 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 71 17 January 2010 at 10:43am | IP Logged |
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Yawn, welcome to the language learning forum! I would say that you are one of the youngest participants in this forum, but there are also others in your age here. We have quite a group of teenagers in this forum. Impressive are your results of the language exams.
Especially among polylgots females are very rare, but I am one of those (my age: 48) and I would enjoy seeing young females developing polyglottery. With interest I will follow your language development and I wish you good luck for your language learning! Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 17 January 2010 at 10:47am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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