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Ziad Fazah | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5337 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 17 of 58 25 January 2011 at 9:17am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I am right there with you, and I agree that the circumstances are different. It does however not give us dinosaurs license to claim knowledge in languages which we have forgotten or never learned properly. Noone is criticised for their lack of knowledge, but if you claim to be the world's greatest polyglot, you are really sticking you neck out, and you must expect to be scrutinized. Now I am a language geek, I have on my own or through formal studies looked at close to 15 languages, but I do not claim to know 15 languages. Some I have forgotten, some I never learned much of, and it would be simple fraud if I walked around saying "Oh, I can speak 15 languages". What I do say, is that I can speak 6 (Spanish, French, German(o.k. a little on the weak side, but I can get by), Italian, English and obviously Norwegian) I can understand 100% of two more (Swedish and Danish), and I am learning the 9th (Russian).The other notions of languages I have, serve me as terrific icebreakers, but that is it. If "The world's greatest polyglot" had done the same, his count of languages might have gone down from 58 to perhaps 15-20. Even that would have however have been remarkable, and he would not have been so open to ridicule. 11 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| michau Tetraglot Groupie Norway lang-8.com/member/49 Joined 6229 days ago 86 posts - 135 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, NorwegianC1, Mandarin Studies: Spanish, Sign Language Studies: Burmese, Toki Pona, Greenlandic | Message 18 of 58 25 January 2011 at 9:33pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
As discussed long time ago, there are no reliable first hand sources available on the internet that prove that Fazah knows more than five languages. And his recent videos aren't too convincing, for the reasons that have already been stated. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5348 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 19 of 58 25 January 2011 at 10:40pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I saw the video and the impression I get is Mr. Fazah imitates bits of language he has haphazardly been exposed to, reproducing a collection of words and phrases he has heard from sundry sources rather than speak a language he has in fact assimilated, thus creating a eerie mismatch of accents, voices and phrases instead of a natural, coherent discourse. This is the case I think with some of these hyperglots, who exhibit great imitative abilities rather than having learnt a language as such.
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| lingoleng Senior Member Germany Joined 5301 days ago 605 posts - 1290 votes | Message 20 of 58 25 January 2011 at 10:55pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Of course not. It all depends, but shadowing a 20 hour audiobook e.g. was not an option 30 years ago, it would have helped him a lot, I am sure about this.
:-)
Agreed, it is not very appropriate. But this kind of superlatives is for laymen, and there may be a financial aspect, so he feels it is necessary to stick at these claims. The pressure could explain the stilted performance in these videos. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6922 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes Speaks: English* | Message 21 of 58 26 January 2011 at 12:42am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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The Chinese and Japanese are nothing to get excited about either.
The question is, should a higher standard be expected of someone who claims, and I quote, "I was born with a divine talent for languages"? What is up with the accent he uses at :53 - :56 on the vowel sound at the end of the words Janeiro and ago? He also mispronounces the word video several times (seems to be a trend among the hyperglots)... and says things like "I do keep being the greatest living polyglot in Guinness" and "are set forth as follows". Weird. Edited by translator2 on 26 January 2011 at 2:39pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6912 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 22 of 58 26 January 2011 at 1:17am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Short answer: yes.
If I said that I was born with a divine talent for music, and then sang (or played) off-pitch, with bad timing and all that, most would call me a fake/suggest that I went home to practice a bit more (or even give up that career). 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| slucido Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Spain https://goo.gl/126Yv Joined 6678 days ago 1296 posts - 1781 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan* Studies: English | Message 23 of 58 26 January 2011 at 7:30am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I lot of peple behave here like this and continue making similar claims. I do not see any problem. The problem is in the eye of the beer holder. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5337 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 24 of 58 27 January 2011 at 10:35pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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A lot of people? I remember only one over the last year, and he did get a lot of negative feed back.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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