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Ziad Fazah - does he exist? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| edwin Triglot Senior Member Canada towerofconfusi&Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6467 days ago 160 posts - 183 votes  9 sounds Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French, Spanish, Portuguese | Message 321 of 377 03 October 2007 at 9:57am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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As of today, Dave's profile shows him last visited the forum on 23/9/2007. So at least we know he is still around.
If we cannot find Ziad, perhaps we can give Dave a chance. Dave also claims to be a polyglot. He claims to be able to speak English, Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, and Mandarin. Since he has sufficient computer skills, may be he could post some audio clips himself. I don't think this would be over his limit. Just a few words saying hello and introduction would do. Thanks, Dave, in advance. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| edwin Triglot Senior Member Canada towerofconfusi&Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6467 days ago 160 posts - 183 votes 9 sounds Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French, Spanish, Portuguese | Message 322 of 377 03 October 2007 at 10:07am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Xtremelingo, I just revisited my previous posts to check out what I have said.
I don't think I have said really bad things about Ziad. I only found the comment posted by our Web Admins incorrect, and that Dave has not delivered his promise. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| morphy Bilingual Triglot Groupie France modernerasmus.com Joined 6393 days ago 68 posts - 71 votes Speaks: French*, Arabic (Written)*, English Studies: Spanish, German | Message 323 of 377 03 October 2007 at 10:10am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Well the scripting in Arabic and Persian is almost the same but the languages are quite different. I would say that Arabic-Persian resemblance can be compared more with a French-German resemblance than with a French-Italian/Spanish one. I once stumbled on a Farsi text and although I was able to read most of the scripting, I only understood 2 words out of it... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Polyphemes Bilingual Hexaglot Groupie Virgin Islands Joined 6292 days ago 48 posts - 60 votes Speaks: German*, Dutch*, English, French, Italian, Spanish Studies: Arabic (Written), Bulgarian, Greek | Message 324 of 377 03 October 2007 at 10:16am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I actually also meant that from the perspective that DaveM said he was near-native... I know the languages are in fact different but I believe there are lots of Arabic loanwords in Persian, etc. I had some doubts about this after I posted this but anyhow, it's a bit odd to change it now...
However I must agree with the guy that posted just before me (actually quite simultaneously) that it's not really elegant to bash an elderly, introvert man who shares the same love of languages as we do here... People can be quite hard sometimes, I think. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6922 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes Speaks: English* | Message 325 of 377 03 October 2007 at 11:07am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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RE: Guinness World Book: He is not listed in my copy and has not been for several years. Does anyone know what year he was listed, if he was listed at all (or was this only in the Brazilian version)?
I am sure I speak for others when I say that I have nothing personal against this person. I am sure that he is a very nice man and certainly a person who shares our love of languages and language learning. He would be a fascinating person to speak with about languages (although even some of his comments in the clip about languages are not exactly correct). Our zeal (and yes jubilation) at seeing this clip is not directed at Mr. Fazah himself since we never believed any of the claims to start with (he did not have enough time and resources, he would not be poor (translating alone he could make a fortune), the sheer lack of info about him on the internet, poor English skills, etc. etc. etc.). We are excited because we were attacked when we expressed our doubts which have now been proven to be justified as it demonstrates a complete lack of even the most basic skills in five of the languages he is supposed to know. What is shown in that clip does not comes anywhere close to being representative of someone knowing or speaking a language and no additional clips or information is going to change that. The only possible "out" for him would be to claim that he could not hear the speakers well enough, but that is not true because he certainly understood when they said "No, that is NOT what I asked you." over and over again. Those who cannot understand Spanish may perhaps be at a disadvantage at not being again to comprehend what is going on in this clip, so I will have to believe that this is the reason they continue to support him (else I would have to start doubting their own language abilities if this is what they call fluent). As for DaveM, I am sure that (as usual) he will come up with some crafty (and non-sequitor) excuse. Again, I do not hate Ziad, I just think that the claims made about him have been grossly (if not completely) exaggerated. Edited by translator2 on 03 October 2007 at 11:15am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| nissimb Tetraglot Groupie India tenjikuyamato.blogsp Joined 6417 days ago 79 posts - 102 votes Speaks: Marathi*, Hindi, English, Japanese Studies: Korean, Esperanto, Indonesian | Message 326 of 377 03 October 2007 at 11:14am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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This has been the most fascinating thread on this forum. It is like a suspense novel turned into a legal battle drama in a courtroom:)) Well, I am not going to say anything in favour of Ziad or against Ziad, but before the final verdict is announced, I think we need to find the details of that TV show, for example,
1. Was Ziad given sufficient time to prepare for the show? How much time? 2. Was he told beforehand which languages he would be tested in? 3 Was he informed of the level of questions that would be asked? 4 If it was going to be an impromptu affair, was he told that it would be so? If Ziad has really studied those 58 languages (which is quite possible) and hasn't practised most of them for quite some time, naturally his skills would go rusty. That could have been the case with Mandarin and Finnish in that show.(Mandarin and Finnish are two of the hardest languages anyway) I would also like to hear what Prof. Arguelles has to say about Ziad's performance in that show. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6922 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes Speaks: English* | Message 327 of 377 03 October 2007 at 11:24am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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He would have needed advance preparation if they tested him on some of the more exotic languages on his list, I grant you that. He probably would have needed to know the languages they were going to test him on if he were going to be participating in a lengthy discussion or debate. But a man billed as the World's Greatest Polyglot (a title that he did not bestow upon himself of course) should be able to answer basic questions in these five languages without any need for preparation. Would those of you who claim to be fluent in a language need to prepare in order to understand a native speaker ask you "What did you do today?".
It would have helped him to know which language was going to be spoken before hearing the person because we all know that when we are speaking and thinking in one language and someone unexpectedly says something in another, it takes our brains a few moments to realize what is going on (oh he's speaking Russian). But, for example, the Chinese man asked him what man-made structure is visible from the moon and Ziad claimed he was asking him how he learned Chinese so fluently? In other words, not even close.
Edited by translator2 on 03 October 2007 at 11:32am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Walshy Triglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6945 days ago 335 posts - 365 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German | Message 328 of 377 03 October 2007 at 12:14pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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@xtremelingo, I'm probably being overzealous, but I hate being lied to for so long. The rest of this post is not directed at you alone, but at everyone who still thinks Ziad is just being smeared.
At the end of the day, Ziad is clearly not fluent in languages he purportedly knows, and it is right there for all to see. Let's go through some of the excuses being made for him: - The tape is not fake, there may be some audio sync issues but honestly, who is going to dub over the voices in languages like Finnish, Greek, and Persian, with the voices of a dozen different people, and body language which conveniently matches exactly what the new dubbed voices are saying? Come off it. - Also, Ziad could hear the speakers loud and clear, you can tell by his body language when he is told that he is wrong (notably at 1:52), and he even repeated the "karkooee" part of the Russian man's question. - He got to hear the Russian man's sentence twice, and repeated a part of it himself, I'm sure he would realize it was Russian before the second repetition, I could recognise that it was Russian for frig's sake, and I don't even speak it. - In addition to the last one, he struggled to read basic Persian words even when I could hear the man telling him that it was 'Farsi' beforehand, and even after Dave said that the most amazing thing about Ziad is that he reads and writes all his languages well. He also couldn't understand the man's spoken Persian after failing to read the Persian words, if he didn't know that it was Persian at that point, then I don't know how he remembered to breathe. - As for nervousness, Spanish is also a foreign language to him, how did he manage to communicate in that language just fine? - He shouldn't have to "prepare" for languages he claims fluency in. - The requirements for entry into the Guinness Book of Records are very stringent for the English version, but for the Brazilian version? Not necessarily. There are so many holes, I'm sorry, I just don't buy it, not after two years waiting for something conclusive, with only this video to show for it. 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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