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Ziad Fazah - does he exist? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| apparition Octoglot Senior Member United States Joined 6653 days ago 600 posts - 667 votes  Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), French, Arabic (Iraqi), Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Pashto | Message 329 of 377 03 October 2007 at 12:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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Bring on the next video clip!!
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| 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 330 of 377 03 October 2007 at 12:55pm | IP Logged | ||
I understand you. I have the same problem. I can speak forty languages with near native fluently, but I need preparation before talking with natives. 2 persons have 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 331 of 377 03 October 2007 at 1:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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BTW, Dave M has his web presence. You may google him.
Apparently, he is interested in some freelance Portuguese translation works. This is what he said in one of his skills description area:
Dave, if you are reading this post, could you rank your fluency in those languages? Could you please kindly deliver what you have promised us 2 years ago? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| joan.carles Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6336 days ago 332 posts - 342 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan*, French, EnglishC1, EnglishC2, Mandarin Studies: Hungarian, Russian, Georgian | Message 332 of 377 03 October 2007 at 1:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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Personally I don't have anything agains that man, it must have been a very hard time at the show, no doubt. Besides it seems the intentions of the tv show, which I have just watched, were to show him fail. Maybe envy, I think most of us have spoken at least once with that kind of people that to justify his/her incapacity to master a second language, must overlook or despise your actual hability. Let alone of someone that claims to speak 58 .
But, frankly, to claim speaking 58 languages when the person maybe has devoted some time to learn a grammar, some vocabulary and some useful expressions in these 58 languages is too claiming. If I count all the different grammars or dictionaries or language methods I've had a look at, I've learned some words or have a minimum knowledge of, I also get more than 50. But I will never say that I speak more than 50, nor 40, nor 30... nor 10 languages. It's true that TV for a shy or introverted person is not the best environment, I would be as much nervous as he was, but I don't need any preparation in Russian to answer the question they asked him, nor to read in Farsi. I don't claim to speak Farsi. Maybe some years ago, when the Guinnes Book was written he was fluent in all these languages, I can't deny that, but at this moment he doesn't seem to be fluent in Russian, Farsi, Chinese, Finnish... A record like this, contrary to other records that can be hold till next recordman beats it, should have a date of caducity, like youghourts. As a matter of fact, IELTS exam is only valid for two years. Edited by joan.carles on 03 October 2007 at 6:30pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| xtremelingo Trilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6290 days ago 398 posts - 515 votes Speaks: English*, Hindi*, Punjabi* Studies: German, French, Arabic (Written) | Message 333 of 377 03 October 2007 at 6:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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All I am saying is, just take it easy on the poor guy. I am pretty sure after that show he didn't exactly leave all smiles. And a good chance a show like that is what made him hide deeper into the cave and further from the rest of us who really do need his insights.
Whether his fluency in some of these languages sucks or not is not important. What I find fascinating is this man pursued the polyglottery path well before even many of us were born. Particularly in a time where resources were heavily limited (the internet certainly has helped most of us), that he had the motivation to actually study so many languages, with what must have been what we may consider now very dull and boring resources. Criticizing him is not going to help him surface/appear onto this forum. There is probably a very good chance he actually reads this forum but does not participate. Who knows what alias he could be under. If he is here, I personally would like him to know I am not part of that group that is looking for blood. Instead, I hope that we can share some insights with each other, because I do value his years of experience -- whether he can speak 58 languages or not, even 7-10 is good enough for me! Edited by xtremelingo on 03 October 2007 at 6:13pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lloydkirk Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6416 days ago 429 posts - 452 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Russian | Message 334 of 377 03 October 2007 at 6:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't get this guy. He obviously doesn't speak mandarin,finish, Russian, etc...Why tell the word that you do? All the questions asked were pretty simple. If he had completed an assimil in those languages he would have been able to respond. It's sad really.
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| Journeyer Triglot Senior Member United States tristan85.blogspot.c Joined 6871 days ago 946 posts - 1110 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German Studies: Sign Language | Message 335 of 377 03 October 2007 at 11:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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I speak decent German, well enough to have an extended conversation with someone about affairs other than languages, even if it's not quite good enough to write a term paper in, yet when I spoke with the professors at my university in front of my class, there were times I'd choke and make mistakes. The same goes with my Spanish once in a while. The languages aren't really the problem, even though I still feel I have loads to learn; rather, it's my confidence in speaking them.
I watched this clip with curiosity (and actually also had a bit of a hard time with the Spanish in a few spots), but I did not once feel humor at this. I felt bad for Ziad. I also think that the clip may have been edited. Let me clarify: I don't mean they doctored it to make Ziad look inept, but they rocket from one person to the next a couple of times, and I thought it looked a bit like a summary of that particular part of the episode. I am *not* saying this changes the show, but it might a bit, as the show seemed to want to break Ziad down anyway, like with the "Que mi...hago aqui?" (What the....am I doing here?). I got the impression it was going to focus his failures rather harshly. It seemed to be more of a pop-culture show instead of a fair and balanced program, so it seemed they were mostly after sensationalism. As to the question, has anyone spoken with him about things other than languages: The last time he and I spoke on the phone (perhaps about a month and a half ago) languages were the last thing we talked about in a conversation of about 2 hours. The dude loves to chat about whatever. We've talked about computers, about politics, about religion, about health, about corruption, about friendships that have come and go (in a general way, we didn't talk about specific things, as I still don't know him that well). Granted, they were all in English, which if he speaks any language well, it'd likely be that one. However, when my skills in German were still not very good, he and I spoke in German for a while, about languages, but about being in another culture (I was studying in Germany at the time) and I have a German friend listening to our Skype conversation (I told Ziad this, by the way), and ultimately she concluded that he could speak well, although a bit "umständlich," which is to say, bookish or formally. His Spanish also seems decent, although I don't feel I'm yet a good enough judge to say whether his was good or bad. I thought in the clip given he didn't sound all that natural, but I didn't think he handled himself poorly, considering how nervous he certainly appeared to be. (Personally, I can stumble a bit in English when I get nervous or worked up). I can't speak for Ziad's other languages; and maybe these stories have been falsified (although in I think at least 2 American World Record Books his name shows up, I have both of them at home, where I first heard of him, but I forget the particular years). I myself have wondered at some of the details, and am not happy that DaveM hasn't provided the videos or website he promised. But for God's sake people, for reasons known only to him, Ziad hasn't even defended or explained himself personally here. It's always been through people who know him or through scant articles on the web, or this video. I don't feel that enough info has been stated to say definitively that he can or can't speak these languages. I don't know why Dave hasn't posted videos online, but that doesn't mean Ziad's to blame. I don't mean to sound harsh towards those who don't think Ziad's legit. Indeed you have a good case going for you. But I guess I'd have to see Ziad speaking Chinese or Finnish or whatever in comfortable conditions to see how he fares, instead of in a case where he was under pressure or claims he was cheated by the producer of the show. There *is* quite clearly a case against him in this video, in some of the contradictory remarks made here, and in the nature of his story. But I'm just saying making extraordinary claims doesn't necessarily make him a fraud, nor does having a poor performance on during an interview on a TV show. That's just my two cents. Edited by Journeyer on 04 October 2007 at 12:20am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| apparition Octoglot Senior Member United States Joined 6653 days ago 600 posts - 667 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), French, Arabic (Iraqi), Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Pashto | Message 336 of 377 04 October 2007 at 12:58am | IP Logged | ||
It was a "best-of" show, where this was meant as a "blooper". In other words, the real interview/challenge was done on a regular show, and this was just the "clip show" edit of it. So, yes, it was edited to make him look bad. However, the full one would still probably be pretty bad or it wouldn't have made the blooper show. I wish we could get that full video. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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