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Vasilij Eroshenko - A blind polyglot | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5846 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 1 of 8 22 September 2009 at 9:46am | IP Logged |
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Let me introduce Vasilij Eroshenko (1890 - 1952), a blind Russian poet, polyglot and Esperantist, who is wellknown in the Esperanto-movement, but perhaps unknown outside.
As it is very difficult for blind and visually handicapped people to find adequate language learning materials in Braille (few choice of books and they are often outdated!), in my opinion this polyglot is worth a special merit. At the age of 5 he became blind due to an illness. He attended school at Moskow Institute for the Blind and at school he already started writing poems and fables.Besides this he possessed the perfect pitch, had music talent and a good singing voice. In his first job he worked as a restaurant musician playing the violin and guitar. Before age 20 he learned Esperanto in only two months by receiving private lessons and it is known that he had an extraordinary memory capacity. In 1912 he travelled to London and learned the English language there in a short time at an Insitute for the Blind. In 1914 he went to Japan to learn the Japanes massage method at a Japanese Institute for the Blind. Among blind students he informed about Esperanto. And of course Eroshenko learned the Japanese language there. From 1919 on he became famous with his works as a poet. He travelled to many countries, such as China and others, which are not enumerated in my article. From 1923 on he worked in Moskow as a teacher for the Blind and as a language interpreter. He spoke about 10 languages fluently, but unfortunately - besides Russian, English, Esperanto and Japanese - they are not enumerated in my source. Source: Boris Kolker, Vojagxo en Esperanto-Lando, UEA 2005, pages 207-211 (in Esperanto) Fasulye His name in Russian: Василий Ерошенко, perhaps some speakers of Russian here can find some links to his biography in the Russian internet, this would be helpful for me. Edited by Fasulye on 23 September 2009 at 12:32pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| metafrastria Diglot Newbie Turkey Joined 5701 days ago 20 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English, Russian* Studies: French, Turkish, Ancient Greek | Message 2 of 8 22 September 2009 at 4:18pm | IP Logged |
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Hi Fasulye!
Great post, thank you for bringing attention to this person and his impressive feat. I did a quick search on Vasiliy Eroshenko in Russian. Here is some additional information to supplement your summary of Kolker's article: After learning Japanese, Eroshenko published numerous short stories and essays in this language. Between 1916 and 1919 he lived and worked in Siam, Burma, and India. After that he spent a few years in Japan, and in 1921 he moved to China, where he stayed until 1923. Following that, he went back to Russia. Eroshenko is also known as a prominent teacher. He founded the first school for the blind in what is now Turkmenistan, and taught in Moscow and in Tashkent. Unfortunately, the archives of this polyglot, traveller and writer appear to have been completely lost and/or destroyed. Some of Eroshenko's short stories (in Esperanto) can be found here: http://www.esperanto.mv.ru/Cxukcxoj /index.html One of the more detailed Russian sources on Eroshenko is the following: http://www.vokrugsveta.com/S4 /proshloe/eroshenko.htm It contains a rather dramatic rendering of his biography, but I am not sure how accurate it is. There is also a website maintained by the Kolomna Pedagogical Institute (in both Russian and Esperanto): http://www.eroshenko- epoko.narod.ru/ 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5846 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 3 of 8 22 September 2009 at 4:46pm | IP Logged |
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Excellent, I need a speaker of Russian to research on Russian internet material. Metafrastria, can you find out on the Russian websites, which other languages Eroshenko spoke besides the 4 mentioned ones? I would assume that he also spoke Chinese.
Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 22 September 2009 at 4:50pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Paramecium Tetraglot Groupie Germany Joined 5711 days ago 46 posts - 59 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Russian Studies: Japanese | Message 4 of 8 22 September 2009 at 8:16pm | IP Logged |
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The second source metafrastria posted is really detailed. There is written, that he was born at Старооскольский уезд. Today this area is part of Belarus, so maybe he spoke this language too. It is also mentioned that he knew the ukrainian language. He studied french at Paris. Learned japanese in Japan. Teached in esperanto and chinese language at the university of Peking. He knew turkmen language...there are too much information to mention them all here.
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| metafrastria Diglot Newbie Turkey Joined 5701 days ago 20 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English, Russian* Studies: French, Turkish, Ancient Greek | Message 5 of 8 22 September 2009 at 8:32pm | IP Logged |
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One of my sources said Eroshenko was born to a peasant family that was originally from
Ukraine. I don't remember reading anything about Bielorussian though. I would also assume that he had some knowledge of Turkmen and/or Uzbek, if only at the basic level, after living in these Central Asian republics. I remember reading that he knew Latin. He definitely spoke Chinese, because he had published at least one book in this language. I'll try to find out more, when I have some free time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| metafrastria Diglot Newbie Turkey Joined 5701 days ago 20 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English, Russian* Studies: French, Turkish, Ancient Greek | Message 6 of 8 22 September 2009 at 8:34pm | IP Logged |
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As an afterthought:
Russian sources say that Eroshenko is relatively well known in Japan (e.g. you can find entries on him in encyclopaedias), so perhaps our Japanese-speaking colleagues could help us gather more information? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5846 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 7 of 8 26 October 2009 at 9:28am | IP Logged |
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Meanwhile somebody from Ukraine contacted me with more precise infos about the languages Eroshenko knew:
- Russian - Ukrainian (only spoken) - English - Esperanto - Turkmenian - Japanese - some German (mostly spoken) - some French (mostly spoken) Eroshenko's father was Ukrainian and his mother was Russian and he was born in the border region between Ukraine and Russia. Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 27 October 2009 at 6:40am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| minus273 Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5764 days ago 288 posts - 346 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Ancient Greek, Tibetan | Message 8 of 8 26 October 2009 at 4:04pm | IP Logged |
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Eroshenko is mildly famous in China (read: I know him), being a friend of Lu Xun, the most highly-esteemed Chinese writer during all the communist period.
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