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How many languages to be a polyglot? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Raistlin Majere Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Spain uciprotour-cycling.c Joined 7155 days ago 455 posts - 424 votes  7 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish*, Catalan*, FrenchA1, Italian, German Studies: Swedish | Message 17 of 123 10 August 2005 at 4:16am | IP Logged | |||||
But, when considering somebody a polyglot, are we considering the difficulty of the task he undertook or are we rating the number of languages he knows? 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7379 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 18 of 123 10 August 2005 at 7:00am | IP Logged | |||||
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Raistlin, I think if you are looking for a way to assess the 'merit' or intelligence of people by looking at the number of languages they speak, you are bound to be disappointed.
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| Raistlin Majere Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Spain uciprotour-cycling.c Joined 7155 days ago 455 posts - 424 votes 7 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish*, Catalan*, FrenchA1, Italian, German Studies: Swedish | Message 19 of 123 10 August 2005 at 8:04am | IP Logged | |||||
That's not the point I was trying to make, what I meant is actually the opposite; that is: to know a large number of languages isn't a mark of a superior intelligence. I was trying to say to andee that to know 6 or 4 languages does not represent the intellect of a person, whether they belong to a different language family or not. If I understood well, in...
andee somehow related the combination of languages one can speak to the the intellect, by saying that to learn 4 different languages is more mentally demanding than to learn 6 similar ones (therefore, that one needs a greater intelligence to do the former than the latter). In my reply, I argumented that "polyglot" is a way to count how many languages a person knows, not how difficult it has been for him to learn them. Edited by Raistlin Majere on 10 August 2005 at 8:15am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| vincenthychow Tetraglot Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 7107 days ago 136 posts - 145 votes Speaks: Cantonese, English, GermanB1, Japanese Studies: French | Message 20 of 123 10 August 2005 at 12:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
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For me, "poly" means a lot. Polygot should be someone who knows "a lot of" languages. "A lot of" means it should make me get tired to count them one by one. Then, it should be at least 10 languages.
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| randy310 Senior Member United States Joined 7068 days ago 117 posts - 117 votes Speaks: English* | Message 21 of 123 10 August 2005 at 1:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Does fluency mean to learn an additional language so well that you can express yourself just as precisely in it as you can your native tongue? That you can comprehend it just as completely as your native tongue? The reason I am wondering this is that I know many native Spanish speakers here in America. Some of them have been here 30 years or more and speak English very well but they would never be able to pass as a native English speaker. Idioms seem to be something that may always prevent someone from ever quite being able to pass as native and perhaps also accent? I have never encounted a native Spanish speaker who had not completely conquered accent. Just some of my observations and opinions.
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| Shusaku Senior Member United States Joined 7103 days ago 145 posts - 157 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese | Message 22 of 123 10 August 2005 at 1:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
I was always taught that the definition of poly is more than 1 but I think it is more generally used to mean many. I voted "4 or more". 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| morprussell Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7166 days ago 272 posts - 285 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 23 of 123 10 August 2005 at 1:37pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm curious as to why 2 or 3 languages were left off of this poll. I would have voted for 3, but this option wasn't available.
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| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7379 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 24 of 123 10 August 2005 at 3:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
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morprussell, sorry when I designed the poll I had to select a finite number of options and I just assumed nobody would select less than 4 - it was obviously wrong and ethnocentric.
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