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Polyglots around us - do you know one? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 6827 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes  Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 9 of 121 12 October 2005 at 4:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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I used to know a guy at university who was fluent in English, French, Greek and Arabic (quite diverse, considering the alphabets).
His dad was Jordanian and his mother Greek and they spoke to each other in their common language (French). He learned English and went to a British university. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lugubert Heptaglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6679 days ago 186 posts - 235 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Danish, Norwegian, EnglishC2, German, Dutch, French Studies: Mandarin, Hindi | Message 10 of 121 05 February 2006 at 12:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have studied, with varying success, a fair number of languages at the university in town. So, there are quite a few uni teachers I know even on a more personal basis that master lots of languages. Everybody on their level will have Swedish, English, German and French. And for example the people in the Slavic section. One guy has written elementary grammars in at least four Slavic languages, and his speciality is in yet another one. But I think that the professor in Arabic is worse, and on top of that, he's a world level expert on ancient South Arabic. But the one overshadowing all of them is Erik Gunnemark. We have exchanged several letters from ca. 1980, and have met.
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| Eidolio Bilingual Octoglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 6673 days ago 159 posts - 164 votes 2 sounds Speaks: Dutch*, Flemish*, French, English, Latin, Ancient Greek, Italian, Greek | Message 11 of 121 13 February 2006 at 10:07am | IP Logged | ||
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most people I know master three languages quite well: Dutch, English and French (and Flemish if you count that as an extra language).
In my university class almost everybody is quite fluent in these three/four languages and knows two dead languages, Greek and Latin. Most people also have a limited knowledge of German (but enough to understand German if needed and to be more or less understood) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| andee Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6889 days ago 681 posts - 724 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Korean, French | Message 12 of 121 13 February 2006 at 5:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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I went to university with a guy that spoke fluently Norwegian (mother tongue), Swedish, Danish, German, English, Japanese, and to a high degree Mandarin and Korean. Although he has a strong accent in English, Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin.
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| Lugubert Heptaglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6679 days ago 186 posts - 235 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Danish, Norwegian, EnglishC2, German, Dutch, French Studies: Mandarin, Hindi | Message 13 of 121 13 February 2006 at 7:40pm | IP Logged | ||
I don't for a second believe that he spoke all of Norwegian, Swedish and Danish fluently. If reasonably intelligent and interested, he should however be able to understand them all. That said, knowing languages as diverse as English, Japanese, Mandarin and Korean is admirable, bordering on unique. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| andee Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6889 days ago 681 posts - 724 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Korean, French | Message 14 of 121 14 February 2006 at 5:35am | IP Logged | ||
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^^ I'm just going on what he said since I don't speak any Scandinavian languages, plus I took into consideration that he speaks English and Japanese fluently, with high intermediate/basic fluency in Korean and Mandarin.
English and Korean are the only two I can attest to personally, but we studied Mandarin together and I know he communicates well with Chinese people. His Japanese isn't in doubt - he lived in Japan for about 10 years, had a Japanese wife (divorced) and has a Japanese wife (currently), and I've heard him use Japanese for many, many hours with native speakers; even as a mediator between my English and their Japanese on numerous topics. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Skandinav Hexaglot Senior Member Denmark Joined 6699 days ago 139 posts - 145 votes Speaks: Danish*, English, German, Russian, Swedish, Norwegian | Message 15 of 121 14 February 2006 at 4:04pm | IP Logged | ||
I'd say that I speak Danish and Norwegian fluently; I used to be biligual (Danish/Swedish), however, I forgot my Swedish fluency, meaning that if I spent som time in Sweden, I would probably become fluently pretty fast. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lugubert Heptaglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6679 days ago 186 posts - 235 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Danish, Norwegian, EnglishC2, German, Dutch, French Studies: Mandarin, Hindi | Message 16 of 121 04 June 2006 at 2:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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OK, skipping the Scandinavian thing, I could add two acquantancies for mixing language families.
A retired Swede with a very French name, holding a doctorate degree in Chinese and fluent in Japanese (and writing admirably English and probably fluent in German judging from his 'net postings, and having had his high school education in Sweden somewhere in the 1950's probably good at French as well). A course mate, 25 years old, close to her M.Chem.Eng., speaking fluently Vietnamese, Cantonese (mother tongues), Mandarin, English and Swedish. I'm not saying that her writing is perfect in all of them, but I'm sufficiently impressed. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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