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Polyglot bashing | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| 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 1 of 32 02 September 2005 at 3:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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There are always people who feel insulted by the mere mention of polyglottery. When they hear that somebody is said to speak so many languages, they immediately set out to either diminish the polyglot's accomplishments ('He doesn't speak that language so well!', He speaks two closely related languages, that's easier!', He counts a dialect as a language, that's cheating!' or He may speak one or two languages quite well but he is like a parrot and has nothing interesting to say anyway.').
I am not enough of a polyglot to have become the victim of such resent yet but have seen it many times. The earliest example on record so to speak is the numerous people who came to see Mezzofanti and tried to find all sorts of faults with his linguistical abilities. Even Lord Byron, a British writer, tried him on his English with many complicated expressions, to no avail, then tried some insults to see if he understood that too. Finally Mezzofanti asked him if he was quite finished?. This is quite regretful and another instance of the flies of the market feeling small in the presence of somebody they see as much better than them. I sure hope we will not see 'flies of the market' on this forum, especially now that we have several 9-languages-polyglots who joined our discussions. Edited by administrator on 02 September 2005 at 3:34pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| 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 2 of 32 02 September 2005 at 6:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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He speaks two closely related languages, that's easier!
I don't agree with this cliché... He counts a dialect as a language, that's cheating! ...but I do with this one. I think the phenomenon you're describing is typical of envious individuals who feel inferior. When sometimes I think one of these things during a fleeting instant, I quickly remind myself that I'm truly aiming to surpass Mezzofanti, so that if eventually I am able to do it (speak 30+ languages), why shouldn't Mezzofanti or some other person be able to do so? Edited by Raistlin Majere on 02 September 2005 at 6:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| epingchris Triglot Senior Member Taiwan shih-chuan.blog.ntu. Joined 7031 days ago 273 posts - 284 votes 5 sounds Studies: Taiwanese, Mandarin*, English, FrenchB2 Studies: Japanese, German, Turkish | Message 3 of 32 03 September 2005 at 4:16am | IP Logged | ||
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While I was in the U.S., we had an Indian friend, and she informed us that a lot of people in India can speak several languages. Needless to say, most of them are "regional languages" of Indian language.
And one of my uncle-in-law can speak a lot of Chinese dialect too; he said himself that it's "easy". I agree that learning four languages which are regional languages with each other is presumably easier than, say, to learn French and Finnish and Japanese and Hindi. But do regional languages count? That is a debatable question. For me, the way to judge it is that asking whether those two are mutually intelligible. For example, Cantonese and Mandarin count as two languages even though they're called "dialects" because they're not mutually intelligible. However I don't think a person who speaks British English and American English can claim that he/she speaks two languages (although sometimes that can be hard as well......) Anyway, why should they be attacked against just because they speak closely-related languages rather than unrelated languages? Close or not, it always take efforts to learn another language. Should a cook be attacked because "a lot of his dishes are similar to each other"? Also, polyglots themselves should be modest, as said in one of Francois's pages. Speaking a lot of languages good is rare, but really not that difficult. And bear in mind that any person who has exceptional ability or achievement, languages or not, is bound to attract awe, envy, or even resent. So it's not really that much of problem to me...... Edited by epingchris on 03 September 2005 at 4:17am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Janelle Newbie United States Joined 7030 days ago 21 posts - 21 votes | Message 4 of 32 04 September 2005 at 10:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think people bash polyglots and other accomplished people because they are jealous and too lazy to do anything significant themselves. I am only starting on my first foreign language and am finding all of you inspiring.
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| epingchris Triglot Senior Member Taiwan shih-chuan.blog.ntu. Joined 7031 days ago 273 posts - 284 votes 5 sounds Studies: Taiwanese, Mandarin*, English, FrenchB2 Studies: Japanese, German, Turkish | Message 5 of 32 05 September 2005 at 9:57am | IP Logged | ||
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And anyway, I don't think (well I don't wish) that people bashes polyglots so often nowadays, just as they're being more open towards anything else......
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| flatlandllama Diglot Newbie United States Joined 7092 days ago 35 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English*, Vietnamese Studies: Khmer | Message 6 of 32 24 September 2005 at 10:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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On a side note...I noticed on the mezzofanti page that he was able to read Tonkinese(north vietnamese) and Cochinchinese(south vietnamese)...my instructor says there has never been a point where there were two different language for north and south vietnam...the have accent differences but not written...does anyone know if they meant he could read romanized script and Nom charcter or Han chinese characters for Vietnamese?
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| rcusickjr Newbie United States Joined 6963 days ago 9 posts - 19 votes | Message 7 of 32 05 November 2005 at 9:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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A polyglot once told me he had no use for Chomsky's theory of universal
grammar -- "How can he verify it without knowing many languages?" Comments like these make linguists nervous (they can't refute them) and so they simply bash polyglots and keep them out of linguistics departments. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dadafeig Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6989 days ago 82 posts - 83 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Dutch | Message 8 of 32 07 November 2005 at 7:38pm | IP Logged | ||
Good luck with Spanish and aprenderás español con el tiempo (You will learn Spanish with time) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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