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Proportion of polyglots | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| 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 1 of 51 29 October 2005 at 3:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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In countries with 99%-100% litteracy rate, what do you think is the percentage of people who are polyglots (here, I consider polyglots as people who speak more languages than most people around them)?
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| Sierra Diglot Senior Member Turkey livinginlights.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 7127 days ago 296 posts - 411 votes Speaks: English*, SwedishB1 Studies: Turkish | Message 2 of 51 29 October 2005 at 4:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's not an easy question to answer.
In Sweden, for example, I wouldn't say it's uncommon for someone to speak three or more languages, but relatively few in the US do. So do Swedes have to know 3-4+ to be considered polyglots while Americans only have to know 2-3? Hmm. At least where I live in the US, I'd say that someone who knows two languages speaks more than most people around him, so he'd be a polyglot according to your definition. I know about ten bi- or multilingual people, three of whom were exchange students and five of whom are language teachers. During a year in Sweden, I met about two people who were NOT at least bilingual. Overall, I'd make a completely wild guess of about 2% of any given population being polyglots who learn languages based on interest rather than necessity or circumstance. All polyglots totaled up might be more like 10 or even 15%, but maybe far more or less depending on the country. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7018 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 51 29 October 2005 at 5:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is indeed a difficult question.
I think that it would be quite hard to try and determine any specific figures since there would be so many factors involved, not least of which what country/region is being considered, as mentioned by Sierra. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| maxb Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 7186 days ago 536 posts - 589 votes 7 sounds Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 4 of 51 30 October 2005 at 5:07am | IP Logged | ||
I would say that in Sweden people are probably not impressed until you know at least 4 languages. It is assumed that everyone speaks at least English. Furthermore most people study either french or German in school. So many people in sweden have at least some competence in 3 languages. Of course many of us (me included :-( ) forget a lot of our school German since we never practice it. 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 5 of 51 31 October 2005 at 3:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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It seems we're going into the "how-many-languages-to-be-a-polyglot" discussion again. What I meant is that it is not as difficult for someone to know three languages in Luxembourg, Sweden and countries such as these as for a person from a monolingual country to be bilingual.
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| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7106 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 6 of 51 01 November 2005 at 3:13am | IP Logged | ||
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The European Union recently released (26th September) a survey on Europeans and Languages. While not aimed specifically at polyglottery, it makes for interesting reading in looking at the percentages within European countries that are willing to confess to no knowledge whatsoever of a non-native tongue.
The PDF is here. What I found interesting is that the UK is not bottom. Apparently, 30% of the UK population "can speak at least one other language than their mother tongue at the level of being able to have a conversation". Although I'm looking for "the people who speak more languages than most people around them" and although that number of languages for most is invariably "one" in the UK and the "more than" figure is "two", I'd still have great difficulty in finding the 30% .... in fact I'd probably have great difficulty in finding 3%. As I survey my vast panorama of acquaintances, co-workers and friends, I find me, my dad (doing advanced French & Italian), my nephew (studying French at university), my mate's fiancée (but she's French so doesn't count, two of my co-workers (but one's German and the other's Italian so they don't count) and ...... er....that's it. Quite depressing really. Andy. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sierra Diglot Senior Member Turkey livinginlights.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 7127 days ago 296 posts - 411 votes Speaks: English*, SwedishB1 Studies: Turkish | Message 7 of 51 01 November 2005 at 6:01am | IP Logged | ||
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Maybe some people you know have hidden talents :)
Half the people I know aren't aware that I speak pretty good Swedish. Also, I recently found out that my gym teacher, absolutely the last person in the world I would have expected it from, was in the Peace Corps and speaks fluent Spanish and French. Granted, it may not be as high as thirty percent, but some number of your acquaintances may know languages which you don't know they know simply because the subject has never come up. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Mga Groupie United States beastie.redirectme.n Joined 7126 days ago 67 posts - 66 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Arabic (Written) | Message 8 of 51 01 November 2005 at 9:02pm | IP Logged | ||
I am reluctant to post a story here, but I feel that it fits the topic and the quote nicely. While at school, I have discovered that my Math teacher is Persian and speaks the language fluently. She also speaks German. In my English class, we had a substitute teacher from Lebanon. I had said something in my constructed language to a particularly annoying girl and she complained to the teacher that "Michael is speaking in different languages!" The teacher asked me if I was speaking Arabic -- she must have seen my last name on the roll call ("Ayoub"). et cetera EDIT: "In my English,"? Added "class" Edited by Mga on 03 November 2005 at 7:41pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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