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Language Geniuses

  Tags: IQ | Polyglottery
 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots Post Reply
Journeyer
Triglot
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 Message 1 of 3
21 June 2006 at 3:00pm | IP Logged 
Perhaps this goes a bit with the thread "IQ needed to be a polyglot."

I used to think, maybe similiarly to many of us here, that to speak X number of languages, one needed to be a genius. I've since changed my perspective on this, although I think intelligence can be a great factor.

I guess I want to ask whether it is possible for just anyone to learn several (whatever qualifies as "several") languages. I think that in many, if not most, cases it is, given the right methods and motivation, and I think that others would agree with this.

But maybe it is a calling of sorts, that we all have the smarts, but if one don't have the motivation, then perhaps he or she is not meant to learn so many, but rather go on and do something else, like emphasize in music, or math or whatever. (I don't mean to sound too fatalist, by the way, but I'm not sure how else to state it). After all, most people can learn to do math, at least to some level. Similiarly almost anyone can probably learn the piano. But there are undisputed math geniuses and music prodigies that have made their mark (and probably many that have not).

So if anyone can learn other languages, are there really geniuses for language, and if so, how would they qualify as such(like being able to speak a certain high number of diverse tongues, or being able to rapidly pick them up)?
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patuco
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 Message 2 of 3
21 June 2006 at 3:28pm | IP Logged 
Journeyer wrote:
...are there really geniuses for language

I think that there must be since, as you said, there are geniuses for other disciplines.



Journeyer wrote:
how would they qualify as such(like being able to speak a certain high number of diverse tongues, or being able to rapidly pick them up)?

I would suggest that it's being able to pick them up without much effort.

Edited by patuco on 21 June 2006 at 3:28pm

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Journeyer
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
tristan85.blogspot.c
Joined 6871 days ago

946 posts - 1110 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, German
Studies: Sign Language

 
 Message 3 of 3
21 June 2006 at 5:54pm | IP Logged 
I might also be being too limited, because their could be geniuses for language within a culture, or how it is used, like in poems, neither of which necessarily involve a foreign language, however, this is the aspect that I am most curious about at this point.


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