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Ármin Vámbéry | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| omicron Senior Member United States Joined 7124 days ago 125 posts - 132 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 2 22 June 2006 at 2:19am | IP Logged |
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Ármin Vámbéry is mentioned in one of Kato Lomb's books, where she's talking about immersion in the real written literature of a target language to establish a solid subconscious base for automatising grammatical patterns rather than relying on studying grammars. She advocates reading and talking aloud to oneself in the target language:
"Let us recall my compatriot of Arminius Vamberi, who flawlessly managed an infinite quantity of foreign languages. Deprived in childhood of family, constant roof and means to existence, he studied languages not in the schools and not with the instructors, but according to dictionaries and original books, talking to himself and with inanimate objects which were in his environment" (Apologies for the only-slightly-cleaned-up babelfish translation.) Interesting guy, Armin. According to Wikipedia, he spoke over 20 languages, travelled disguised as a Muslim to Samarkand and back in 1863-64, wrote a Turkish/German dictionary, was a member of the Hungarian Academy of Science, and a professor of Oriental Languages at the University of Budapest. And he was a spy for the British. Not bad for a poor jewish kid from the boondocks in Slovakia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arminius_Vambery EDIT : and another http://www.boija.com/texts/vambery.html Any Hungarians on the board who know more about him? Edited by omicron on 22 June 2006 at 2:52am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| daristani Senior Member United States Joined 7147 days ago 752 posts - 1661 votes Studies: Uzbek | Message 2 of 2 22 June 2006 at 3:33pm | IP Logged |
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Sorry, I'm not Hungarian, and don't really know all that much about Vambery, although I do have a book about him in Turkish somewhere around the house. But I just wanted to note that, for those interested in him, there was a full-length bibliography about him published a few years ago in the UK. It's called "The Dervish of Windsor Castle". I've never read it, but it should provide an account of a man who lived a fascinating and adventurous life in addition to his linguistic accomplishments.
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