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Feelings about being a polyglot | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7106 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 17 of 36 14 September 2006 at 2:05am | IP Logged | ||
Very good! If you don't mind, I think I'll pack that little quote away for my own use when the occasion arises... Andy. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| puellanivis Pentaglot Newbie United States Joined 6614 days ago 11 posts - 12 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, GermanC1, Swedish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Latin, Mandarin, French | Message 18 of 36 19 October 2006 at 8:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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I find people are usually amazed at my ability, and despite not knowing a word or something, they are usually impressed by my ability. Often, my ability to pick up a language is not based on the vocabulary, but rather my ease at picking up grammatical concepts. Although, I do have an impressive ability to pick up new words very quickly, and directly associate them to concepts, rather than a translation of another language. (If I am reading to words of another language, then I truely don't say that I actually speak that language.)
It does help me in my job though, as many of the major languages that I already know are in use by my company, and people are generally aware of it. But yes, it can get annoying if people constantly ask you to prove it. *sigh* 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| winters Trilingual Heptaglot Senior Member Italy Joined 7047 days ago 199 posts - 218 votes Speaks: Croatian*, Serbian*, Russian*, English, Italian, Latin, Ancient Greek Studies: Greek, French, Hungarian | Message 19 of 36 16 December 2006 at 4:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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It might be sad to hear, but not only that I got used to "concealing" which languages I can speak and to what extent, I also got used even to "concealing" my native languages - when asked what is my mother tongue, I only mention Croatian, because mentioning Serbian has possibly political connotations (and because they are incredibly similar, so it is viewed by some as "showing off" if you bring up the fact that you can speak both of them - but unlike most of the people, I truly do know them each separately... not one of those who 'add' Serbian or Bosnian just to have 'one language more' ;)), and because Russian is utterly painful and highly personal issue of a language which has been, in various periods of my life, native and foreign to me, and also because my Russian skills are not truly at the level native speakers educated in Russian have.
Serbian and Russian are the languages I simply do not bring up, I ignore their existence anywhere but in this forum, and have been doing so my entire life. Perhaps the best example is the fact that a friend of mine whom I know since kindergarten found out I spoke Russian last year, on my 16th birthday. I simply never brought it up, not even at school or anywhere. Then I do not bring up the 'dead' ones (Latin, Ancient Greek and Old Church Slavonic) unless specifically asked; I do not bring up French and Modern Greek because I am hardly intermediate in both of them (though I can comprehend them both reasonably well, especially the former); so usually when asked which languages I can speak, I will 'count' Croatian, English and Italian, and say that Croatian is my native language, English a foreign one I am fluent in - perhaps not perfect, but for somebody who is barely 17 and has never been to an anglophone country I am pretty proud of the level I have - and that I am reasonably good in Italian. That being said, usually people do not have any further questions since knowing English and studying one more language is something most of the people are used to when it comes to people my age. The problem arises only if my cellphone rings at that moment and I am forced to answer it in some other language (which happenned several times, bad luck), which is then usually followed by me being asked whether I was a spy or something and why did I hide which languages I can speak ;) And why do I do it, there are not many 'real' reasons behind it (except when it comes to the issue of mother tongues). I just 'hide' the ones I am not at least basically fluent in and the 'dead' ones, unless I specify which school I attend (then one can conclude that Greek and Latin are also on the list). I get also pretty annoyed by those "Say X in the language Y" for they prove nothing of one's command of the language, and I get annoyed when asked how many languages I can speak (frankly? I have to count them every time when I think of it because I do not know it off the top of my head - the quality concerns me, not the quantity). That is basically why I avoide language-type conversations, and rare are the people with whom I discuss those things. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6922 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes Speaks: English* | Message 20 of 36 17 December 2006 at 12:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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I prefer the "how do you say X in Y questions" to the dreadful "say something in Y" which always stops me like a deer in headlights because I never know what to say since you know that the next question will inevitably be "what does that mean in English" and it better be something clever and not "my pencil is yellow".
For that reason, I have memorized a little something to say in each language just for that occasion. Of course, we are always afraid to fess up to the languages we speak lest there be a native speaker in our midst who wants to put us to the test. This is fine, but unless I have been reading a novel or watching a film in Y language recently, it takes me 10-15 minutes to "recall" the language into my brain in order to have a fluent conversation. If you haven't used a language for quite a while, you cannot simply turn it on and off like a lightbulb. However, everyone listening to you stumble and bumble just doesn't get it. I find it easier to have a conversation with someone after a few drinks - seems to loosen you up and you do not feel so self-conscious. I try to explain to people it is like when someone brings up a movie that you know you have seen in the past, but can't quite recall all of the details. As the conversation ensues, you gradually remember things. "Remember that part when that guy..." I also hate it when people ask what languages I speak and when I tell them they respond [composite reponse]: "Oh Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese are all so similar anyway...you should try something harder. My [insert relative of your choice] lived in Japan for 5 years and speaks fluent Japanese now that's a hard language". If I respond that I actually am studying language Z, I am told "oh, you're too old to do that now, you will never be able to learn all those characters/words/sounds, etc." Most monolinguals do not understand what it means to learn another language. They still believe that there is a just a one-to-one connection between "their words" and "our words" and you just need to learn their words for our words and that's it. Never mind that the simple English word "run" can have hundreds of translations into another language depending on its meaning "run away, run for election, run down, run over, run in baseball, run in your stocking, run into s/o, etc." Usually I don't tell people I can speak languages, but then they always ask what I do for a living and when I respond that I am a translator, the questions start coming. Sometimes I will lie about what I do just to avoid the inevitable barrage of supplemental questions: "What does that mean?, Who do you work for? What languages do you translate? You should work for the United Nations". Of course, they are all well-meaning, but it is like being asked "what happened" when you have a cast on your arm - it gets a little repetitive after a while and you feel like a broken record. Of course, sometimes it can be fun when the shoe is on the other foot and someone at a party or other function is bragging about how fluent they are in language Y (a language you happen to know) and you just keep quiet and let them go on and on while you think of something clever to say in language Y to trip them up. Edited by translator2 on 17 December 2006 at 12:05pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6771 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 21 of 36 18 December 2006 at 3:38am | IP Logged | ||
I know what you mean! I guess I'm fortunate that most of my relatives are bilingual in German or French (depending on the side of the family), so they actually know what's involved. What bugs me is when people who know less about languages than a tree stump tell me I must be "gifted" because I can speak Japanese and French. No, I tell them, I just work really, really hard at it. I'll bet people who have climbed Mt. Everest would be annoyed too if you told them they were "just good at climbing things". Fortunately, that attitude seems to be uniquely anglophone, so I don't encounter it much these days. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| lady_skywalker Triglot Senior Member Netherlands aspiringpolyglotblog Joined 6893 days ago 909 posts - 942 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, French, Dutch, Italian | Message 22 of 36 18 December 2006 at 6:08am | IP Logged | ||
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I can really sympathise with some of the comments made above! I think people who don't have an affinity or interest in foreign languages are either impressed and think you're a genius or will try and make you stumble by testing your knowledge (how they can test your knowledge of Mandarin when they don't speak a word of it is beyond me!). I usually avoid saying anything about my language skills as I'm a bit of an introvert and hate drawing attention to myself.
I've even avoided going to Chinese restaurants recently as there's always someone who will suddenly remember I studied Mandarin and will badger me into speaking with the waitresses/waiters...despite the fact that most of the time the staff are Cantonese or that I'm just interested in enjoying myself and having a nice meal. It's almost as annoying as the 'why don't you go speak to that man/woman? He/She's Chinese so you can have a nice chat' or 'Say something in Chinese'. I wonder if these same people would ask a surgeon to go and operate on someone just to prove he or she is a surgeon... 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6771 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 23 of 36 18 December 2006 at 6:16am | IP Logged | ||
Well, they probably get pestered with stuff like "you're a doctor? Can you look at this rash on my foot?" or questions about sick pets, or what headache medicine is best. :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6600 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 24 of 36 19 December 2006 at 8:39am | IP Logged | ||
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Hehe, nice comparison to surgeons :D I'm also thinking loooong when I'm asked to say something in Finnish... In Latin I usually say some proverbs that sound really rude to Russian speakers :D
I don't know any "real" monolinguals, never thought they believe it's that simple.. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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