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William James Sidis | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| ProfArguelles Moderator United States foreignlanguageexper Joined 7259 days ago 609 posts - 2102 votes  | Message 1 of 6 26 March 2005 at 11:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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There is a site called "constipated wombats and the world's greatest polylgots":
http://www.ozaru.freeserve.co.uk/polyglotwombatsandothercunn inglinguists.htm This site provides a link to an article about an all around genius named William James Sidis, whom it credits with knowing 200 languages, though it gives no details about his linguistic achievements. Can anyone provide any substance here? Edited by administrator on 27 March 2005 at 12:31am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| KingM Triglot Senior Member michaelwallaceauthor Joined 7194 days ago 275 posts - 300 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Russian | Message 2 of 6 27 March 2005 at 7:24am | IP Logged | ||
I'm dubious. How many people even come into contact with 200 languages? You'd have to be traveling through tribal regions of India or Africa and you'd have to spend enough time in these areas to learn the language without any benefit of books or tapes in the target language. If you spent two months in each tribal area or with each language it would still take you 35 years to learn 200 languages. Edited by administrator on 27 March 2005 at 7:37am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fisher99 Newbie United Kingdom Joined 7127 days ago 10 posts - 10 votes | Message 3 of 6 24 May 2005 at 2:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have done some research into William James Sidis, there are few things that needs to be taken into account.
Firstly Sidis was estimated to have an IQ of between 250-300. That places him with highly cognative abilities. At 11 he was lecturing at Havard. He had passed the MIT entrance exams at 8. When you also take into account that his father was a genius in psychology and home-schooled William with some interesting learning techniques, it is not hard to realise the learning potential of Sidis. Plus he had total recall of all things that he read. Academically he probably knew 200 languages, was probably fluent in a few dozen considering his parents already spoke a few languages. So in the end he probably did "know" the languages, but to be fluently passable in all of them with out cultural contact is another matter. Go to Sidis.net for furthur info on the remarkable family. Not all geniuses aim to go for the bling bling lime light attention. 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 4 of 6 24 May 2005 at 3:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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Even if he was a genius, would he have been allowed to pass the MIT entrance exams at the age of 8?
(Sorry, stupid question, I tried to delete it but I couldn't) Edited by Raistlin Majere on 24 May 2005 at 3:11pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tomd Newbie learn-dutch.info/ Joined 7162 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes | Message 5 of 6 25 May 2005 at 4:27am | IP Logged | ||
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Quoting Sarah Sidis, his mather:
"his unleashed power enabled him to gain a workable knowledge of 25 languages, his father, Boris Sidis, was fluent in 50. After a little practice, either could master a new tongue within a week." comes from http://www.sidis.net/Genius.htm Also (added on re-edit): The ability to learn languages stemmed from a basic understanding of what every language is based upon. Looking through the Boston Library one day, my husband found a book explaining the word forms of the early Aryan language. Most modern tongues are based on this archaic form, and it was easy for Billy or my husband to enlarge their vocabularies merely by referring to the basic form. During the week that it would take either of them to learn a language, they would devote themselves entirely to that subject alone. Learning was not a matter of repetition to them, and it need not be for anyone. comes from: http://www.sidis.net/methods.htm Edited by tomd on 25 May 2005 at 5:49am 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 6 of 6 25 May 2005 at 6:42am | IP Logged | ||
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I learnt the Indoeuropean grammar, as I have already said in another post, last Christmas, and though it has been of a great help to me (I can now understand languages I have never studied such as Czech, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish...), because, as you say, it gives a basic understanding of all the structure of Indoeuropean languages, it hasn't been a great impprovement regarding the time I need to learn a language.
So, if Messrs Sidis really could learn any language in one week, I would be more inclined to think that it was because of their incredible IQ rather than to the fact that they had knowledge of Indoeuropean:
That knowledge is not the key to their extraordinary achievements, whatever their mother and wife might think. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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