John McWhorter - The Language Hoax (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

John McWhorter - The Language Hoax
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Language Learning Forum : General discussion	( Topic Closed)

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Stolan
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4029 days ago
274 posts - 368 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Thai, Lowland Scots
Studies: Arabic (classical), Cantonese

Message 25 of 69

11 June 2014 at 3:29pm | IP Logged

Doitsujin wrote:

@Stolan: Have you ever had an HTLAL account under a different user name and were banned?

No, but I often may start copying what others say as part of my arguments. I admit that. 1e4e6 gave me some points
on English.

I read "defining creole" and "non-native acquisition" by Mcwhorther and read articles he writes.
My comment on Japanese has to do with a certain beef I have that the only non-European language that my often
brought up European strawman learns is Japanese, never Cantonese for example.

1 person has voted this message useful

tastyonions
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4662 days ago
1044 posts - 1823 votes

Speaks: English*, French, Spanish
Studies: Italian

Message 26 of 69

11 June 2014 at 4:03pm | IP Logged

For non-IE languages, Mandarin seems rather more common these days when I talk to Europeans who are interested in languages. And I would wager that Arabic is catching up to Japanese. That's just my informal impression, though.
1 person has voted this message useful

iguanamon
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Virgin Islands
Speaks: Ladino
Joined 5259 days ago
2241 posts - 6731 votes

Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French)

Message 27 of 69

11 June 2014 at 4:05pm | IP Logged

Stolan wrote:

...My comment on Japanese has to do with a certain beef I have that the only non-European language that my often brought up European strawman learns is Japanese, never Cantonese for example.

What about longtime HTLAL member Ari from Sweden? He huffed, and he puffed and he blew the straw man down, in Cantonese (and Mandarin).

Edited by iguanamon on 11 June 2014 at 4:17pm
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Stolan
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4029 days ago
274 posts - 368 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Thai, Lowland Scots
Studies: Arabic (classical), Cantonese

Message 28 of 69

11 June 2014 at 4:37pm | IP Logged

I don't recall seeing that guy's posts. His profile doesn't look suspicious at first. Is he some self loathing swede?
Is this the guy who made posts that led to banning that Doitsujin mentioned?
1 person has voted this message useful

tastyonions
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4662 days ago
1044 posts - 1823 votes

Speaks: English*, French, Spanish
Studies: Italian

Message 29 of 69

11 June 2014 at 4:44pm | IP Logged

He doesn't seem to post that much anymore, sadly. But I never noticed any self-loathing on his part...
3 persons have voted this message useful

iguanamon
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Virgin Islands
Speaks: Ladino
Joined 5259 days ago
2241 posts - 6731 votes

Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French)

Message 30 of 69

11 June 2014 at 5:07pm | IP Logged

Ari has been one of the most helpful members on the forum. His Chinesepod method earned 33 well-deserved votes. One member who was banned and came back under another guise was "COF". He returned as "Tobacco Smoke", was soon outed and banned again. COF's schtick was that he never talked about actually learning a language. All his posting was devoted to talking about languages in a controversial manner solely in order to troll the membership.

Edited by iguanamon on 11 June 2014 at 5:40pm
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Doitsujin
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 5317 days ago
1256 posts - 2363 votes

Speaks: German*, English

Message 31 of 69

11 June 2014 at 5:38pm | IP Logged

Bao wrote:

pdf wrote:

For example, if the noun that names a toaster is masculine, then perhaps its metallic and technological properties may become more salient, but if the noun is feminine, then perhaps its warmth, domesticity, and ability to provide nourishment are given more importance.

When I think of toaster, the idea of 'freshly toasted bread' becomes more salient.

That's so stereotypical German of you. :-)

Surely you could imagine a nightmare in which nice, feminine, cuddly Spanish toastadoras protect you from super-sized, evil, shape-shifting, masculine German Toasters who are hunting you down?

iguanamon wrote:

Ari has been one of the most helpful members on the forum.

Indeed. I certainly didn't have him in mind.

Stolan wrote:

I don't recall seeing that guy's posts. His profile doesn't look suspicious at first. Is he some self loathing swede?
Is this the guy who made posts that led to banning that Doitsujin mentioned?

Nope. The former member I had in mind, a self-proclaimed pentaglot (by his own standards), was officially banned after repeatedly attacking another member. (Unlike Ari's account his account is listed as "Not active" and he can no longer post here using this original account.)
4 persons have voted this message useful

wber
Groupie
United States
Joined 4298 days ago
45 posts - 77 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Vietnamese, French

Message 32 of 69

11 June 2014 at 5:41pm | IP Logged

Retinend wrote:

For what it's worth, I think Stolan's posts are often highly informative, colourful, and at the best of times they inject some energy into the
generally non-judgmental atmosphere here. I like a bit of judgement when its provocative without being rude, which is fair to say of Stolan.

Well, I disagree. I find him to be an arrogant prick, and as courtesy of what tarvos has said in this post, that "Stolan thinks all languages need to comply with some arbitrary Stolan standard of
grammar. " http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=12731&PN=1&TPN=2
If not, than that language surely is ungrammatical and the people are surely inferior since their language which has been in use for thousands of years, lacks the complexity and the ability to express things the right way, the more Stolan way. Those people sure are stupid huh?

http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=12731&PN=1&TPN=4

Here he makes a broad claim that Vietnamese is just a tonal version of Indonesian even thought he is neither a native speaker Vietnamese nor Indonesian, yet he has the audacity to claim that he knows more about both languages then those who were born and raised in those languages. How is that not being rude?

We try to keep this forum non-judgemental because it is a forum about learning and understanding languages and not a pissing contest on saying "X language is better than Y language" or tying languages to politics.

Edited by wber on 11 June 2014 at 5:43pm

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