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I have spoken to Ziad Fazah

 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots Post Reply
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Mae
Trilingual Octoglot
Pro Member
Germany
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Speaks: German*, SpanishC2*, Swiss-German*, FrenchC2, EnglishC2, ItalianB2, Dutch, Portuguese
Studies: Russian, Swedish
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 Message 41 of 104
29 March 2012 at 9:52pm | IP Logged 
Solfrid Cristin, I do have a question for Mr. Fazah...
In his videos he always says that he learned "all the languages of the world". What does
he mean? As far as I know, there are thousands of languages out there...

Thank you!
1 person has voted this message useful



Journeyer
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
tristan85.blogspot.c
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946 posts - 1110 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, German
Studies: Sign Language

 
 Message 42 of 104
29 March 2012 at 10:21pm | IP Logged 
If I may chime in, Mae, he's definitely aware that there are other languages out there. When I told him about some of the languages I want to learn, such as Navajo, he said he knew of it but didn't see its usefulness. Just an assumption, but I think he meant all the "major" languages of the world, or the most famous ones anyways. For example, most people know of Norwegian and Norway, even if it's not a major language.


Edited by Journeyer on 29 March 2012 at 10:22pm

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Mae
Trilingual Octoglot
Pro Member
Germany
Joined 4991 days ago

299 posts - 499 votes 
Speaks: German*, SpanishC2*, Swiss-German*, FrenchC2, EnglishC2, ItalianB2, Dutch, Portuguese
Studies: Russian, Swedish
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 43 of 104
29 March 2012 at 10:50pm | IP Logged 
So you think he meant he learned "the top 59 languages of the world"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_ native_speakers

I'm interested in how polyglots choose their languages. Usefulness is a point, because of
employability, mobility, etc. in the EU ;-)
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Journeyer
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
tristan85.blogspot.c
Joined 6868 days ago

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

 
 Message 44 of 104
29 March 2012 at 11:13pm | IP Logged 
I'm not sure what he meant. However, I don't remember asking him about it specifically. As far as to the languages he chose, I think he chose the ones he felt he could make money from. One of the things he spoke about a lot was trying to make a living with languages. At one point he told me not to try to make languages my sole means of gain, because it's not really possible by itself. And I think he's probably right: language skills are excellent, but often you need another set of skills to compliment them. I've never been hired in a job due to language skills alone, personally.

I think he wanted originally to be a translator, but again, most translators have some level of expertise in their field, especially in higher-up level translators. Context goes hand-in-hand with good translating/interpreting, as you are probably already aware.
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Midnight
Diglot
Groupie
Czech Republic
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54 posts - 111 votes 
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 Message 45 of 104
30 March 2012 at 3:15pm | IP Logged 
There goes my favourite Saami :D Now let's what has he come to. He's stuck in Brazil teaching the locals English, Spanish and maybe French. And how useful do you think Singlish and Cypriot Greek is?
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Pisces
Bilingual Pentaglot
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Finland
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 Message 46 of 104
02 April 2012 at 6:17pm | IP Logged 
I do not really understand how anyone can really admire him, considering we have every reason to believe that ZF is a man who lied for fame (getting into Guinness) and financial gain. And as for his excuse concerning the TV interview in Chile, that he hadn't prepared - well, he was tested on some of the most important languages (Russian, Chinese) - am I going to believe he has taken the trouble of learning Chinese well and doesn't bother to keep it up at all? Why did he learn it then?
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Journeyer
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
tristan85.blogspot.c
Joined 6868 days ago

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

 
 Message 47 of 104
02 April 2012 at 6:31pm | IP Logged 
For some polyglots, myself included, learning the language is a joy in itself and if the language is forgotten, it's not a big deal exactly.

I personally don't learn languages to use them; I approach them the way I approach books: I read/learn the ones I want, and focus on the ones I need.

Besides, in my experience, a language isn't really lost anyways. If it falls into disuse and becomes unusable, it's usually possible to brush up on the language and in a couple days or weeks time of use or immersion, you'll find yourself back more or less where you left off. A few learners have talked about this, and there's even a thread about it somewhere called "Dehydrated Polyglot Skills" or something like that.

Edited by Journeyer on 02 April 2012 at 6:32pm

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Midnight
Diglot
Groupie
Czech Republic
Joined 4639 days ago

54 posts - 111 votes 
Speaks: Czech*, English

 
 Message 48 of 104
23 April 2012 at 3:40pm | IP Logged 
Hello everybody.

My friend got this site personally from Mr. Fazah.

www.ziadfazah.com.br

I think it's worth checking out. I find the English translation too influenced by his Portuguese though. F.e. Choose the language down instead of "Choose from the languages below" or something. What's even more irritating is that he listed butanes and dzongkha as two languages again. Butanes could be Balochi, but I doubt it. And to top it off, he wrote Pushtu instead of the correct Pt equivalent Pachto which tells us even more about his skills. That's not acceptable from someone who's been living in Brazil for more than 4 decades.


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