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Motivations for becoming a polyglot

  Tags: Polyglot
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
60 messages over 8 pages: 1 2 35 6 7 8 Next >>
Henkkles
Triglot
Senior Member
Finland
Joined 4251 days ago

544 posts - 1141 votes 
Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 25 of 60
03 October 2013 at 10:04pm | IP Logged 
sans-serif wrote:

tl;dr
Most people take 10 years of English and 6 years of Swedish.

I had the option to study "lång lärokurs" Swedish when I was ten years old, thus making the years of English ten and Swedish nine that I had in school.
2 persons have voted this message useful



renaissancemedi
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Greece
Joined 4356 days ago

941 posts - 1309 votes 
Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2
Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 26 of 60
04 October 2013 at 7:44am | IP Logged 
montmorency wrote:
Somewhat off the original topic (to which I can contribute little that hasn't been said already), I was interested to discover recently that
The Prof. said one on here that
he didn't like the term "polyglottery"

among other reasons because he thought it was ugly.

I personally find the term "glot" or "glottis" a bit displeasing to the ear, in contrast to "lingua" or "lingual" which I find pleasing.

I'm not sure whether he really came up with a good alternative, but perhaps I'd like to suggest "polylingualism", and a practitioner of the
art could be a "polylinguist", or if that offends self-styled "power linguist" Mr Clugston, then "polylingualist".



I like the term linguaphile, as described by Kato Lomb. In greek we say γλωσσομαθής (beautiful word!), rather than πολύγλωσσος, which is fine by me since the term polyglot, a person with many tongues, sounds totally creepy in our very descriptive language.

If I rethink the op's question, I'd say I have no motivation to be a polyglot, but I am already a linguaphile who is trying to become γλωσσομαθής, learned in languages.

Edited by renaissancemedi on 04 October 2013 at 7:47am

3 persons have voted this message useful



Ogrim
Heptaglot
Senior Member
France
Joined 4637 days ago

991 posts - 1896 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian
Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian

 
 Message 27 of 60
04 October 2013 at 10:38am | IP Logged 
I really like the word γλωσσομαθής, learned in languages, and I'd rather call myself that than "polyglot". Unfortunately only Greek-speakers would understand what I'm talking about.

I did never have a motivation for becoming a polyglot as such. I just discovered at one point that languages are fascinating, and besides they open up windows and doors to new cultures and experiences.
2 persons have voted this message useful



renaissancemedi
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Greece
Joined 4356 days ago

941 posts - 1309 votes 
Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2
Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 28 of 60
04 October 2013 at 10:40am | IP Logged 
You are just that, Ogrim. You fit the description perfectly!
1 person has voted this message useful



Lykeio
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4242 days ago

120 posts - 357 votes 

 
 Message 30 of 60
04 October 2013 at 11:53am | IP Logged 
I agree I've never really liked the word polyglot and thus I've never really used it of
myself. Plus, growing up in a quadrilingual environment I'm multilingual in the proper
functional sense anyway.

I'd say I became a "polyglot" by accident with regards to most modern foreign
languages, I never really intended to pick up French or Italian or German but all were
requirements for me to actually take my degree (they're research languages) so...I
basically had to with those three. Both French and Italian come in use whenever I'm in
those countries for conferences or holidays though which is nice.

Erm...obviously with ancient languages I just love learning them but I'm not counting
those.

I really want to learn something "exotic" though. I don't necessarily mean Russian or
Arabic or Mandarin since everyone around me seems to know one or the other from their
schooling background. I mean...I don't know, Turkish or Finnish or something. Something
out there with no value whatsoever to my studies or anything. I get to frustrated
trying to choose and trying to find to just...pick one and learn.
2 persons have voted this message useful



Juаn
Senior Member
Colombia
Joined 5343 days ago

727 posts - 1830 votes 
Speaks: Spanish*

 
 Message 31 of 60
04 October 2013 at 5:41pm | IP Logged 
erenko wrote:
Thinking is the first duty of an intellectual and then courage.


All too often public intellectuals fortify a modest endowment of the former with herculean displays of the latter - a fatal combination, if you ask me. Just look at the likes of Paul Krugman or Richard Dawkins.

The prerequisite to thought is curiosity, and the means for satisfying it, time, books and languages.
6 persons have voted this message useful



Raincrowlee
Tetraglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6700 days ago

621 posts - 808 votes 
Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French
Studies: Indonesian, Japanese

 
 Message 32 of 60
04 October 2013 at 6:46pm | IP Logged 
Ogrim wrote:
I really like the word γλωσσομαθής, learned in languages, and I'd rather call myself that than "polyglot". Unfortunately only Greek-speakers would understand what I'm talking about.


All words start somewhere. You've seen what the Internet has done to LOLcats. Why not this?

Edited by Raincrowlee on 04 October 2013 at 6:47pm



1 person has voted this message useful



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