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Motivations for becoming a polyglot | ||
Tags: Polyglot | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5530 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes  Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 33 of 60 04 October 2013 at 7:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
If our hypothetical intellectual was raised speaking the standard dialect of a major world language, a language with a long and respectable written tradition, then it's often possible to be both a monoglot and an intellectual. But tons of smart, intellectually-active people have grown up in other circumstances. For example, they may: 1) Speak the wrong dialect of a prestigious language, so everyone assumes they're stupid. 2) Speak a medium-sized language where half the important books never get translated. 3) Speak a small language where only the Bible gets translated. 4) Live 500 years after the collapse of a major empire, and so all serious intellectual work takes place in a dead language. 5) Live in a society that quotes long, untranslated passages in books. 6) Live in a society where it's assumed that any self-respecting intellectual reads either Latin, classical Chinese, Modern Standard Arabic or perhaps Middle Egyptian. So if you look at the last 4,500 years of human history, an "intellectual" has almost always meant, "Somebody who reads and writes another, much more important language or two." Except when it meant, "Somebody who has a memorized a major saga or the legal code." And this is true even today: Plenty of people in this world find it hard to study advanced or esoteric topics without being able to read English or least one of the other big languages. And monolingual English speakers do miss out on a lot, too. 10 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4907 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 34 of 60 04 October 2013 at 7:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm not sure if I will ever be good enough at my languages to call myself a polyglot. But I keep studying languages because my brain wants to learn.
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| lichtrausch Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5958 days ago 525 posts - 1072 votes Speaks: English*, German, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin | Message 35 of 60 04 October 2013 at 8:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
The first duty of a certain strand of intellectual, like one concentrating on literature and philosophy. I think the main goal of an intellectual has always been to understand the universe and our place within it. For most of human history, the known universe was severely constrained by the limits of human perception, so the grand scale of the actual universe as well as the molecular world was hidden from us. The universe appeared to revolve around humans and gods, so it was only rational for the intellectual to direct most of his energies towards philosophy, history, theology and maybe literature. Conveniently, there were great imperial languages that held the entire knowledge of these grand traditions, so an intellectual in Europe, Central Asia, South Asia or East Asia needed only to learn the one or two grand languages of their civilization. Enter the modern world, where our knowledge of the universe has been exponentially expanded by telescopes, microscopes and giants such as Newton and Einstein. Anyone with an intellectual bent has the incredible fortune of access to a stupendous wealth of knowledge about the universe on a cosmic, quantum, molecular and human scale. But the intellectual must now be very selective about what he learns, since the human lifespan is but a fleeting moment in comparison with this trove of knowledge. In my opinion, the first duties of the modern intellectual should be English and mathematics. Math and English are the modern languages of science, and science, by a long shot, can tell us the most about the universe and our place within it. I think there is still a place for intellectuals who focus mostly on literature, history and philosophy such as Christopher Hitchens and Marcel Reich-Ranicki, but I believe that those modern intellectuals who become well-versed in science and mathematics (Carl Sagan and Sam Harris come to mind) will be far better equipped to understand, and explain to others, the universe and our place within it. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5343 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 36 of 60 04 October 2013 at 9:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
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"La ciencia no resuelve los problemas que el hombre le plantea, sino los que se plantea a sí misma."
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| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4842 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 37 of 60 04 October 2013 at 9:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
This is a common misconception. Science can tell us nothing about our place within the universe, but only about the universe itself. Only the human mind can tell us anything about our place within this world. In other words, we always have to interpret what science tells us. Moreover, science doesn't tell us anything about the real questions what it means to be human. Yes, I have studied philosophy and I'm proud of it. Edited by Josquin on 04 October 2013 at 9:53pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4705 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 38 of 60 04 October 2013 at 10:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The problem with that statement is is that there is so much data that science provides
us, so many facts and conclusions, that you really cannot get around science anyways. Yeah, you have to put a moral layer over it but that's really an obvious thing to do once you know what you're given to work with in my view. By the way, if an intellectual means "have to read old and dusty books" and "wear horn- rimmed glasses" and "drink sophisticated wines" and such, and if intellectuals have "duties", then I am sure not to be an intellectual. I hope my babbling of several languages constitutes polyglottery. And if it does not, if the arbitrary criteria for intellectuality or polyglottery or whatever are not satisfied according to some academic fashion then so be it. In my opinion, people should educate themselves whatever way they can. Whether that satisfies arbitrary "intellectual" criteria or not. Whether they study English or mathematics, chemistry or headology (or jommetry) isn't really so relevant to me. Oderint dum metuant.... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| simonov Senior Member Portugal Joined 5587 days ago 222 posts - 438 votes Speaks: English | Message 39 of 60 04 October 2013 at 11:23pm | IP Logged | |||||
I know what it means, and who said it, but what the heck do you mean by that? None of your reasoning warrants an "oderint dum metuant". So you don't like Shakespeare, Cervantes, Gil Vicente, François Villon, ...., it's you who's losing out, not those 'old and dusty books'. You prefer babbling in tongues, fine, why not, but don't keep on disparaging the ideas of others who happen to have different expectations. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4249 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 40 of 60 05 October 2013 at 5:28am | IP Logged | |||||
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I doubt that one's visual acuity or taste in alcoholic beverages has anything to do with one's ability to learn about the world. Knowing multiple languages, on the other hand, does open the door to learning new things...
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