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Ziad Fazah - The Complete Video | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
 Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6896 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 41 of 56 29 September 2009 at 4:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I was one of the posters here who spoke to him briefly on the phone a couple of years back when this was debated here. He only spoke to me in English and Spanish and both were OK. His Spanish was better when I spoke to him than what he manages on that show, but that could be nerves.
As for the Finnish, this new video shows him in a slightly more favorable light than before. We still see him delivering a completely false ("fake" is the only word really) translation of what he listened to in Finnish, but then he is seen speaking in Finnish too, very heavily accented and ungrammatical Finnish, but he still manages a couple of half intelligible statements, like saying he has studied Finnish for three months. Unlike before, I am now convinced that he did dedicate some time to studying Finnish at some point in the past, and was still capable of producing a couple of basic, intelligible sentences at the time the show was recorded. His listening comprehension was next to zero, but being able to follow a native speaker at natural speed is quite an advanced skill in any case. So, the new video does show evidence of a certain measure of basic knowledge, but still nowhere near the fluency that has been claimed. Edited by Hencke on 29 September 2009 at 4:51pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Lucas Pentaglot Groupie Switzerland Joined 5169 days ago 85 posts - 130 votes Speaks: French*, English, German, Italian, Russian Studies: Mandarin | Message 42 of 56 03 October 2010 at 7:37am | IP Logged | |||||
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It's obvious he doesn't speak more than 5 or 6 languages: he can't even understand
"what day are we today" in russian (it would be funny if it wasn't so sad)! We'd better try to discover the origins of his pathetic and strange mythomania... PS: Unfortunately I can't be the creator of a new discussion about the "Ziah Fazah Pathology": I studied ancient greek (instead of englich) at college and high school and never really learned to write properly in english...but I DON'T SPEAK ancient greek! :) Edited by Lucas on 03 October 2010 at 7:39am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Betjeman Groupie Germany Joined 6145 days ago 85 posts - 204 votes Speaks: German* | Message 43 of 56 17 May 2012 at 4:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
Wonderful. Perfect example of unsubstantiated arrogance on part of the poster. In his profile, "Paramecium" cites English as one of the two languages he actually speaks, and yet he manages to squeeze half a dozen fairly elementary mistakes in just a handful of lines. There's nothing wrong with making mistakes, mind you, but a bit of humbleness suits everyone well. "I don't feel any sorry for him" certainly doesn't fit the bill. Edited by Betjeman on 17 May 2012 at 4:03pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Leurre Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5427 days ago 219 posts - 372 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Korean, Haitian Creole, SpanishC2 Studies: Japanese | Message 44 of 56 18 May 2012 at 5:56am | IP Logged | |||||
Look at him being arrogant. I'll cut him down to size by pointing out his grammar mistakes. Good job. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Betjeman Groupie Germany Joined 6145 days ago 85 posts - 204 votes Speaks: German* | Message 45 of 56 18 May 2012 at 11:35am | IP Logged | |||||
Good point, Leurre. I was thinking twice before posting the comment you are referring to. Nobody is perfect. I make mistakes, we all make mistakes, and lots of them. Yet we are entitled to criticize other people. But there is a fine line between criticism and scorn. And if scorn is combined with ignorance, as it often is, I think I may take the liberty to point it out regardless of my own shortcomings. I can only hope that I wasn't too ignorant myself. Edited by Betjeman on 18 May 2012 at 12:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Paramecium Tetraglot Groupie Germany Joined 5714 days ago 46 posts - 59 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Russian Studies: Japanese | Message 46 of 56 19 May 2012 at 5:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yes I have made many mistakes, but I don't think that you can judge about my command of English by this post. Just for the record: Beside German I speak English (C1), Russian (B2) and French (B1-B2). I have studied a couple of other languages (Ukrainian, Japanese, Polish), but unlike Ziad Fazah I wouldn't claim to "speak" these ones, even if I'm able to answer the question about the day of the week in all of them. It was not my intention to sound arrogant. I have much respect for all persons who learn foreign languages. But Ziad Fazah is a fraud who tries to earn money with false claims. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Betjeman Groupie Germany Joined 6145 days ago 85 posts - 204 votes Speaks: German* | Message 47 of 56 20 May 2012 at 10:27am | IP Logged | |||||
Paramecium, I appreciate your reply. Like I said, it is only natural to make mistakes when speaking or writing a foreign language. You know more languages than I do, and I certainly envy your ability to speak French at level B1-B2, since this is exactly what I am striving for. I do not know about you, but I am not the one to decide if Ziad Fazah is a fraud or not. He is obviously not as good as he claimed to be, but I would still give him the benefit of the doubt. Television studios have an awful tendency to get you tongue-tied with nervousness, even in your first language. So I thought - and still think - your comment showed a somewhat terrifying lack of empathy. This is all too common in the age of the internet, with anonymous posters uttering all kinds of malice everywhere. People who live in glass houses should not throw stones, and since we all live in glass houses, perhaps stone throwing is not such a good idea after all. Edited by Betjeman on 20 May 2012 at 10:31am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5347 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 48 of 56 20 May 2012 at 5:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
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If you set the criteria for "speaking" a language low enough, you can then claim to speak as many languages as you wish. This is certainly easier than the other way around, of raising your skills to a point where such as claim would be meaningful.
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