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Canada’s Global TV hyperpolyglot program | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5383 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes  Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 41 of 51 11 May 2012 at 5:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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Interesting discussion about the show here
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| Pisces Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4624 days ago 143 posts - 284 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish*, French, SwedishC1, Esperanto Studies: German, Spanish, Russian | Message 42 of 51 11 May 2012 at 5:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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One thing I wonder about is why this show (and not only this show) immediately starts asking the question of whether these hyperpolyglots' brains are different, or whether it's just hard work, etc. Such a question is really out of the scope of a short TV program and takes time away from getting to know the people and how they do what they do.
I would compare it to being able to play a musical instrument. Very few people (compared to how many begin) become really good at playing a musical instrument. But when we interview a top violinist, we don't immediately ask "So do you think your brain is different or is it just hard work?" 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6921 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes Speaks: English* | Message 43 of 51 11 May 2012 at 7:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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However, when people are good at singing, we do tend to believe that these people have a special "talent". What we don't say is that their brains are wired differently.
Just like anyone can study singing and get a little or a lot better, but most people will never be more than moderately good at it, I think the same is true for studying languages. Anyone can do it, but only a few will be really good at it. I used to teach languages and many, many people were simply hopeless. I remember one woman who after studying Spanish for over three years, still pronounced the Spanish word "dice" (roughly dee-say) as the English word "dice". She could not bring herself to see written letters and understand that they were not pronounced the same way as in English. When I was in college, most of the people training to be Spanish teachers could not even conjugate a verb properly without a lot of effort and could not understand the instructors (who spoke only in Spanish). As soon as they discovered I could understand, they all wanted copies of my class notes. Our French high-school teacher used to continually mispronounce words. Among other things she taught the class that the word for today, aujourd'hui, was pronounced "o-ger-we" and when I tried to explain to her otherwise, she refused to believe me. Hanging out in these forums where almost everyone is a language expert of sorts, we sell ourselves a little short when it comes to how unusual it is to do what we do. Anyone can play a sport, but only some people are really good at it. Anyone can host a TV program, but only some people are really good at it. Anyone can learn to play the piano, but only few people will ever be really good at it. Anyone can study to become a lawyer, but not all lawyers are equally talented. Anyone can cook, but that does not mean there are not great chefs. Anyone can write, but that does not mean there are not great writers. We don't need to give these people brain scans to figure this out. It is true that people tend to become good or better at something the more they do it. The more I would play golf, the better I would become. As I become good at golf, it may give me pleasure and a desire to continue and play more. However, if I do not have some type of initial talent (and thus success and recognition) in something (or extreme need such as living in another country), I will quickly lose interest and give up. Of course, if you tell people that not everyone can be a singer or dancer, you won't sell a whole lot of singing or dance lessons and if your position is that most people cannot learn a language to any degree of usefulness, you won't sell a lot of books. Deducting the number of "members" who join just to post spam or promote their website, we have to remember that we are 15,000 out of 6,845,500,000 people!
Edited by translator2 on 11 May 2012 at 8:39pm 9 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4667 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 44 of 51 14 May 2012 at 2:39am | IP Logged | ||
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Richard Simcott has uploaded one of the clips that he and Tim made after the show was filmed, as he mentioned earlier in the thread: YouTube
Description: "This is a chat with Tim Doner in New York following a day of filming with Canada's Global TV for a programme called "Word Play" for the 16x9 show." Edited by tastyonions on 14 May 2012 at 2:39am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Pisces Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4624 days ago 143 posts - 284 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish*, French, SwedishC1, Esperanto Studies: German, Spanish, Russian | Message 45 of 51 14 May 2012 at 10:45am | IP Logged | ||
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That's a really interesting video, more interesting than the TV program.
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| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4709 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 46 of 51 14 May 2012 at 11:40am | IP Logged | ||
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It's interesting but to be fair I expect more to come because although it was a nice chat, I think there's still a lot more they can and will have discussed that's interesting for us viewers to watch. Not that I don't appreciate the video but I actually expect way more
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| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4667 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 47 of 51 14 May 2012 at 4:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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Richard also made a blog entry about the clip, giving some more thoughts about his meeting with Tim: Speaking Fluently
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| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4709 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 48 of 51 14 May 2012 at 4:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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Now that shines a whole new light on things, thanks for that. It also confirms exactly what I thought. Tim's just an avid enthusiastic learner who speaks quite a few (5-7) languages very well and the rest he has a thorough/cursory knowledge of but isn't at the same level, which for a 16-year-old is damn impressive.
Just as I thought. Media sensationalists... 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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