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Ziad Fazah - The Complete Video | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6921 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 56 25 August 2009 at 8:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is a complete (and better quality) video of Ziad's TV appearance (that also shows him speaking the other languages in addition to interpreting them):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fUSuXHX5Kc&NR=1 Link to Video Edited by translator2 on 25 August 2009 at 8:51pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Toufik18 Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Algeria Joined 5746 days ago 188 posts - 202 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written)*, Arabic (classical)*, French, English | Message 2 of 56 25 August 2009 at 9:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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Too bad I don't understand Spanish yet..
He got himself embarrassed by not being able to understand some languages, and mis-interpreting some sentences . Edited by Toufik18 on 25 August 2009 at 9:28pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| m32amir Heptaglot Groupie Canada youtube.com/user/m32Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5652 days ago 53 posts - 184 votes Speaks: Kazakh, Russian*, English, French, Spanish, German, Italian Studies: Turkish, Mandarin | Message 3 of 56 26 August 2009 at 5:07am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for posting this. When he was been asked what day is today in Russian he responded that it's been a while since he spoke in Croatian. So basically he could not even identify the language. I find this very odd.
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| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7017 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 56 26 August 2009 at 1:10pm | IP Logged | ||
Even with my limited understanding not only did I realise that it was Russian but I actually knew what he'd been asked. He wasn't too good when answering in Finnish, Mandarin or Greek either. At one point he mentioned that he hadn't spoken the language (can't remember which) in a long time and if he'd been given a heads up, he would have refreshed his memory of said language. I felt sorry for him actually. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Xenoguy Triglot Newbie Taiwan Joined 5639 days ago 16 posts - 28 votes Speaks: English*, French, Mandarin Studies: Arabic (Written) | Message 5 of 56 28 August 2009 at 4:33am | IP Logged | ||
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I squirmed as I watched the video. This segment will remain in my mind as the darkest realization of all the anxieties that an aspiring polyglot could have. A humiliating surprise for him for sure, now held up to the ridicule and jeers of a global audience. Reminds me to be humble myself when talking about languages (and never to accept invitations to go on TV).
It also makes me think that Mr. Fazah's prodigious talent is misunderstood, which seems more to be the ability to communicate in a foreign language in an incredibly compressed time frame, 2 weeks to 3 months, rather than the ability to master a language for all time. That rapid-acquisition ability, which I liken to going from a complete stop to 60mph in a few brief seconds, isn't much discussed among language acquisition specialists, but I think it's just as rare and noteworthy as true polyglottism. Andy 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| qklilx Moderator United States Joined 6188 days ago 459 posts - 477 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 56 28 August 2009 at 11:16am | IP Logged | ||
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Now that I've seen the full clip I can say that, in my eyes, he isn't the man I read about or that he claimed to be. HOWEVER it does seem that he has accomplished a linguistic feat to some extent. Though it does make me wonder if he's also exaggerating being able to recover his abilities in a few days' time for any of his languages...
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| Paramecium Tetraglot Groupie Germany Joined 5714 days ago 46 posts - 59 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Russian Studies: Japanese | Message 7 of 56 28 August 2009 at 1:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't feel any sorry for him. He claims that he speaks many languages, inclusive russian, but then he don't even understand simple questions like: "Какой сегодня день недели?". I mean, everyone who starts to learn russian should be able to answer such easy question already at the first or maybe second week of study. I think he earned that he looks like a fool now. I don't believe that he is able to "recover his abilities" in a few days, I even doubt that he ever learned russian.
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| translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6921 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes Speaks: English* | Message 8 of 56 28 August 2009 at 4:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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To me, the worst thing is that (as recently as June 2008 in an interview), he was still going around claiming to know 58 languages, rather than saying he knows 10 languages and has studied (or used to know) 48 others. He claims on the show that had he known he was going to be tested, he would have studied up on those languages. However, before that, he seemed quite content to go on the show and did not stop to correct them when they said he spoke "58 languages". In fact, he was given the opportunity to talk for quite a while and did not mention any of this. I am sure if he had explained to the producers: "look, I studied Russian and Finnish and Greek in the past, but I have really forgotten much of what I had learned, or I know the grammar and the linguistic aspects of the language, but I have no listening skills or practice, etc. to be able to speak with anybody in a real-word situation" they would not have put him to this test (or perhaps on the show at all...).
Also, for those of you who missed it - here is a blog entry that explains and translates part of what was said on the video: The Man Who Does Not Speak 58 Languages Edited by translator2 on 28 August 2009 at 7:04pm 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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