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18 languages in 4 months | ||
Tags: Rare Languages | Asian Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| Zwlth Super Polyglot Senior Member United States Joined 5225 days ago 154 posts - 320 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Dutch, Swedish, Portuguese, Latin, French, Persian, Greek | Message 9 of 20 07 August 2011 at 5:07am | IP Logged | ||
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Kenneth Hale spent his entire career unsuccessfully fighting the tendency of others to exaggerate his abilities to legendary proportions. With his background, talent, and experience, I don't doubt that he could walk into a new tribal village and, at the end of a single day, have grasped some politeness phrases and means of requesting and responding for common objects, long before any of his companions could do so. However, I'm positive you would never find him claiming that he had developed conversational abilities in that time.
The whole point about Daniel Tammet is that his brain is incredibly exceptional. As a functional autistic savant, he is a "freak" in the best sense of the word, and the fact that he can do something has nothing to do with what those masses of us with "normal" abilities can do. You're right about Alexander Arguelles, though, as I would accept what he did as being about the swiftest possible learning of a language. But, look at all the salient differences between what he reports and what Glossika proposes: the Professor had the greatest possible amount of prior preparation for learning this kind of language. He didn't just listen to stories, he actively studied the grammar. He didn't just spend one week, he spent three. At the end of that time, he didn't say "I'm done, next week on to Welsh," he said he was acutely aware of his imperfections and so he kept on studying it systematically after this immersion trip as well. Think seriously about what Glossika's experiment implies, namely: you can learn all that you need to learn about a language in under a week, and then you can shelve what you did with it and move on to the next one. So, you can learn 18 languages in 4 months, meaning that you will know all of them at that point, no need for review, practice, or further development. Hell, why slack off from 5 languages a month to only 4?! Let's keep it at 5 to make it a round 20 languages in 4 months, and let's keep it up to make it 60 languages a year (Cesare territory look familiar, anyone?), and let's keep that up for years and years so that we can learn hundreds of languages just like all the other polyglots in history! Ha! This is simply and adamantly NOT how language learning works and Mike Campbell of all people ought to know that. Unfortunately and quite tragically, however, his channel documents the fall of a brilliant mind into Grosswahnsinn and megalomania. But let's not quibble about this among our selves. Since we agree that Alexander Arguelles is singularly qualified to say whether something like this is possible or not, let's ask him. Although he doesn't participate on this forum anymore, it's still quite easy to contact him. So go ahead, why don't you, and ask him? I'll bet you anything he will say: NO! 9 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6438 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 10 of 20 16 August 2011 at 6:35pm | IP Logged | ||
I think we are agreed on the feasibility of what Glossika aims to do, although I'm basing my assessment on the summary given in this thread; I don't spend much time on youtube, and don't think I've ever seen one of his videos. I was specifically responding to the claim "The idea that anyone can develop real, meaningful, lasting knowledge of a language in less than a week is patently preposterous", as it's merely highly unusual, but documented, and there are a variety of circumstances under which it has been achieved. This of course in no way negates that actually gaining some non-trivial level of language knowledge in a week is rather more frequently discussed than done, and often in rather sadly ridiculous contexts. We stand fully agreed on that. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| noriyuki_nomura Bilingual Octoglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 5339 days ago 304 posts - 465 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Japanese, FrenchC2, GermanC2, ItalianC1, SpanishB2, DutchB1 Studies: TurkishA1, Korean | Message 11 of 20 16 August 2011 at 8:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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For someone who has prepared and done language exams (eg. DALF, CELI, JLPT), I do have to say that, it is in practice not possible to pass such kinda standardised exams after a mere one-week knowledge of any language. According to the youtube video that Glossika made regarding the purpose/aim of this experiment/adventure/challenge, he precisely explained that he is aiming to take the government standardised exams for the languages that he is going to learn during this period of time. Hence, did I miss out anything in the video in which Glossika said he is going to learn each of these 18 languages within 1 week, and all from scratch?
Even though I do not personally know Glossika, but from the videos that I watched so far of him on languages, I actually get the impression of a talented language learner who is deeply passionate with languages and is willing/eager to share his knowledge and 'joy' in language learning. Edited by noriyuki_nomura on 16 August 2011 at 8:13pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5333 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 12 of 20 09 November 2011 at 9:10am | IP Logged | ||
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Glossica is the one I saw on Youtube a while ago, who claimed to speak 200 languages and dialects. I will not knock anyone, but you must admit that that is a tall order...
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Nguyen Senior Member Vietnam Joined 5092 days ago 109 posts - 195 votes Speaks: Vietnamese | Message 13 of 20 09 November 2011 at 5:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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Interesting project but maybe not as hard as it sounds? Unless these dialects use seperate writing systems from Classical Chinese used in Taiwan then you should be able to get the context easily. I don't know what the test involves though, the information that I could gather shows that Taiwan recognises 12 aboriginal languages. It seems as though the Taiwanese government views this as a work in progress.
I checked this guys website out but he doesn't go into much detail about the testing criteria. I would like to know how it works out for him though. I was interested in the 200 language claim? He says he has researched 200 languages and dialects. That seems plausible though. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Zwlth Super Polyglot Senior Member United States Joined 5225 days ago 154 posts - 320 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Dutch, Swedish, Portuguese, Latin, French, Persian, Greek | Message 14 of 20 02 March 2012 at 9:29am | IP Logged | ||
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Is there anyone here who follows him regularly and might be able to give a report on what happened with this endeavor?
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Mae Trilingual Octoglot Pro Member Germany Joined 4990 days ago 299 posts - 499 votes Speaks: German*, SpanishC2*, Swiss-German*, FrenchC2, EnglishC2, ItalianB2, Dutch, Portuguese Studies: Russian, Swedish Personal Language Map | Message 16 of 20 22 March 2012 at 1:38pm | IP Logged | ||
Right, but Daniel Tammet is a savant. What about Glossika? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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