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Rob_Austria Heptaglot Groupie Austria Joined 5001 days ago 84 posts - 293 votes Speaks: German*, Italian, Spanish, French, English, Portuguese, Japanese Studies: Croatian, Mandarin, Russian, Arabic (Written), Turkish
| Message 17 of 41 16 March 2011 at 10:37pm | IP Logged |
Torbyrne wrote:
I wanted to let you know about a new polyglot on YouTube, making foreign language videos. His name is Robert and he is an interpreter from Austria.
If you would like to know more, his YouTube channel is:
http://www.youtube.com/user/sprachbegeistert
Enjoy! :) |
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Thank you for your nice words Richard. I'll try to answer some of the questions raised in this forum.
1 person has voted this message useful
| Rob_Austria Heptaglot Groupie Austria Joined 5001 days ago 84 posts - 293 votes Speaks: German*, Italian, Spanish, French, English, Portuguese, Japanese Studies: Croatian, Mandarin, Russian, Arabic (Written), Turkish
| Message 18 of 41 16 March 2011 at 10:47pm | IP Logged |
Arekkusu wrote:
Splog wrote:
Arekkusu wrote:
Or how long he's been learning for.
I was watching the Japanese clip. If he did that in 1 year, then that's a lot more
impressive than if he did it in 3. |
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Is it? If somebody learns something quickly, it is admirable that they have gained rapid
results. Yet, if something has learned more slowly, I find it just as admirable that they
stuck with it for as long as it took, when many others would have given up. |
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Robert presented at least 7 languages in his videos. He can obviously make rapid progress in his language acquisition. In the case of Japanese, he presents us with an intermediate knowledge. I've met a lot of people who have reached that level over the course of several years; I'd like to know how long it took a gifted polyglot like him.
Learning languages may not be a race, and keeping motivation over time is indeed a challenge, but if someone reached intermediate level in 10 years, I won't be buying his book on how to learn a language. |
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Don't worry, I'm not out there to "sell" anything to anybody. I thought I had made that clear in my videos when I said that I'm not suggesting to be an expert. But if I ever change my mind, I'll make sure you get a free copy ;-) ;-)
2 persons have voted this message useful
| Rob_Austria Heptaglot Groupie Austria Joined 5001 days ago 84 posts - 293 votes Speaks: German*, Italian, Spanish, French, English, Portuguese, Japanese Studies: Croatian, Mandarin, Russian, Arabic (Written), Turkish
| Message 19 of 41 16 March 2011 at 11:46pm | IP Logged |
Journeyer wrote:
I was interested in the clip where Robert is interpreting into English from German. I thought that interpreters almost always translated into their native tongue. Sometimes you see pictures of heads of states with a single interpreter, but in situations where the issue is simultaneous interpretation, I understood that generally there are at least two: a native speaker for each language. |
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Interesting question. Basically, there are always at least two interpreters in one booth. Normally both have to work with the same "language pair". If you work for the EU, they will only let you work into your mother tongue. You ought to be working from at least two, mostly three foreign languages, though.
If you work as a freelancer the situation is quite different. We sometimes even have to work from one foreign language into another (mostly from English into French and vice versa or from English into Spanish and vice versa). This also happens at conferences that are hosted by the EU even though they pursue a different policy with their employed interpreters.
The standard situation would be something like the following: I'm hired for the "English booth" with German being the second language required. So, I'll have to work with these two languages in both directions. My colleague ought to be able to do the same. Otherwise, I may have to work much more than she or he. You never have an equal number of speeches for both languages. Normally, we switch after 20 minutes. So, if my colleague were not able to work in both directions I would have to continue working maybe for an hour or even longer and that is - except for some really exceptional cases - not possible. Not if you have to work 8 hours a day for three or four days (most conferences last between two and four days).
Well, I hope I answered your question. If you'd like to know more just ask me. Greetings from Austria.
3 persons have voted this message useful
| Rob_Austria Heptaglot Groupie Austria Joined 5001 days ago 84 posts - 293 votes Speaks: German*, Italian, Spanish, French, English, Portuguese, Japanese Studies: Croatian, Mandarin, Russian, Arabic (Written), Turkish
| Message 20 of 41 16 March 2011 at 11:55pm | IP Logged |
Arekkusu wrote:
ChristopherB wrote:
I doubt he does it to impress you. |
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I'd be interested in hearing your theory on why people post Youtube videos of themselves speaking various languages. People don't usually post when they are ashamed of what they've achieved. |
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Well, Alexandre, I guess we clarified most of these questions in our personal conversation. Basically, however, I'd say that there is a difference between "not being ashamed of one's achievements" and trying to show off. I stated my intentions clearly in all my videos: sharing information, practising languages and sharing my passion for languages. Whether youtube and uploading videos is the right tool for that is a question I'm afraid I cannot answer yet. Only time will tell, I guess. And if the "right time" has come I'll decide whether I'll continue with my site or not. However, so far I really appreciate the input I've been getting from other language enthusiasts and that includes the comments in this forum.
1 person has voted this message useful
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5380 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian
| Message 21 of 41 17 March 2011 at 12:06am | IP Logged |
Reaching a good enough level to record a video you can be proud of is one thing, but you
actually work as an interpreter in 5 languages and this is definitely an achievement
anyone should be proud of.
*bowing*
This forum would certainly benefit from your input and I look forward to reading your
contributions.
3 persons have voted this message useful
| Rob_Austria Heptaglot Groupie Austria Joined 5001 days ago 84 posts - 293 votes Speaks: German*, Italian, Spanish, French, English, Portuguese, Japanese Studies: Croatian, Mandarin, Russian, Arabic (Written), Turkish
| Message 22 of 41 17 March 2011 at 12:07am | IP Logged |
Andrew C wrote:
I would have been interested in hearing how he learned rather than just hearing the results. |
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Hello,
English and Italian are the two languages that I studied in an academic setting (high school and university).
All the other languages I have taught myself (spending some time abroad and working there, e. g. with handicapped people and street children in Ecuador etc. Working for an NGO is not only a very gratifying experience but in most cases it is also the only way to get a working permit).
As for Japanese, Alexandre already gave you guys the answer after he had asked me ;-)
I've been studying Chinese for about two years, mostly using teach-yourself material (such as the one available at www.chinespod.com). Besides, I spent one month in mainland China and two months in Taipei.
As for my Russian and my Croatian, I attended three-week language courses for each of these languages in Russia and Croatia respectively. Apart from that I've been trying to study them more or less successful on an on-and-off basis for about three years now.
I've uploaded a video where I explain in more general terms my approach when it comes to learning foreign languages. Basically, I just try to get hold of as many different tools and materials as possible. And I consider youtube (with its many videos in different languages) one of these tools.
3 persons have voted this message useful
| Andrew C Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom naturalarabic.com Joined 5189 days ago 205 posts - 350 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written)
| Message 23 of 41 17 March 2011 at 1:04am | IP Logged |
Hi Robert,
Thank you for your reply - very interesting.
I've now watched your "way of learning languages" videos and found them full of excellent advice - thank you for sharing your knowledge :)
1 person has voted this message useful
| Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6948 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish
| Message 24 of 41 17 March 2011 at 5:23am | IP Logged |
It's funny how almost any discussion of a YouTube polyglot seems to involve speculation
as to his motive for posting the videos. Personally, I don't care much if someone is
showing off, trying to get famous, desperately seeking the love and approval his father
never gave him, etc. His skills will speak for themselves, and if I judge that his
achievements are worthy of admiration, than I will feel happy for him, inspired to
match him, and grateful for whatever I can learn from him.
Aside from the fact that Robert's English seems to be nearly native-level, he can
interpret in 5 languages, even sometimes between non-native languages. I greatly admire
anyone who can interpret between their mother tongue and ANY language, so Robert's
ability is almost beyond imagination for me. His Japanese is still improving, but as
long as he's honest about his level, I think it's much more admirable to have posted it
and opened himself to criticism than not to have posted it at all because it's not
perfect yet.
So Robert, thanks for sharing your enthusiasm for languages with the world, and thanks
for introducing him to us, Torbyrne :) If I could give one piece of non language-
related advice, it would be to try to speak more concisely. I think you tended to
"over-explain" at times (like I'm one to talk), with unnecessary repititions which made
the videos longer and harder to watch through than they needed to be. Best wishes, and
keep at it!
Edited by Lucky Charms on 17 March 2011 at 5:27am
3 persons have voted this message useful
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