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Torbyrne in the news | ||
Tags: Press Article | Polyglot | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5695 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes  Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 1 of 10 19 June 2011 at 6:17am | IP Logged | ||
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I just stumbled upon this article – Chester linguist named one of most multi-lingual people in Britain - and noticed that the "Chester linguist" in question is in fact a member of our very own forum! Congratulations to Torbyrne, that's quite an accomplishment!
(P.S. I hope it's okay that I posted this. Let me know if not.) 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5849 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 10 19 June 2011 at 6:29am | IP Logged | ||
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Torbyrne is one of my regular Skypies, so I know him quite well. As I know him he would never claim to "speak more than 30 languages" as it is stated in this press article.
I would invite Torbyrne to give a comment on this press article about himself and his daughter. Let's wait what he says! Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 19 June 2011 at 6:31am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Torbyrne Super Polyglot Senior Member Macedonia SpeakingFluently.com Joined 6097 days ago 126 posts - 721 votes Speaks: French, English*, German, Spanish, Dutch, Macedonian, Portuguese, Italian, Swedish, Czech, Catalan, Welsh, Serbo-Croatian Studies: Sign Language, Toki Pona, Albanian, Polish, Bulgarian, TurkishA1, Esperanto, Romanian, Danish, Mandarin, Icelandic, Modern Hebrew, Greek, Latvian, Estonian | Message 3 of 10 19 June 2011 at 8:33am | IP Logged | ||
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Jinx, thank you for taking the time to tell the forum about this piece. I am happy for you to have posted it. It is, after all, in the public domain and a positive article. My local paper ran the article following another interview I did with Forbes last year and a later one with The Times (not free to view online) this year.
The Chester Chronicle article is very complimentary. It also shows how easily Chinese whispers can inflate claims of languages spoken. A great insight to me in what might have happened to other language learners. I have myself given the link to others, but prefacing it with "The effects of Chinese whispers..." ;) Fasulye is right, I would never claim to "speak over 30 languages". I would say I have studied over 30, but that is something quite different. In fact, I think I have even written this before in a previous post. I am not a big fan of the number game, but instead prefer to qualify what I can do to keep things real and my feet firmly on the ground. It is quite odd for me because I have been learning these languages my entire life, almost 30 years. It is as normal to me as breathing. The process has been a slow one. But when someone meets me now, cold, for the first time, they are usually shocked. I can almost understand that reaction as it is not a common ability. Online people tend to equate it to a belief "I don't believe..." and I get that too. The hard reality is that, if you can speak a language, you can speak a language and this CAN be tested, even in a rudimentary way in a conversation with another speaker. There is no belief required and no need to inflate claims that can be shot down in an instant. The important thing is to know your own boundaries, be happy in them, stay real and carry on. 14 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5849 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 10 19 June 2011 at 8:52am | IP Logged | ||
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What I like about this article is that it contains many facts about you, Torbyrne, which I have also heard in our Skype conversations, so I think for many details the Chester newspaper has cited you correctly. If you have studied over 30 languages, this gives a more realistic picture. I have also studied more languages than I can really speak for example on Skype.
Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 19 June 2011 at 8:58am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6705 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 10 19 June 2011 at 10:00am | IP Logged | ||
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Congratulations with the article - but it really is strange that journalists and others can't understand the difference between "speaks" and "have studied" (with "can read"/"understands" somewhere in between).
I was slightly intrigued by the passage "He was named one of the top two most multi-lingual people in the UK in an exhaustive search conducted by the Collins English Dictionary". Did they make a poll asking thousands of random respondents how many languages thay speak/know? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jondesousa Tetraglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/Zgg3nRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6266 days ago 227 posts - 297 votes Speaks: English*, Portuguese, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Mandarin, Spanish | Message 6 of 10 19 June 2011 at 2:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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Congrats on the article, Torbyrne. I always enjoy your YouTube vids and feel that you are a truly down to
earth linguist. Best wishes. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| etracher Triglot Groupie Italy Joined 5336 days ago 92 posts - 180 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish Studies: Modern Hebrew, Russian, Latvian | Message 7 of 10 19 June 2011 at 3:50pm | IP Logged | ||
I don't think that journalists can't understand the difference, but in my experience and in the experience of the people I know who have had something to do with journalists, I can say that unfortunately they all too often end up writing what they want to write or whatever fits their agenda, no matter how one might qualify what one says to them. Not all journalists, of course, however Torbyrne is right to invoke Chinese whispers. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6584 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 8 of 10 19 June 2011 at 5:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's not surprising that a journalist (or their editor) will distory the facts as much as they can get away with. Outright
lies will come to light and cause the paper to lose credibility and thus money. Exaggerations, as a rule, will not, but they will sell more copies and thus make money. Nobody wants to read about ordinary things in the paper. Also: hooray for Torbyrne! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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