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So You Want to Learn 5... | ||
Tags: Number of Languages | Fluency | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6767 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 89 of 580 17 January 2007 at 7:46am | IP Logged |
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Hopefully Iversen himself will join in and let us know if he qualifies. :)
My German teacher at university spoke native-level English (his third language after French), and he said he also spoke Spanish and Bulgarian. I once met the Japanese consul-general from Vancouver; he had immaculate English (the only Japanese I've ever met I can say that about), and his previous postings had been Geneva and Moscow; he confirmed he was also fluent in French and Russian. That's "only" three languages, but the guy was only about forty, leaving plenty of time to learn more languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| wieselchen Triglot Newbie Germany Joined 6494 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: German*, English, Latin Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 90 of 580 18 February 2007 at 7:57am | IP Logged |
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Probably
Spanish Japanese Italian Portuguese Russian 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6596 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 91 of 580 18 February 2007 at 12:37pm | IP Logged |
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As for near-native fluency, I think it's only important to know the words an adult native uses, not the ones he knows passively, but hasn't used or encountered since school.
Anyway if I remember correctly, Ardaschir wrote that his vocabulary in his best languages (around 10 of them, I guess) is about 20,000 words, which is the passive vocabulary of an educated native speaker. So it's definitely possible. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Vertigo Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6778 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Norwegian | Message 92 of 580 20 February 2007 at 8:44am | IP Logged |
I'd say...
They're the languages I'm most concerned with right now, for different reasons, but I'm also interested in the Celtic languages, Slovene, and the other Germanic languages. My priorities will probably change with circumstance and experience (not Italian, though, it's too beautiful and I won't give it up). 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| cameroncrc Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6516 days ago 195 posts - 185 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Ukrainian | Message 93 of 580 20 February 2007 at 11:41am | IP Logged |
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| muzikguy Bilingual Triglot Newbie United States Joined 6483 days ago 19 posts - 21 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Spanish Studies: Japanese, Italian | Message 94 of 580 23 February 2007 at 8:20pm | IP Logged |
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Hey everyone! This is my first post on the site, as I find this site amazing!
Anyway, to the subject, I would say: ->Mandarin ->Spanish ->Italian ->Japanese ->Russian 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tspier2 Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6483 days ago 38 posts - 38 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Dutch, Macedonian, Afrikaans | Message 95 of 580 25 February 2007 at 12:20pm | IP Logged |
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* German
* Dutch * Russian * Indonesian * Either Arabic or Portuguese 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6702 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 96 of 580 25 February 2007 at 2:28pm | IP Logged |
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I'm sorry that I didn't notice that I have been referred to in this thread, but I will try to answer anyway. However my first go at an explanation became so long that I have moved it to in my personal profile thread. Belows follows a shorter version.
Basically I can read practically everything I meet in at least 12 out of the 15 languages I have mentioned in my profile more or less without a dictionary, and with Greek, Latin and Icelandic I can read most texts, but only with the help of a dictionary. On top of this I can read at least half a dozen other languages, old language forms and aberrant dialects at least well enough to qualify for the basic level. With clearly spoken language on a standard non-fiction television level I can understand practically everything in almost as many languages, - it is just a matter of learning enough words. So the limiting factor is the active fluency. And there I must say that my English is much better than even French and German. The difference does not lie in how fast I speak or what I choose to speak about, but partly in the number of 'unforced errors' I make and partly in my trust in what I say, - I may lack crucial words, but more often it is just a matter of being unsure about the correctness of what I'm going to say. But if I was forced to write an essay every week and I had access to a native speaker for say 1-2 hours every week in every one of my languages, I'm quite sure that I could move most of my Basic languages up in the Advanced category within a short time, it is just a matter of practice. Another question is what it is to be a near-native speaker. I don't speak like any particular Englishman, US-American or Australian (more like a fluid mixture of all of them), - how can I then be near-native? Still I know that I can match Anglophone natives in discussions about anything within my interests, so I have no reason to doubt my level of English. And last, but not least: if I only was allowed to learn 5 languages I would sit down and cry. I refuse to answer that question. EDIT: I just can't resist to exemplify that I at least earlier in my life was able to do the things specified by Marc Frisch in French. During my student days I just for fun wrote a complete travesty in correct French alexandrins of the tragedy Médée by Pierre Corneille, where Medée was metamorphosed into an atomic plant in Nôtre-Dame, and Thésée was played by project maker Giscard d'Estaing, who at the end was devoured by les fauves bêtes Mitterand and Marchais. Those were happy days, but my French has deteriorated somewhat since then. Edited by Iversen on 25 February 2007 at 4:16pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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