People from Canada who are fluent in Thai (Specific Languages) Language Learning Forum

People from Canada who are fluent in Thai
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Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages	( Topic Closed)

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lichtrausch
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5961 days ago
525 posts - 1072 votes

Speaks: English*, German, Japanese
Studies: Korean, Mandarin

Message 9 of 64

01 October 2010 at 8:06am | IP Logged

grunts67 wrote:

Be careful of what you are saying. You should check his youtube account and you will
understand why he does know 34 languages. He got PDD Autism which make him a genius for
languages but a poor student on other matters.

As far as I am concern, I happy for him to have found somethings he excel in and that
he is able to communicate with others (a problem that some autism have).

The first language he has listed here after English is German, which I happen to know
well. I listened to a video of him trying to speak German on Youtube and most of it was
difficult or impossible to understand. I am fully aware that fluency has a broad
definition, but he is not even close to the most basic fluency. His video on "fake
criticism" that ellasevia linked to speaks volumes.

I'm not making fun of him. I just think it's unfortunate that he is misleading people
with his blatant dishonesty about his linguistic abilities.
15 persons have voted this message useful

Doitsujin
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 5321 days ago
1256 posts - 2363 votes

Speaks: German*, English

Message 10 of 64

01 October 2010 at 9:23am | IP Logged

lichtrausch wrote:

I totally agree with you on that. His German pronunciation was horrible and sounded almost like Dutch. Simply saying "I was doing fine with my German" doesn't change this fact.

lichtrausch wrote:

I'm not making fun of him. I just think it's unfortunate that he is misleading people with his blatant dishonesty about his linguistic abilities.

I don't think that he intended to mislead people about his abilities on purpose; it's just that he probably never had a chance to compare his skills with other polyglots and therefore assumed that he had superior skills.
2 persons have voted this message useful

grunts67
Diglot
Senior Member
CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5303 days ago
215 posts - 252 votes

Speaks: French*, English
Studies: Spanish, Russian

Message 11 of 64

01 October 2010 at 8:35pm | IP Logged

ellasevia wrote:

grunts67 wrote:

As far as is fluency is concern, I can't say. Maybe he is only low-intermediaire but to be able to retain and learn that fast is amazing.

I somewhat agree with you here. If he really did succeed in learning many of the languages he's listed here to a low-intermediate level in a time frame as short as a week or two (or even an hour, see here), that is admirable. However, it is not fluent in even the most basic sense, let alone native fluency, the level which he indicates for all of his languages on here that he supposedly speaks except for Italian, French, and Danish.

Another bothersome thing is just the sheer impossibility of learning this much this quickly. As Splog mentioned in the thread which I linked to above, he would have had to learn three words per second plus all of the grammar during that hour to have learned Latin to fluency. That just does not seem possible to me in the slightest. Also, his attitude of his mental superiority as an explanation for his accomplishments (whether they are true or not) is troublesome. Likewise, his lack of faith in criticism from natives in the languages he claims to speak (in this case a German commenting on his command of German)...

Take what you like from all this, but until I see some convincing evidence on his part I'm going to maintain this position.

Very convincing post!

I have to take back my opinion on his low-intermediaire skill level after I just watch his 39 languages video. His French is at best high-beginner. Is no way near fluentcy.

On the subject on his difficulties to asses his language skill (latin), to take criticism (german) and his mental superiority, I have my doubt but I will not elaborate more to make sure I stay politically correct and don't hurt the feeling of anyone.
2 persons have voted this message useful

Cesare M.
Senior Member
Canada
youtube.com/user/CheRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5171 days ago
99 posts - 135 votes

Speaks: English*

Message 12 of 64

01 October 2010 at 9:02pm | IP Logged

lichtrausch wrote:

Is there any rule on this forum against blatant false advertising?

Das war so ein dummer Kommentar!

Auch, ja ich SPRECHE 39 SPRACHEN KONNEN. Jezt, ich habe ein neues Video von mir sprechen alle 39 Sprachen, aber Ich zu tun hatte mehrere Bearbeitungen durch Pausen, also bin ich nicht sicher, ob es wird ein gutes Video sein. Bitte überprüfen Sie die Videos aus, und wenn es sehr schlecht, sagen Sie mir bitte. Ich wollte es besser machen, aber wenn es nicht besser kommen, sagen Sie mir bitte.
1 person has voted this message useful

Cesare M.
Senior Member
Canada
youtube.com/user/CheRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5171 days ago
99 posts - 135 votes

Speaks: English*

Message 13 of 64

01 October 2010 at 9:08pm | IP Logged

Guys I appreciate the comments but this board is for Thai speakers from Canada.
1 person has voted this message useful

Cesare M.
Senior Member
Canada
youtube.com/user/CheRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5171 days ago
99 posts - 135 votes

Speaks: English*

Message 14 of 64

01 October 2010 at 9:14pm | IP Logged

Also, everybody, just so you know, my definition of fluency is this (and hopefully, things will get cleared up), that I know a lot of the language and/or I am able to converse in a decent acceptable level about a variety of subjects (not sounding like a struggling learner, but you know what I mean). I guess I found out that my definition of fluency is a tiny bit different than what most people think of fluency. Sure it is an effortless flow, but fluent is not perfect, in which unfortunately some people think it is. Also to tell you the truth, I don't use most of my languages very often with other people in terms of speaking but I speak those languages to myself along with news reporters when watching the news, and any other multilingual programs.
1 person has voted this message useful

Cesare M.
Senior Member
Canada
youtube.com/user/CheRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5171 days ago
99 posts - 135 votes

Speaks: English*

Message 15 of 64

01 October 2010 at 9:20pm | IP Logged

I am sorry for forgetting to explain that. It was my fault, and I apoligize. Also I have a new 39 languages video (in which I posted about in German), and I had to do several edits because of a few pauses, so my speaking may not come out very well, but I wanted to make it better. Please watch the video, and let me know what you think. If you don't like it, then it's probably because of the constant edits I did, and the limited amount of words (although for most languages don't have much to say about learning them). Also another disclaimer is that I said very little about how I learned German, and I think I sounded pathetic speaking Latin in that video (I thought), because I just said one sentence, and sounded like I was going to say another). But I still want you guys to check out my new 39 languages video and please tell me what you think. I hope it will be better than my old 39 languages video in any way, shape, or form.

Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A6SwLgI-Jk
1 person has voted this message useful

Thatzright
Diglot
Senior Member
Finland
Joined 5673 days ago
202 posts - 311 votes

Speaks: Finnish*, English
Studies: French, Swedish, German, Russian

Message 16 of 64

01 October 2010 at 9:20pm | IP Logged

"Speaking" a language is a different thing from being "fluent" in it. It's a good start to be able to say that you studied French when you were little and now you speak French very well and understand it quite well, but this does not make one fluent. What we call fluency here is the ability to discuss a very large variety of topics with the least amount of grammatical mistakes as possible and be fully understood, without either the speaker or the listener having to make any considerable effort to get anything out of the conversation. I understand that it feels like you are fluent because you can say what you want to say and get your point across, but it's just not in line with what is considered fluency around here.

I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to express anything else of what I'd like to say without it coming across as quite hostile. I'll just say that "native fluency" is absolutely the wrong term to describe your skills in these languages. As a comparison, I have listed my skills in English as "advanced" and not "native".

EDIT: Right, so I'm just a few seconds too late with this message :-) Since you got the gist of our definitions of fluency being different, a large part of the point of this message is quite repetitive... I'd still say that having your skills listed as "native" is wrong, though.

Also, just to make sure, please don't get offended or anything by any of this. Nobody here is intending to be offensive :-) There's no need to apologize.

Edited by Thatzright on 01 October 2010 at 9:24pm

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