Rmss Triglot Senior Member Spain spanish-only.coRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6562 days ago 234 posts - 248 votes 3 sounds Speaks: Dutch*, English, Spanish Studies: Portuguese
| Message 9 of 24 21 January 2008 at 1:58pm | IP Logged |
@bluecollar
That's just b*ll****. If I chose to learn all the Germanic languages, but avoided the Romance ones, it would be obvious that I couldn't speak French, right? Even though French is a mjaor language, not learning it would be a normal choice. But at the same time I could be fluent in 5 other languages...
So being fluent in some obscure languages, doesn't mean you need to be fluent in the major languages... It's just the choice you make.
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bluecollar Groupie United States Joined 6152 days ago 43 posts - 48 votes
| Message 10 of 24 21 January 2008 at 2:19pm | IP Logged |
You may be right.However,it is hard to believe he spends a lot of time learning some tribal languages while ignoring languages spoken by millions or billions of people.Of course he can choose to do so.The problem is there is a lot of doubt when somebody claiming to speak 58 languages can't understand a few basic sentences in Mandarin Chinese and Russian.It is just not convincing.
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Zhuangzi Nonaglot Language Program Publisher Senior Member Canada lingq.com Joined 7026 days ago 646 posts - 688 votes Speaks: English*, French, Japanese, Swedish, Mandarin, Cantonese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Russian
| Message 12 of 24 21 January 2008 at 7:34pm | IP Logged |
I think a person can learn 58 languages if that is the goal. But why agree to appear on TV to demonstrate that you speak languages that, in fact, you have no clue about? Why did the TV station not check him out? This is strange to say the least.
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Alfonso Octoglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 6859 days ago 511 posts - 536 votes Speaks: Biblical Hebrew, Spanish*, French, English, Tzotzil, Italian, Portuguese, Ancient Greek Studies: Nahuatl, Tzeltal, German
| Message 13 of 24 21 January 2008 at 9:23pm | IP Logged |
I agree with all of you. I don't understand how he claims that he KNOWS that amount of languages if he is not able to recognize even basic phrases like "what day of the week is today?" (Russian) or "what structure created by man can be seen from the moon?" (Chinese).
I've heard that he recognized after the TV show that he got confused, but it's kind of strange, because many people say that he had participated in other TV shows and he has been able to demonstrate that he knows some languages. :(
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apparition Octoglot Senior Member United States Joined 6648 days ago 600 posts - 667 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), French, Arabic (Iraqi), Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Pashto
| Message 15 of 24 21 January 2008 at 10:01pm | IP Logged |
Haha! I come back to HTLAL after being away for two months and we're STILL talking about Fazah.
Guess I should have figured, seeing as he was being discussed for, what, at least two years now?
Oh well. Have fun!
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ChristopherB Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6314 days ago 851 posts - 1074 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, German, French
| Message 16 of 24 31 January 2008 at 2:12am | IP Logged |
Didn't he once say that he was cheated on the languages he was going to be tested in? They ended up testing him in languages different from those he had been told about before the show. Nevertheless, to claim to be able to speak 58 languages should mean you can speak them comfortably without having to revise. If a language has rusted to the point of not being able to hold a conversation, then the claim is obviously no longer true. I would question whether he had a comfortable command of all 58 when he did make that claim.
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