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Ayn Rand (1905 - 1982) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| Greenie128 Newbie United States Joined 5755 days ago 11 posts - 14 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 1 of 33 26 November 2010 at 5:52am | IP Logged | ||
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Certainly she was not a hyperpolyglot known for her language learning abilities, but she should be applauded for them. She was a rather controversial woman, who came to America from Russia with her radical new idea, which she called Objectivism. What I most admire about this woman is her language learning ability. Despite coming from Russia and not knowing any English at all, she moved to the United States at age 21 and began learning English. Years later, she produced two well-know novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, both written in perfect English and extremely well-written, featuring an advanced knowledge of vocabulary and culture of the English language.
I'd just like to know if this is even possible for a person who is not as intelligent as she was. It seems like she would have had to dedicate a huge portion of her life to learning English. Living in the United States certainly would help, but it seems that not many people could reach the level Ayn Rand reached when she produced her written works, no matter how much of their lives is spent in a foreign country. Edited by Fasulye on 26 November 2010 at 7:45am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5462 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 2 of 33 26 November 2010 at 7:16am | IP Logged | ||
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Nabokov's first language was Russian and he managed to write Lolita. He also managed not
to be one of the most objectionable people in history, unlike Ayn Rand ;) 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5845 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 3 of 33 26 November 2010 at 7:36am | IP Logged | ||
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Greenie, could you please give some details about the languages she spoke. I haven't found anything in the Wikipedia about it. The idea of your post seems to be that she "only" learned English to a very high level as a foreign language.
Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 26 November 2010 at 7:42am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6377 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 33 26 November 2010 at 2:15pm | IP Logged | ||
Joseph Conrad, too. His first language was Polish, and he wrote in English. He spoke French, also. No idea about whether he was objectional or not. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5519 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes Speaks: Swedish* | Message 5 of 33 26 November 2010 at 2:57pm | IP Logged | ||
Well, he did a pretty good effort at it. "Some people write in foreign languages out of necessity, some, like Nabokov, out of a flaming desire for self-aggrandizement." - I don't remember who said it, but I am no big fan of Nabokov either, so it stuck. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Greenie128 Newbie United States Joined 5755 days ago 11 posts - 14 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 6 of 33 26 November 2010 at 7:11pm | IP Logged | ||
Yes, she could speak four languages: English, Russian, French, and German. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| OlafP Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5433 days ago 261 posts - 667 votes Speaks: German*, French, English | Message 7 of 33 26 November 2010 at 7:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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Funny that someone starts a thread on Ayn Rand when I came across her name only 3 weeks ago and started reading "Atlas Shrugged" last week. And I also like the idea of honouring depth of knowledge over sheer number of languages. Both skills can be impressive, but the latter seems to be a bit over-represented on this forum.
One thing is obvious to me after having read 104 of 1168 pages of Ayn Rand's novel: her command of the English language was amazing. It is more the overall tone than single sentences. An example: All the codes of ethics they'll try to ram down your throat are just so much paper money put out by swindlers to fleece people of their virtues. The code of competence is the only system of morality that's on a gold standard. Her books definitely are not for people who want some easy-going entertainment, but if you're interested in highly controversial points of view then you'll probably get something out of it. An interview with Ayn Rand from 1959: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ukJiBZ8_4k Edited by OlafP on 26 November 2010 at 7:27pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| OlafP Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5433 days ago 261 posts - 667 votes Speaks: German*, French, English | Message 8 of 33 26 November 2010 at 9:57pm | IP Logged | ||
Over the last two hours I figured out that it is hard to find information on which other languages she knew. Did she study Aristotle in Ancient Greek or with translations? What about French and German? Can you back up your claim by quoting some biography? To what level did she learn other languages? Her proficiency in English is quite obvious, despite the accent, but this alone is probably not enough to qualify as a polyglot, no matter how one tweaks the definition. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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