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How many unrecognized polyglots are there | ||
Tags: Polyglot | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| Po-ru Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5479 days ago 173 posts - 235 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, Spanish, Norwegian, Mandarin, French | Message 1 of 28 14 July 2010 at 4:30am | IP Logged |
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The other day I met a professor who spoke 10 languages. He was a nice guy and I got to
check out his collection of books which he accumulated over the years and it was definitely really motivational. But then I thought, how many more people have reached fluency in many languages and are hyperpolyglots themselves but will never receive any recognition? I typed in "polyglots" into a google search and a few people who know 7 or 8 languages popped up. I am sure there are quite a few, especially in places where people learn 3-4 languages from the time they are born. I just wanted to see what other people though about this. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| johntm93 Senior Member United States Joined 5326 days ago 587 posts - 746 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 2 of 28 14 July 2010 at 5:04am | IP Logged |
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Probably a good number. Some don't care for recognition, and it's not like polyglots get amazing amounts of attention anyway. Turn on the news and how many polyglots are there? None. But I'd bet money that some talentless, person like Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan will be all over the news. Edited by johntm93 on 14 July 2010 at 8:22pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Merv Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5272 days ago 414 posts - 749 votes Speaks: English*, Serbo-Croatian* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 3 of 28 14 July 2010 at 5:05am | IP Logged |
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These people are most likely to exist in border regions, usually of great empires, and then also have a minority
status. For example, highly educated Jews living in Vilnius before WWII might very likely have known Lithuanian, Polish, German, Russian, Yiddish, and perhaps Hebrew (not as a spoken, but a written and liturgical language), in addition to perhaps another one or two "international" languages, such as French and English. So there's a hyperpolyglot for you already. Or say in 1900 in Thessaloniki, someone might know Ladino, Greek, Turkish, and Bulgarian, just because of where he lived, in addition to another few languages, such as French and Italian, from his education. The great utility and even necessity of being a polyglot is dying however. 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 4 of 28 14 July 2010 at 8:50am | IP Logged |
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I agree that the necessity of being a polyglot is dying out in these days where English
and Google Translate are rapidly conquering the world. But there will always be some collectors out there, and because it has become so much easier to get study materials and international contacts through the internet I guess that the number of 'silent' polyglots may be a lot higher than expected. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| crackpot Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6300 days ago 144 posts - 178 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 5 of 28 14 July 2010 at 1:36pm | IP Logged |
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When I was a child, my father had a business associate that came to our home about once
per year and he claimed to be able to speak eight languages. I was quite young so I didn't get the details, but he was a Jewish man living in Montreal so I assume that two of the languages, in addition to English, were French and Hebrew. In regards to the idea of being born in a border area being beneficial, Canadians are much more likely to be bilingual if they come from either Quebec or adjacent areas. Another means of getting some languages for free, or at least at a discount, is being an immigrant, though being an immigrant and living in a border area don't normally jive. I know no immigrants who speak both English and French and I used to live in Ottawa. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Declan1991 Tetraglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6438 days ago 233 posts - 359 votes Speaks: English*, German, Irish, French | Message 6 of 28 14 July 2010 at 2:23pm | IP Logged |
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Most people who are polyglots speak the languages they speak not to be polyglots, but because they want to speak those languages. I would suspect that the majority couldn't care less whether people know they speak multiple languages or not.
Especially those who live in multilingual areas. Everyone in the Gaeltacht (Irish speaking areas) are bilingual, and some of them will learn more languages on top of that. Same with immigrants etc. The difference is whether polyglotism is a goal in itself, or whether one learns the languages one learns because you want to. Most are the latter, I suppose some are the former. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| aarontp Groupie United States Joined 5266 days ago 94 posts - 139 votes | Message 7 of 28 14 July 2010 at 8:44pm | IP Logged |
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My Great-Grandfather, an immigrant from Poland, spoke Russian, Polish, Yiddish, English,
and probably had reading knowledge of Hebrew, and he wasn't well educated. Concerning modern polygots, I would think some of the affluent Greeks living in Beirut, Lebanon, would have a good chance of speaking Greek, Arabic (Levantine), French, English, and possibly Hebrew; as well as knowing classical Greek and written Arabic. Edited by aarontp on 14 July 2010 at 8:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| zerothinking Senior Member Australia Joined 6371 days ago 528 posts - 772 votes Speaks: English* | Message 8 of 28 15 July 2010 at 1:21pm | IP Logged |
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There's no doubt going to be people who learn foreign languages for a long time yet.
English is only spoken by a fraction of the world and if you want to go to a foreign country and really talk to the locals human-to-human Google translate doesn't help there at all. There's probably several thousands of polyglots or more in the world and millions upon millions who speak three or four languages. The majority of the planet speaks two languages. Monolinguals are still the odd ones out. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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