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How many unrecognized polyglots are there | ||
Tags: Polyglot | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| tracker465 Senior Member United States Joined 5351 days ago 355 posts - 496 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 25 of 28 18 July 2010 at 12:30am | IP Logged | ||
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I think that many people still do learn languages even after their college days are completed, though these people are the sort which would be mostly involved in related fields of academia.
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| djc463 Heptaglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5800 days ago 51 posts - 74 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, German, Italian Studies: Mandarin | Message 26 of 28 18 July 2010 at 4:36am | IP Logged | ||
I see what you're saying now. I thought you meant only in childhood. In this case I'd definitely agree with you. I'd say that most don't undertake such strenuous academic studies after having completed their University studies as well. Sorry for the misunderstanding. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| aarontp Groupie United States Joined 5266 days ago 94 posts - 139 votes | Message 27 of 28 18 July 2010 at 6:39am | IP Logged | ||
I think what you mean by many and what I mean by few are in reality the same. We're talking about a very tiny percentage of people who have anything to do with academia after college. What percentage of Americans will even read a translated foreign novel in the current year let alone study a foreign language? I don't have an estimate, but whenever I see the results of any such study, the numbers are always astoundingly low. &n bsp; 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Journeyer Triglot Senior Member United States tristan85.blogspot.c Joined 6867 days ago 946 posts - 1110 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German Studies: Sign Language | Message 28 of 28 20 July 2010 at 6:01am | IP Logged | ||
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At three languages, including my native one, I don't consider myself a polyglot. In fact, I won't consider myself with that title until I have learned five. And providing that I live a life long enough, I plan on becoming one of those folks who speaks at least ten languages, hopefully more, fluently. I do it for joy, simply because I love the chase of learning a new language, even if I don't really use it often.
That said, I don't ever plan on being famous polyglot. If someone asks me about my language skills, I won't lie about them, but I don't want to brag or seek interviews or fame. It's mostly because I don't want to have to always feel like I'm being put to the test of having to prove something, especially if I speak a language well, but haven't used it for a while or am having a bad language day and botch it. I think this forum is generally a good environment for language learners, but even here I have seen some frustrating comments and arguments that have helped me decide that I want to be more anonymous about my skills. I think learning a language is a personal choice and a person needn't prove it to others. If it's a question of fame, I don't want to harm my privacy. Of course, I also don't think they should make claims if they can't back them up, which is another reason I don't want to risk getting a big head or being misinterpreted and thus harming my credibility. I would talk publicly and openly about all of my language skills and experiences, not to brag, but to hopefully inspire and share a joy of learning and of linguistics. I'm not polyglot material on the surface. I'm university educated, but not a professional academic and doubt I'll go into that field unless it's some temporary research. I'm from a monolingual non-immigrant, non-worldly family from a small agriculturally-based town in rural Nebraska in the middle of the USA. I'm proud of all that, because in truth I've taken it upon myself to live in Mexico, Germany, and Peru, all for nearly a year apiece, if not more, France for a month, plus various international traveling while living abroad. Although my family is by no means wealthy (by American standards anyways) I certainly haven't had a financially hard life, and I don't mean to convey that, but these factors don't generally create polyglots, as far as I'm aware. As far as I know I'm the only one from my class, and practically from my school, who has taken this path in life. I like my background partly because I think it can help inspire other people who might be in similar situations. Back before youtube polyglots were well-known, or even before I had heard of youtube I think, I had the idea of recording myself speaking several languages and broadcasting it out, mostly to get tips and feedback from native speakers. I haven't done this yet, but I've enjoyed watching the videos of others. I am not sure I would make such a video now though. First off, I haven't learned my languages as quickly as I had planned, but second off, if I'm to be honest, while I appreciate constructive criticism, I haven't the thickest skin on the block, and after reading some rather needlessly hurtful or unhelpful comments on youtube, I'm not sure I want to expose myself to that particular environment. I would rather seek out natives in the country or through places like this now, I think. Basically, those are my reasons why I would choose not to go out and seek fame or something like that. I suspect I'm not the only one out there who fits this description. One other thing: There's a lot of talk about monolingual Americans. Generally this is true, but it seems to me that there are also lots of Americans who speak foreign languages well and who aren't from immigrant families or multilingual areas (borders, reservations, etc). I'm sure I'm biased, since people seek out those with similar interests, but in my view, it feels like the reputed monolingual-ness of the US of A is changing, and that more Americans are becoming more worldly, through studying abroad and so on. Edited by Journeyer on 20 July 2010 at 6:03am 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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