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Mr. Freire - greater than Mezzofanti? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| vini_philo Triglot Newbie Brazil Joined 5854 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Spanish, English Studies: French | Message 1 of 11 20 May 2008 at 8:26am | IP Logged |
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Hello everyone!
Besides the famous Yousseff Fazah, who lives in Brazil, we brazilians have another great polyglot: Mr. Carlos do Amaral Freire. Have you ever heard anything about him? He claims to have studied over 110 languages, for 60 years. However, he considers to have mastered over 30 of them. More information on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_do_Amaral_Freire (English). For those who can read portuguese, see also an interesting interview of him: http://www.jornaleco.net/Entrevistas/CarlosdoAmaral/index.ht m . If I have some time and people interested on it, I shall translate it into English. Cya ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Quinn Senior Member United States Joined 6117 days ago 134 posts - 186 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French, Italian, Spanish | Message 2 of 11 20 May 2008 at 12:15pm | IP Logged |
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Interesting! I hadn't heard of him before, but would like to read the interview if you translate it. Thanks!
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 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6497 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 3 of 11 20 May 2008 at 3:40pm | IP Logged |
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I have read it, and he is quite modest about his claims which certainly adds to his credibility. For instance he is asked at the very end of the interview how many languages he has forgotten, and he acknowledges that a fair number of them have been if not forgotten then at least thoroughly 'desactivated'. And even though there is a book with poems translated by him from 60 languages he doesn't claim that he can speak them all here and now. He says himself midway through the interview that he masters around thirty well enough to communicate in themt and translate poetry, but in the prologue the journalist credits him with the mastery of all sixty (out of those more than one hundred languages that he has studied). This all goes to show how careful you should be with concrete numbers for how many languages a person masters at any given moment. One interesting number should however be mentioned, namely that even at seventy he still studies - and probably learns - a couple of new languages every year.
Thanks to vini-philo for bringing Mr. Freire to our attention. Edited by Iversen on 21 May 2008 at 8:56am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| qklilx Moderator United States Joined 5980 days ago 459 posts - 477 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 11 20 May 2008 at 4:20pm | IP Logged |
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He sounds like an interesting person and I would be interested ina translation of the interview.
Iversen mentions Freire's modesty, which does indeed add to his credibility. Fazah's accomplishments, if true, would make him the greatest polyglot of all time. Mezzofanti's accomplishments, when compared to Freire's, could be about equal depending on how you look at them. Mezzofanti could seemingly learn a language without the use of a grammar. I think before any assumptions are made there needs to be more information about his methods and language background. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| vini_philo Triglot Newbie Brazil Joined 5854 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Spanish, English Studies: French | Message 5 of 11 21 May 2008 at 7:46am | IP Logged |
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More information on him: Mr. Freire himself says he's been studying a language per semester, for over 50 years. One of the last ones he was studying was Wolof, spoken in Senegal, and, according to himself, he has studied every single language of Europe. He's got two bachelor degrees: the first one in romance languages, the second one in Germanic languages. He's also worked for the brazilian foreign service, which allowed him to live in Bolivia for 10 years, where he could study deeply Aymara and Quechua. He's studied languages in the US, in the former Yugoslavia, in Spain and even in China. He tells that people were suspicious of him in the 60's, in Brazil, because at that time he already used to speak Russian and Chinese, then regarded as "communist" languages. I have his phone number and have tried to call him many times, but I couldn't find him - he was travelling! =) I'll keep trying. And I'll do my best to translate his interview, though native English-speakers surely shall find many errors on it.
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| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6497 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 6 of 11 21 May 2008 at 9:06am | IP Logged |
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One more article in Portuguese about him from www.portuguesdobrasil.net. Here there is a sweet little history about him from the time he spent in Beograd:
(Quote in my translation:) Freire was interviewed by a journalist from Macedonia, a province of Yugoslavia. The reporter asked him whether the interview could be made in Macedonian. The professor said not yet because he had just begun studying ths language a few days earlier. One month later the same journalist asked for one more interview with professor Freire. "Now you can interview me in Macedonian" Carlos told the reporter in perfect Macedonian, who was awed by the speed with which Freire had learned that language. (End of quote) OK, the Slavic languages are close relatives, and if he already knew Serbian and maybe even Bulgarian the task was not overwhelming, but still ... as the article ends: É ou não é um estímulo para todos nós? Edited by Iversen on 21 May 2008 at 9:10am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| vini_philo Triglot Newbie Brazil Joined 5854 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Spanish, English Studies: French | Message 7 of 11 21 May 2008 at 9:51am | IP Logged |
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After days trying to talk to Freire by phone, I finally could do it this morning! He was very kind to answer my questions. He told me he lived in Europe for 20 years, so he could find many foreigners there. The little history about macedonian is true, and, further than raising suspicious from people for speaking chinese and russian in the 60's, he was even fired from his job as an interpreter in a company due to it. Very precise translation from portuguese, Iversen. Are you sure you aren't brazilian? =)
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| tjw Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5933 days ago 53 posts - 55 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French, Persian | Message 8 of 11 21 May 2008 at 10:19am | IP Logged |
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I would think that Bulgarian and Macedonian would be pretty much mutually intelligable, though. But yes, very interesting.
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