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Torbyrne - British polyglot on YouTube

 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots Post Reply
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Fasulye
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2012
Moderator
Germany
fasulyespolyglotblog
Joined 5607 days ago

5460 posts - 6006 votes 
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Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto
Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish
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 Message 65 of 80
25 July 2012 at 11:20am | IP Logged 
Solfrid Cristin wrote:
GREAT! I am so happy for you. Any other result would have been really sad for language learning.
Congratulations!!!

How many votes did you and the next two contestants have in the end?


Link to the official page of Goethe - Institut:

Goethe - Institut: Final votes of the "MehrsprachICH" competition

Please click on: "Hier noch eine Übersicht über die Gesamtergebnisse" at the bottom of the page.

My congratulation to all the 6 winners and especially to Richard! :)

Fasulye

Edited by Fasulye on 25 July 2012 at 11:26am

4 persons have voted this message useful



jsg
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Canada
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 Message 66 of 80
25 July 2012 at 12:29pm | IP Logged 
Congratulations, Richard! You deserved the win, of course.
2 persons have voted this message useful



tarvos
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
China
likeapolyglot.wordpr
Joined 4467 days ago

5310 posts - 9399 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans
Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish

 
 Message 67 of 80
09 August 2012 at 2:12pm | IP Logged 
A new video of him talking to Michal Greszkowiak

Multilingual chat with
Michal!


in English, French, Spanish, Polish and German
2 persons have voted this message useful



Bismuth
Triglot
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Germany
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 Message 68 of 80
28 December 2012 at 7:09pm | IP Logged 
I want to discuss the content of your last video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzm4u9PTwPc

Um mal ein wenig auf deine Intention einzugehen, bleibe ich hier mal bei Deutsch. Wieso genau empfindest du es beunruhigend, dass Leute (wie von dir genannt bspw. Deutsche und Polen) heutzutage ausgerechnet Englisch miteinander sprechen ? Was genau beunruhigt dich daran ? Ich verstehe echt nicht was du hast.. hättest du es lieber, dass Deutsche polnisch lernen ? Oder dass Polen deutsch sprechen ?

Um das Kind mal beim Namen zu nennen: Verstehe ich das richtig, dass du Englisch als Lingua Franca quasi abschaffen möchtest und dir wünschst, dass wesentlich mehr Sprachen (gerade aus Nachbarländern) in Schulen gelehrt werden, sodass die Leute nicht mehr auf Englisch zurückgreifen müssen um sich miteinander zu verständigen ?

Meine Frage dazu: Wieso nur ? Ich bin sehr zufrieden damit, dass ich mit Englisch eine Sprache beherrsche, die mir fast überall helfen kann mich auszudrücken. Zum anderen musst du auch bedenken, dass für viele Menschen selbst Englisch als zweite Sprache bereits zu viel ist.. In Deutschland hat jeder die Möglichkeit während seiner Schullaufbahn Englisch, Spanisch, Französisch, Russisch, Niederländisch, Mandarin und was nicht sonst noch alles zu lernen.. die Sache ist, dass viele das aber nicht tun wollen und mit ihrer einen Sprache sehr zufrieden sind. In hab im Januar meine Abiturprüfungen und in meinem Englischkurs sind Leute, die überhaupt kein Interesse haben die Sprache zu lernen.. sie sind nur dort, weil sie es müssen. Ist halt einfach so, dass es nunmal Menschen gibt, die sprachlich völlig talentfrei sei. Ein beträchtlicher Teil der europäischen Gemeinschaft wird nie im Leben mehr als eine Sprache flüssig sprechen können.. deine Forderungen nach 3. und 4. Sprachen sind da völlig maßlos.

Nicht jeder ist in der Lage, so wie du, jede Sprache aufzusaugen, die er vorgesetzt kriegt.. wir sollten dankbar sein, dass es eine Sprache wie Englisch gibt, die so leicht vermittelbar ist, dass man selbst Kinder mit ihr konfrontieren kann. Dadurch haben wir in Europa eine Situation geschaffen, die uns ermöglicht interkulturellen Austausch erst zu realisieren!

-------------------------

IN English

Why do you exactly think it's disturbing to see people from countries like Germany and Poland speaking in English with each other ? What's so disturbing about that ? I don't really get your point.. do you want Germans to learn polish ? Or maybe polish people to learn German ?

Just to get this straight: Do I understand you right, that you want to abolish English as a Lingua Franca and want the countries in europe to teach the languages of their neighbor countries even more than they already do, just so they don't have to speak English with each other ?

My question would be: Why would you do that ? I'm very happy with the situation that I'm able to communicate with so many people around the world, people I would never had a chance of talking to, if we never learned English as our Lingua Franca. You also have to remind yourself that there are actually people who don't bother to even learn English as their second language. They are just happy with their mother tongue and think it's enough for them. We have several opportunities in Germany to learn many languages from Spanish, french, dutch, chinese, russian, etc. but the thing is that there is a tremendous group of people who just don't want to learn all those languages. You need to except that we have a lot of people in our society, who just don't have any linguistic talent at all. Your idea of trying to enforce 3rd or 4th languages around entire europe is beyond measure.

Not everybody is able to absorb a language just like you can. We should be thankful for having an easy language like English, which even children without any experience at other languages at all, can learn. Just because of English as a Lingua Franca, we realized actual intercultural exchange! No way that would be possible without a common language, that in our case happened to be English.
6 persons have voted this message useful



Chung
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 Message 69 of 80
28 December 2012 at 8:50pm | IP Logged 
Well put, Bismuth.

This reminds me very much of the sometimes dubious criticisms of English which seem to derive from something akin to a guilt complex in some people of the Anglosphere over their native language's status as an intermediary language or the amorphous but strong hostility at anything in English in some circles because of the current association to the USA and their recent foreign policy or proliferation of "Americanized" pop culture.

This kind of criticism of English is as silly or poorly constructed to me as getting upset over observing people of the former USSR interacting with each other in Russian even when none of the people involved is Russian (e.g. a Buryat and Lithuanian speak to each other in Russian rather than getting a Lithuanian-Buryat interpreter (does such a person exist?!). The point that they do communicate meaningfully to each other is more important than what they use to communicate.

See the following for related discussion:

English as the universal language
EU & Languages: Policies and your view?
Russian or German.
Will English take over?

6 persons have voted this message useful



Torbyrne
Super Polyglot
Senior Member
Macedonia
SpeakingFluently.com
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Speaks: French, English*, German, Spanish, Dutch, Macedonian, Portuguese, Italian, Swedish, Czech, Catalan, Welsh, Serbo-Croatian
Studies: Sign Language, Toki Pona, Albanian, Polish, Bulgarian, TurkishA1, Esperanto, Romanian, Danish, Mandarin, Icelandic, Modern Hebrew, Greek, Latvian, Estonian

 
 Message 70 of 80
29 December 2012 at 12:31am | IP Logged 
Just wanted to comment on the points you raised.

Bismuth wrote:
I want to discuss the content of your last video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzm4u9PTwPc

Um mal ein wenig auf deine Intention einzugehen, bleibe ich hier mal bei Deutsch. Wieso genau empfindest du es beunruhigend, dass Leute (wie von dir genannt bspw. Deutsche und Polen) heutzutage ausgerechnet Englisch miteinander sprechen ? Was genau beunruhigt dich daran ? Ich verstehe echt nicht was du hast.. hättest du es lieber, dass Deutsche polnisch lernen ? Oder dass Polen deutsch sprechen ?

Um das Kind mal beim Namen zu nennen: Verstehe ich das richtig, dass du Englisch als Lingua Franca quasi abschaffen möchtest und dir wünschst, dass wesentlich mehr Sprachen (gerade aus Nachbarländern) in Schulen gelehrt werden, sodass die Leute nicht mehr auf Englisch zurückgreifen müssen um sich miteinander zu verständigen ?

Meine Frage dazu: Wieso nur ? Ich bin sehr zufrieden damit, dass ich mit Englisch eine Sprache beherrsche, die mir fast überall helfen kann mich auszudrücken. Zum anderen musst du auch bedenken, dass für viele Menschen selbst Englisch als zweite Sprache bereits zu viel ist.. In Deutschland hat jeder die Möglichkeit während seiner Schullaufbahn Englisch, Spanisch, Französisch, Russisch, Niederländisch, Mandarin und was nicht sonst noch alles zu lernen.. die Sache ist, dass viele das aber nicht tun wollen und mit ihrer einen Sprache sehr zufrieden sind. In hab im Januar meine Abiturprüfungen und in meinem Englischkurs sind Leute, die überhaupt kein Interesse haben die Sprache zu lernen.. sie sind nur dort, weil sie es müssen. Ist halt einfach so, dass es nunmal Menschen gibt, die sprachlich völlig talentfrei sei. Ein beträchtlicher Teil der europäischen Gemeinschaft wird nie im Leben mehr als eine Sprache flüssig sprechen können.. deine Forderungen nach 3. und 4. Sprachen sind da völlig maßlos.

Nicht jeder ist in der Lage, so wie du, jede Sprache aufzusaugen, die er vorgesetzt kriegt.. wir sollten dankbar sein, dass es eine Sprache wie Englisch gibt, die so leicht vermittelbar ist, dass man selbst Kinder mit ihr konfrontieren kann. Dadurch haben wir in Europa eine Situation geschaffen, die uns ermöglicht interkulturellen Austausch erst zu realisieren!

-------------------------

IN English

Why do you exactly think it's disturbing to see people from countries like Germany and Poland speaking in English with each other ? What's so disturbing about that ? I don't really get your point.. do you want Germans to learn polish ? Or maybe polish people to learn German ?


It's nice to learn some of our neightbours' languages to communicate with them, even at a basic level. It happened more in the past, nowadays it happens much less. I find that sad.

Bismuth wrote:


Just to get this straight: Do I understand you right, that you want to abolish English as a Lingua Franca and want the countries in europe to teach the languages of their neighbor countries even more than they already do, just so they don't have to speak English with each other ?


No, of course not. It's also not what I said or meant.

Bismuth wrote:

My question would be: Why would you do that ?


This introduction to the last two paragraphs is based on a false premise of something I didn't say or mean and so I have nothing to explain as my thoughts have been misrepresented.

Bismuth wrote:

I'm very happy with the situation that I'm able to communicate with so many people around the world, people I would never had a chance of talking to, if we never learned English as our Lingua Franca. You also have to remind yourself that there are actually people who don't bother to even learn English as their second language. They are just happy with their mother tongue and think it's enough for them. We have several opportunities in Germany to learn many languages from Spanish, french, dutch, chinese, russian, etc. but the thing is that there is a tremendous group of people who just don't want to learn all those languages. You need to except that we have a lot of people in our society, who just don't have any linguistic talent at all. Your idea of trying to enforce 3rd or 4th languages around entire europe is beyond measure.


Again I did not express an idea of trying to "enforce" anything. I simply love languages and I find it sad that people are not learning them as they did before. I would only positively encourage people to do it.

Bismuth wrote:

Not everybody is able to absorb a language just like you can. We should be thankful for having an easy language like English, which even children without any experience at other languages at all, can learn. Just because of English as a Lingua Franca, we realized actual intercultural exchange! No way that would be possible without a common language, that in our case happened to be English.


English can be great. Speaking our neighbours' languages in addition can be even more fulfilling.

To summarise, I think it'd be nice to not keep losing our multilingual heritage in Europe (as has happened in many places on the continent over the last 20 years) in favour of only using English. I meant nothing more and nothing less than that. :)

Edited by Torbyrne on 29 December 2012 at 12:40am

12 persons have voted this message useful



Bismuth
Triglot
Newbie
Germany
Joined 4111 days ago

30 posts - 46 votes
Speaks: German*, English, Russian
Studies: Icelandic, Spanish

 
 Message 71 of 80
29 December 2012 at 10:48am | IP Logged 
Torbyrne wrote:


It's nice to learn some of our neightbours' languages to communicate with them, even at a basic level. It happened more in the past, nowadays it happens much less. I find that sad.


Do you have any reference for that statement ? When exactly people learned more languages than they already do now ? Do you have any proof for this assumption ?
I really don't know what you're experiencing in your home country, but in Germany we have all the possibilities to learn many languages at school just like french, dutch, Spanish, russian, turkish, etc.. as I said: the point is, that people don't want (/they can't) to learn so many languages as it's quite enough to know English these days.. English as a Lingua Franca is a strong improvement in any matter whatsoever.

Torbyrne wrote:


No, of course not. It's also not what I said or meant.


Well then, why you just don't say what you meant then ?


Torbyrne wrote:


Again I did not express an idea of trying to "enforce" anything. I simply love languages and I find it sad that people are not learning them as they did before. I would only positively encourage people to do it.


Again: It's just not true that people don't learn as many languages as they used to. I agree with you about languages in general.. If I wasn't I wouldn't be on this forum, obviously, but I think 'encouraging' people to learn languages is absolutely pointless. People either love languages or don't give any shit at all about them. If you ever convince somebody to learn languages, then please let me know, I will be very interessted.

Torbyrne wrote:


English can be great. Speaking our neighbours' languages in addition can be even more fulfilling.

To summarise, I think it'd be nice to not keep losing our multilingual heritage in Europe (as has happened in many places on the continent over the last 20 years) in favour of only using English. I meant nothing more and nothing less than that. :)


Why is speaking neighbors languages more fulfilling than speaking English ? I think your point of view is very onesided.. as Chung said, it doesn't matter at all in which language we are speeking as long as we are communicating. That's the most important point about languages! I can't see your buzz over 'multilingual heritage'.. English as a common language spoken over all europe is such a big achievement for unity and globalization and you are talking about some sort of heritage ?

I don't know but I think you lack the experience of not knowing how to communicate with somebody. You are an English native and became a Polyglot.. just believe me when I tell you that there are so many people in this entire world, who don't know how to communicate with foreigners, because they don't have enough lingual talent to learn languages.
1 person has voted this message useful



Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
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4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 72 of 80
29 December 2012 at 11:11am | IP Logged 
@Bismuth: Allow me to suggest that you spend some time - a considerable amount of time - reading on this forum and familiarizing yourself with the level of politeness people are used to here before you continue writing any more.

Disrespecting an extremely valuable, gentle and polite member of this forum based on what you think he means is not the way you get respect here.

To suggest that Torbyrne thinks that we should not use English as a lingua franca is like suggesting Chung feels we should only learn English. Both assumptions are absurd.

If there is anywhere on this entire planet where it should be uncontroversial to say that it is a pity that English is so strong that it is suppressing other languages - while still recognizing that it is a great thing that we have English - it should be on this forum.




14 persons have voted this message useful



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