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Are You A Polyglot And Why (Not)? | ||
Tags: Scientific Research | Polyglot | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| ronp Heptaglot Newbie Australia ronpeek.blogspo Joined 5904 days ago 33 posts - 74 votes  Speaks: English, Dutch*, German, Flemish, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: Norwegian, Mandarin, Esperanto, Finnish, Macedonian, Hindi, Greek, Indonesian, Lithuanian, Basque, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic (Written), Sign Language Studies: Turkish, Swahili | Message 1 of 32 08 November 2008 at 5:31am | IP Logged | ||
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Dear all,
I enjoy reading this particular forum, as well as the Polyglottery one. Currently, I am trying to get some insight into what people define as and mean by a polyglot and would be grateful for your thoughts/opinions/suggestions in this regard. If you see yourself as a polyglot, could you answer question 1? If you do not see yourself as a polyglot, could you answer questions 2 and 3? 1. Would you describe yourself as a polyglot, and if so, why? 2. If you do not see yourself as a polyglot, why not? 3. If you do not see yourself as a polyglot, how would you describe a polyglot: A polyglot is... (please complete and provide your own description). Many thanks in advance and I look forward to your replies! Kind regards, ronp 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6513 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 2 of 32 08 November 2008 at 2:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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1) I do see myself as a polyglot, but a minor one because I only have got Indoeuropean languages on my list. A true polyglot ought to cover a larger varity of the language families on this planet.
2) not applicable 3) A polyglot is basically someone who has active skills in more languages than normal - the concrete number is a matter of taste, but somewhere between 5 and 10. It also depends on how distant the languages are and how well you know them. That being said, I don't really see language learning as something that suddenly propels you into the exclusive class of polyglots. It's a gradual process where you learn more and more languages (and learn more and more of each language), and suddenly one day someone comes along and asks you whether you see yourself as a polyglot. Edited by Iversen on 08 November 2008 at 2:27pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 5804 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 3 of 32 08 November 2008 at 2:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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1. Not applicable
2. I do not consider myself a polyglot because I can only claim to be bi-lingual, and that might be a stretch. I think that this disqualifies me from the category that both you and Iverson belong to as I have not yet attained fluency in such an impressive array of languages. 3. For myself, I think that a polyglot is someone who has attained a passing degree of fluency in four or more languages and is capable of using them with a relative degree of ease. Thom. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Juan M. Senior Member Colombia Joined 5709 days ago 460 posts - 597 votes | Message 4 of 32 08 November 2008 at 3:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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I of course do not consider myself a polyglot. I am presently working towards that goal though, a journey which I set out on just seven months ago. I would regard my pursuit as fulfilled when I am able to read the great literature and scholarship of at least 7 language traditions, including classical and non-western ones. My chosen 7 would be, in order: Spanish, English, German, Russian, French, Japanese and ancient Greek.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6249 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 5 of 32 08 November 2008 at 3:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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2. I do not see myself as a polyglot, because I'm only fluent in two languages. I have some knowledge of a fair number of others, but I don't consider linguistic knowledge and the ability to read in a language sufficient to qualify as polyglottery in the absence of active production.
3. I see 'polyglot' as a culturally loaded word. It strikes me as clear that someone who speaks 7 or more languages to a 'good' level (C2?) is a polyglot. How similar or different the languages are doesn't change whether someone is a polyglot or not (assuming that there's no extreme silliness like claiming polyglottery via speaking Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, Yorkshire, London, Alabaman, and New York English); neither does adding more languages, or speaking them better - while I would classify these things as positive, they don't change the fundamental nature of polyglottery to me. I am not comfortable setting a strict lower bound on polyglottery. I don't consider a speaker of 3 languages a polyglot, and I'd hesitate to call a speaker of 4 languages one; I consider 5 and 6 gray, but by 7, I could not reasonably deny use of the term. Edited by Volte on 08 November 2008 at 3:13pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6513 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 32 08 November 2008 at 3:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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It is not the first time we have discussed the definition of the word 'polyglot', and the arguments from back then will of course resurface once again. The exact number of language is a minor point and mostly a matter of personal taste (provided that the number is distinctly higher than the average for your culture), while the question of relevance of distance between languages touches on something more fundamental.
For me it does matter whether your languages represent a lot of common ground or not. If counting dialects of English as separate languages is silly, then counting Portuguese, Spanish and Catalan also has a faint trace of cheating - you actually don't have to learn too many words and too much grammar because you often can rely on parallels between the languages. Three totally unrelated languages represent a far larger sum of knowledge. It is not primarily a matter of rewarding hard work (though rewarding hard work does appear to me to be a relevant consideration), but simply of judging how much knowledge and how high a level of skills the different language combinations represent. And by that token my list isn't as impressive as it would have been with Swahili, Mandarin and Georgian thrown in instead of, say, Catalan, Durch and Swedish. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6249 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 7 of 32 08 November 2008 at 4:16pm | IP Logged | ||
I do agree with what you said, largely. I consider some things more impressive than others (40 languages from 40 language families, 7 languages with native accents, being able to work as a professional interpreter from all of the languages - etc), but I don't consider them fundamental. The concept of "what a language is" is blurry, and knowing two closely related languages well is both easier and less impressive than knowing two unrelated ones to the equivalent levels - on this, we agree. Similarly, about number - on one hand, I do agree it's extremely culture-bound, on the other, I'm not comfortable saying "person X from country Y is not a polyglot, because he speaks Z languages, but person W who also speaks Z languages is, because he is from both Y and (insert monolingual country of your choice here)". I guess the main point where we differ is how we prioritize number vs "impressiveness". I've chosen to emphasize number, despite the numerous drawbacks of this approach. Knowing more-distant languages does represent a much greater amount of knowledge. I'm simply making the (contentious?) argument that that is irrelevant to defining polyglottery. By 'irrelevant', I don't mean anything bad, but simply that it doesn't enter into the definition, just as a rose may be beautiful, but is not part of the definition of or a necessary prerequisite for art. A rose can be part of art, and vaster knowledge can be part of polyglottery - and their absence can make for something poorer - but it's not enough to change the fundamental categorization. (I realize this is a stretched analogy, but I hope it serves to convey my point). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| bela_lugosi Hexaglot Senior Member Finland Joined 6264 days ago 272 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English, Finnish*, Italian, Spanish, German, Swedish Studies: Russian, Estonian, Sámi, Latin | Message 8 of 32 08 November 2008 at 4:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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I consider myself a polyglot to a certain degree. That is, the definition of the term is not very clear, as we have seen both before and in this newest discussion.
I speak "only" six languages fluently (by the term 'fluently' I intend a good level of spoken and written communication skills, which cover all everyday situations and many more complicated contexts, as well), three of which (Finnish, English, Italian) at a very advanced level. I can express myself virtually effortlessly in the other three languages as well, even though at times I have to stop to search for a certain word or expression. In my opinion fluency is NOT equal to a native-like or advanced command of a language, an idea that some people on this forum have put forth. Even the accent doesn't need to be spot on. A good level of knowledge about the culture(s) of the country or countries in which the language is spoken, and a fairly neutral accent are (IMHO) two minimum qualities of a fluent polyglot. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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