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Ziad Fazah - The Complete Video

 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots Post Reply
56 messages over 7 pages: 1 24 5 6 7  Next >>


Keith
Diglot
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JapanRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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 Message 17 of 56
29 August 2009 at 1:12pm | IP Logged 
mlewan wrote:
What I do wonder about is all the people who so ardently supported him in the past. What were their reasons to testify his incredible abilities?


One of Ziad's ardent supporters knew him personally and said he received language instruction from Ziad. So a first-hand account is worth something in my book.


As for the "long version" of the video, it is still obvious that it was heavily edited before being aired.

From what I can see, even though I don't understand Spanish, it does appear that the show did intend to make a laughing stock out of him. Did they show the clips in the same order they were filmed? Probably not. What happened just prior to the Russian man speaking? We don't know since the video just cuts right to that guy speaking.

Was Ziad prepared to speak 58 languages? Obviously not.

Could one of you tell me why Ziad was suddenly asked in English, "how long have you been in this country?"
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Vlad
Trilingual Super Polyglot
Senior Member
Czechoslovakia
foreverastudent.com
Joined 6365 days ago

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Speaks: Czech*, Slovak*, Hungarian*, Mandarin, EnglishC2, GermanC2, ItalianC1, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Serbian, French
Studies: Persian, Taiwanese, Romanian, Portuguese

 
 Message 18 of 56
29 August 2009 at 2:08pm | IP Logged 
A little bit off topic but:

karaipyhare wrote:
The phonetic
explanation is HORRIBLE, I always objected the use of what I call "native
transliterations" of foreign languages (that is like saying "this word in English is
pronounced like = [put here letters that pronounced together in your language sound
somewhat similar to the English word]) I HATE that method, it shows a total lack of
phonetic knowledge, it's a childish way to learn.


I personally think that at least in the beginning, using this kind of a phonetic transcription can be very useful. Some people's pronunciation would be much better (mine including) if they hadn't received so much influence from the letters that represent slightly different sounds in their native tongues. I don't think it's that bad at all if you try to figure the sound of the word out on your own, write down whatever you hear and receive no influence from the alphabet.

My friend in the US wanted me to teach him how to say 'hello, how is it going' in the languages I knew so he could approach people in the store in NYC where we used to work at. I first wrote down the phrases the way they were supposed to be written but we were getting nowhere. Then I told him to listen as I pronounced the phrases and told him to write down whatever he heard. When he read them aloud again his pronunciation was perfectly spot on. You could argue, that a student of the language would get familiar with the pronunciation beforehand, but I really don't think he would achieve such great results just after one reading attempt.

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qklilx
Moderator
United States
Joined 5967 days ago

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 Message 19 of 56
30 August 2009 at 1:12am | IP Logged 
snoppingasusual wrote:
When I was young, I used to play a game on Facebook called Who has the Biggest Brain?.


Facebook is 5 years old.

Anyway the rest of your claim is irrelevant, I think. You got ~4000 points in the past. Now you can't break 3000. There are records of this. There are no records of Fazah ever having known more than a small handful of languages. And our current records show that, in the languages spoken in the clip, he barely has competence in many of the ones he claims to have learned. This wouldn't be too bad a problem if it weren't for the fact that he would frequently claim to know them, and then not even admit being out of practice except for one language, which he incorrectly identified anyway.
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Kubelek
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Switzerland
chomikuj.pl/Kuba_wal
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415 posts - 528 votes 
Speaks: Polish*, EnglishC2, French, Spanish
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 Message 20 of 56
30 August 2009 at 1:47am | IP Logged 
What about forum members who apparently have talked to him on the phone in several exotic languages? Were all these stories made up too?


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snoppingasusual
Quadrilingual Hexaglot
Groupie
Lebanon
Joined 5348 days ago

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Speaks: Arabic (Egyptian), French*, English*, Arabic (Written)*, Arabic (Levantine)*, Spanish

 
 Message 21 of 56
30 August 2009 at 2:25am | IP Logged 
From what I have read, people apparently spoke to him in Portuguese, Spanish, English, French, Arabic, and German. Maybe he made up the others because he was sure no one will speak to him in those languages? I am really as puzzled as you about this, and I am sorry if I made such a big deal about bashing the guy.

Edited by snoppingasusual on 25 September 2009 at 10:20pm

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Kubelek
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Switzerland
chomikuj.pl/Kuba_wal
Joined 6633 days ago

415 posts - 528 votes 
Speaks: Polish*, EnglishC2, French, Spanish
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 Message 22 of 56
30 August 2009 at 2:36am | IP Logged 
It wasn't directed to anybody, I sort of mentioned it casually. I haven't been following the long discussion.
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jeff_lindqvist
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SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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 Message 23 of 56
30 August 2009 at 4:16pm | IP Logged 
Has anybody spoken to Mr Fazah recently? A while ago (two years?) Edwin spoke to him in Mandarin, and I think Bojan and Fyodor also were about to contact him for chats in other languages than English. Any news?
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trance0
Pentaglot
Groupie
Slovenia
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Speaks: Slovenian*, English, German, Croatian, Serbian

 
 Message 24 of 56
02 September 2009 at 9:09am | IP Logged 
As I speak Serbocroat, I can confirm, that Russian and Croatian phrases for "what day of the week is it today?" aren`t at all similar and anyone who really knew basic Croatian and Russian would not mix this up.


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