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Different Kinds of Polyglots | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| vilas Pentaglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6756 days ago 531 posts - 722 votes  Speaks: Spanish, Italian*, English, French, Portuguese | Message 1 of 28 23 September 2009 at 11:57am | IP Logged | |||||
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I think that there are more than one kind of polyglots
1) the genius polyglot like Mezzofanti or like this guy that speaks 8 languages with a native accent here is the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L 3w8yHrqFiQ And this kind is more rare 2)and what I call "soft polyglot" that is somene like me a many users of this forum , I make myself understood , with some mistakes , in few languages . I can read, talk and write but not perfectly.... What do you think about it? Edited by patuco on 23 September 2009 at 1:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 5790 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 2 of 28 23 September 2009 at 12:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Sure there are different types of polyglots, just as there are different types of academics, artists, sportsmen. Some are happy to improve but keep it casual, others strive to be world champions. The key thing to remember is that it is important that you are acheiving your goals, not anyone elses.
Thom. Edited by patuco on 23 September 2009 at 1:23pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Lingua Decaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5372 days ago 186 posts - 319 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, French, Norwegian, Portuguese, Dutch | Message 3 of 28 23 September 2009 at 7:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I would make a basic distinction between those, such as myself, who learn a small number of languages to a very advanced or near-native level, and those who have a far lower level in far more languages.
Edited by Lingua on 23 September 2009 at 7:20pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Torbyrne Super Polyglot Senior Member Macedonia SpeakingFluently.com Joined 5891 days ago 126 posts - 721 votes 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 4 of 28 24 September 2009 at 1:16am | IP Logged | |||||
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vilas, I would like to add that there are a large number of polyglots who learn a core set of languages to a high level and then pick up bits of other languages along the way. I suppose this forms a third group made up of the two descriptions you outlined above. From my experience this is one of the common phenomenons in language learning. Serial language learners tend to enjoy this type of learning style.
From my experience I can say that there is a great benefit to knowing bits of many languages in addition to a high-level proficiency in my core languages. Sometimes this knowledge is entirely accidental, be it a result of vocabularly borrowed from other languages in the region or from exposure to a linguistic group that is not the main focus of study. Whilst I would never claim fluency in all the languages I have ever studied, or even count them in lists on my CV or on this forum, I do see great benefit in knowing a bit of a lot of languages as that type of knowledge can provide a great linguistic overview. 10 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| vilas Pentaglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6756 days ago 531 posts - 722 votes Speaks: Spanish, Italian*, English, French, Portuguese | Message 5 of 28 24 September 2009 at 4:38pm | IP Logged | |||||
Dear Lingua you wrote that you speaks a small number of languages to a very advanced level? and you speak German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, French, Norwegian, Portuguese, Dutch . Ten languages are not a small number of languages! So you are a Genius-polyglot not a Light-polyglot like me ! chapeau! 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| vilas Pentaglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6756 days ago 531 posts - 722 votes Speaks: Spanish, Italian*, English, French, Portuguese | Message 6 of 28 24 September 2009 at 4:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yes it is true ! there are allways some favourite languages and then to learn a bit of other languages comes along the way. .... EDIT NOTE: just added missing end quote. Edited by Keith on 26 October 2009 at 9:21am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Lingua Decaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5372 days ago 186 posts - 319 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, French, Norwegian, Portuguese, Dutch | Message 7 of 28 25 September 2009 at 2:00am | IP Logged | |||||
Learning Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish is not really like learning three languages. It's more like learning 1¼. The Scandinavian languages and German and Dutch are all Germanic languages. French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese are all Romance languages. These are all languages that are closely related to English. My Portuguese and Dutch are only at a basic level. So I have only learned 5¼ languages to a very advanced or near-native level. With my native English that makes 6¼ languages that I am highly proficient in. Edited by Lingua on 25 September 2009 at 2:02am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| snoppingasusual Quadrilingual Hexaglot Groupie Lebanon Joined 5363 days ago 49 posts - 65 votes Speaks: Arabic (Egyptian), French*, English*, Arabic (Written)*, Arabic (Levantine)*, Spanish | Message 8 of 28 25 September 2009 at 8:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
You are one of the few people who understand polyglots! Yes, I believe most people aim to make themselves understood with clarity, but they do not want to be perfect. However, some people like to go beyond the fundamental principles, and thus they choose to be perfect in their target languages. I guess I am one of those few people who want to be perfect. Edited by snoppingasusual on 25 September 2009 at 10:13pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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