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OK, so just what is a polyglot? | ||
Tags: Polyglot | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| Journeyer Triglot Senior Member United States tristan85.blogspot.c Joined 6664 days ago 946 posts - 1110 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, German Studies: Sign Language | Message 33 of 38 03 August 2011 at 3:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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How could you answer A's question without going into details?
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 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6499 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 34 of 38 03 August 2011 at 4:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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In case 1 with a simple reference to one's life history, in case 2 with a similarly simple reference to one's studies.
The error committed by B in case 2 in Zwlth's version is that B comes with a long and contrived explanation about Chinese tones and god knows what plus lofty plans for further studies, and A couldn't care less. The problem isn't how the two applicants learnt their languages, but how they deal with an employment interview where languages isn't the main qualification. Edited by Iversen on 03 August 2011 at 4:19pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5643 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 35 of 38 03 August 2011 at 4:47pm | IP Logged | ||
I fully agree with Iversen's analysis. As a polyglot when you are in a job interview you only have to prove the language levels which are relevant for the concrete job. So I wouldn't even mention my 8 languages as a polyglot but clarify which qualifications I have for Dutch and English as these are the relevant languages for the jobs I can get.An employer normally doesn't want to know with which methods I studied my foreign languages, he/she is more interested in the result of my studies. Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 03 August 2011 at 4:53pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| portunhol Triglot Senior Member United States thelinguistblogger.w Joined 6048 days ago 198 posts - 299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: German, Arabic (classical) | Message 36 of 38 03 August 2011 at 5:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm glad that people found my billionaire analogy so productive. I must repeat though, a billionaire is still a billionaire regardless of where she got her money or what she does with it.
I think what is happening here is we are saying that the polyglots that we like are the only real polyglots. I may not like a spoiled rich girl who does nothing for her money but I must confess that she is still a billionaire - if she is actually worth a billion dollars. I think some of us try to change the definition of a polyglot to someone who has exerted a certain amount of effort to learn languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Zwlth Super Polyglot Senior Member United States Joined 5022 days ago 154 posts - 320 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Dutch, Swedish, Portuguese, Latin, French, Persian, Greek | Message 37 of 38 04 August 2011 at 10:09am | IP Logged | ||
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Iversen, why must you obfuscate every point I make? You can't really be so obtuse as to take the job scenario literally, can you? It was merely an example of how the hard-nosed world reacts to the effort involved in polyglottery!
Portunhol, no one is trying to change the definition of a polyglot to someone who has exerted effort to learn languages - that is the definition of a polyglot, over and against that of a multilingual person, who acquires his/hers. This is not "my opinion." Applied linguists concerned with bi- and multi-lingualism engage in more than their fair share of turf wars, but this is not one. Their concern is focused entirely upon acqusition and the problematics of integrating those who did not acquire languages into a new society where they need to have done so. But good luck trying to find the word "polyglot" in most of these books or even mention of that small percentage of adults who succeed in learning numbers of languages - they merely pass us over in silence. As we are thus omitted from any of their categorizations of the multi-lingual, we must by defintion form our own group, i.e., polyglots. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6499 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 38 of 38 04 August 2011 at 10:27am | IP Logged | ||
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Well, you wrote something that was screamin for a bit of obfuscation... at least if taken at face value.
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