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Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821 - 1890) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6061 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 17 of 30 12 October 2007 at 8:01am | IP Logged | |||||
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There is an anecdote about Burton which is amusing. He had just started learning Arabic and proudly showed a friend what he had written. The friend laughed and pointed out that he was writing from left to right, while Arabic is written from right to left. Even such a distinguished Arabist as Burton started off with such a howling error. But he didn't let it stop him going on with his studies, which is one of the traits distinguishing successful language learners from unsuccessful.
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| apparition Octoglot Senior Member United States Joined 6439 days ago 600 posts - 667 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), French, Arabic (Iraqi), Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Pashto | Message 18 of 30 12 October 2007 at 9:14am | IP Logged | |||||
How did he manage that? Was he also trying to read Arabic left to right??? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6061 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 19 of 30 12 October 2007 at 9:26am | IP Logged | |||||
Probably. If the incident actually happened, and it might be an apocryphal story, it would have been when he was just starting to learn it. Burton was the kind to dive in feet first and perhaps miss out on an important detail in his enthusiasm. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6061 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 20 of 30 05 November 2007 at 3:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
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A recent biography of Burton mentions that British soldiers in India often learned local languages from Indian mistresses or concubines. This sometimes had comic results - one officer scandalised the sepoys (Indian soldiers) he commanded by addressing them with the female verb forms he learned from his mistress. I don't remember which language was involved.
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| Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6454 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil | Message 21 of 30 22 February 2009 at 10:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
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For those who read German: There are two very interesting books about Richard Burton written by Ilija Trojanow.
The first, "Der Weltensammler" is a novel about Burton's life. The second, "Nomade auf vier Kontinenten" is about the author's travels he undertook to learn about Burton. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| seldnar Senior Member United States Joined 6921 days ago 189 posts - 287 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, French, Greek | Message 22 of 30 23 February 2009 at 1:11am | IP Logged | |||||
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"Der Welltensammler" is due out in English next month. It's called: "The Collector of
Worlds: A Novel of Sir Richard Francis Burton." 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6061 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 23 of 30 27 February 2009 at 7:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
I look forward to reading it. Burton was a fascinating individual. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| coyote Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6031 days ago 32 posts - 34 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 24 of 30 01 July 2009 at 10:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
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William Harrison has written a novel about Burton: Burton & Speake. It was made into a move called Mountains of the Moon.
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