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Your personal polyglot ideal | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 1974 days ago 2926 posts - 147 votes  12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 1 of 93 15 February 2006 at 11:52am | IP Logged | ||
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What is your own personal ideal of being a polygot?
It came to me suddendly the other day that for me, it is the polyglot who can speak accentlessly several languages. Needless to say, this is pretty hard to achieve and I don't claim I can. But that's what I am always impressed by. For instance in Quebec or in Miami, you always bump into people who switch from French to English or Spanish to English effortlessly and who have no second-language accent in either. Of course the French spoken in Quebec has an accent, but they do speak it perfectly. I mention this because not everybody has the same ideal but I realize that for me that's really it. | |||
| lady_skywalker Triglot Senior Member Netherlands aspiringpolyglotblog Joined 1488 days ago 909 posts - 5 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, French, Dutch, Italian | Message 2 of 93 15 February 2006 at 12:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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In Gibraltar we can switch from Spanish to English, or vice-versa, in the blink of an eye but not always necessarily without an accent. It depends on the individual really.
Back on topic... My personal ideal of a polyglot is someone who is fluent in several languages, preferably without a non-native accent (although this is quite hard to achieve). By fluent, I mean the ability to converse without much hesitation on a wide range of topics and be able to argue a point almost, if not just, as fluidly as they would in their native tongue. The ability to understand nuances, double entendres and jokes is, to me, also a possible factor as it shows that that person has gone beyond the level of most language learners and has a very strong feel for the languages and cultures he or she has studied. I know this is a pretty high expectation but this is what I think some of us aspire to, myself included. | |||
| Raistlin Majere Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Spain uciprotour-cycling.c Joined 1750 days ago 455 posts - 3 votes 7 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish*, Catalan*, FrenchA1, Italian, German Studies: Swedish | Message 3 of 93 15 February 2006 at 1:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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My idea of a polyglot is not necessarily someone who knows 99% of a foreign language. I think a polyglot would be someone who knew perfectly the grammar and most general vocabulary (I don't deem specialised vocabulary necessary), in such a way that he's not super good at that language but, after a few days of inmersion in a country where that language is spoken, can achieve almost perfect fluency. To put it in a nutshell, it would be like planting a seed which will grow very quickly when exposed to the Sun.
About the accentless thing, I don't agree. As long as the pronounciation is correct, I don't think it's important to pass as a native. After all, you can't say everybody in France outside Tours speaks French "badly". | |||
| alang Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 1819 days ago 167 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Esperanto | Message 4 of 93 15 February 2006 at 2:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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My opinion. Ideal speaking polyglot is someone fluent and sounds native in many languages, with the ability to switch and use regional dialects of the same language at will. I am trying to learn the British English dialect. | |||
| Eidolio Bilingual Octoglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 1459 days ago 159 posts - 3 votes 2 sounds Speaks: Dutch*, Flemish*, French, English, Latin, Ancient Greek, Italian, Greek | Message 5 of 93 15 February 2006 at 2:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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sounding like a native is important to me. Really, the French don't forgive you a Belgian accent even if it's a native Belgian accent, how would they forgive non-native accents? I really love French and I always start screaming when I hear English people who try to speak French. (But I also hate listening to English with a French accent!). You often sound ridiculous when you don't have a native accent. The people won't consider you as part of the group, if you get what I mean.
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| Skandinav Hexaglot Senior Member Denmark Joined 1485 days ago 139 posts Speaks: Danish*, English, German, Russian, Swedish, Norwegian | Message 6 of 93 15 February 2006 at 2:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm divided when it comes to accents. I value very much myself that I'm able to speak without accent, and normally I am, even though I will get exposed at some points, for example, if the conversation suddenly turns to an unknown subject where my vocabulary is rusty/thin. But on the other hand accent is a pretty normal thing. Javier Solana or Barrosso, for example, both have heavy accents yet they're quite fluent. Many Scandinavians or Dutch people really don't have accent, but they're far from fluency either because of a poor or under-par vocabulary/grammar. But I think that accent is less fatal when speaking one of the big languages (English, German, French), because their popularity mean that non-natives have always had some accent. Most people can recognize a French or an Italian accent when it comes to French; probably even more. But in other languages, Danish for example, we're not used to accents in the same way, and therefore accent is more likely to cause exclusion. However, it also has to do with culture since some cultures (US "culture") are more open to assimilation/integration or the inclusion of new individuals into the in-group than others. Edited by Skandinav on 15 February 2006 at 2:37pm | |||
| frenkeld Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 1541 days ago 1492 posts - 17 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, Spanish Studies: German, Hindi | Message 7 of 93 15 February 2006 at 3:35pm | IP Logged | ||
This could be a "familiarity breeds contempt" phenomenon - coming down harder on close relatives than on strangers is not that uncommon among humans. Foreigners do visit as well as live and work in France, so it must have been done. Now, truly accentless means you could pass for a native during a 30-minute conversation, say. What is the maximum number of languages anyone has ever achieved such fluency in? (Discounting the situations when people have been taught several languages from birth by native speakers - something high aristocracy in some countries may have had access to in the past.) P.S. In the US foreign accents are generally tolerated, at times more so than the regional ones. I personally chose not to bother getting rid of my accent, and I am still alive. However, it does help if one's accent is understandable. The main problem I've run into in this regard is with people from East Asia - in a number of cases, even those that have lived here for many years can be pretty hard to follow. Edited by frenkeld on 15 February 2006 at 8:53pm | |||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 1613 days ago 3215 posts - 71 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Studies: French, Italian, Portuguese, Catalan, German, Russian, Arabic (Written), Dutch Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 93 15 February 2006 at 4:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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My "definition" of a polyglot:
A person who is fully functional (i.e. reading, writing, speaking and understanding) in more than two languages and is aware of regional variations, including colloqiallisms, idiomatic expressions, word-play and humour. |
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