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Learning many languages | ||
Tags: Polyglottery | Number of Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| deej Tetraglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5125 days ago 31 posts - 38 votes Speaks: Hindi, English*, Italian, French | Message 1 of 30 31 July 2010 at 12:51am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi, I've just joined this forum and am a very keen linguist.
I currently 'speak' 9 languages-that is, I have some knowledge of 9 though I would have serious trouble speaking half of them well. I love languages and would really like to improve upon the ones I have already learnt as well as many more; I would like to speak maybe 15 to 20 languages at least by the time I die/grow old. Therefore I wanted to ask the following questions: 1. Is it possible(realistically) for everyone to speak 20 lanaguages or more? 2. How difficult would it be? Next to impossible or manageable but with considerable effort? 3. How might it work? By this I mean that I doubt I am going to ever be able to have 20 languages at my fingertips so is it likely that I would only be able to speak them after a couple of days of revision or looking through books? If so, this would slightly ruin it for me. 4. Is there any other advice you would give me? Thanks very much for any replies. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5436 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 2 of 30 31 July 2010 at 3:45am | IP Logged | ||
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You can become conversational in 20 languages (search people like Moses McCormick) but advanced/native fluency in 20, no. Unless you live for 150 years or so.
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| zamie Groupie Australia Joined 5040 days ago 83 posts - 126 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Modern Hebrew | Message 3 of 30 31 July 2010 at 4:12am | IP Logged | ||
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Deej, your goal is attainable, but only if you dedicate your life to learning languages.
If you were to live in these 20 countries for at least one year each, and made an obsessive effort to learn the languages, then by 20 years you'd have completed your goal. Also after the 20 years you would need to practice weekly just to retain them. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| arturs Triglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 5058 days ago 278 posts - 408 votes Speaks: Latvian*, Russian, English | Message 4 of 30 31 July 2010 at 9:36am | IP Logged | ||
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I suppose it depends on the thinking of the person, and now matter how much I wanted to learn 20, 30 or 40 languages, I'm kind of realistic and rather achieve advanced fluency in French, German, Swedish, Finnish and Arabic during my whole life than learn 20 languages in only conversational level. That's just my point of view.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Adamdm Groupie Australia Joined 5224 days ago 62 posts - 89 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, Japanese, Dari, German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written) | Message 5 of 30 31 July 2010 at 10:28am | IP Logged | ||
Go for it! The set of possible outcomes is 1) succeed 2) die trying 3) don't try As death unfortunately seems to be an inevitable (in contrast to growing old, which is something to be hoped for), option (3) is actually "die, not having tried". To be quite fair, option (1) must also be recognised actually to be "succeed, then die", but in this case, someone might set up an internet discussion forum* in your honour! [*or whatever the latest thing is in the future] 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| deej Tetraglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5125 days ago 31 posts - 38 votes Speaks: Hindi, English*, Italian, French | Message 6 of 30 31 July 2010 at 10:49am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for all the replies.
My main two worries were that: 1. Memory-I learnt German GCSE two years ago and have now forgotten a fair chunk of the language(I haven't revised since), and I learnt Spanish and Mandarin a year ago(haven't revised since) and have also forgotten a lot-so if I keep forgetting then I will never be able to speak 15-20 languages, unless I keep revising them constantly which would take some of the fun away. 2. Confusion-I have some knowledge of lots of languages but can barely speak most of them-this is probably just because I need to revise/ didn't learn them to a high level but it could be that I get confused between them. Again, if this is the case, my dream of trying to learn 20 or so would never be attained. I don't want to devote my whole life to languages, as even though they are my greatest passion, I also have other interests, like guitar, philosophy, sport. Any replies, as detailed as possible, would be greatly appreciated, especially from those who know a lot about this or can speak many languages themselves. Thanks. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tyr Senior Member Sweden Joined 5569 days ago 316 posts - 384 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish | Message 7 of 30 31 July 2010 at 2:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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hmm...I suppose if bulk number is all you care about you could cheat a little, once you have Norweigan then learn a little bit about the differences of Danish and Swedish then you will understand quite a large chunk of them. And then there's outright cheats where some sources count dialects or even the same language in different countries as seperate languages.
I'm quite the same overall. I 'know' 10 languages or something like that. Just basics though and to make up for this wide scattering of knowledge I can't excel in one. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| deej Tetraglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5125 days ago 31 posts - 38 votes Speaks: Hindi, English*, Italian, French | Message 8 of 30 31 July 2010 at 3:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thing is, though, I've heard of guys who have been able to speak 50, 60, 70
languages(just do a Google search if you don't believe me) which suggests that for me to speak 20-25 languages should definitely be possible. Unless I'm missing something? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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