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Are we being too hard on the polyglots? | ||
Tags: Polyglot bashing | Polyglot | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6899 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 9 of 72 08 December 2010 at 9:34am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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What I find utterly bizarre about some of the "feedback" provided is the outrage and personal offence taken by these <insert noun of choice here> as if someone tied them down in front of the computer, forced them to type in the url and threatened them with terrible consequences if they didn't sit through the video...
Top tip: It's like a TV folks - Don't watch it if it's going to p*ss you off that much. 11 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6715 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes Speaks: English* | Message 10 of 72 08 December 2010 at 1:54pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Good point. I remember when I was in college back in the 80s and my goal was to learn more than 50 languages. I bought every book I could find about every language (no internet then) and I thought I could even get into the Guinness World Record Book. Sometimes we get a little jealous of the 20 year-olds who seem to have years of language-study time ahead of them (with better resources that we did). However, what the 20 years olds do not realize is that real life soon intervenes (you have a job, family and other responsibilities and you get tired faster) and you realize you simply do not have time to study and maintain more than a limited number of foreign languages. Like most of us, they will more than likely have to eventually pair down their ambitions to a dozen or so languages. You could not tell me that in the 80s and you cannot tell them that now. This is something that every polyglot (regrettably) has to learn on their own.
Edited by translator2 on 08 December 2010 at 1:55pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6715 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes Speaks: English* | Message 11 of 72 08 December 2010 at 2:02pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Article: Empty Compliments and the Language Learner
"...Meeting a new Thai person I simply said “Sawadis krap.” Without a second’s hesitation, he said, in English “You Speak Thai very well.” Was I supposed to feel encouraged? Should my head have swollen to monumental proportions because of this meaningful recognition of my linguistic prowess?..." Edited by translator2 on 08 December 2010 at 2:03pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6715 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes Speaks: English* | Message 12 of 72 08 December 2010 at 2:26pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Learn Ossetian
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 4926 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 13 of 72 08 December 2010 at 2:37pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
While maybe interesting, what does this have to do with the topic at hand? R. == 4 persons have 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 14 of 72 08 December 2010 at 3:17pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Ziad Fazad was regarded as something of a hero until we had the opportunity to see that infamous video where he was asked in Russian which day in the week it was and couldn't answer - just to mention one example. There are cases where people overstate their abilities grossly and get whacked, and he is the best example of that. In such a case you can't expect clemency. On the other hand there are examples where people make a really good video and receive vicious comments from a number of viewers who mostly haven't contributed anything themselves. But criticizing others can apparently be a lifestyle. With my videos I always block the evaluation of comments because I can see the absurd results it gives for other videos on Youtube, but I have - with much hesitation - left the possibility of commenting open for everybody. And so far without being as viciously attacked as some other uploaders. Of course I have received some critical comments, mostly about my pronunciation in some languages (including speaking too fast in English). I have always emphasized that speaking is my weakest skill, and I actually I made some of the videos without ever having spoken those languages so I have no illusions about the level of my pronunciation in those videos. I can't say that I have got any criticism yet that wasn't constructive and wellfounded. So I have in a sense been lucky ... so far. But the troubles probably start when you get too successful for some viewers' taste.
Which just goes to show that unwarranted lavish praise also can be a problem.
Hm, I had to think this one over. I rarely ask for comments, and as far as I remember I haven't done it in any of my 28 or so videos so far. If I get constructive criticism I will of course read it thoroughly through and try to learn from it, but my purpose with those videos wasn't to elicit comments. Some see language learning as a process where you make statements in a target language and get criticism from a teacher or a (near)native speaker, and you are supposed to learn from that kind of communicative interaction. I see my language learning as a very personal process where I absorb knowledge from my sources and try out my skills by thinking, writing and speaking (in that order). It is not really important whether anybody listens, and while I appreciate the effort people lay in giving me constructive criticism it isn't something I see as a central element in my learning process. To me it has the same function as reading a passage in a grammar and suddenly realizing that I have been making some persistent kind of error. It doesn't matter whether I have made that error in a video or how I noticed it, the point is that I should stop making it. So making a video has in the main two functions: it is a documentation of my level here and now (in the same way as a vocabulary count) and it forces me to do something about my vocal skills which I have a tendency to neglect. But it isn't a plea for corrections. Until now this habit of NOT asking for feedback or tips hasn't brought me problems. I hope it will stay that way. Edited by Iversen on 14 December 2010 at 7:46am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| djc463 Heptaglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5597 days ago 51 posts - 74 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, German, Italian Studies: Mandarin | Message 15 of 72 08 December 2010 at 5:24pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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People shouldn't be surprised by this... why do topics like this exist on this website? Look at politics, athletics,
cinema... if you're in the spotlight, you're going to have people criticize. However, if you receive overwhelming criticism, you may want to consider if the critics are right, and learn something from them. "If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen" I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. -Bill Cosby You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. -Winston Churchill 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 4926 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 16 of 72 08 December 2010 at 5:36pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Indeed, I think self-documentation is important to gauge your progress. But I differ in opinion when it comes putting the video(s) online. Then it ceases to become a purely personal tool and you are implicitly asking for feedback. I just can't see any other reason a person would put such a video online (I mean a video of a single person showcasing their language skills, not actually imparting any method used in learning, etc.) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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