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mr_chinnery
Senior Member
England
Joined 5538 days ago
202 posts - 297 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French
| Message 41 of 53 28 February 2011 at 9:29pm | IP Logged |
Kuikentje wrote:
Yes, we can see only the last 10 posts by the people. I've the
possibility to see only 10 of my own posts as well, therefore I forget on which threads
I've written.
Only the moderators and the Pro members can see more, unfortunately. |
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It's worth it.
2 persons have voted this message useful
| polyglHot
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 4847 days ago
173 posts - 229 votes
Speaks: Norwegian*, English, German, Spanish, Indonesian
Studies: Russian
| Message 42 of 53 28 February 2011 at 9:31pm | IP Logged |
Yes, I wish I was a pro member but I don't want to pay... I think that seeing people's -
not to mention one's own! - posts should be free, the language map too.
5 persons have voted this message useful
| Arekkusu
Hexaglot
Senior Member
Canada
bit.ly/qc_10_lec
Joined 5162 days ago
3971 posts - 7747 votes
Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto
Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian
| Message 43 of 53 28 February 2011 at 9:36pm | IP Logged |
I think we ought to get back to the subject of the thread.
1 person has voted this message useful
| Arekkusu
Hexaglot
Senior Member
Canada
bit.ly/qc_10_lec
Joined 5162 days ago
3971 posts - 7747 votes
Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto
Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian
| Message 46 of 53 28 February 2011 at 10:00pm | IP Logged |
Torbyrne wrote:
Arekkusu wrote:
Let's not forget that to learn 10 languages to fluency, certain conditions need to be present, conditions that have little to do with talent and sometimes a lot to do with coincidence.
Creating an environment where 10 languages can be used regularly is, for most people and for all intents and purposes, virtually impossible. For some people, however, it just happens, over the course of their lives.
I have different circles of friends and in some, speaking 3 or 4 languages is the norm because of the types of lives they have led, while in others, speaking a second language is a truly exceptional feat.
Very few people get to move to another country to learn another language, and on the other hand, some people grow up in trilingual environments and get to move several times for extensive periods of time to several different countries. I used to live in Burkina Faso where there were loads of trilingual, yet illiterate, people. In Montréal, I used to know bilingual people who were intellectually challenged. Opportunity, not ability, is a decisive factor.
Personally, I used to go to university in Montréal where I was exposed to various languages more frequently than now, and I learned 3 languages to fluency in a few years' span. Now, I live in a small city with less immigration, I have a fulltime job with a wife and kids. I've managed to incorporated Japanese in my daily life and I have Japanese friends -- and I have a French-English bilingual home -- but there are hardly any opportunities to use Spanish or German anymore, let alone 5 more languages.
Could I learn 10 languages to fluency? I know I could, as I've done it with 4 languages in the past (besides my native language) over relatively short periods of time, and all without moving anywhere. But do I currently lead a lifestyle where that's possible? Realistically, no, not at the moment. Perhaps when I retire, though...
Learning 10 languages to fluency requires certain conditions that the vast majority of humans will never encounter. We can -- and should -- celebrate those who have a achieved this feat, but let's not forget that in some people's lives, learning 2 or 3 languages is as great a feat. |
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This is very well put. Indeed having the opportunities is a huge part of being able to maintain a larger number of languages. The other thing is making use of those opportunities. This is also not so cut and dried for a lot of people. If you have had a hard day at work, feel down or just don't fancy doing any language work, it is very easy to veg out and watch TV in our home language(s) or do something else non-language related. Then there are the other things that crop up, like family, going out with friends and the rest of your life! ;)
I am in a very fortunate position because of the factors I set out in my last post. In addition to that, I also have a wealth of languages on tap here just through the TV. Anything I watch in English has subtitles in Serbian/Albanian or Macedonian. We tell a lot of jokes in Serbian in Macedonia too and every now and then you come across a native speaker who uses that language. Bulgarian is another language I can practice quite a lot because of TV, trips to Bulgaria and, of course, over the Internet.
For me, language learning is something I do constantly. I listen to and read a variety of languages throughout the day to maintain my level in some, brush up on others and improves other ones still. The question you have to ask yourself is, why do it? For me the answer is clear - language learning is a fire that burns inside me. It is like the football fan who needs to know about every player, match and league. It is the musician in a band, who thinks only about music. There are people who dabble in lots of things. Language learning has its hardcore element. I think this is what describes me best. Being a polyglot means little, it is a label people attach to people who do what I do. Even amongst those people there is disagreement. The doing is what counts, the label matters not a fig.
The fact is this - My name is Richard and I am a lang-a-holic. :) |
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I think this is the first time I've read a polyglot admit so openly to the contributing circumstances that have led to their learning several languages and I appreciate your humility, Richard.
I didn't mean to diminish the feat -- of course, one could have all the opportunities in the world and do nothing with them -- but it is important to realize that we enjoy different experiences and live different lives, and that for some people to reach fluency in 4 languages while living in a monolingual remote village is quite possibly as huge an accomplishment as it is for some other people to learn over 10 languages.
Edited by Arekkusu on 28 February 2011 at 10:02pm
1 person has voted this message useful
| polyglHot
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 4847 days ago
173 posts - 229 votes
Speaks: Norwegian*, English, German, Spanish, Indonesian
Studies: Russian
| Message 47 of 53 28 February 2011 at 10:15pm | IP Logged |
So it's free or not? How can I get the language map? I'd like to see where I could travel
with my languages, maybe they speak Indonesian on an African island or something! Who
knows...
1 person has voted this message useful
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Iversen
Super Polyglot
Moderator
Denmark
berejst.dk
Joined 6484 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 48 of 53 28 February 2011 at 10:47pm | IP Logged |
I can see my language map, but I don't use it. The information I can get from Wikipedia, the site Ethnologue and travel guides tells me more than the map ever could.
btw. You can also search HTLAL with Google (use your criterion plus site:http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum). If you want to find posts by for instance Torbyrne then try "Torbyrne wrote" or "Edited by Torbyrne" (though he doesn't seem prone to overediting of his posts, unlike some of us).
Apart from that: it is clear that the Balkan countries is a good place to become polyglot (like places like Luxembourg and Mauritius), but if access to native speakers was enough then all his neighbours would also be hyperpolyglots - and I'm fairly certain they aren't.
Edited by Iversen on 28 February 2011 at 10:49pm
2 persons have voted this message useful
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