Register  Login  Active Topics  Maps  

Autistic Savants

  Tags: Autism | Savant | Polyglot
 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots Post Reply
35 messages over 5 pages: 1 2 35  Next >>
Michael K.
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5488 days ago

568 posts - 886 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Esperanto

 
 Message 25 of 35
29 March 2012 at 6:25pm | IP Logged 
Sorry, guys, I'm a sucker. I fell prey to the fallacy that if it's reported in the mainstream press, it's accurate.

I can understand why Tammet is a fraud. I've read the thread Splog started called "Languge Savants" , and I've borrowed Moonwalking with Einstein from the library to confirm Splog's reporting of the facts (plus it sounds like an interesting book). Tammet was trying to sell his book and other business ideas.

I don't understand why there would be hyperbole about Taylor's ability, because it's not like he was doing it for self-promotion.

Does anyone have any ideas why Taylor's story is so overblown?
1 person has voted this message useful



Ari
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 6341 days ago

2314 posts - 5695 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese
Studies: Czech, Latin, German

 
 Message 26 of 35
30 March 2012 at 7:14am | IP Logged 
Michael K. wrote:
I don't understand why there would be hyperbole about Taylor's ability, because it's not like he was doing it for self-promotion.

Does anyone have any ideas why Taylor's story is so overblown?

Journalists will overblow any story they can get their hands on, something which is evident if you look at how science is reported in the general press.

Scientist: It's possible these results, if confirmed by independent studies, might cause us to have to rethink some aspects of general relativity.
Newspaper: EINSTEIN WAS WRONG, SCIENTIST SAYS

Polyglot: I don't like the word "fluent", nor can I specify how many languages I "speak". I can converse freely and easily in half a dozen or so, make myself understood in another dozen and understand at least the gist of a text in perhaps thirty languages total.
Newspaper: GENIUS FLUENT IN THIRTY LANGUAGES
5 persons have voted this message useful



Michael K.
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5488 days ago

568 posts - 886 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Esperanto

 
 Message 27 of 35
30 March 2012 at 1:08pm | IP Logged 
I get the point, but serious sources of news, like my linguistics textbook, reported Taylor knew several languages although he was retarded.

I can understand hyperbole from one source, but many sources?

It's a bit troubling.
1 person has voted this message useful



Journeyer
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
tristan85.blogspot.c
Joined 6627 days ago

946 posts - 1110 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, German
Studies: Sign Language

 
 Message 28 of 35
30 March 2012 at 1:31pm | IP Logged 
From watching the video clip of Christopher Taylor, it seemed like the man studying him was doing nothing to refute claims of fluency in multiple languages, or at least claims of a deep level of knowledge.
1 person has voted this message useful



Volte
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Switzerland
Joined 6198 days ago

4474 posts - 6726 votes 
Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian
Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese

 
 Message 29 of 35
30 March 2012 at 6:24pm | IP Logged 
Michael K. wrote:
I get the point, but serious sources of news, like my linguistics textbook, reported Taylor knew several languages although he was retarded.

I can understand hyperbole from one source, but many sources?

It's a bit troubling.


Sources tend to rely on each other. They're generally not all looking directly at the available evidence.

It's quite common in the media for various outlets to rely to some degree on each other, getting further and further from any kind of accuracy in the process.
3 persons have voted this message useful



dampingwire
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4424 days ago

1185 posts - 1513 votes 
Speaks: English*, Italian*, French
Studies: Japanese

 
 Message 30 of 35
31 March 2012 at 1:00am | IP Logged 
Splog wrote:


There is strong evidence that Daniel Tammet is a fraud. Search this forum for other
threads on the topic. However, the short story is that he is not a savant (Cambridge
university scanned his brain and found it to be perfectly normal), he also used to
participate in world memory championships using standard memory techniques (even
working as a memory coach). Only in recent years did he reinvent his story to claim it
is down to being a savant.



I remember the Horizon program from a few years ago where they sent him to Iceland for
a week (iirc) and at the end of that he was interviewed on Icelandic TV. I've read some
threads on various other fora that claim that all he's done is make use of standard
memory techniques. If that's all he's used to learn (some level of functional)
Icelandic in a week, then why are there so few people here who speak double digit
numbers of languages?

Or are there claims that he already knew at least some basic Icelandic?

Just to be clear, I'm not bothered about what he or any one else claims he is. Just
whether he picked up 9seemingly) quite a bit of a new language in a very short length
of time.

1 person has voted this message useful



kman543210
Diglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 4423 days ago

26 posts - 73 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: French, German

 
 Message 31 of 35
31 March 2012 at 2:13am | IP Logged 
dampingwire wrote:

I remember the Horizon program from a few years ago where they sent him to Iceland for
a week (iirc) and at the end of that he was interviewed on Icelandic TV. I've read some
threads on various other fora that claim that all he's done is make use of standard
memory techniques. If that's all he's used to learn (some level of functional)
Icelandic in a week, then why are there so few people here who speak double digit
numbers of languages?

Or are there claims that he already knew at least some basic Icelandic?

Just to be clear, I'm not bothered about what he or any one else claims he is. Just
whether he picked up 9seemingly) quite a bit of a new language in a very short length
of time.

I saw that program where they showed him on Icelandic television as well, but I don't have an opinion on whether he is or isn't a savant. What I would like to know is what memory technique could he be using to get such seemingly good results?
2 persons have voted this message useful



Maecenas23
Triglot
Newbie
Ukraine
Joined 4370 days ago

21 posts - 56 votes 
Speaks: Ukrainian*, Russian, English
Studies: German

 
 Message 32 of 35
10 August 2013 at 11:30am | IP Logged 
Are there French speakers who can assess his French?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylTrm3x-DuY

Edited by Maecenas23 on 10 August 2013 at 11:31am



1 person has voted this message useful



This discussion contains 35 messages over 5 pages: << Prev 1 2 35  Next >>


Post ReplyPost New Topic Printable version Printable version

You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum


This page was generated in 0.4688 seconds.


DHTML Menu By Milonic JavaScript
Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved
No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization.