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"My son knows 15 languages & he’s 20" | ||
Tags: Number of Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4758 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes  Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 1 of 47 31 July 2013 at 5:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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My mother was at a soirée last night and heard these words from one of the other
guests. This came up somehow as a topic, and she had mentioned to him that I studied "languages" (she states she did not tell him how many I speak or study, though for the record I speak 5, still working my way up 3 of the ones I speak, and "learning" one). That is to say I'm working to reach advanced fluency in 3 languages (which I have studied VERY WELL and which are related to my native languages), and learning 1 new language from a totally different family of languages. It is A LOT OF WORK. I was just wondering how I would have reacted upon hearing such claim. I think that my first instinctive reaction would be to burst out laughing in his face. Hopefully before that happened, my frontal cortex would intervene. Even if I don't guffaw, what would I say next?? These are the possibilities I thought of: 1) Not say anything (believe the poor man had simply been lied to by his son) 2) Just nod and congratulate him on his Wunderkind (even though I don't believe it one second) 3) Tell him I am very interested to know how his son achieved this "miracle", and that I would like to meet him 4) Challenge him on the spot that it is very very likely that is not true. There is of course always a chance, it is actually TRUE, but I would only bet the money's house on that one. Of course then I return to the root of the question, what is "speaking"? To me, speaking a language (basically) is being able to live in the country without resorting to another language. Many mistakes, many gaps in vocab, but you can survive and engage socially. Speaking a language fluently being much more lofty (not making mistakes, rarely groping for a word, rather good accent). Is it possible a 20 year old can speak 15 languages (basically)? I guess it is if he is some sort of savant, and dedicated himself to it all his life. But those sort of people don't come very often. How would you all have reacted if confronted by such a statement? Edited by outcast on 31 July 2013 at 5:06pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4758 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 2 of 47 31 July 2013 at 5:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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I must point out I probably would have felt offended and a bit jealous (I guess because
deep inside perhaps it could be true afterall), thus my visceral reaction. This insecurity and slight jaundice would stem from the fact that I know how $%&$_#@! hard it is to learn one language well, let alone several, let alone more than a dozen. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4448 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 3 of 47 31 July 2013 at 5:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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I would probably have had an incredulous look on my face, but I think my reaction would have been to ask questions, like "Really? What languages does your son know? Does he speak them all? How did he learn them? When did he start learning languages? Does he study on his own or did he attend courses? Do you know what methods he uses? etc etc. If the claim was false, then I think those questions would reveal it pretty quickly, and if true, you would expect the father or mother of this wonderboy to know how on earth their child had become such a polyglot at young age.
When I was 20, I was pretty good at English and German, had intermediate French and was starting my university studies in Spanish. My parents, who are basically monolinugal, were very impressed with my four languages - as outcast says, it is a lot of work. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4062 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian | Message 4 of 47 31 July 2013 at 5:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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I would have asked to be acquainted with the person. It'd be very interesting if it were true. I of course doubt it is but I don't think it's impossible. For example, if the mother was a native Spanish speaker and father, say, native Mandarin Chinese speaker then expanding from the other side to all of the Romance languages, from the other side to Cantonese, Burmese and so on and then via English to other Germanic languages then it could in theory be possible. It would still be amazing.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| yele Newbie United States Joined 3979 days ago 24 posts - 27 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 5 of 47 31 July 2013 at 5:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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Wow. Thats a huge number. I dont know how I'd react but I wouldn't try and quiz them over it.
Just speaking from personal experience, the worst thing you can do is quiz a person. I've had this happen to me once from a friend and it's kind of belittling in a sense. She still does it sometimes but not as much. I remember the first time she decided to quiz me she used possibly the easiest words that anyone in their first month of study would know (this was when I already completed a year of studies). Even though I knew them all I couldn't help but feel that she thought I wouldn't know such a basic thing like the word for the color white. In fact, it almost felt like she was dissappointed that I knew them. As a note: I think jealousy is a powerful motivator. Everytime I log onto this forum I'm so jealous of everyones progress and the amount of languages they speak. Then I binge on my studies with the thought that ONE DAY I will be one of them. :D 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 4939 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 6 of 47 31 July 2013 at 5:48pm | IP Logged | ||
I probably would have reacted as I would have with any other proud parent. I would have congratulated the parent for her kid's interest in languages and that's about all. Otherwise it doesn't really affect me or my life. Parents talk up their kids' abilities all the time. It just means they're proud of them. No reason to get bent out of shape over it. R. == 17 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4698 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 7 of 47 31 July 2013 at 7:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't think people who have studied languages know just how much work it takes, and
tend to take any level of skill as "he speaks the language." Once, at a new job, I was introduced in the company paper as someone who could speak seven foreign languages. I was horrified, because what I had actually said was, I took Latin in High School, a semester of Arabic in college, learned how to order food in Thailand while backpacking, and so on. I tend to take this mother's comments the same way I take comments like "you have a talent for languages" (as opposed to "you work hard at languages") and "you should try Rosetta Stone" - I just smile a bit, and don't even try to explain anymore what I really think. Edited by kanewai on 31 July 2013 at 9:42pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| yuehan Tetraglot Newbie United States Joined 4187 days ago 12 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Mandarin, Greek, French, Indonesian, Haitian Creole, Modern Hebrew, Somali, Arabic (Levantine) | Message 8 of 47 31 July 2013 at 7:57pm | IP Logged | ||
Don't worry about it. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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