"My son knows 15 languages & he’s 20" (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

"My son knows 15 languages & he’s 20"
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Language Learning Forum : General discussion

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Bao
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
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Speaks: German*, English
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Message 17 of 47

01 August 2013 at 2:45am | IP Logged

outcast wrote:

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.

How would you all have reacted if confronted by such a statement?

I would probably have done exactly that. Burst out laughing, said 'wow, that was quite a
good joke, you really got me there for a second', winked, and walked away.

Of course, I agree with Teango, but I tend to socialize in environments in which bragging
is not very welcome, hence my likely reaction.

Edited by Bao on 01 August 2013 at 2:49am
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Iversen
Super Polyglot
Moderator
Denmark
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Message 18 of 47

01 August 2013 at 3:13pm | IP Logged

It wouldn't serve any purpose to discuss the son's number of languages with his father. But even if the son just knew some of the languages well enough to speak them he might still be deeply interested in languages and I would definitely try to find out more about his skills if I ever happened to meet himself - and not just some awestruck parent.

Edited by Iversen on 02 August 2013 at 10:20am
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anime
Triglot
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Sweden
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Speaks: Spanish, Swedish*, English
Studies: German, Portuguese, French, Russian

Message 19 of 47

01 August 2013 at 4:01pm | IP Logged

I have no doubt that some people like Doner are especially talented with languages. I find it hard to see
though how you would maintain 15+ languages at a functional fluent level (I guess a few thousand words,
patterns etc. per language, even though you might lack richness in synonym-use and such). I guess if you
sacrifice a lot of sleep but then your cognitive skills will eventually suffer anyway.

For me maintaining 5 languages outside of my native language already takes up a lot of my free time. Even
maintaining English at a fairly high level requires exposure, although I'm fairly certain my English won't ever
decline into a non fluent level.
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Tupacalypse
Diglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 3951 days ago
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Speaks: English*, Swahili
Studies: French

Message 20 of 47

01 August 2013 at 6:08pm | IP Logged

Just wondering, is there a consensus on this forum as to who knows the most languages
that posts here?
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I'm With Stupid
Senior Member
Vietnam
Joined 3982 days ago
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Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Vietnamese

Message 22 of 47

01 August 2013 at 10:55pm | IP Logged

Stelle wrote:

As an aside, I used to have a job helping people write resumes. You'd be shocked at how
often a person who knows a few words wants to put "speaks x-language" on their resume.

I was doing CVs with my English class once and I asked them to hand in the first draft. You'd be amazed how many CVs full of mistakes also included the claim "fluent in English."

Anyway, to the OP, were you speaking to these parents by any chance?

Goodness Gracious Me
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I'm With Stupid
Senior Member
Vietnam
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Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Vietnamese

Message 23 of 47

01 August 2013 at 10:58pm | IP Logged

wv girl wrote:

I think I would have overcome my shyness & asked this parent, not in a confrontational manner, what languages his
son spoke & how he learned them. I would highly doubt that this claim would be true, but what if he spoke 5-7
languages? That's still impressive! How'd he do that? Like you, I know how long & hard I've had to work to get 2
related languages to acceptable levels. If someone else has a method, I'd be curious to know how he did it. I'd keep
my suspicions hidden, though.

To be fair though, if his mum thinks he speaks 15 languages when in reality, he might have dabbled in 15 languages, she probably doesn't have an in depth knowledge of his study methods.
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Pyotr
Newbie
Papua New Guinea
Joined 3943 days ago
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Message 24 of 47

02 August 2013 at 1:32pm | IP Logged

I don't think I'd react to this. I mean... it wouldn't be my business. I don't feel a need to challenge what someone's saying, unless it somehow poses a real threat to me. After all, these are just words.

outcast wrote:

Is it possible a 20 year old can speak 15 languages (basically)?

It is technically possible, of course.

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