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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 |  | |
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5239 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes  Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 41 of 47 05 August 2013 at 1:59am | IP Logged | ||
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Frankly, I think most of the discussion here is pert near a waste of time. Meeting somebody who claims to speak 15
languages is one thing - and probably an interesting experience. But, really, to have heard about it through your mother who heard about it at a soirée is not really of any interest. My suggested reaction is to forget the whole thing and go about your own langage learning efforts. Edited by s_allard on 05 August 2013 at 3:53am 10 persons have 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 42 of 47 05 August 2013 at 2:44am | IP Logged | ||
In a way, you *did* react by starting the thread, then reinforcing it with your second comment about your insecurity and slight jaundice, not to mention jealousy (all your words). That's fine, but don't tell people that we've "missed the point" when we offer an answer to "How would you all have reacted if confronted by such a statement?" and it doesn't agree with your sensibilities. R. == Edited by hrhenry on 05 August 2013 at 2:44am 2 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 43 of 47 05 August 2013 at 3:05am | IP Logged | ||
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I am itching to point out the glaring irony in regards to the topic of "reacting to
others comments", given how this thread has evolved, but I will leave it as is because it basically devolves into non-lingustic debate. I will however point out that you spliced my comments, hrhenry, which is unjust, and I would ask people go read my second comment to read the full context. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Keilan Senior Member Canada Joined 4895 days ago 125 posts - 241 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 44 of 47 08 August 2013 at 6:09am | IP Logged | ||
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I tend to become a little skeptical with claims higher than 5 languages (although I can be easily convinced if they explain how they came to know them or have lived in many countries), very skeptical once they hit the 8-10 range (I know few people short of language professors or lifelong enthusiasts at this level), and 15+ I tend to just outright not believe as I think very few people have the time/ability to learn those unless they are somehow able to make it their full time job.
That being said, usually for really high claims like the one in this topic, I just change the subject. People don't usually respond well to being told that being able to say "My name is ____" does not constitute fluency. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6246 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 45 of 47 08 August 2013 at 8:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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I would have told him to join this forum.
6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Lakeseayesno Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico thepolyglotist.com Joined 4143 days ago 280 posts - 488 votes Speaks: English, Spanish*, Japanese, Italian Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 46 of 47 09 August 2013 at 3:12am | IP Logged | ||
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No offense, Outcast, but I think any energy spent on being derisive towards somebody's perceived achievements (ie. feeding this thread) would have been better spent on studying your languages (which is why I guess we're all in these forums).
I hope you don't take this is negative criticism, but think about it objectively. Will you ever meet the guy? No. Would you have given the boasting parent the third degree if it had been you and not your mother who overheard him? ...I sort of hope not. Impossible claim or not, you will never know if it's true because to start with, you don't know who he is nor what grounds his father had to say that. Maybe he sent his son to language school since the moment he could read his ABCs, and he's giving himself an ego boost in front of other people. Maybe his kid can say "hello" in fifteen languages, and to his father that means he knows said languages. Fact is, there are too many holes in information to even bother discussing this. When you think about it like that, you may see you actually got nothing from the time spent dwelling on something you couldn't have done anything about, other than maybe hurt when you realized some people don't think like you. So if it pleases you, leave it at a mental guffaw and a "I'll believe that when I see it", and move on. (Also, don't bother replying to me like you did to hrhenry, as I won't check this thread again. I wanted to add my two cents because I felt like this is quickly turning into a pointless discussion, but I hate it when I leave a comment in good faith and the OP somehow takes offense.) 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4818 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 47 of 47 09 August 2013 at 3:25am | IP Logged | ||
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I think Ironfist's idea is by far the best.
Either the person will show knowledge of the languages, no matter whether all 15 or fewer, and could share his/her experience with achieving such impressive results (which I'd love to read and get some inspiration from), or it might be another learner and language enthusiast in need of similarily crazy soulmates. Or they just won't care and no harm will be done. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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