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You are not a real polyglot if... | ||
Tags: Polyglot | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5115 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 121 of 299 20 October 2013 at 8:43am | IP Logged | |||||
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What I am getting out of the discussion at this point, are wonderful new ideas for new languages to add to my
list. I removed Danish from my list because of my lack of active skills, but in Spanish I generally use Andalusian (which if I understand correctly is about as different from standard Castillian as some of the ex- Yugoslav languages from each other ) but I have learned to use the standard variant as well, in order to be able to teach it, so here I have the active skills. I could also list Nynorsk which is a recognized official language of a country, where I have a written exam, and in which I as a state bureaucrat have the obligation to answer if anyone wishes me to do so. I can even speak it if I have to. I would admittedly have to be a a lot more drunk than I usually would allow myself to get, but I could do it. I doubt that I would be interested in doing that though. A couple of years ago I was on the internet and saw that someone said he could do 200 languages and dialects- mostly Chinese ones. I am sure he is absolutely brilliant, but 200 languages are a lot to keep a part in active use. I get less impressed, not more impressed when I perceive that people are just trying to inflate their resume. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4488 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 122 of 299 20 October 2013 at 11:33am | IP Logged | |||||
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Like I said, listing all the variants of BCMS/SC to me would be like listing Dutch and
Flemish without specifying the dialect. It's just puffery. I could do that (but it would be pointless). So I will only include those languages I actually speak and are separate languages on a resume. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4403 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 123 of 299 20 October 2013 at 12:25pm | IP Logged | |||||
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To use a musical analogy, any guitarist worth their salt will be able to find their way around on the bass guitar
but they won't be able to play anywhere nearly as well as an expert bassist. The instruments are similar and prior knowledge of one gives you a head start when learning the other. But to master them both is a difficult task regardless of the starting point. If someone is near-native in Italian and can also stumble through a conversation in Spanish and maybe passively follow some French dialogue, that's impressive in itself. But to be a confident C2 speaker in all three is a whole different ball game. Someone who has learned Hungarian, Korean and Basque to a similar level probably had to do even more work (like a musician with a supreme command of piano, sitar and saxophone). But both people are polyglots in my book. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4488 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 124 of 299 20 October 2013 at 12:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Exactly the right analogy. If I learn guitar and then bouzouki, mandolin and bass it is
not as time consuming as also learning drums, singing and the piano. But that doesn't mean it's not impressive. Even playing both acoustic and electric is a difference that is important (although not as big). But saying you can play both acoustic and semi-acoustic is puffery, all you need to do is plug in a goddamn guitar. (I play the guitar so thanks) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4403 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 125 of 299 20 October 2013 at 1:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
I'm currently trying to learn guitar and I find myself making similar sorts of excuses I hear from those attempting (and failing at) languages. I don't have enough talent. My fingers are too big I don't have the time I don't think my brain is wired up for music I'm just too damn old (ok, I haven't used this one yet, but no doubt I will) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4034 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian | Message 126 of 299 20 October 2013 at 1:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
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A trilingual Hungarian, Korean and Basque speaker would get an index value of 10, a pentaglot who speaks English, Serbian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Bosnian would get a value of roughly 2. Even though the index I devised quickly has its problems it's sort of indicative of the amount of work needed. I think anyone can call themselves a polyglot if they so choose to, just so long as it is not connected to any linguistical merits it's useless as a word and mainly useful for tickling one's ego. Use it if it tickles your fancy. Until the term is standardized it is just a battlegrounds for endless bickering and complaining, inflating one's ego while attempting to deflate that of others, which is why I would propose leaving the term in peace.
I like the instrument analogy. Guitar and bass (guitar) operate on the same principles; thus there is a lot lot lot of skill transfer going from one to the other. If you're C2 at guitar and pick up a bass you're already A2/B1 and able to get to C1 in one quarter of the time it took to bridge that gap with guitar. Bass is just a different approach to the fretted string instrument, the prototype of which could be viewed as "an instrument where one alters the length of the vibrating part (and thus the pitch) of the string and uses either a bow, a picking tool or finger to make the string vibrate." Related languages operate on mostly the same principles, they are just different takes on it. When comparing Russian with English I think it'd be fun to compare them as contrabass and ukulele; both are clearly types of the same prototypical instrument, yet so so different that skill transfer won't really happen, but if Russian is a contrabass to the ukulele of English, Finnish is an alto-saxophone, to which Estonian is a tenor-saxophone or a similar brass instrument. In the musical world it is pretty rare to my experience for anyone to call themselves a multi-instrumentalist, usually that's just something used by the press. When you ask the musicians themselves they would say "my main instrument is the guitar, but I also know my way around the bass, drums and I can sing some too." 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4488 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 127 of 299 20 October 2013 at 1:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
I don't have talent for it either. I also haven't practiced loads. I'm not a very good musician. But I enjoy it as a hobby band thing and that's what I'm doing. And now that I am practicing a proper solo for the first time in months it's more fun again because it's new. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4609 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 128 of 299 20 October 2013 at 1:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Talking of multi-instrument musicians reminds me of the story attributed to John Lennon,
when asked if he thought Ringo was the best drummer in the world: "Best drummer in the world? He's not even the best drummer in the Beatles!". Allegedly... 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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