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How do polyglots do it?

  Tags: Polyglot
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
159 messages over 20 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 1 ... 19 20 Next >>
nathdep
Diglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 3804 days ago

11 posts - 15 votes
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese

 
 Message 1 of 159
04 January 2014 at 5:39am | IP Logged 
Hello!

I feel pretty confident that most people here have seen the video of the young polyglot
speaking 20 different languages. (Here is a link in case you need to refresh your
memory: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOiXtWcQ8GI )

Needless to say, he makes me quite jealous!

I grow suspicious, however, that this skill isn't as rare as what it appears to be. I
would like to think that anybody, with a great deal of hard work, would be able to
attain the same skills as shown in the video.

I know there are a lot of people out here that have this skill. Could you please
enlighten me as to how I could go about being able to quicken my language learning
process? I think I would be up to the challenge because of my background and my drive
to learn languages.

Thank you so much for all of your help!
2 persons have voted this message useful



Cavesa
Triglot
Senior Member
Czech Republic
Joined 4769 days ago

3277 posts - 6779 votes 
Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1
Studies: Spanish, German, Italian

 
 Message 2 of 159
04 January 2014 at 12:13pm | IP Logged 
Hi, Nathdep,

on this forum, you will surely find some great examples. Old posts by prof.Arguelles are very informative, so is Iversen's long log and guide to learning languages. There are other members you might find interesting and relevant to your question, such as Chung, whose advice you'll find in many threads and logs. Outside the forum, I would recommend Benny, the irish polyglot, or the guy from the Mezzofanti guild blog. You will surely find many more than I can remember now.

From a lot of examples, it appears to be true that quite anyone can attain such a goal, should they put in enough time and efforts. And you can learn a lot from experience of the successful polyglots to make your learning more efficient. However, I would use the word "quick" (or to "quicken") with caution. While there are a few exceptions, most polyglots got their skills through years and years (and decades) of dedicated study. And the more admirable their resutls are, in my opinion.
10 persons have voted this message useful



Cristianoo
Triglot
Senior Member
Brazil
https://projetopoligRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 3881 days ago

175 posts - 289 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, FrenchB2, English
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 3 of 159
04 January 2014 at 2:46pm | IP Logged 
I had the same feeling you have. I read a lot about it and one thing I've noticed was
that they struggle on the first languages and then get others very quickly.

So for someone who speaks 20 languages is very easy to learn a new one. For a monoglot,
it's seems neary impossible.


3 persons have voted this message useful



Chung
Diglot
Senior Member
Joined 6916 days ago

4228 posts - 8259 votes 
20 sounds
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish

 
 Message 4 of 159
05 January 2014 at 7:48pm | IP Logged 
I see my name mentioned...

If you really want an idea of how I go about studying (note though that I'm not a polyglot), see here where I agree with outcast's post.
2 persons have voted this message useful



tarvos
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
China
likeapolyglot.wordpr
Joined 4467 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 5 of 159
05 January 2014 at 7:58pm | IP Logged 
Cavesa wrote:
Hi, Nathdep,

on this forum, you will surely find some great examples. Old posts by prof.Arguelles
are very informative, so is Iversen's long log and guide to learning languages. There
are other members you might find interesting and relevant to your question, such as
Chung, whose advice you'll find in many threads and logs. Outside the forum, I would
recommend Benny, the irish polyglot, or the guy from the Mezzofanti guild blog. You
will surely find many more than I can remember now.

From a lot of examples, it appears to be true that quite anyone can attain such a goal,
should they put in enough time and efforts. And you can learn a lot from experience of
the successful polyglots to make your learning more efficient. However, I would use the
word "quick" (or to "quicken") with caution. While there are a few exceptions, most
polyglots got their skills through years and years (and decades) of dedicated study.
And the more admirable their resutls are, in my opinion.


Indeed. Everyone can become a polyglot, but not everyone can maintain all of these
languages at a perfect level. At some point, your skills start tailing off a little and
lagging behind. The first six, seven can be quite good but beyond that it does go down.
I myself speak two languages fluently (Dutch and English) and you wouldn't be able to
tell whether I was native or not in either of these when spoken. There are five more I
am comfortable using socially and in writing with people but my accuracy in them may
vary. I use some of these for further study. That is not to say I have mastered them,
but people will tell you that I speak them usually. And they're comfortable using them
with me without too much issue.

Beyond that I don't really speak any languages, though I have some where my
understanding and grammatical knowledge varies.

I do not know if that constitutes polyglottery according to your criteria, but I can
tell you the hardest languages are the following ones:

- the first ones you study
- the ones removed the furthest from what you already know at that point in time.
6 persons have voted this message useful



luke
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6965 days ago

3133 posts - 4351 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Esperanto, French

 
 Message 6 of 159
05 January 2014 at 8:37pm | IP Logged 
Polyglots do it with more tongues.
5 persons have voted this message useful



tanya b
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4538 days ago

159 posts - 518 votes 
Speaks: Russian

 
 Message 7 of 159
05 January 2014 at 9:28pm | IP Logged 
I have no aspirations to be a polyglot--I think my brain would max out after 5 languages.

Although I am skeptical that someone could be fully fluent in 12 or more languages, that shouldn't be a deterrent.

Assuming you are unemployed and unattached, and also plan on sleeping, and wish to devote your life to polyglottism, you could start by studying 3 Level III languages at a time, every day, for 3 hours each, never taking a day off. Within 2 years, you would have studied each one approx. 2,200 hours, which in most cases, is more than adequate. You could repeat this in 2-year cycles until you have reached a capacity of, let's say 12-15 languages.

The issue at that point will be maintaining fluency, because you will be frantically trying to meet your daily requirement for staying at that skill level.

But if you happen to be a Russian oligarch or a Saudi prince, you can build 12 guest houses on your estate, each to be occupied by a native speaker, who you will pay to be on call 24/7 for conversation and correction. No problema.



Edited by tanya b on 08 January 2014 at 9:22pm

4 persons have voted this message useful



s_allard
Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 5190 days ago

2704 posts - 5425 votes 
Speaks: French*, English, Spanish
Studies: Polish

 
 Message 8 of 159
06 January 2014 at 1:44am | IP Logged 
I had seen the video in question but I did go to have another look at it. Without wanting in any way to diminish the young man's achievements, I don't think that this sort of talking head video, of which there are many examples on the Internet, really demonstrates the ability to interact proficiently in any of the target languages.

Here you have to determine your goals. Do you want to be able to make a similar video? It's certainly doable, and it's a lot of work, as others have pointed out.

Or, do you want to be able to communicate effectively and meaningfully with natives of the target languages? If the latter is your goal, forget about 20 languages or even 10. Depending on your age, occupation, where you live and financial resources, the "cost" or effort of learning a language to a high degree of proficiency is enormous. Three languages can keep you busy for a lifetime. This does not prevent you of course from dabbling in many other languages but it's a far cry from speaking 20 languages.


8 persons have voted this message useful



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