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Negative aspects of being a Polygot? | ||
Tags: Polyglot bashing | Polyglot | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5240 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes  Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 89 of 94 13 January 2010 at 12:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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I heard a speaker say the other day that he had never met someone who regrets speaking more than one language, but he meets lots of people who regret speaking only one. That in my mind sums up the issue. I don't see any drawbacks to being a polyglot. I see a lot of effort and great difficulty in maintaining a high level of fluency in many languages, but I hardly call these things drawbacks.
Part of the thread, in my opinion, touches on a fundamental issue: how many of us are true polyglots, if we mean by that equal competence in multiple languages? This is rarely the case, and perhaps this is what can get us into trouble. A lot of people are impressed when we say we speak x number of languages, but it's not always easy to perform at native level when put in a real situation. I'm not speaking of a drawback. I think it's more a question of overselling. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| apatch3 Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5995 days ago 80 posts - 99 votes Speaks: Pashto, English* Studies: Japanese, FrenchA2 | Message 90 of 94 08 April 2010 at 10:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well to be honest there aren't any major drawbacks except for the occasional vocabulary mix-up I'll be thinking of something to say and low and behold the first word that comes to mind will be in the wrong language this is especially true when discussing certain things that aren't well understood cross culturally for example I find it impossible to define "moe" in any other language moe is just moe!
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| rebrafi Pentaglot Newbie Brazil Joined 5139 days ago 18 posts - 23 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Spanish, Esperanto, French, English Studies: Italian | Message 91 of 94 30 April 2010 at 2:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you speak 1 foreign language, people will look to you normally; 2 languages they'll say you are prepared for business world, 3 languages you're updated within your time; 6 languages "oh you're inteligent; 10 languages they will look surprisingly. More than 10 they simply won't believe, amd always will aks you to translate something outside a context to see how you are really good. but usualy they will say it is a big lie.
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| Tally Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Israel Joined 5418 days ago 135 posts - 176 votes Speaks: English*, Modern Hebrew* Studies: French | Message 92 of 94 30 April 2010 at 2:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't see any drawbacks in it actually.
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| Bill_Sage667 Groupie United States Joined 5015 days ago 62 posts - 71 votes Speaks: English* | Message 93 of 94 05 September 2010 at 3:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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I get really irritated when my buddies expect me to be fluent in a language, even only if I've just dabbled in it for a month (I'm sure some people in this thread have experienced the same thing). That's why as much as I can, I simply try to hide the fact that I like languages, and never reveal how hard I work on my languages. It will make them think that you've done it effortlessly. Very ironic though, that the same guy who try to expect me to be fluent and know everything in a language (they expect me to know every word in a dictionary, as if it was that simple to learn a language) don't even know what omnipotence, didactic, onomatopoeia means in their own native language (which is English, of course). And there's the grownup who asks you whether you're fluent already, but I'm okay with that, since it's just like a polite gentleman asking 'So, can you serve like Federer now, and do awesome slices?' even though I've just started my tennis lessons back then. I only get insulted if they actually try to poke holes in my abilities.
On the other hand there are some people who think you're an oddity or a genius. And I'm not even a polyglot at all (nor even a biglot). Edited by Bill_Sage667 on 05 September 2010 at 3:51pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| maydayayday Pentaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5029 days ago 564 posts - 839 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, SpanishB2, FrenchB2 Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Polish, Persian, Vietnamese Studies: Urdu | Message 94 of 94 05 September 2010 at 5:37pm | IP Logged | ||
Omigod! Thats it. the tuba HAS to go..... the funny looking gawky cat can stay though. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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