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Jorge Fernandez Gates | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| JasonChoi Diglot Senior Member Korea, South Joined 6161 days ago 274 posts - 298 votes  Speaks: English*, Korean Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese, Latin | Message 1 of 31 25 September 2007 at 2:24am | IP Logged | |||||
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I just stumbled upon this article:
How the Guinness Book of Records Can Help YOU to Learn any Foreign Language by Larry Lynch At only 18 years of age, Jorge Fernandez Gates can speak, read and write in 11 foreign languages. They are not all related languages either. Some already under his belt include Mandarin Chinese, Catalan, Galician, English, French, German, Swedish, Romanian, Italian, Portuguese, and Dutch. Not only that, but Jorge only started learning foreign languages a little over 5 years ago, which means he’s been “picking up” a foreign lingo at the rate of two foreign languages per year. His goal is to get into the Guinness Book of Records by mastering at least 25 foreign languages. Already recognized as the “youngest polyglot in Peru”, in several interviews given primarily in his native Spanish, he discusses some techniques he (and you) can use to develop fluency in whatever foreign language you’re striving to acquire. He says, “For me, foreign language learning is a hobby, I can’t control it, at any moment I could open a dictionary to look up a new word for my vocabulary.” His principal ally in the quest to master enough foreign languages to make the Guinness Book of Records is the internet which he credits with up to 70% of his foreign language learning success. He cites in particular Radio Bucharest online at: (http://www.multilingualbooks.com/online-radio.html) that features both live and pre-recorded radio programming in 38 European and Asian languages as well as 18 African continental languages, and online language courses as aids in helping him to familiarize himself with foreign languages. Other tactics he has frequently employed include: • Talking with the staff in ethnic restaurants • Watching television programs in or about target languages • Using the radio as a key listening and comprehension development resource “to help accustom your ear to the pronunciation of the language” • Using the internet to listen and study foreign languages A major concern he has had was that “one day his brain would explode” from the constant linguistic input or that he would linguistically get “his wires crossed” and become totally confused. A neurologist he consulted assured him that “there are no limits” to the brain’s capacity to take in and store knowledge. Jorge Fernandez gives these “keys” as essential to his linguistic accomplishments: • Learn the foreign language grammar “forwards and backwards” • Acquire a basis vocabulary of high-frequency words and phrases • Never stop augmenting new vocabulary in your new language – He tries to learn at least two new words each day • Practice your new language with friends, language teachers or whomever you can regularly And just what started it all? “I’m not a good student and as punishment my Mother decided to take away my cell phone and prohibited me from chatting online. I couldn’t go out, so to keep from spending the entire day sleeping I enrolled in a French course.” Then things began to change for him. “I liked it and decided to take Italian too.” He later discovered a course in Romanian on the internet and “loved it”. To “prove” his language abilities, family members have gone with him to Chinese restaurants to have him converse with the cook and contacted TV programs and foreign language professors to verify his linguistic skills in other languages. So began the linguistic journey of Jorge Fernandez Gates. So as not to create a “Babel” in his brain, he restricts himself to “calmly learning only two languages” at a time per year. You can listen to journalist Rosa Maria Palacios do a 26 minute video interview with him (in Spanish) on his language-learning adventures at: www.youtube.com 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| mcjon77 Senior Member United States Joined 6413 days ago 193 posts - 248 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Egyptian), French | Message 2 of 31 26 September 2007 at 9:21am | IP Logged | |||||
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So, if you learn more than 25 languages, they put you in the Guinness book of world records? Thats something to shoot for.
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 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6711 days ago 4250 posts - 5710 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 31 26 September 2007 at 10:04am | IP Logged | |||||
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Some years ago the "record holder" in the Guinness book was Georges Henry Schmidt (interpreter for UN) who was said to speak twelve languages fluently (and being able to translate from and into sixty-six). Somewhere I read that he actually spoke over thirty fluently. However, I've not found any list of which languages, nor any information about him - perhaps he is not alive anymore and that may be why the spot is available for Jorge Fernandez Gates...
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| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 6817 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 31 26 September 2007 at 11:07am | IP Logged | |||||
The author of the article obviously didn't know about the similarities of Catalan, French, Italian, Portuguese and Galician, nor about the similarities between English, German, Dutch and Swedish. It's still an impressive accomplishment though. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| apparition Octoglot Senior Member United States Joined 6452 days ago 600 posts - 667 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), French, Arabic (Iraqi), Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Pashto | Message 5 of 31 26 September 2007 at 12:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
Hey, but he's got an e-book telling us how we too can "live our dreams in paradise, find romance, high adventure and get paid while travelling for free"! I couldn't find any video of Gates on YouTube. Anyone got a link? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6696 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 31 27 September 2007 at 2:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
Well, I can't see any disagreement between the statement "They are not all related" and the list of languages given. Clearly there are several language pairs in the list that are not related, eg. Mandarin and Dutch. Even one such pair is sufficient to make the statement "not all related" correct. On the other hand the concept "related" can depend on how far back you go. I wouldn't normally think of English and Romanian as related, but of course they are distant relatives since they are both in the Indo-European family. Edited by Hencke on 27 September 2007 at 2:22pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 6817 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 31 27 September 2007 at 4:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
Fair enough, but you must admit that the author didn't choose the most unrelated languages to illustrate his point (except for Mandarin). Edited by patuco on 28 September 2007 at 6:36am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6711 days ago 4250 posts - 5710 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 31 27 September 2007 at 5:23pm | IP Logged | |||||
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However, it would almost be strange if a polyglot who was a native speaker of Spanish didn't learn Catalan, Galician, Portuguese and French. Who could blame this guy?
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