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How many languages to be a polyglot? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6377 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 113 of 123 24 September 2012 at 2:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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Actually, most Danes didn't want to speak English with me when I was there, so I ended up pretending to be an American tourist. This isn't something I'm proud of, but I did it out of necessity, since I really couldn't understand a word of what people were saying to me. This is the only time I've been to Denmark in my life, and I didn't have any time to prepare before the voyage. Were I to go again I'd probably prepare myself by studying Danish for a few weeks before going, to see if I could up my comprehension.
Ironically, I think my polyglot aspirations hinder me from getting even the little exposure most Swedes get, since I consume very little local media. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4417 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 114 of 123 24 September 2012 at 2:32pm | IP Logged | ||
Although it is rather heartening for us Brits to hear that laziness towards language learning actually exists in Scandanavia. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6392 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 115 of 123 24 September 2012 at 2:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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It exists everywhere. It's just that in many places the conditions for learning English are as favourable as for an immigrant learning the language of their new country.
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| Lugubert Heptaglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6662 days ago 186 posts - 235 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Danish, Norwegian, EnglishC2, German, Dutch, French Studies: Mandarin, Hindi | Message 116 of 123 25 September 2012 at 9:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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So many aspects. Many have already been mentioned and discussed.
First, what are the criteria for "knowing" a language? For me at least, for example the EU grading is not even useless. It presupposes that all language skills are acquired in parallel. Not by a mile. I unhesitatingly translate quite strange documents from French, avoid writing in French, and when I try conversation, I am most of the time from politely to impatiently asked to switch from speaking French to using English. I have managed not uncomplicated translations from Chinese. But the few times I have managed to have natives understand what I've been saying, I have been utterly clueless when they answered. From a less pessimistic aspect, on a good day, I can understand the major points of newspaper headlines in towards 20 languages in at least four different scripts. But I never claim that I'm usefully fluent in more than English and German plus my native Swedish. And don't start me on mutual understanding of neighbouring languages. Define understanding! When I speak to Norwegians or Danes, I hope I'm fairly well aware of false friends and such, so I suppose I use some kind of Interscandinavian. Anyway, it works. I suppose that would also be the case between for example Spanish and Catalan and Portuguese, or Dutch and Fries and Afrikaans, but we all with some understanding of one or two in those sets would probably avoid committing our presumed understanding in writing. And the not unusual claim that most kids in Mumbai slum know x languages. Do they really know more than "Kick the ball", "Share the candy" and the like? I think the not unusual Brussels shop sign, (translated) "Shop assistants required. Must be perfectly trilingual." is more realistic. That said, I vote for 6 or more for "normal" polyglots. Feel free to define "super" or whatever. I translate professionally from 6 languages into Swedish. I write to customers in Swedish, English and German. All Indo-European languages. I have as mentioned some knowledge of several more languages, of different families. A friend of mine is a fluent speaker of Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Swedish, English, French and manages Spanish. Three language families... She writes practically just Swedish and English. Is one of us a polyglot? From the "glot" part, I think she qualifies. I am a polywhat? Edited by Lugubert on 25 September 2012 at 9:21pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Wilke Diglot Newbie Sweden Joined 4537 days ago 5 posts - 7 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: French, Polish | Message 117 of 123 25 September 2012 at 11:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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My personal opinion is that if you speak three languages, one being your native and the other two you have learnt through self-study and not by for example living in a multi-lingual enviorment, then you are a polyglot! Not that those who doesnt arent(i.e maybe have a several languages upbringing) cant be polyglots but I hold more respect for those who learn it on their own.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| clumsy Octoglot Senior Member Poland lang-8.com/6715Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4973 days ago 1116 posts - 1367 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Mandarin, Italian, Vietnamese Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swedish Studies: Danish, Dari, Kirundi | Message 118 of 123 26 September 2012 at 12:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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The poll is flawed - it excludes people who think the answer would be '3 or less'.
In Poland only 1 per cent knew 3 or more language. It could have improved, since the poll was old, but still it's a small number. So I think it's OK to say that 3 language is enough. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5129 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 119 of 123 26 September 2012 at 4:35pm | IP Logged | ||
So I who have learned Spanish and French by living and going to school in those countries and learned English mostly by watching TV could not count those as part of the languages which would qualify me as a polyglot? The close languages are always a matter of definition. If you are a Norwegian, and you consider yourself a polyglot because you can speak English and understand Swedish and Danish, you would be laughed out of the country. If you can actually speak all four languages fluently, that would be another matter entirely. I have however not ever met anyone who was fluent in all three Scandinavian languages. Not even the girl who was half Swedish, half Norwegian and raised in Denmark. She had such a heavy accent in Norwegian that it was almost Danish. What I sometimes find amusing, is when a Dane assures me that a particular Danish dialect (for instance jydsk)is incomprehensible. I would not say it is easy, but I have to concentrate so much when listening to Danish anyhow, that whether it is one dialect or another really doesn't make much difference. And the only Swedish dialect I have not understood, was one Ari posted a link to once, but if I recall correctly he said even he as a Swede struggled with that one. But as so many have said - it is all about exposure. The languages are so close, that with a certain amount of exposure, you will easily understand all three, even if you may not speak them. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4417 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 120 of 123 26 September 2012 at 5:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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The total number of languages spoken isn't necessarily an indicator of a polyglot's language ability or endeavour. In places like Luxembourg and Belgium, it's extremely common to find people who speak 3 languages well. Some of them will know another couple of languages, perhaps due to parental heritage or from spending part of childhood in another country. It is entirely feasible for some people to absorb 5 or 6 languages from early childhood because the learning condtions are favourable and include tons of exposure.
Those who grow up in a largely monolingual environment must actively go out and learn other languages and that's a tougher scenario. Edited by beano on 26 September 2012 at 5:28pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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