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How many languages to be a polyglot? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| orion Senior Member United States Joined 6815 days ago 622 posts - 678 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 33 of 123 21 November 2005 at 10:25pm | IP Logged | |||||
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What exactly is the point of this label "polyglot"? Do people need this rating to feel better about themselves? Who cares? It seems completely capricious. In my estimation its fantastic to be able to fluently speak any ONE language other than your mother tongue. Beyond that, its all good!
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| ymapazagain Senior Member Australia myspace.com/amywiles Joined 6753 days ago 504 posts - 538 votes Speaks: English* Studies: SpanishB2 | Message 34 of 123 22 November 2005 at 3:20am | IP Logged | |||||
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In Australia (my home country) it is a once in a life time experience to meet someone who speaks a language fluently other than their mother tongue or a language passed to them through family circumstances. Learning languages just isn´t seen as an important thing to most people here.
Therefore, if I met someone who had learnt one language (after their M.T or family language) I would be super impressed. But I wouldn´t consider them a polyglot. Personally I think a person who speaks two additional languages to those they grew up with should be considered polyglot. This means they could in total speak 3, 6 even 7 languages, so who knows how to put an exact number on it! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| hagen Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6754 days ago 171 posts - 179 votes 6 sounds Speaks: German*, English, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 35 of 123 22 November 2005 at 6:19am | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm not sure if this calls for another poll, but I've often wondered what exactly people think of as "fluent". When I tell people I speak Mandarin, they often ask me "Fluently??", and I'm never sure how to reply.
Actually "fluent" is something "flowing", isn't it? So it should mean that the words of a foreign language "flow out of your mouth" effortlessly. But that's really rather subjective and very different from "perfect" or "native like". Yet many people seem to equate the two things and get overly impressed when you say you can speak "fluently". I'd like to hear about your impressions and your understanding of the word. (It's not a matter of the English word for me, the German translation "fließend" seems equally foggy to me.) Edited by hagen on 22 November 2005 at 7:50am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Bart Triglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 6954 days ago 155 posts - 159 votes Speaks: Dutch*, French, English Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese, Swedish | Message 36 of 123 22 November 2005 at 6:52am | IP Logged | |||||
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In Dutch we say "vloeiend" wich means something like 'flowingly'. And I too think that is kind of an odd way to rate your language ability.
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| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 6809 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 37 of 123 22 November 2005 at 10:16am | IP Logged | |||||
I suppose that if you can think in the language then they would "flow" out of you mouth without having to contemplate which verb tense to use or which grammatical rule to follow. I don't think anyone can EVER be perfect in any language, although "near-native-like" should be possible after many years. However, I agree that it's all very subjective.
I don't see why anyone should be "overly impressed" about someone else knowing (or being fluent in?) another language. It just means that they've been willing to put in the hard graft required. They should be congratulated for having the willpower, determination and motivation to succeed. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| orion Senior Member United States Joined 6815 days ago 622 posts - 678 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 38 of 123 22 November 2005 at 11:05am | IP Logged | |||||
To me your English seems quite fluent! Do you speak, read, or write Mandarin as well as you do English? I would have never suspected that you are not a native English speaker if you had not said otherwise. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| hagen Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6754 days ago 171 posts - 179 votes 6 sounds Speaks: German*, English, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 39 of 123 23 November 2005 at 9:06am | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks for the compliment, orion, but when I write more than just a few sentences I'm bound to give myself away.
Funnily enough, I think when I was in China I was more "fluent" in (spoken) Mandarin than in English, but my English was still better, i.e. I could easily talk every-day Mandarin, but for complex or abstract things English was still much easier. (Although that would probably change rather quickly if I was to move to an English speaking country.) Patuco, as for being "impressed", I know I would be impressed when I met someone who had reached "native-like" skills in a foreign language as an adult learner. But actually my point was rather that, the word being vague as it is, claiming "fluency" might give the wrong impression if others thought of it as "native-likeness". 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 6809 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 40 of 123 23 November 2005 at 9:39am | IP Logged | |||||
I meant to emphasise the word "overly" not the whole thing. Of course it is impressive to have learned a language as an adult, but what I was trying to say was that you shouldn't be "in awe" of that person.
I see what you mean. The average person would associate fluency with native-like proficiency. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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