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Mario Pei | ||
Tags: Language Professor | Biography | Professionals | Linguistics | Textbooks | College/University | Polyglot | Translation | Book | ||
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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 5 11 April 2008 at 11:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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from wikipedia:
Mario Andrew Pei (1901-1978) was an Italian-American linguist and polyglot, who wrote a number of popular books known for their accessibility to readers without a professional background in linguistics. Pei was born in Rome, Italy, and immigrated to the United States with his parents in 1908. By the time he was out of high school he knew not only English and his native Italian but also Latin, Greek, and French. Over the years he became fluent in several other languages (including Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and German) capable of speaking some 30 others, and acquainted with the structure of at least 100 of the world's languages. In 1923, he began his career teaching languages at City College in New York, and in 1928 he published his translation of Vittoria Ermete de Fiori's Mussolini: The Man of Destiny. Pei received his doctorate from Columbia University in 1937, focusing on Sanskrit, Old Church Slavonic, and Old French In 1937, he joined the Department of Romance Languages at Columbia University, becoming a full professor in 1952. In 1941, he published his first language book, The Italian Language. His facility with languages was in demand in World War II, and Pei served as a language consultant and served with two agencies of the Department of War. As a consultant, he wrote language textbooks, developed language courses and wrote language guidebooks. While working as a professor of Romance Philology at Columbia University, Pei wrote over 50 books, including the best-sellers The Story of Language (1949) and The Story of English (1952). His other books included Languages for War and Peace (1943), A Dictionary of Linguistics (written with Frank Gaynor, 1954), All about language (1954), Invitation to linguistics: a basic introduction to the science of language (1965), and Weasel Words: Saying What You Don't Mean (1978). Pei also penned The America We Lost: The Concerns of a Conservative (1968), a book advocating individualism, constitutional literalism, and other paleoconservative principles. In the book, Pei denounces the income tax, as well as communism and other forms of collectivism. Mario Pei was also an internationalist who advocated the introduction of Esperanto into school curricula across the world to supplement local languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Journeyer Triglot Senior Member United States tristan85.blogspot.c Joined 6670 days ago 946 posts - 1110 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German Studies: Sign Language | Message 2 of 5 13 April 2008 at 4:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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I loved Mario Pei's All About Language and there was another one he wrote that I cannot recall the name of. Those were back in the days when my language-learning days were just beginning, and it is because of Pei that I heard of Esperanto and opted to study that language, based on how easy he stated it to be. It is also because of him that I have decided to pursue a few other languages he wrote about. He really was an excellent writer on linguistics for the everyday person.
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| shadowcalm Triglot Newbie Taiwan Joined 5777 days ago 29 posts - 39 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Latin, Ancient Greek, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto | Message 3 of 5 22 July 2008 at 12:32am | IP Logged | ||
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Mario Pei was a hero of mine throughout my high school years. It was through his Talking Your Way Around the World that I picked up my first bit of knowledge about Chinese, Japanese, Swahili, and Esperanto. Languages for War and Peace (later entitled The World's Chief Languages) is another book that took me on a linguistic tour of the earth. In his How to Learn Languages and What Languages to Learn, he gives details of his background and experiences. Many of Pei's works are still found in libraries and some are for sale online.
On the back side of the dust jacket of Talking Your Way Around the World (enlarged third edition, 1971), a line of praise runs, "It is said that, with the possible exception of one member of the UN Secretariat, he speaks, reads, or understands more languages than any living man." Quite a record to achieve -- but does anyone know who that other "one member" was? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6467 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil | Message 4 of 5 22 July 2008 at 8:44am | IP Logged | ||
Just out of curiosity, what was his opinion on what languages to learn? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| shadowcalm Triglot Newbie Taiwan Joined 5777 days ago 29 posts - 39 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Latin, Ancient Greek, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto | Message 5 of 5 23 July 2008 at 5:39am | IP Logged | ||
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First, let me state that How to Learn Languages and What Languages to Learn is not as practical a guide as the title would imply. It is much more a collection of facts about commonly studied languages, including statistics on the speaking population, some history, or tricky parts of the grammar, for instance. That being said, Pei does give some tips to the learner as well as answers to frequently asked questions, such as whether it's advisable to tackle two closely related languages at the same time. As to which ones are recommended, each is shown to have its merits. Pei was an advocate of classical studies, predicted the rise in prominence of Asian languages, and was also in favor of Esperanto. He did suggest that if an English speaker wishes to pick up a foreign language without any particular reason in mind, French would be a good choice due to its cultural influence and widespread use.
I found the most interesting part of the book to be the author's own stories of growing up bilingual, his acquiring of various languages (both in school and on his own), and some different experiences of using them all. It's a dated work but still a fun read. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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