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Meet UK’s most multi-lingual student.

 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots Post Reply
42 messages over 6 pages: 1 24 5 6  Next >>
Bismuth
Triglot
Newbie
Germany
Joined 4363 days ago

30 posts - 46 votes
Speaks: German*, English, Russian
Studies: Icelandic, Spanish

 
 Message 17 of 42
29 December 2012 at 9:36pm | IP Logged 
Serpent wrote:
Impressive.
I wouldn't say his accent is good in Russian, though the overall skills are fine.


Pretty high standarts you got there. Of course his pronunciation is a little too direct and not as smoothly as a native would pronounce his russian.. but he learned russian for 1,5 years at that point, which is fairly ridiculous. Massive talent there.

He lives in Yaroslavl, the place where my father was born.. we still have a few relatives there. I'm kinda impressed somebody would go to live there.

What I noticed so far is that russian seems to be something like 'the holy grail' in polyglotism.. already heard so many polyglots who seemed to do so well in all their languages, but suddendly they are quite failing in pronouncing when speaking russian.

This bloke Alex impresses me a lot concidering that. He seems to be a worldclass 'pronouncer' as his accent in his German is absolutely minimal.. though it would be nice to hear a little bit more of his German.. but he sounds so smooth in all his other languages as well..

I think thats such an immense point in learning languages.. getting the pronounciation right. He does that in a absolute world class way.

Edited by Bismuth on 29 December 2012 at 9:39pm

5 persons have voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6609 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 18 of 42
29 December 2012 at 11:12pm | IP Logged 
I only meant that what was said about his Spanish and a couple other languages is not true about Russian. He's nowhere near native-like.
Aww Yaroslavl. I really want to go there one day. Never been there.

Quote:
he learned russian for 1,5 years at that point, which is fairly ridiculous. Massive talent there.
...He seems to be a worldclass 'pronouncer'
Some contradictions there:) Those that are naturally gifted are often very good even in their new languages, after weeks or even days rather than months. I would say when it comes to the pronunciation he's hard-working rather than talented.
1 person has voted this message useful



Bismuth
Triglot
Newbie
Germany
Joined 4363 days ago

30 posts - 46 votes
Speaks: German*, English, Russian
Studies: Icelandic, Spanish

 
 Message 19 of 42
30 December 2012 at 12:10am | IP Logged 
SERPENT wrote:
I only meant that what was said about his Spanish and a couple other languages is not true about Russian.


I'm not sure I understood this sentence.. what was said about his Spanish ? People on this thread were praising his Spanish, weren't they ?

SERPENT wrote:
He's nowhere near native-like.


That's harsh man.. 'nowhere near native-like' sounds absolutely different in my ears. His russian is absolutely superb, especially regarding the level of diffculty. Of course you hear that he tries hard to pronounce correct, but you can't seriously judge him for that. If he would speak like 1-2 sentences with me, he could easily fool me.

Quote:
Some contradictions there:) Those that are naturally gifted are often very good even in their new languages, after weeks or even days rather than months. I would say when it comes to the pronunciation he's hard-working rather than talented.


That's absolutely no contradiction. What you are implying is of course correct, but I think that can't never count for russian (just like chinese, arabic, japanese, etc.).. I think it's beyond imagination that somebody could reach the level of Alex in russian just within months or even weeks. Unless you are an autistic person, there is no way I could ever see this happen. People who learn languages within a few months or even weeks learn languages that are already related to their own languages.

Though I'm not sure whether he has his good pronunciation from hard work or simply talent.. could be his work as well, I don't know.. I think it's more likely that it's 'just' his lingual skills as he speaks 11 languages.. not everything is obtainable, you also need a fair amount of talent.
1 person has voted this message useful



TixhiiDon
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 5476 days ago

772 posts - 1474 votes 
Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian
Studies: Georgian

 
 Message 20 of 42
30 December 2012 at 12:11am | IP Logged 
Bismuth wrote:
He lives in Yaroslavl, the place where my father was born.. we still have a few relatives
there. I'm kinda impressed somebody would go to live there.


I lived in Yaroslavl for six months in 1995. There is (or used to be, at least) a Russian language school for
foreigners there, and many UK universities send their Russian students there for the study abroad
requirement of their degree. So, not so impressive really.
2 persons have voted this message useful



Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5346 days ago

4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 21 of 42
30 December 2012 at 12:45am | IP Logged 
He sounded very good in all the languages I know, and the ones I have dabbled in. I obviously am not competent to have an opinion on whether his Russian is native like or not, but it certainly sounded good to me.

I would not have minded having that level in so many languages at the age of 20.
1 person has voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6609 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 22 of 42
30 December 2012 at 2:06am | IP Logged 
Keep the context in mind: first page.
I never said his Russian was bad, just that I couldn't call his pronunciation impressive, unlike what had been said about his other languages.

Bismuth wrote:
SERPENT wrote:
He's nowhere near native-like.
That's harsh man..
Quote:
Some contradictions there:) Those that are naturally gifted are often very good even in their new languages, after weeks or even days rather than months. I would say when it comes to the pronunciation he's hard-working rather than talented.
That's absolutely no contradiction. What you are implying is of course correct, but I think that can't never count for russian (just like chinese, arabic, japanese, etc.).. I think it's beyond imagination that somebody could reach the level of Alex in russian just within months or even weeks. Unless you are an autistic person, there is no way I could ever see this happen. People who learn languages within a few months or even weeks learn languages that are already related to their own languages.
(Eowyn-style: I am no man)

I was only talking about the pronunciation. Naturally talented people do pick it up in days or weeks, not only if the language is related to one they already speak. Of course his overall level is good for the time he's spent learning the language, and even good regardless of that. (good doesn't equal fluent)

Edited by Serpent on 30 December 2012 at 2:07am

1 person has voted this message useful



pesahson
Diglot
Senior Member
Poland
Joined 5740 days ago

448 posts - 840 votes 
Speaks: Polish*, English
Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian

 
 Message 23 of 42
07 January 2013 at 2:58pm | IP Logged 
David Mansaray recorded an interview with Alex. You can find it on David's site.

Interview with Alex
3 persons have voted this message useful



Josquin
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 4856 days ago

2266 posts - 3992 votes 
Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish
Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian

 
 Message 24 of 42
11 January 2013 at 11:23pm | IP Logged 
Impressive guy, his German accent is nice, but nothing spectacular. I'm afraid I might be a bit spoiled by Richard and Luca as far as native-like pronunciation is concerned. Unfortunately, the end was a bit off:

Quote:
Je mehr Sprachen man lernt, desto wird es leichter.

That should have been: "... desto leichter wird es."

Nice video though!



1 person has voted this message useful



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