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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| justonelanguage Diglot Groupie United States Joined 4244 days ago 98 posts - 128 votes  Speaks: English, Spanish | Message 25 of 42 11 January 2013 at 11:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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He's pretty good but again, it is very hard to determine somebody's level by a short, 15 second clip in each language. He may be a B2 in all of his languages or A2 for all we know.
However, I understand that some people prefer getting to an intermediate level in 10 languages as opposed to advanced in few languages, like 3. I dislike the fact that it seems that people that are jacks of all trades but masters of none get all the publicity and we don't hear about the 18 year old person that has learned 2 or 3 languages at a C1 or even C2 level while starting at age 14. For me, it's much more impressive when somebody has passed through the intermediate stages to get a very rich vocabulary, enough to deduce hidden meanings, jokes, and subtleties that for the vast majority of us is obtained only through years of work and living abroad. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4489 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 26 of 42 12 January 2013 at 12:42am | IP Logged | ||
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Who cares, he's clearly doing pretty well if he's got a decent command of about 11. He's
clearly done something right. I would not mind having his language skills, even though my and his languages wouldn't match up one-for-one. Edited by tarvos on 12 January 2013 at 12:42am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| justonelanguage Diglot Groupie United States Joined 4244 days ago 98 posts - 128 votes Speaks: English, Spanish | Message 27 of 42 12 January 2013 at 12:54am | IP Logged | ||
The thing is, you don't know how good somebody is after 15 seconds. They may have poor grammar, poor sentence construction, and know few words for all we know. Or they may be pretty advanced. I didn't say that he was bad or good; just that it seems that he is fine in some languages. I was just curious why if two people with equal time and ability study languages, the one that know 10 languages at a B1 level is praised while somebody that knows 3 at C2 level is ignored. Of course, it's his choice to study 11 languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4489 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 28 of 42 12 January 2013 at 1:01am | IP Logged | ||
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If he is fine in even five of them that's good enough. I don't see why you should set
such an unnecessarily high standard for him that you yourself probably could not aspire to achieve. We don't know how good he is, but he's doing more for us by being an example and going public and transparent about his skills (wanna check out his German, Russian or Dutch; see the talk with Richard). If he forgets a word, or makes a grammar mistake; it has happened to all of us learning languages. And if you want him to learn languages to C2 level (what) then I think you are applying your own (mildly blurred) worldview to someone who's got something better to do than listen to keyboard warriors on the internet. If you want to perfect three languages instead of more modestly master 11 (I know which I would prefer!) then be my guest. But don't apply that standard to someone else who is not you and from the looks of it has his head straight on and clearly has a passion for what he does, just because you envy his talent a little too much. If you think you can do better, if you think you can do it your way, make a positive contribution and let the feeling of envy inspire you to study your languages better. But don't go and pull down the achievements of others just because you're an envious keyboard warrior who thinks he has to be right on the Internet. As for myself, I cannot do better than him at this point in time, but I can surely well try to get there, and in that sense, Alex' modesty, politeness, and interest in foreign culture is an example I am glad to follow. Edited by tarvos on 12 January 2013 at 1:02am 9 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| justonelanguage Diglot Groupie United States Joined 4244 days ago 98 posts - 128 votes Speaks: English, Spanish | Message 29 of 42 12 January 2013 at 1:45am | IP Logged | ||
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1. I don't set an unnecessarily high standard for him; I don't know how good he actually is nor do I care.
2. I was only interested in why polyglots that speak a lot of languages ok are exalted while people that speak a few at a very high level are not. 3. Unfortunately, I only speak one foreign tongue. I do not include myself amongst those specialists that have accomplished much. 4. Yes,he probably has accomplished more in foreign language learning than I will ever do so. Again, I don't care. Also, I don't care if he reaches C2 or A2. 5. Not a keyboard warrior, just interested in this one issue. 6. Not putting him down, but is it unreasonable to suggest that he is not a C2 in 11 languages after only a few years? Nothing wrong with not achieving that; I never did suggest that he was good or bad, though. I did say that he seems "fine" in his languages and that it is hard to tell from a short clip. 7. Please stop insulting me and misinterpreting what I say, thank you. I never called you names or anything. 8. I don't envy him at all; languages are an interest of mine but not my main passion. If so, I might actually be speaking 3 at a C2 level! :( Edits: forgot to add a bullet point.
Edited by justonelanguage on 12 January 2013 at 1:49am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| pesahson Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 5510 days ago 448 posts - 840 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 30 of 42 28 January 2013 at 12:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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Alex recently created a YT account and it seems like we can expect some videos from him. Here's one with a conversation in Russian and Hebrew.
Alex Rawlings talks with Russian-Israeli friend Edited by pesahson on 28 January 2013 at 12:29pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4489 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 31 of 42 28 January 2013 at 12:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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Interesting conversation. I used to date a girl who had a similar sort of history - she
was multilingual in the same way. Funny to see it's always Jews who have that sort of upbringing, haha. I understand most of the Russian (though the subtitles help). My Hebrew is not good enough yet. I must say I enjoy the sound of Hebrew. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| pesahson Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 5510 days ago 448 posts - 840 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 32 of 42 28 January 2013 at 12:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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I like the sound of Hebrew as well. I studied it for a bit formally at university but since my course finished my abilities deteriorated. I do hope to learn it one day. I have a soft spot for this language. I like this video for its unusual combination of languages used.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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