Fem. polyglots: Too few or camera shy? (Polyglots) Language Learning Forum

Fem. polyglots: Too few or camera shy?
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Language Learning Forum : Polyglots

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jdmoncada
Tetraglot
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United States
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Studies: Russian, Japanese

Message 49 of 65

13 May 2012 at 3:33am | IP Logged

zdri wrote:

How many women know 11 or more languages? I ask because 11 is the number Erard chose to distinguish hyerpolyglots from everyone else.

I haven't read the book, but I thought the magic number was seven. So I was wrong about that then?
2 persons have voted this message useful

zdri
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Message 50 of 65

13 May 2012 at 6:05am | IP Logged

I read some Erard interviews and he thinks 11 is the magic number. It's an arbitrary distinction though.

Linguistics is one of the only fields of science that has an equal contribution from both genders. Some
would argue it is female dominated.
1 person has voted this message useful

Sprachprofi
Nonaglot
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Germany
learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese

Message 51 of 65

22 May 2012 at 7:40pm | IP Logged

I just read this article about trying to
motivate women to be speakers at a tech conference. I bet the issues are comparable.
Here is the most relevant part of her experience:

Quote:

So! Getting women to submit content: easy? Um. When I’d talk to men about the
conference and ask if they felt like they had an idea to submit for a talk, they’d
*always* start brainstorming on the spot. I’m not generalizing — every guy I talked to
about speaking was able to come up with an idea, or multiple ideas, right away…and yet,
overwhelmingly the women I talked to with the same pitch deferred with a, “well, but
I’m not an expert on anything,” or “I wouldn’t know what to submit,” or “yes but I’m
not a *lead* [title], so you should talk to my boss and see if he’d want to present.”

I promised mentoring, I promised practice sessions, I promised one-on-one slide deck
reviews with people who have spent hundreds of hours speaking at conferences. I emailed
my Women in Games Boston group, I attended events and encouraged groups of women in
person, I sought women out online, I met with women over coffee. I encouraged/begged
them to consider translating the hours and hours I’d spent with them in the past
talking about their careers, their specialties, their ideas, into a 45-minute
presentation. I told them how much I respected their reputations and their ideas and
that I’d be thrilled if they had the time or interest in submitting a talk.

Did every woman respond like that? No. But it was very much the minority situation, me
promoting the conference and having a woman say, “oh, okay, does [concept] sound like a
good fit?” and then them actually turning around and submitting a proposal. One or two
women versus every single man who submitted content. (Also, while I have spoken either
in person or online with every woman who submitted, several of the proposals submitted
by men were guys I’d never met.)

On the bright side, with that extra effort and encouragement, the author did manage to
get 50% women speakers at that tech conference in the end... shall we focus on
encouraging people then?
3 persons have voted this message useful

Arekkusu
Hexaglot
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Canada
bit.ly/qc_10_lec
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Message 52 of 65

22 May 2012 at 8:04pm | IP Logged

Sprachprofi wrote:

I just read this article about trying to motivate women to be speakers as a tech conference. I bet the issues are comparable.
Here is the most relevant part of her experience:

Quote:

So! Getting women to submit content: easy? Um. When I’d talk to men about the
conference and ask if they felt like they had an idea to submit for a talk, they’d
*always* start brainstorming on the spot. I’m not generalizing — every guy I talked to about speaking was able to come up with an idea, or multiple ideas, right away…and yet, overwhelmingly the women I talked to with the same pitch deferred with a, “well, but I’m not an expert on anything,” or “I wouldn’t know what to submit,” or “yes but I’m not a *lead* [title], so you should talk to my boss and see if he’d want to present.”

I promised mentoring, I promised practice sessions, I promised one-on-one slide deck
reviews with people who have spent hundreds of hours speaking at conferences. I emailed my Women in Games Boston group, I attended events and encouraged groups of women in person, I sought women out online, I met with women over coffee. I encouraged/begged them to consider translating the hours and hours I’d spent with them in the past talking about their careers, their specialties, their ideas, into a 45-minute presentation. I told them how much I respected their reputations and their ideas and that I’d be thrilled if they had the time or interest in submitting a talk.

Did every woman respond like that? No. But it was very much the minority situation, me promoting the conference and having a woman say, “oh, okay, does [concept] sound like a good fit?” and then them actually turning around and submitting a proposal. One or two women versus every single man who submitted content. (Also, while I have spoken either in person or online with every woman who submitted, several of the proposals submitted by men were guys I’d never met.)

On the bright side, with that extra effort and encouragement, the author did manage to get 50% women speakers at that tech conference in the end... shall we focus on
encouraging people then?

We need to cherish those women who, like you Sprachprofi, do have the courage to make videos and post them!
1 person has voted this message useful

clumsy
Octoglot
Senior Member
Poland
lang-8.com/6715Registered users can see my Skype Name
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1116 posts - 1367 votes

Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Mandarin, Italian, Vietnamese
Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swedish
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Message 53 of 65

11 June 2012 at 12:15pm | IP Logged

In my English class ~70% - 80% are women.

I think I have met many women who were interested in learning SL.
On this forum too, there seems to be many women, even though it's hard to tell most people as there are no photos.
you want youtube?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh06fgNhbiU&list=UUltqNF0DKZ U5oLNQCWIAeJA&index=5&feature=plpp_video
some Video of a woman studying Japanese.

A Polish girl, it seems she is on the famous side.

1 person has voted this message useful

druckfehler
Triglot
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Germany
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1181 posts - 1912 votes

Speaks: German*, English^C2, Korean
Studies: Persian

Message 54 of 65

19 July 2012 at 3:46am | IP Logged

There are many videos of girls speaking multiple languages for the MehrsprachICH contest by the Goethe Institute. Anastasia, for example, is quite impressive. Her German is impeccable. I also like Lily's video. They don't know the magic 11 languages... yet, but they seem really enthusiastic about language learning.

Edited by druckfehler on 19 July 2012 at 3:50am
3 persons have voted this message useful

portunhol
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
thelinguistblogger.w
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Studies: German, Arabic (classical)

Message 55 of 65

25 July 2012 at 10:08pm | IP Logged

druckfehler wrote:

I was also impressed by the young lady polyglots in this competition. There was a young Egyptian woman who wasn't selected for the final round that I think is good, in addition to Lily and Anastasia.
1 person has voted this message useful

clumsy
Octoglot
Senior Member
Poland
lang-8.com/6715Registered users can see my Skype Name
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Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Mandarin, Italian, Vietnamese
Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swedish
Studies: Danish, Dari, Kirundi

Message 56 of 65

30 August 2012 at 1:08am | IP Logged

Safona"Brilliant Child" Mwangu : 40 languages.
Born in Zaire (Congo) native of Luganda, learned Lingala, Swahili, Kirundi, French and English a 5 year old girl.
When 20 she started learning the other langs : Korean, Vietnamese, Urdu, Kyrgyz, Russian, French, Polish , Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, Lithuanian, Livonian, Limousine, Wu Chinese, Cham, Chrau, Wa, Tamil, Telugu, Komi, Gondi, Chittagonian, Sanskrit, Sumerian, Israeli Sign Language, Czech Sign Language, Solresol, Cockney, Lebanese Arabic, Hebrew - Medieval, Hebrew - modern and Arabic - medieval.

She now lives in Netherlands, she is a PDH degree professor at Leiden University.

Kim Hyeseon: 15 year old girl from South Korea, mild Autism: 30 languages (some claim that it's over 90!, but at low levels)
Hobbies: piano , studying Nuclear Physics, chocolate ice-cream.
languages: Korean, Urdu, English, Ewenki, Sumerian, Akkadian, Egyptian, Zazaki, Ladino, Blackfoot, Lingala, Suena, Chinook Jargon, Bosilewa, White Hmong, Red Hmong, Flowery Hmong, Fula, Zulu, Xhosa, Twa, Piraha, Bongola, Bemba, Orochen, Samaritan, Tunisian Arabic, Arabic, Samoan, Sindhi.

Katherine Smithson : 7 years old: 20 languages.
Born in Alberta, Canada
child prodigy, she loves chocolate and Dutch Painters of XIX age.

Languages: English, French, Haitian Creole, Armenian, Chechen, Ubykh, Abkhaz, Ingush, Georgian, Azeri, Turkish, Turkmen, Qaraqalpaq, Uyghur, Tibetan, Quechua, Livonian, Arrente, Enzo and, of course, Dutch.

Edited by clumsy on 30 August 2012 at 1:24am

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