Hyperpolyglots - how to do they do it?

[Rogie]

I am sure many of you, unlike me, can make yourselves understood in Thai. I would consider that quite an achievement. You can consider yourself a polyglot, if I have understood the meaning of the word correctly. However, like many aspects of life there's always someone better at things than us mere mortals.

 

Enter the world of the hyperpolyglot!

 

There is an interesting short video available on the BBC site listed below that shows Alex Rawlings, a 20-year-old Oxford University undergraduate who can speak 11 languages, being put through his paces. Quite entertaining if nothing else!

 

Later: Apologies! The curse of the uneditable topic title strikes again. The word 'to' is of course quite superfluous.

 

Many people want to speak a second language, but for some people two can never be enough. Welcome to the world of the hyperpolyglot.

 

Ray Gillon speaks 18 languages. To be precise, he only speaks eight fluently. His grasp on the other 10 is merely conversational. Throw anything at him in Portuguese, Thai, Turkish, Russian, Polish, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Bulgarian or Mandarin and he will banter back.

 

In the UK, where there has been a growing anxiety over the failure to learn additional languages, Gillon might seem to be a bit of an anomaly. More and more children have been giving up languages since the last government made learning foreign languages optional in England from the age of 14.

 

Publisher HarperCollins has been searching for the UK's most multilingual student, and has discovered a 20-year-old Oxford University undergraduate who can speak 11 languages. And a new book, Babel No More: The Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Language Learners, by Michael Erard, suggests Gillon is among a set of people who are learning languages for fun.

 

So what makes some people learn language after language?

 

For self-taught polyglot Gillon, 54, his love affair with language started by accident. He says he first learned French and Latin at the age of 11, and later studied French and German as elective courses while studying for his electronic engineering degree. "But it wasn't until I got my first job, and was sent to live in the south of France, that I had any real enthusiasm for languages," he says.

 

And here is an attempt at explaining how it's possible to become one:

 

So what enables hyperpolyglots to seemingly pick up a new language at the push of a button?

 

Erard says it is hard to explain, but whatever an individual's biographical reasons are, he believes there is something that distinguishes hyperpolyglots neurologically.

 

"They have a neurological hardware that responds to the world, that's fed by the world, that is suited to a pattern that is recognition-heavy, sound-heavy and memory-heavy - that is very structured, and also very sociable.

 

"They have an ability to switch between languages very easily, and that involves cognitive skills which are often heritable," he adds.

 

_____________________________________________________________

 

 

What's that you're saying?

• Up to 7,000 different languages are estimated to be spoken around the world
  
• Mandarin Chinese, English, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, Bengali, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese, German and French are world's most widely spoken languages, according to UNESCO
  
• Languages are grouped into families that share a common ancestry
  
• English is related to German and Dutch, and all are part of Indo-European family of languages
  
• Also includes French, Spanish and Italian, which come from Latin
  
• 2,200 of the world's languages can be found in Asia, while Europe has 260
  

Which words come easily?

• Usually easier when second language is close to learner's native tongue in terms of vocabulary, sounds or sentence structure
  
• So Polish speakers find it easier to learn Slavic languages like Czech rather than Asian ones
  
• And Japanese speakers will find it easier to learn Mandarin than Polish
  
• Easiest language for native English speakers to learn is said to be Dutch
  
• Five most difficult languages for native English speakers are Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese and Korean
  

Source: BBC Languages

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk...gazine-17101370

[Guest]

Well, I certainly agree that it's easier for an English speaker to learn another Western European language than to pick up any Japanese or Chinese. In fact, some serious commitment is required to make progress in any of the latter two languages.

[ChristianPFC]

I am sure many of you, unlike me, can make yourselves understood in Thai. I would consider that quite an achievement. You can consider yourself a polyglot, if I have understood the meaning of the word correctly.

 

Poly means many, so a polyglott is someone who speaks more than two languages (someone who speaks two languages would be biglott).

 

If you attend a grammar school in Germany, two foreign languages are compulsory: English and French/Russian/Spanish/Latin/others. After leaving school, however, most people quickly forget the second foreign language and maintain only a basic level of English.

 

From my own observations, I estimate it took me between 10,000 and 20,000 hours to reach my current level of fluency in English (this time includes watching TV and reading books in English).