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My fellow Hungarian Paul Erdos had so strong accent that his speeches are subtitled on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=my0L2icGooU http://www.youtube.c
by nadam 13y ago
My fellow Hungarian Paul Erdos had so strong accent that his speeches are subtitled on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=my0L2icGooU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=my0L2icGooU
And he was successful in the USA. (Edward Teller was similar they say.)
But it is different than it is for most people:
1. They were so good that they could not ignore them.
2. Science is different than business.
So for the rest of us it is extremely important to learn English well. I am sometimes almost fustrated that I cannot express myself in a sophisticated way in english.:( And I know that it never will be perfect. A Hungarian writer Sandor Marai only wrote in Hungarian despite speaking fluently in several languages (English, German, French and who knows in what other languages), and living as an emigrant in at least half of his life. (He emigrated from communism at the half of his life) He said he cannot 'write' (as a writer) in other languages (by his extremely high standards).
- theorique 13y agoThe key difference is that the majority of math research is communicated in writing (journals, etc). Erdos wrote and co-wrote so many excellent papers that his reputation was off the charts. He was unique. Beacause of this, most working mathematicians would have walked through fire to collaborate with Erdos. (He also made it easy for others by randomly turning up at their houses to work long days on math.) His quirky and accented English was a small barrier compared to his singular reputation in his community. Compare this to two competing and somewhat interchangeable startups, both trying to do "the Youtube for Cats". In this case, you're not selling to a market that already knows you - you need to speak and communicate to build credibility and reputation fast.