4 ms·

I've honestly never trusted these guys who claim to speak 30 distinct languages. Can it all be tested at once?

by ranman 11y ago

ch4s3 11y ago
Hard to say. From what I've read and heard anecdotally from friends that speak 5+ languages, the get easier as you learn new ones. You begin to think about them structurally and pick them up in groups of closely related languages. At some point its just a matter of learning the idioms and building you word catalog, as you've learned the grammar in a similar/related language.
- chegra 11y ago
  I think it is the same with programming. Once you understand the basic programming paradigms the rest becomes easy. I think in terms of language is Object, Verb, Subject order.
  - schoen 11y ago
    I'm concerned that there are often going to be weird little issues about particles and stuff. For example, a lot of people have a tidy notion about Romance language grammar -- subject-verb-object, conjugate the verb to show person, number, tense, and mood. But the different Romance languages have rather different tricks about what happens when the object of a verb is a pronoun. In some languages it then gets squashed onto the end of the verb (possibly changing the form of the verb), even into the middle of the verb before the endings (Portuguese mesoclisis), or placed before the verb. And the different languages have different preferences and possibilities about this.
- agumonkey 11y ago
  Exactly, the more you see the common traits of human communications beneath local syntax and grammar rules. Also the phonetic drifts (rhotacism) that push languages away from each other, when revealed, help to recognize patterns that were once obscure.
- gizmo686 11y ago
  Even the word catalog gets easier, as many languages share words/roots with each other.
erikb 11y ago
It's not important to speak all of them at the same time or is it? If you need 2-4 weeks to get back to fluency in one you haven't used for a while should be quite okay. And that softer requirement is also not cheating. If you speak many other languages you even need to reactivate your native language. It's reasonable to ask what a person means when they "speak X languages", though. It's in itself more vague than one might think. If you ask a monolingual person he might consider a C2 (European Framework) level to not be "speak my language", while a language learner might consider a barely passed B2 and then never used again as "speaking that language".
- WildUtah 11y ago
  "monolingual person he might consider a C2 (European Framework) level" I speak one foreign language at a solid C2 level, but I also scored in the 99th percentile on the GRE verbal (USA's English Language grad school entrance exam for native English speakers). I never feel fully fluent in that foreign language, even when I can pass language exams most locals can't. There's simply to way for me to match my fluency and comfort with English. So I agree; the standard for fluency is always relative. And -- contrary to superficial appearance -- even native speakers have a wide variety of levels of competence and you can always benefit from studying more.
coliveira 11y ago
If you have very stringent requirements for "learning a language", than barely anyone other than native speakers can quality. For example, I speak English for decades, but I know I don't speak exactly like a native.
- bradbeattie 11y ago
  Minor corrections then if you don't mind? "If..., then..." and "I've spoken English for decades."
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
copsarebastards 11y ago
My father speaks 7ish languages, and if you talk to him about it he says there are some problems. It definitely takes some time for him to get into the "mindset" of a language. He also says that vocabulary is the hardest part: he says that if he forgets the word for a thing in the language he's trying to speak, he'll find the word in one of his languages, so sometimes he embarrasses himself that way. That said, it's certainly amazing what he can do. He taught himself Italian over the course of about a month, simply to read a single dissertation written in Italian. He spoke French already, and he asked me a few questions because I'm fluent in Spanish, because when he didn't find a word in his Italian/English dictionary he wanted to make a guess based on other romance languages. I think ultimately he wouldn't even consider himself at all competent in Italian, even though he was able to read doctorate-level writing for a few weeks.

I've honestly never trusted these guys who claim to speak 30 distinct languages. Can it all be tested at once?

by ranman 11y ago

I've honestly never trusted these guys who claim to speak 30 distinct languages. Can it all be tested at once?

ch4s3 11y ago

Hard to say. From what I've read and heard anecdotally from friends that speak 5+ languages, the get easier as you learn new ones. You begin to think about them structurally and pick them up in groups of closely related languages. At some point its just a matter of learning the idioms and building you word catalog, as you've learned the grammar in a similar/related language.

chegra 11y ago
I think it is the same with programming. Once you understand the basic programming paradigms the rest becomes easy. I think in terms of language is Object, Verb, Subject order.
- schoen 11y ago
  I'm concerned that there are often going to be weird little issues about particles and stuff. For example, a lot of people have a tidy notion about Romance language grammar -- subject-verb-object, conjugate the verb to show person, number, tense, and mood. But the different Romance languages have rather different tricks about what happens when the object of a verb is a pronoun. In some languages it then gets squashed onto the end of the verb (possibly changing the form of the verb), even into the middle of the verb before the endings (Portuguese mesoclisis), or placed before the verb. And the different languages have different preferences and possibilities about this.
agumonkey 11y ago
Exactly, the more you see the common traits of human communications beneath local syntax and grammar rules. Also the phonetic drifts (rhotacism) that push languages away from each other, when revealed, help to recognize patterns that were once obscure.
gizmo686 11y ago
Even the word catalog gets easier, as many languages share words/roots with each other.

erikb 11y ago

It's not important to speak all of them at the same time or is it? If you need 2-4 weeks to get back to fluency in one you haven't used for a while should be quite okay. And that softer requirement is also not cheating. If you speak many other languages you even need to reactivate your native language. It's reasonable to ask what a person means when they "speak X languages", though. It's in itself more vague than one might think. If you ask a monolingual person he might consider a C2 (European Framework) level to not be "speak my language", while a language learner might consider a barely passed B2 and then never used again as "speaking that language".

WildUtah 11y ago
"monolingual person he might consider a C2 (European Framework) level" I speak one foreign language at a solid C2 level, but I also scored in the 99th percentile on the GRE verbal (USA's English Language grad school entrance exam for native English speakers). I never feel fully fluent in that foreign language, even when I can pass language exams most locals can't. There's simply to way for me to match my fluency and comfort with English. So I agree; the standard for fluency is always relative. And -- contrary to superficial appearance -- even native speakers have a wide variety of levels of competence and you can always benefit from studying more.

coliveira 11y ago

If you have very stringent requirements for "learning a language", than barely anyone other than native speakers can quality. For example, I speak English for decades, but I know I don't speak exactly like a native.

bradbeattie 11y ago
Minor corrections then if you don't mind? "If..., then..." and "I've spoken English for decades."
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

copsarebastards 11y ago

My father speaks 7ish languages, and if you talk to him about it he says there are some problems. It definitely takes some time for him to get into the "mindset" of a language. He also says that vocabulary is the hardest part: he says that if he forgets the word for a thing in the language he's trying to speak, he'll find the word in one of his languages, so sometimes he embarrasses himself that way. That said, it's certainly amazing what he can do. He taught himself Italian over the course of about a month, simply to read a single dissertation written in Italian. He spoke French already, and he asked me a few questions because I'm fluent in Spanish, because when he didn't find a word in his Italian/English dictionary he wanted to make a guess based on other romance languages. I think ultimately he wouldn't even consider himself at all competent in Italian, even though he was able to read doctorate-level writing for a few weeks.