Have you ever dreamed of being able to speak dozens of languages? A new book, Babel No More by journalist Michael Erard, traces the history of people who can do just that: hyperpolyglots, people who speak 11 or more languages.
Obviously, hyperpolyglotism is a trained skill. No one just wakes up speaking multiple languages, but there may be factors that make it easier. As Erard told the Huffington Post, “Hyperpolyglots are not born, and they are not made, but they are born to be made. There is a finite subset of the human population which has the right neurological equipment for learning and using lots of languages.”
What does this mean? Well, it seems that hyperpolyglots tend to share a few characteristics other than their language ability. Hyperpolyglots tend to be male and left handed, and they also tend to have immune disorders and high IQs. It is unclear how or if these characteristics are tied to language ability or brain plasticity, and Erard makes sure to say these variables may be random or attributed to who responded to his survey. There is no conclusive evidence around what makes someone – physiologically – predisposed to be a hyperpolyglot, but there are some speculative correlations.
How do hyperpolyglot go about learning these languages? They study – a lot. After the first five or so languages, hyperpolyglots acquire a deeper understanding of how language systems work, making it easier to learn other languages. Despite that, it still takes hours of focus and vocabulary drills.
One interesting feature of historical hyperpolyglots are how language expectations have changed over time, particularly in terms of what exactly it means to “speak” so many languages. For example, one of the most famous hyperpolyglots, Cardinal Mezzofanti of Bologna spoke as many as 30 languages, but in his era, to “speak” a language meant to read and translate it, not necessarily to converse fluently. No hyperpolyglots have instant recall of all of the languages in their repertoire. Most hyperpolyglots are fluent in three or four languages and have a store of other languages that they must briefly review to speak with fluency, so called “surge languages.”
What about contemporary polyglots? In October 2011, Sonia Yang, a 10 year-old girl in England, was named the best young linguist because she can speak 10 languages: Taiwanese, Chinese, Japanese, English, German, French, Spanish, Portugese, Kazakh, and Luganda (the language of Uganda). She is quickly on her way to become a hyperpolyglot.
Learn more about the book here.
Want to get started on your hyperpolyglotism? Even Cardinal Mezzofanti used flashcards to help him hone the many languages he spoke. You can too with Word Dynamo.
What do you think of hyperpolyglotism? Would you want to be able to speak a dozen languages?
Am I a hyperpolyglot, how do you know?
crazy that’s all i can say but i’m sure that cardinal guy could say that in 30 different ways
It is crazy how some people can do that! Go Sonia!
I’m a biglot, and that’s enough.
I met an Arab sailor that speak eight exotic languages: Turk, Russian, etc.
It is very important to speak several strategical languages to do International business.
I preffer speaking in their own languages than using the English or French. Clients like it more.
Many people in the world speak at least five languages.
I think is the greatest thing to do it.
In my town, speaking English as a second language is a miracle. Mexicans see those who speak both English and Spanish as gurus!
Whatever you might want to know, I am open to give forth answers.
Let’s make love not war, Guillermo Soelter Mora.
Wow!! I wonder if Rosetta Stone even has an ad or promotes this?
I’ve got 3 out of 4 of the hyperpolyglot characteristics (unless an indestructible immune system counts as an immune disorder…) and I am fluent in 2 languages, know 1 on a roughly conversational level and have at least some understanding of several others.
As soon as I am able to I shall hightail my arse off to Europe to learn me some linguistic skills!
Multilingualism rules!
kool
Learning languages is great. It should be remembered that languages in closely related families (or borrowing and lending language) are more similar than unrelated languages. Hence, other members of the Chinese and Latin macrofamilies mentioned above are substantially easier to acquire (at least in some respects) once one of the sister languages is learned. Not that there’s any rule against numbering one’s similar languages — even modest fluency beyond one’s mother tongue is a great accomplishment, and accessing any new speaking community is worthwhile regardless of how dissimilar or difficult the language may be — but there is still a difference between learning Portuguese and Spanish, and learning Portuguese and Kazakh. My own rule of thumb is to fractionalise a language count based on similarity: I would count Indonesian, Mongolian, Cantonese, and Sinhalese as tetraglossia, but Indonesian, Malaysian, Cantonese and Hokkien as only triglossia.
FOR THE PERSON WHO SAID AM I A BLAH BLAH BLAH TRUST YOUR NOT SO FORGET IS
On top of Michael Erard’s considerations it must be emphasized that a thorough knowledge of one’s own first language is paramount. Our own native linguistic skills provides the foundation for us to build on as we open ourselves to the diversity out there in the www (wild wide world). In many cases such a foundation is of a bi or multicultural nature. If so, let those two or three native languages grow deep roots first before venturing out to more plurilinguist adventures.
i am making up a language called strings
English, French, Spanish and Japanese… it’s enough for me, since I’m just 13. I’ll be learning Chinese next year.
Interesting article, but could you please remove that long and distracting link from the sixth paragraph?
My parents and grandparents, all from India, speak a minimum of 11 languages each. My maternal grandmother speaks 14, and my paternal grandmother spoke 13…and neither of them had any formal education beyond 3rd grade. Despite the shortcomings of old-fashioned village life, both women were fluent in numerous languages – not because they came from some sort of “genius” or special stock, but because of necessity. In a country where each state has a different language (*not* a different dialect…but a proper language of its own), I think the mind adapts to learning languages far more quickly and easily than in a nation where everyone speaks the same tongue. Perhaps hyperpolyglotism isn’t necessarily a trait reserved to those who are “…male and left handed,…have immune disorders and high IQs…”; perhaps it is a trait that is developed for the same reason many other traits are developed – due to necessity and exposure to the opportunity to learn.
I can speak: French, Italian, Spanish, Krio, Creole, Mandarin Chinese, Twi, English, Patois, British, Albanian, Afrikaans, Swahili, Brible, Croatian, Yiddish, German, and Pig Latin if it counts as a language. What is that? I can speak 17 languages! WHAT!!!!!!!!!
I am also a hyperpolygot! 
Plus Portugese! 18! Essas línguas são fáceis para mim! Look it up!
I bet if South Koreans (such as myself) would devote even a little bit of time out of their studies to study languages, they learn 20 languages in a year. yeah, we are that smart(in exemption for a few thousand people in the population of Korea)! If you think that few thousand people that cant are a lot, think about it this way, my cousin was last place schoolwide, but when he came here, he was first. no offense!!!!
I only know English fluently.I take Latin in school and I know some Spanish, German, and French and I want to learn those languages fully and others too and be able to speak, read and write at least one of them fluently. I think it would be fantastic to be a hyperpolyglot! I wish my school offered more languages, I am offered only Spanish, Latin, and French.
Cyberquill on January 9, 2012 at 1:38 pm said:
I’m a biglot, and that’s enough.
I know what you mean, I’m sure. But I can’t help thinking, “I like to shop at Big Lots!”
Yeah, right. I have a hard time remembering two. As it is I’ve got fragments of two outside of English floating around in my brain. Before that I’ve taken French and don’t remember any of it.
It would be nice to be young and to be able to start such projects again.
Im male, left handed, have IQ of 135….and Damn! I can only blame my good immune system for getting me a B in High school French. =|
Is this a over-hyperpolyglot or what?
I read, write and speak Bengali, Hindi, English and German, and I am 46 years old already. If I try hard and get time and chance, I may add a couple of languages more to my repertoire, but speaking 30 odd languages is really awesome. Since languages do not mean languages only, they mean different cultures and histories also.
But this little Sonia is inspiring. Sometimes situational and occupational advantages also come handy.
Anyway, it’s great undoubtedly!
Amazing!
Chinese is not a language. It’s a person. People either speak Mandarin or Cantonese.
I’ve been learning English for 10+ years, any native English speakers want to learn Chinese? We could learn from each other, my email: lxz1883@gmail.com
COOL!!! I also want to lear another language. Hehe 
I didn’t know Chinese was a language?
One of the troubles with the US educational system is the lack of study of languages other than English (and a poor enough study of English too). The result, as someone once pointed out, is that people confuse English with thinking. Speaking more than one language greatly broadens the mind. I suspect one could correlate bigotry with monoglotty (?).
Just tell everybody to learn English and the world will be fine.
dictionary.com doesn’t have “hyperpolyglots” nor “hyperpolyglotism” on its list. Kindly update. Love the topic though! ^_^
In some psychology class in college we learned that if a young child learns more than one language at a young age, they grow some pathways in the brain that will make it easier for them to learn more languages.
I’m not sure whether I have that or not (probably not) but I studied Spanish in high school and have been learning Indonesian for the past 20 or 25 years… Strangely, I find that I can only hold one foreign language at a time in my brain. I can chat (online) in Indonesian, but then if I want to chat in Spanish with neighbors, my brain keeps trying to get me to throw in Indonesian words into the conversation. I kind of need to store away the Indonesian file somewhere and “load” the Spanish vocabulary before I can speak it, then “load” Indonesian again to speak that.
what do you call someone who can speak three languages? or four?
and also, did guillermo just say make love?…
because i can.
speak in four languages that is. o.O
[...] ‘Hyperpolyglot’ wants some crackers so as not to say a word — Polyglotulism from too many Apples borders on the absurd. — No matter, sounds like a mouth full for any prefix hyper — with every task and trade and performance art with different terms and forms and subtle languages combining until bitten by some viper — With the sniper of the thought police or those that rule the airwaves giving news-peak means to fit a particular addenda, all mortally mixed together, seeking propriety and some specific agenda.– Though simple talent it might be; It’s quite impressive we can see. –>>L.T.Rhyme [...]
Kool,Oui?
i grew up speaking 4 languages, and then actively acquired 3 other later on. So i speak 7 languages.. 3 more and i can then be a hyperpolyglot then .. hehe nah.. too late now.
It’s a wonder with such horrible grammar that some people attest to being fluent in one language, let alone multiple languages.
One of my best friends turns thirteen next month and can speak German and English fluently, knows some French and is learning Hebrew. (She’s a genius, though she hates it when I call her that.) 
I’m learning American Sign Language, which is really interesting, and a lot more difficult than you would think. I can’t imagine knowing twelve languages! =)
Let’s all learn Summerian, the mother language on earth
wow.that word is so hot.i mean yo that is so decent.
Since when is Taiwanese a language?? Don’t they speak Chinese there??
To Amberlee — Look at the title of the piece to answer your question.
Wow….. how interesting! I’m definitely content to know two languages.
Thank you, but no thank you to be a HYPERPOLYGLOTS, speaker of … that many lang or tongue, is a wonderful notion.
In the paragraph, “One interesting feature of historical hyperpolyglots are…”. In this sentence the verb should be IS (and not are) b/c the main subject of the sentence is FEATURE, and “…of historical hyperpolyglots” is a prepositional phrase (pp). According to rule and regulation pp should have noun too, and here … hyperpolyglots (pl noun).
Although noticed it is good platform to promote WORD DYNAMO, enjoyed the article.
Thanks
If you don’t converse fluently, you CAN’T say you know the language. I’ve learned English for 20 years and still have difficulties to understand all the nooks and crannies of it. A language contains so many nuances and culture. If you know a part of it, of course you can communicate; but you NEVER can draw sympathetic mood or sentimental agreements.
The very basic rule of mastering a language is to understand the culture. Hyperpolyglots? 10 languages? It’s only laughable.
weird;(
The Marines are looking for this skill set…..getty-up??
I am a Malaysian of Han descent. I speak, read and write fluently English, Chinese, Malay and Japanese, with a smattering of Thai and Russian, and I am particularly concerned about many having different views pertaining to the language of the Han people and the official language of P.R. of China. From the anthropological point of view, the so-called “Chinese” is classified as the “Han” people who had settled and started their civilization along the Yellow River [Huanghe]. As their original language was captured as pictograms without any representations of their original pronunciations of each word, it was near to impossible to reproduce their original pronunciations. Nevertheless, the language continued to evolve discarding many incongruities along the way. Similar to all languages in this world, dialectic forms evolved along with the main language, sharing the same grammatical structure and syntax with the main language. In fact Classical Chinese was written as “one ubiquitous form and structure” but could be read in many dialectic renditions and each word could be rendered in a diversity of pronunciations in accordance to each dialect’s system. Meanwhile, the Northern Chinese dialect [North of the Yangzi river] evolved in uniformity in its spoken form, while those Southern Chinese dialects, notably the Cantonese and Fujian dialects [includes Taiwanese] were left behind [due to the terrain] maintaining a large portion of the Classical Chinese language. The Northern Chinese dialect [basically the Beijing dialect due to the location of the central government and palace in Beijing] became the lingua franca of the Mancurian officials [in fact, "Mandarin" was a corruption of the word "Man Da Ren" [Manchu Lord] which denoted both the officials and the language they spoke] The language reforms undertaken by the Chinese Communiist Party in 1970’s had made the Beijing dialect as the basis of the standard Chinese [known officially as Putonghua in China] and must be studied and used in all official communications. According to ISO standards, ISO 639, Putonghua is classified as “Chinese” with an official language code “zho” [stands for Zhongguoyu] Any other forms are considered dialects of Zhongguoyu, thus I can not add 3 more languages to my repertoire as Cantonese, Hakka and Fujian [Hokkien] are dialects, and not languages in the strictest sense. Hope this clarify any misconception on the Chinese language.
I speak English, but have to use some Spanish when speaking to my abuelita or bisabuela (little granma or great granma). The school I currently attend will only teach English and Spanish, which I find disappointing… but at the school I went to last year, I started learning Latin, which certainly helped with the Spanish… But what I really want to learn, and have been trying to, are French and Japanese. I saw an offer up there, by tomsboat, to learn Chinese in exchange for teaching English. Anyone want to help me learn either language? Not sure if I could be any good at teaching English, but maybe?
My email is fairyeprinsess@gmail.com
i want an apple
actually Spanish is not a language either.. its a nationality!!!!!
Cool article! It’s very well researched. It must be quite easy for these people to get jobs as translators.
I’m 12 and left-handed, my immune system is terrible, and I have an IQ of 145. However, I’m a girl. I sure do wonder…
I can speak, read and write Russian very fluently, and I know a little French, Belarussian and German…and, of course, English.
There are other languages – perhaps some might refer to them as dialects – made up of English words, or acronyms, which are spoken routinely by professional people and soldiers. There is engineering, aeronautics, medicine, and so on. Do those count too?
Interesting article!!! I would love to get that book! I speak 4 languages now myself…and there are at least 3 more I’d love to learn…
Nshera said “I can speak:… English, …, British,…
There is no such thing as a ‘British’ language. Most Britons speak English, while some can also speak Irish, Welsh, etc.
Hola
I can only speak english
i can speak english and spanish, is that good enough lol?
sweet
This explains a lot. I am a lefty, and a male. I’m currently learning Spanish (though I already speak it at home), French, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Creole.
Dang it! The only characteristic i have that usually hyperpolyglots have is that I am a male. Everything else I have the opposite of.
Darn it!! ‘:-(
Hey guys i actually speak 5 languages i was looking at the article and I thought i’d leave a comment. And i’m pretty fluent in all of them. It took me 8 years to learn 5 of them. Keep coming here kids I’ts really educational.
nshera, (without looking it up) i guessed you said “these languages are easy for me” i only partially speak spanish, but i saw that it was similar to how you would say that in spanish. that’s probably a big key to learning many languages- finding the connections and similarities between them. but i feel happy i got that
So. . . if I can speak English, French, and a little bit of German, Swedish, and Spanish, does that mean I am 1.5/4 of a hyperpolygot? Si? Non? No clue?
Also, I am a right-handed female with an excellent immune system. I just kinda knocked off that stereotype right there!
Awesome! Does ASL count?
Wow! I hope that someday I’ll learn 12 languages! I didn’t think it was possible. The only languages I can speak are English and Afrikaans. I am trying to learn Arabic. After mastering Arabic, I wan to learn Universal Sign Language. Can anyone tell me if it is recommended to learn 2 languages at the same time?
Sure i am going to purchase this book as i am intrested in learning new languages……
Does it Count,
I speak
Turkish, Greek and Lazic (Caucasian Language) from home
I’ve learned English and German at School (at level of mother tongue today)
In due course, I’ve learned Japanese, Russian, Hebrew, Korean, Arabic, Finnish and Spanish,
and could say some quite fluently some not so perfect!..
But I am right hander, have no Immune system problem, hardly get sick, and I do not feel really that I am so smart, often feel like dumb!..
So, am I the exception or the theory sucks !..
Please correct the spelling of “Portugese”.
Well am Polyglot, I know English, French, Spanish & Arabic… Still not Hyper yet, but I can Easily Learn Italian and Portuguese.. then Still I’ll have to learn 5 more to be hyper.. and that could be .. Dutch, German, Russian, Hebrew, Farsi, …etc… or maybe move to far eastern languages, like Chinese; mandarin or Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai .. I think they all have the same roots.. like French, Spanish Italian, Portuguese are derived from Latin… but the thing is … would you be able to get use of all your knowledge.. and if u used it will u use it for the good or the bad … to develop or to destroy … …
I can speak 5 different languages: American English, British English, Australian English, Canadian English and New Zealand English.
As a translator I’ve often heard about such cases: people describing themselves as speakers of 8-15 languages. Communicating and creating a message, though, is a complex act, it is not merely matching the vaguely corresponding word. Neither is it knowing a bunch of sentences, learnt by heart, which by means of a good sense of language structure can be slightly modified and used for different purposes. Learning a language requires time on the literature, time spent with the natives, cultural references. Speaking a language is thinking like a native, or try to do so. How many lives must a man live to get to think like 15 peoples?
Exposure and need are the keys to language acquisition. That’s why people who come from areas where many languages are spoken in close physical proximity easily become hyperglots. Informal learning of language is supple and relatively quick, while formal learning is turgid and slow.
Nshera – when you say you speak ‘English’ as well as ‘British’ – what do you mean by that? As a Brit, I think I can safely say they are one and the same.
I am male, left-handed, with an IQ of something like 115. So, I guess I should be good at learning languages. I know English, music, and a smattering of Spanish. That’s about it. And after six years of Spanish, I’m still a failure.
There is an error in this article: Taiwanese is a variety of Chinese, so one cannot say a person speaks “Taiwanese and Chinese.” I would assume they intend to say that she speaks Taiwanese and Mandarin. To remain generic, one might say that she speaks two forms/varieties/dialects of Chinese. “Chinese” is in fact a group of seven or eight language families, each with its own languages and dialects. For sociopolitical reasons, all the Chinese languages are generally termed “dialects.”
Also, the bring up a good point in discussing different perceptions of what it is to “know” a language, but limited themselves to looking at literary ability against colloquial ability. It is, however, as important if not more so to distinguish degrees of fluency. This is perhaps what Sylvie is experiencing when she notes errors in commentors’ grammar. I have known many people who claim to be “know” a language, but would not be able to write a high-school level paper, read a newspaper, or discuss aspects of religion, philosophy, or politics over dinner in that language. Some people claim to “know” a language because they posses a rudimentary ability to understand and be understood by others, but cannot construct proper basic sentences. Depending on the level of fluency associated with “knowing” or “speaking” a language, the number of languages one knows or speaks may change.
I just realized that professorkaizen already posted about my first topic. I don’t know why, but when I posted, for some reason my browser stopped at six comments before that. In any case, after reading his post, I feel that I should clarify that in my comment I use the linguistic definitions of “language” and “dialect,” which are distinguished by degree of mutual intelligibility.
I have a few questions and comments…
@English- those are not different languages, they are dialects.
@Nshera- do you mean you can speak the dialects of English based in the US as well as the UK?
@J Wolfe- based off of that logic, I am not fluent in any language, because the one I normally would say I am fluent in (the American dialect of English) has so many little nuances, exceptions to rules, and other dialects within the country- there is no possible way anyone can be fluent in English!
That’s truly impressive! I wish to be a hyperpolyglot too. I have to master the lingua franca, English and Latin before going to learn other languages. PS I currently know four languages: Mandarin, Cantonese, Malay, and English. I’m a Malaysian.
…languages, however.
In Swizzerland, a country about twice the size of New Jersey, people have easy access (and learn in school) 4 languages: german, french, italian, and ladino (raetoromanic). Other countries of mixed ethnic origins (India, Malaysia, Singapore et al.) offer similary intense language exposure from early childhood. Early exposure, therefore, more than genius probably determine polyglotism and also help you understand the (often greatly) different cultures behind those languages.
Growing up in Germany, I studied classic greek and latin including the related literature, philosophies and histories. Learning italian, french and english thence wasn’t a great leap. Russian was different, yet the basic grammatical constructions still are rather similar to the afore mentioned tongues. Had the internet been around already, I would have greatly enjoyed to get at least an understanding of hindi and mandarin.
People, languages, and communication/understanding is what this world is all about. How many wars could have been avoided, if people spoke each others’ languages?!
I’m a Monoglot (;
I don’t think any of these people had their glots pierced.
Lebanese Armenians for example start with both Arabic and Armenian in kindergarten (which is 3-4 years, as they start at the age of 3 or 4). With first elementary, the French oriented schools add French and by intermediary (sixth grade and onward) they add English. English oriented schools the reverse, they start English with first elementary and add French by sixth elementary. At home they may have turcophone grandparents having come from Ottoman Turkey. So most of the children from very young age converse in Turkish with their grandparents. That’s automatically five languages for you – Armenian, Arabic, French, English and Turkish.
When they immigrate they will start with their sixth language actually like learning Swedish or Danish or German etc….
Just learn Spanish, and then the rest of the romantic languages. Right there you have a handful of languages that are closely related and easy to learn. (Or at least easier than most) Also, if anyone could teach me Japanese, I could teach them English or a little bit of Spanish. My email: jliberman13@gmail.com
I’m in high school and have been taking Spanish since i was five. This is nuts! my goal in life is to be a Cultural Anthropologist. I may need to talk to that little girl:)
@looking at Ya- certainly, Spanish may be the nationality of the people of Spain, though I’ve always referred to and heard of them as Hispanics. Spanish is the language of the people of Spain, Mexico, and other Latin American countries; what else would we call it?
I can speak English, Urdu, Punjabi and of course Seraiki, which is my mother tongue. If someone can speak Seraiki, he/she can learn any tough language. Once I was speaking Urdu with a railway guard at Lahore Railway Station. He asked me weather I belonged to some Indian Urdu speaking state.
I started learning German at the Lahore Goethy Institute. But could not continue due to other engagements. Adiou to you and you. Good By!
Hi,
It is a very interesting blog. I can improve my skills in English. I have a problem with speaking. If somebody will want to connect with me, and help me improve my skills in English, I will be happy. My address e-mail is: slaszyn@aol.com
I speak four languages: Polish, Russian, Ukrainian and English.
I will be waiting for your e-mail.
Good bye. Stefan
That would be cool but I wouldn’t want to have a disorder to do that because if I’m sick all the time it would be hard rot use that skill. And to me it would be more special and well-deserved if I learned it myself instead of the trait being given to me.
I think that exposure and opportunity (along with study) are very important. I studied Spanish and some Latin in junior high school. I did fairly well with Spanish. But when, as an adult, I lived in Puerto Rico for a few years, my Spanish was all but forgotten because everyone I knew and associated with spoke English. I studied French in high school for 4 years and got straight A’s all the way through. But, when I got to Haïti and Montreal years later, I sounded like Porky Pig.
Most of the Africans that I’ve met here in Europe speak several languages. The national (official) language of their native country, the various languages of their home and surrounding villages, plus English and whatever the language of the country that they currently live in (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, etc.)
I agree with L.R. on the point that necessity is a great factor. I toured Germany for eight months a few years ago and had to keep my dictionary and phrase book with me because I couldn’t get a handle on speaking the language. Everyone in our company (including the local techies) spoke English. I returned a couple of years later for a period of about 3 weeks and surprised myself with how much I could understand and speak. The pressure was on.
Now I’m forced to speak French. I’m a far cry from being “fluent”, but I can cuss and even speak the latest argot (slang).
Multilinguism is a great (if not necessary) skill to have. Let’s not forget about “Ebonics”. You must be able to communicate with those around you. If you go on the streets speaking like you’ve just stepped from the Ivy halls, you might be asking for trouble.
Music is the Universal Language. It has helped (saved) me on more than one occasion.
Please laugh, y’all!
What do you call a person who speaks many languages? MULTILINGUAL.
What do you call a person who speaks two languages? BILINGUAL.
What do you call a person who speaks one language? AMERICAN.
When they mention “fluency” in a language, what degree/level do they benchmark?
I am a French citizen & live in France. I speak English FLUENTLY as I have in Anglo-Saxon countries for 43 years.
What bothers me is that every second Frenchie that studied English at University say they are “fluent” in that language !!! Believe me they are not.
So, my question again, at what level is a person fluent in a language? Spoken as a mother tongue? Being able to dream in two or more languages???
Can someone answer?
Thanks.
i invented a laguage called kyuvic. it has its own separate aplhabet, and im trying to form it better.
Jeebus, that explains it. I’m male, a lefty, and am confident that I have an IQ that’s quite above the average. I’m not an ultraüberhyperpolyglot though, I only speak English, French, Tagalog and learning German. Hopefully, I’ll learn Spanish once my German is good enough.
@Agkcrbs
Malaysian is not a language. That’s the nationality of the citizens of Malaysia. Malay is the language.
[...] who prepared for the qualifying rounds of the competition by picking up Kazakh and Portuguese. (“How Do You Learn to Speak More Than 12 Languages,” The Hot Word, January 9, 2012; Paul Byrne, “10-Year-Old Schoolgirl Can Speak 10 [...]
Polyglotism to me has always been a myth or a scamI. ‘Cause I strongly doubt a possibility of a true proficiency at more than 2-3 languages. Or it just depends on an aproach. If one suppose that speaking means being able to name a couple of prases or use a language at a survival level, then off course one can take time to memorize a number of phrase books. But if it means to be fluent at a myriad of languages, then it’s an illusion. Have you ever check one of those polyglots? Can you yourself exemine one’s ability to truly speak 12 more languages? I guess yourself you can’t speak so many. But certainly you want to, so you’re to be an easy victim. I guess they just immitate languages, which for those who doesn’t speak the languages sounds very convincing.
My goal: to be a hyperpolyglot. I already speak English and Spanish and I just started learning Korean. I plan on learning French, then maybe Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese… but I have time, I’m only in 9th grade.
I heard Sigourney Weaver could speak over 20 languages. Is that true?
Give me a break Tom, most Americans speak at least two languages! Where did you grow up?
Left-handed men? Tell that to Sigourney Weaver.
I can speak and read fluently English, French, Latin, Japanese, Mandarin and Korean. I am learning Finnish, Russian, Italian, Spanish and German. I wish my parents weren’t both English so I could speak two more- but I suppose that’ll have to do. I don’t want to learn 12 though, I’m only 14- any more and my head will explode!
it’s not so much about different languages, but about memorising words and their variations. So, if one speaks languages of the Latin branch, i.e. Italian, French, Spanish, Portugese and Romanian, they actually speak one “language concept” with its variatons, so it’s mostly how memory can handle this ‘mess’ of similar words and the structures in the syntax variations and tiny changes with their head. The same I’d say for the Teutonic languages, i.e. German, English, Dutch, Danish, Icelandic or for the Altaic ones (Turkish, Mongol, -stan/-jan states). So, a polyglot who speaks 10-12 languages, actually needs to memorise a good vocabulary of all of them, but needs only the concept of the family tree, that the languages belong to. I am a native Greek speaker and have learnt very well English, German, Turkish, medium Latin and a little bit of Arabic and Hebrew. It’s actually 3 different “concepts” of thought, whereas the rest is only vocabulary. The real challenge is to maintain a good knowledge of all of them for some time.
Chinese isn’t a language- it’s Mandarin or Cantonese…..
My son can speak 15 languages fluently. Everybody admires his abilities, but I really don’t know how he could utilize his great skill. Any advice? We live in Canda but can relocate to Europe.
@Nshera 1\9\12 5:58 pm : Estas lenguas son faciles para mi.
I can speak Spanish, and now I know why did this say if you know Spanish fluently, then you will be “un ace” like my mom says. I guess I’ll keep on talking at home … Because the law here is to talk in Spanish ONLY. That is the law.
Oh well, guess I’ll take up Portuguese if such class existed in my school … Eh.
Well, guess I’ll keep writing about my made up hyperpolyglot.
The pope probably is one
“proudmom” your son should probably wirk for the UN
sorry work*
@Shannon Block, I agree
I am not left handed. I do not have a immunity disorder. About the high IQ I can only hope, but I know that I am not above average intelligence.
I learned to speak four different languages long before I was 3 years old. Since then my capacity to learn new languages have lessened. I can however… wait let me count… speak seven languages (some not very fluently) and understand a few more.
My point is, it is easier for a child than an adult to learn new languages.
In the third paragraph, it should say “attributed to WHOM responded” instead of who….
Hi,
I speak the languages: Portuguese,English,Russian,Spanish,Italian,Dutch,French,and German with Basics Japanese and Arabic-Do am I an hyperpolyglot? I want to reach 15 language before I reach 55..It is possible?
Kind regards
Etienne
Hi. I know 3 languages from childhood, Krio, English and Arabic. Later I learned Ukrainian. Also I can understand French but not conversant with it. So that means I can speak 4.5 languages.
hi friends i only know one language but am not satisfied i want to know more what can i do…………?
Wow! Will definitely be checking this book. Always wanted to learn languages but for now I am good with my two languages