Yeah, today's post is about the famous "polyglot" phenomena which to me represents a morphed and abstract view of the bare-bone truth. Simply put, it makes no sense to me to learn languages just for the heck of it as in to be "cool" an' all. And it surely doesn't represent the "intelligence" of such and such person.
I think, we are time-beings and our only real currency is time! Mother Nature equipped us with brilliant tools to be able to adapt and master what we truly set our minds to, provided that we work towards it with our heart, mind and soul. So, this "polyglot" thing becomes quite easier with each language that you add to your repertoire. A German speaker would have no real trouble "picking up" Dutch and same is true for the Nordic languages, in fact it's often said that if you learn a Nordic language you get three language at the price of one and I think that it's pretty much true).
But the fact remains that what "number" do you really want to achieve and how does that number affect your learning strategy?
I think that apart from the extensive travellers or people who need to move around the globe a lot for one reason or another, hardly anyone needs to really learn a bunch of languages. And for most of us, it's a luxury to be able to understand a language which we don't really have any need of in our everyday real life. However, I am a strong believer in the fact that learning a language broadens our horizons and if anything it makes us all the more Humane towards different cultures and embrace diversity rather than fear it. It helps us overcome our animal instincts which is the primitive fight-or-flight response whenever we are confronted with new facts and events. It helps us understand a culture which evolved over a course of thousands of years. Languages is just the most visible aspect part of the culture, the basic key to that wonderful new world.
The more you learn, the more you realise that there is so much more!!
When we stop learning we starting judging, which is the root of all strife and prejudices . Learning a language has started to sound like a "chore" or something inorganic. It's not!! There are lots and lots of failures and there are tons of embarrassing moments which make you think that "oh, man I have been studying the language for this long and I still don't understand a movie or a song" or some such. I think it's not meant to be so, it's meant to be Natural and believe me your mind will crack the toughest nut if you just let it. Have fun in the process, read children's stories rather than the most deepest philosophical discussions or say news etc. But keep in touch with the language, always! Your mind will only bother making sense of it, if it is sure that this is something that needs to be done so exposure is the key.
For me it was about fascination but more importantly it was about finding a useful escape from my everyday boring College life so I may keep myself occupied for a long time to come. Well, mission accomplished;P I was quite busy all this time and the reason that I am still learning languages has changed over time. Of course, apart from the a couple of languages which I know for a fact that I am gonna use in future, I feel this fascination with languages. I mean, as I mentioned in the very first post of this blog, I am becoming more and more fascinated with the underlying unity of linguistic structure and how it empowers and dis-empowers us in our search for knowledge. I mean, isn't it interesting that this organic system i.e. language can be expanded to explain concepts which can't possibly be conceived by observations in our everyday life.
Now, let's talk more about "Numbers". The "Number" of languages that one can speak has become a arbitrary standard of Polyglots. It makes no sense though. I mean, think about it, a person living in Europe is bound to pick up a couple of languages without even trying, thus collecting the "flags" as well. Whereas a person from the far east (I am talking about the northern part at the moment) would only be able to collect 4 languages at best, as per the "flags" which are - Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Mongolian. Which totally ignores the innumerable dialects that each of these languages has and if a person speaks multiple dialects of a language would he be any less of a polyglot ? Makes no sense, right?
It's just that in Europe, Africa and South America there are so many countries whose national languages differs only as much as a dialect of a any other language and funny enough, it reminds me of a quote :- " A language is a dialect with an Army and a Navy";P
Research shows that the beneficial effects of learning a language are the same if a person learns even a different dialect of a language. So, in short, I think that this "Number" in Polyglot community is highly exaggerated and instead of encouraging people it ends up discouraging them from ever venturing out in the playfield of languages. Totally wrong, no!
If you want to become fully functional in a language you can learn a lot from Benny Lewis, who makes the language a part of his life to the point that he has no option but to do it, that's an awesome strategy.
Am I a polyglot?
Well I don't really know that answer to that or rather should I say that it is subjective. I don't mind laying out all my "secrets" in front of you, It gets embarrassing sometimes to confess that I don't think I can order pizza in either of these languages and to be honest even gets depressing sometimes but at other times it feels awesome to be able to read and listen to the best literature coming up from these cultures; it's a nice feeling when I come across a multi-lingual manual, only to find that "Hey, I can even practice with this" and it's always great to be able to read all these languages.
In case you feel that learning languages is gonna be your thing then I suggest you start with a simple and similar language then move on successively the more distant languages. The number thing is totally arbitrary when you come to think of it, learn to enjoy the process of unfolding the various layers of a language.
I think, we are time-beings and our only real currency is time! Mother Nature equipped us with brilliant tools to be able to adapt and master what we truly set our minds to, provided that we work towards it with our heart, mind and soul. So, this "polyglot" thing becomes quite easier with each language that you add to your repertoire. A German speaker would have no real trouble "picking up" Dutch and same is true for the Nordic languages, in fact it's often said that if you learn a Nordic language you get three language at the price of one and I think that it's pretty much true).
But the fact remains that what "number" do you really want to achieve and how does that number affect your learning strategy?
I think that apart from the extensive travellers or people who need to move around the globe a lot for one reason or another, hardly anyone needs to really learn a bunch of languages. And for most of us, it's a luxury to be able to understand a language which we don't really have any need of in our everyday real life. However, I am a strong believer in the fact that learning a language broadens our horizons and if anything it makes us all the more Humane towards different cultures and embrace diversity rather than fear it. It helps us overcome our animal instincts which is the primitive fight-or-flight response whenever we are confronted with new facts and events. It helps us understand a culture which evolved over a course of thousands of years. Languages is just the most visible aspect part of the culture, the basic key to that wonderful new world.
The more you learn, the more you realise that there is so much more!!
When we stop learning we starting judging, which is the root of all strife and prejudices . Learning a language has started to sound like a "chore" or something inorganic. It's not!! There are lots and lots of failures and there are tons of embarrassing moments which make you think that "oh, man I have been studying the language for this long and I still don't understand a movie or a song" or some such. I think it's not meant to be so, it's meant to be Natural and believe me your mind will crack the toughest nut if you just let it. Have fun in the process, read children's stories rather than the most deepest philosophical discussions or say news etc. But keep in touch with the language, always! Your mind will only bother making sense of it, if it is sure that this is something that needs to be done so exposure is the key.
For me it was about fascination but more importantly it was about finding a useful escape from my everyday boring College life so I may keep myself occupied for a long time to come. Well, mission accomplished;P I was quite busy all this time and the reason that I am still learning languages has changed over time. Of course, apart from the a couple of languages which I know for a fact that I am gonna use in future, I feel this fascination with languages. I mean, as I mentioned in the very first post of this blog, I am becoming more and more fascinated with the underlying unity of linguistic structure and how it empowers and dis-empowers us in our search for knowledge. I mean, isn't it interesting that this organic system i.e. language can be expanded to explain concepts which can't possibly be conceived by observations in our everyday life.
Now, let's talk more about "Numbers". The "Number" of languages that one can speak has become a arbitrary standard of Polyglots. It makes no sense though. I mean, think about it, a person living in Europe is bound to pick up a couple of languages without even trying, thus collecting the "flags" as well. Whereas a person from the far east (I am talking about the northern part at the moment) would only be able to collect 4 languages at best, as per the "flags" which are - Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Mongolian. Which totally ignores the innumerable dialects that each of these languages has and if a person speaks multiple dialects of a language would he be any less of a polyglot ? Makes no sense, right?
It's just that in Europe, Africa and South America there are so many countries whose national languages differs only as much as a dialect of a any other language and funny enough, it reminds me of a quote :- " A language is a dialect with an Army and a Navy";P
Research shows that the beneficial effects of learning a language are the same if a person learns even a different dialect of a language. So, in short, I think that this "Number" in Polyglot community is highly exaggerated and instead of encouraging people it ends up discouraging them from ever venturing out in the playfield of languages. Totally wrong, no!
If you want to become fully functional in a language you can learn a lot from Benny Lewis, who makes the language a part of his life to the point that he has no option but to do it, that's an awesome strategy.
Am I a polyglot?
Well I don't really know that answer to that or rather should I say that it is subjective. I don't mind laying out all my "secrets" in front of you, It gets embarrassing sometimes to confess that I don't think I can order pizza in either of these languages and to be honest even gets depressing sometimes but at other times it feels awesome to be able to read and listen to the best literature coming up from these cultures; it's a nice feeling when I come across a multi-lingual manual, only to find that "Hey, I can even practice with this" and it's always great to be able to read all these languages.
In case you feel that learning languages is gonna be your thing then I suggest you start with a simple and similar language then move on successively the more distant languages. The number thing is totally arbitrary when you come to think of it, learn to enjoy the process of unfolding the various layers of a language.
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