Maintaining Multiple Languages At Once - Richard Simcott at the Polyglot Gathering Berlin 2014

[@jaimebenito620]

For those who are interested: my wife only uses Mandarin with our two children, and I only use Spanish with them, and they live in a country where only English is spoken. Both children switch to any of the three languages depending on the circumstances: surrounded by Chinese they both switch to Mandarin, whereas surrounded by Spanish-speakers they switch to Spanish, and of course, when everyone speaks English, so do they.

[@theatisgr]

And when they are at school they speak English with a Chinese accent and spell it the Spanish way!

[@Emile.gorgonZola]

theatisgr ....nope, that's not how simultaneous language acquisition works. People speak English with a Chinese accent when they have learnt Chinese as a native language and then pick up English much later and impose phonetic and phonological patterns of Chinese upon English. So, such language interference doesn't happen for simultaneous native language acquisition. Thanks for being an ignoramus (or a boring troll).

[@JulieStudies]

theatisgr Lol, at least I understood that you were just cracking a joke :)

[@franciscofuentes8916]

+Jaime Benito de Valle Ruiz si ellos no hablan inglés en la casa sólo lo adquieren al llegar a la escuela y por la tele si es que entendí bien?

[@jaimebenito620]

Francisco Fuentes Mis hijos hablan inglés mucho mejor que el español o el chino, porque el inglés lo practican al menos 35 horas a la semana. Sin embargo, en casa casi toda la tele es en español, porque la tele la controlo yo. En sus escuelas/guarderías su inglés está por encima de la media pese a que lo han aprendido en sus escuelas; ambos se expresan con precisión, y mi hija sabe leer en inglés y español desde que tiene 6 años. La presión de tener que aprender tres gramáticas, lenguas y pronunciaciones les ha hecho más flexibles y críticos con su aprendizaje del inglés, no más incapaces.

[@Frazeyx]

Richard Simcott the language learning legend, unbelievable talent / dedication

[@mariaevaalonsovara7303]

truly interesting all these speeches! I was feeling son lonely trying to reach C2 level of English and starting with German....which is something that my Spanish society don't understand in a 42 y.o. bank office worker.....but I feel great listening these polyglots that I highly admire...!! ;)

[@adolfusadolfe99]

Hola Maria! Soy de Barcelona y me ocurre igual. Supongo que el problema es que la cultura española en cuanto a los idiomas es bastante mediocre y la gente suele exigir que niveles bajos porque es la expectativa. No hay pasión por dominar un idioma porque es algo que precisamente la gente aborrece, lo cual resulta curioso si tenemos en cuenta que España es un país plurinacional con distintas lenguas habladas en el estado.

[@timothydouglas9474]

Wünsche Dir viel Erfolg! Ganz toll, dass Du Deutsch lernst, egal was die Spanische Gesellschaft denkt. Hauptsache ist, dass Dein Leben dadurch bereichert wird

[@AlbertoLoredoDesigner]

Richard, your spanish accent is so amazing.

[@bonbonpony]

So it's basically: Q: How to maintain multiple languages at once? A: Do you really want it and is it really worth it? :P

[@roberttegethoff4028]

Very enjoyable and enriching talk. Richard's great fun and an enthralling speaker!

[@robfrank25]

Great talk, Richard!

[@robfrank25]

I particularly liked the part about language etiquette!

[@EstreitoCaminho]

Muito legal ver o Richard brincando. e como sempre ouvindo os outros e compartilhando suas experiências com humildade.

[@jancovanderwesthuizen8070]

EstreitoCaminho verdade

[@autodidatasacademy]

Esse cara tem dicas muito boas

[@Amba_Aradam]

58:14 - this observation was spot on. it's as if some part of you was no longer there

[@MissShining4]

Always nice to hear Luxembourg being mentioned :D However, e.g. for a Portuguese person it's not (usually) the case that they learn 5 languages as a child, just through acquisition. Obviously it all depends on how much Portuguese is spoken at home, how much tv is watched and in which language, but most people still have to learn German and/or French in school, like a normal language learner and we only start English when we're 14/15, so there is definitely no child-like acquisition there. We speak a lot of languages but not always with a native-like fluency or accent.

[@martinet1985]

are you from Luxembourg ?

[@connorgioiafigliu]

Awesome insights!

[@alkantre]

Re vera linguae fons sunt gaudium, et id satis est mihi ad eos discendum.

[@alkantre]

gaudii--genitivus casus

[@mauriciocarvalho2106]

+peter browne I believe the correct Latin would be "Re vera linguae fons sunt gaudii et satis est mihi eas discere"

[@alkantre]

yes, indeed I forget to put gaudium into the gentive

[@keegster7167]

Eodem mihi.

[@catalina8601]

Claro haces las cosas q tienes q hacer en todas los lenguajes y tienes suficiente tiempo..

[@MyArtist21]

Hey im doing a research paper on foreign languages and I was wondering from a polygot what is the best way in learning a new language or what has worked for you. I am bilingual in English and Spanish. I have been surrounded by spanish my whole life since I am from Miami Florida, but it was four years ago when I erally took learning it seriously. I dont want to spent four years to learn a language, when I say learn a language I mean read, write, understand, communicate, and enjoy music and shows in that language, Thanks for any help in advance!

[@alecrosewell6959]

MyArtist21 Learning a language takes time. I am still learning chinese...it has been 9 years.

[@sydneywellington_cazadora]

I grow up speaking French and Romanian. I learned English in school and university. And after, I started to learn alone: Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Catalan, Latin, and Esperanto. Now I'm studying: Danish and Swedish.

[@JohnSpawn1]

37:22 Emulating accents

[@Maria-er9gi]

what is his native language?!

[@barzinio92]

+Ma ria Really? It's English!

[@Maria-er9gi]

I wondered 'cause he talks Spanish like a native as well

[@jancovanderwesthuizen8070]

I am starting to think I maybe shouldn't have learned Afrikaans... xD

[@nictegki]

@40:00

[@HexMachineNica]

I'll have to disagree about the Finnish accent...

[@martinet1985]

just because you disagree with something doesn't make it false.

[@ForeverRii]

@@martinet1985 they never said it's false, they just disagreed

[@oscarandresmezasalas8204]

ES NECESARIO ESTAR PRESENTE EN EL SITIO FISICO DONDE SE HABLA LA LENGUA,CONVERTIRSE UNO EN UN TROTA MUNDOS,O SE PUEDE POR APRENDER POR INTERNET?

[@ichbinhier355]

se puede aprender idiomas por internet...

[@kaczynskis5721]

I have heard of a "rule of seven", namely that nobody can really be fluent in more than seven languages or thereabouts.

[@kieronhoswell2722]

kaczynski S Hi. Do you remember where you heard this? I’m interested to look into it.

[@dgccfhf2581]

I heard it too, its from some old Russian book written during imperial times of Russia but I only heard people referring to it and never could find it. It goes like this: everyone can speak fluently 5, median number is 7 and absolute people with exceptional talent can reach fluency in up to 9

[@dgccfhf2581]

Although I might be mistaken and it could be written in 1910-1930s, but I am certain about source

[@honslo9263]

It is undoubtedly useful being able to speak quite fluently in 20-30 languages. However, I have to claim that really sophisticated knowledge of language can be evolved just in a mother tongue, unless you live abroad for at least 15 years. Nevertheless, you will always have ONE PREDOMINANT LANGUAGE that will enable you to describe reality fully precisely. If you consider variety of phenomenona, diverse terminology, slang expressions, metaphors, proverbs, collocations, idioms and manifold nuances, it is almost unfeasible to reach a perfect level in any foreign language by mere learning. Let's face it, do you think that you have entirely PERFECT level in your mother tongue? Every valuable book I read even in my mother tongue makes me feel that I don't even have acceptable level in my own native language, that's why I don't take these "polyglots" so seriously. Perhaps they are able to speak about "easy topics" in 30 languages, but really serious philosophical or scientific topics can be flawlessly discussed at most in 2 languages per one person, as I see it. I hope that i've explained my point of view in somewhat understanble way, since English is not my mother tongue :)

[@FatherElectric]

+Petr Kolman I wanted to hold this view of language learning myself. Unfortunately, it seems the evidence is against it. You seem to be confusing stylistic command of a language (what we call usage) with thinking. Language is a tool of human thought, but they are not the same thing. So I'm not sure if your brain "resets" to a dominant mode if not mainly through habit. It doesn't look like humans "create" there reality through set linguistic structures; read why humans effortlessly adopt other symbolic forms of expression such as mathematics, chemical notation, and the visual arts. it doesn't look like flying a plane, programming a computer, or mining uranium depend on native language capability. Countries like Japan, Malaysia, and Kuwait with wildly unrelated languages have adopted the same industrial model born out of England, and it doesn't look like any country "interprets" scientific knowledge differently and adopts technologies that's specific to the native language. So I am wondering for those who speak multiple languages if they are more "tied" to the native language or if they truly gain a different perspective?

[@aidanhoneyman2931]

I totally agree. this is why I'm focusing on only French

[@alecrosewell6959]

FatherElectric Yea it is impossible to be 100 percent fluent in another language on all levels.

[@maxens_is_here]

Uh? It's stretching it to think that people can only talk "flawlessly" about philosophy or science in at most two languages. Also... that's... with the resources we have now, it's totally possible to have a "really sophisticated knowledge of language" without living aboard 15+ years (???) It was even expected from people (students, teachers) in Humanities, in France, back in the days albeit in Latin and Ancient Greek. How can one live in Ancient Greece for 15+ years? (I reckon this would be made simpler with a time machine...) Anyway, maybe if you research learning disabilities you might find a way to work around your issues when it comes to reading texts*, but keep in mind that philosophy and science are supposed to be challenging (at least sometimes) in any language. You may also have skipped (or learned badly) basic concepts of the subjects you deem important while learning them, as you seem to be really enthusiastic when it comes to learning; this would make more advanced concepts difficult to understand. That's something I used to do regularly, so I see how sometimes the basics seem boring but reviewing them after advancing to more complicated concepts might make them less boring and allow you to understand things better? * It's not always as portrayed in the medias, so if you're from an older generation and it wasn't well-known at the time, you might not suspect it when mild; you may be able to read the text fine but have a harder time with meanings and LDs impact other aspects of life. I knew a girl who said her dyslexia also made learning sign language harder, for example, and a friend with dyscalculia has trouble with time and reading maps which you wouldn't see as directly linked to math. People focus generally on reading, counting and such because that's where you see children struggling more obviously, it doesn't mean LDs only impact academic abilities.

[@zyrob3435]

I agree that you can't really speak 20-30 languages fluently, but that's not what most polyglots claim they can do anyway. Most of them admit honestly that they have varying levels of ability in each of the languages they learn. Nobody claims they can discuss serious philosophical or scientific topics in all 20-30 languages flawlessly, but it doesn't mean they can only discuss "easy topics" only. A polyglot may have studied Science in English but spends a lot of time reading Chinese literature, studying philosophy in Greek and reading news in Spanish. Obviously they will be able to discuss the respective topics in each language better, but it doesn't mean they can only talk about the weather in each language. Your statement "you will always have one predominant language that will enable you to describe reality fully precisely" shows you've never been near people who grew up bilingual or trilingual. People like us are used to using multiple languages in our lives to describe our reality. We think in multiple languages depending on the situation, and our brain doesn't register that "I'm thinking in X language". It just happens. And when you gain ability in your third/fourth/fifth language, you start to be able to think in those languages too without any translation from your native language(s).