What is a polyglot and am I actually one?! // Q&A // Becoming a Polyglot

[@SomedayKorean]

I know some people study every day or try to make a strict routine, but that never works for me. Occasionally I'll really get in the mood to study a lot every day, but then I also will casually not study for a few months. I'm doing this for fun! Sometimes it's easy to subconsciously feel like I should be doing more or I'm too lazy, but it's not a race. I like that you embrace this more realistic approach to having a language learning hobby.

[@BecomingaPolyglot]

I totally get what you are saying! Plus I also think that's a healthy way of maintaining your hobby, it is supposed to be fun :) I honeslty always have that feeling of 'oh I should be doing more because of this and this' or because of other peoples opinion. I had to learn to let that go which I still find hard sometimes. But perhaps that's just the downside of sharing everything on the socials? Thank you for your kind comment, I truly appreciate it. I wish you luck on your language journey :)

[@achmadiid8644]

Do you learn languages only by yourself? (Only with books and internet), (without teacher or tutor); and why are you so beautiful, Vera?

[@thefoxicorn]

It's really freeing, I think, to learn a language for the fun of it rather than for a specific reason. I love (and am a bit envious of) how you do it as you can and don't have a rigid schedule for it but still can make progress in your languages! I think for me, I actually need a bit more structure because the way my life is right now, I don't make enough time for myself and the things I want to do. Most of my "free time" is spent organizing homeschool stuff for my son, working on my travel business, or other things that aren't for me so I really think I need to schedule time to do the things I WANT to do, if that makes sense. That's really neat that you were able to learn those languages at the same time when you were young! It's a great point to why you specifically can learn so many at once. I didn't grow up learning multiple languages so I started getting overwhelmed learning too many at once and my brain couldn't switch quickly haha. Congratulations on getting your C2 in English!!! That's so great! But also yes, I for sure want to hear about the Dutch school system.

[@carmencampeanu7810]

You are so lucky you are young in this time when learning languages is so accessible and fun with the technology now available, I am very jealous! Back when I was your age there was no youtube, had to go to the only foreign language bookstore in my city to by a book, and if there was a movie on television in my target langauge, I was so excited to have an opportunity to hear the langauge! Haha, things sure have changed... just a quick question, I am learning Korean and really enjoying it, and I would love to one day learn Chinese too, how much harder is Chinese compared to Korean? Twice as hard? Three times as hard??? I am daunted as I have heard Chinese is just impossible. Would love your opinion on this.

[@BecomingaPolyglot]

I totally understand what you're saying. I am greatful for the resources we nowadays have. Allthough not every language is as well represented on those language apps, it's still better than before. Glad that my language journey doesn't depend on a poor conversation at a camping in the middle of nowhere in France :) Amazing that you learn Chinese and Korean too! As I started with Chinese I find it difficult to say whether one might be more difficult as I am now also very much struggling with the Korean grammar... I also thought long and hard whether I should start with Chinese or Korean first, I chose Chinese as both Japanese and Korean have words derived from Chinese. There are a lot of free and cheap resources for learning mandarin Chinese. I suggest you start with the simplified characters, unless you want to learn Chinese in order to travel to for instance Hongkong, then I would learn the traditional characters too. Learning the characters ins't as hard as it seems honeslty, the only thing I have really noticed is that you have to keep on revising them. I sadly forgot half of HSK 2 characters by now. One good aspect of the HSK exams is that they are well structerd. There are wordlists with all the words and grammar points you need to know and its al very doable I would say. But that of course depends on your goals for learning Chinese as well. I highly recommend whatching chinese dramas with the 'learn with netflix' extension. Its a good way to get familiarized with the characters and the 4 different tones mandarin has. I watched: Meteor garden (very popular but perhaps bit childish too), put your head on my shoulder, The rational life (difficult vocab but more mature story than the rest). If you know the beginner Chinese vocab go to short stories in Chinese on youtube. These are very short stories with ONLY the vocab of the HSK you are learning, I found it very useful. For the HSK 1 and 2 exams you dont have to write the characters, only HSK 3 and up. However I do recommend 'learning mandarin Chinese characters' on Amazon because it also let's you learn characters in context. I kinda miss this with Korean, I feel like I am just learning words at random as each and every "topik 1 wordlist" that I find have different words. One says that 700 words is enough for topik 1, another says its 1600. Long story, but I hope this May help :)

[@sariany9794]

Future diplomat here! I relate so much to you!! I speak fluent Spanish, advanced-ish English and I'm learning Chinese!

[@BecomingaPolyglot]

This comment makes my day hahaha thank you so much!! Wish I could speak fluent Spanish too, amazing

[@Diversilingua]

Kudos from Diversilingua podcast. It would be great to have you in our show

[@BecomingaPolyglot]

What an honor!

[@Diversilingua]

@@BecomingaPolyglot Where is the best channel to talk with you about the schedule and the topic of our episode?

[@vrede63]

A monolingual person speaks one language. A bilingual person speaks two languages. A trilingual person speaks three languages. A polyglot speaks FOUR or more languages.

[@BecomingaPolyglot]

See, I was right after all hahaha thanks for clarifying it 😂 much appreciated!