Multilinguals/Polyglots/Linguists/Bilinguals

" I don't know, but I think people want things faster and are lazier."
This is something I always tell people: They want to learn a language but don't want to dedicate the time and effort to do it and insist on calling me a genius (If they knew how long it me took to get here...).
Many people say I must a have a "special skill" (Or they assume I learned the languages because I "went to college" )to learn languages and I tell them there is one: Sit your butt, hit the books and be bold enough to talk to some native speakers!!
It is funny to see a country like Japan where there are countless good language programs (I'm learning a lot from them: French, Italian, Chinese, Korean and Russian) on TV and people don't learn them...

Cheers!!

K.T: Sorry for not giving the credits for your comment!! おおきに！

Well, I think sociolinguists have pretty much offered a lot of hints....even though the real world just works like what it has been. My understanding has been that they are often just theories, intentionally drawn far from over-generalizations or no generalizations at all, and people create them just for their own sake, sometimes to the extent of sounding mundane to ordinary people.

My very boundless generalization is just that polyglots and monolinguals simply perform exactly like any of their counterparts in "most" situations in history. For human culture and trade to work properly, polyglottery would just sound like getting a holy grail as enthusiasts and ordinary people have conceived it to be. The flow of info. and dumbing down of anything still doesn't change the fact that enthusiasts would try to understand by every means...

The only hint I can give to encourage my peers is, just, about any benefits they get. A vivid example is better paraphrased again from Farber, namely that languages are often commercial beings, and failing to master (econ. important) languages is economically damaging to your country and yourself, in many cases. It doesn't always refer to a foreign tongue. It could just be a dialect some miles from your home, or some mangled English of your immigrant neighbors. I know about the "general" trend, but more importantly I do know that this cultural activity could offer me a higher salary...

Although the proliferation of the internet these days encourages learning languages and makes it easy, that could also be a bad thing. Back in the days, to really learn a language you had to bite the bullet and go to the country, or immerse yourself in the people. These days, you can just sit back, read through some random website and think you actually know a lot without ever stepping out of your living room.

Good Dusk.

"These days, you can just sit back, read through some random website and think you actually know a lot without ever stepping out of your living room. "
Berlusconi:My problem with learning from a website is WHO CREATED it because one can teach us about his/her experience but maybe that isn't the best method for us or what one is trying to convey isn't totally correct. To be honest I really never had the opportunity to learn a language where it is spoken or had contact with native speakers (With exception of living in Japan) but I realize the importance of mastering the language structure properly in order to purport that I've studied the language and can convey my ideas decently. Some people think it's alright just to "pick up by ear" but I think there's more than that...

Yes, but back then if you wanted to learn the grammar you had to dig into big thick textbooks. Websites tend to simplify, and all these new courses which purport 5 minute a day learning.

"Yes, but back then if you wanted to learn the grammar you had to dig into big thick textbooks. Websites tend to simplify, and all these new courses which purport 5 minute a day learning."
Berlusconi: Personally I don't have problem with thick textbooks when they are made by professionals (Even though they might not be so fun to study with sometimes...). Simplified stuff worries me because one might end up learning something in a half-assed way and it's more difficult to fix that later.
I guess I'm a little skeptical with "learn language x in 24 hours" or in another impossible time span.

>>To be honest I really never had the opportunity to learn a language where it is spoken or had contact with native speakers (With exception of living in Japan)

In fact, learning on my own doesn't mean I'm not drinking infant formula. The only difference is I can do it as a kind of intellectual exercise without having to be in the country.

>>Some people think it's alright just to "pick up by ear" but I think there's more than that...

You can't really hear a lot even if you are fairly advanced. I guess that with 1 hour of small talks only offers you a few dozens of new vocab from an average adult. Even I don't know a lot of vocab to make you speak Cantonese like a Guangzhouer. I can't write pinyin, either. Indeed, I do read dictionaries (esp. in its e-form) in my native language very often... and while my vocab base is much larger than less educated people, that doesn't mean I can master their lingo very easily...

All I'd want to do is to learn everything quick-and-dirty, and I really mean very dirty, even though I'm not against every commercial initiative. Having said that, I'm aware of over-learning, like gaining a sophisticated/native-like accent too early...in those cases, I'd rather prefer reading more than everything.

>>It is funny to see a country like Japan where there are countless good language programs

My friend, you'd definitely be happy to see loads of language (and Japanese) books in Chinese... They are sort of like English and French in East Asia, and you can learn with loads of similar words...

Being bold is probably the key along with the bookwork. I agree with you,
J. C.-san. I would add that studying for short periods of time every day is best for those who love languages, but work in another profession.

"My friend, you'd definitely be happy to see loads of language (and Japanese) books in Chinese... They are sort of like English and French in East Asia, and you can learn with loads of similar words..."
Xie 先生：I already have a lot of books...Unfortunately don't have as much time for reading all of them...According to my book check I have stuff for learning 18 languages and most of the material has tapes of CDs...
可是我没有时间学习那么多言語!
再見！

"According to my book check I have stuff for learning 18 languages and most of the material has tapes of CDs..."

Only 18! I'm surprised. Not kidding. I'm not going to tell you how many resources I have, but I am happy when I can resist buying a book at the bookstore (usually I can't)...

"Only 18! I'm surprised. Not kidding. I'm not going to tell you how many resources I have, but I am happy when I can resist buying a book at the bookstore (usually I can't)..."
K.Tさん：Now you're tempting me to buy more stuff and know the accurate number of languages for which you have materials...Actually I shifted my language book addiction into guitar/music theory books(Last month I bought 2 books from Musicians Institute).
Oh, forgot I also download a lot of stuff (Pimsleur, Linguaphone and Eurotalk).
Maybe the rarest language for which I have material is "basque"（This counts 19 languages...Oh, I also have an Ukranian textbook...20th language.hehehe) but still didn't have time neither courage to start...Maybe I feel my language skills won't help much, just like when I started studying Finnish.
Still haven't touched my Turkish and Modern Greek（Just started a Hebrew conversation book but had to stop in order to finish a biblical Hebrew book). I also erased a Cantonese material from Pimsleur I used to have. Sorry Xie!!!對不起阿！
Dude, I guess I gotta buy more books!! (笑）

K.Tさん：In which language is written your language material?
My stuff is mostly in Japanese (Russian, Finnish, Swedish, Swahili, Polish, Dutch, Hebrew and French material).Some stuff is in English (Dutch, Russian, Chinese and Korean materials). When i started Polish the book was in Italian (Impariamo il polaco) and I have a book in German for studying Swedish (Schwedisch Lehrbuch). I also have some stuff written in the language I'm studying such as French(Les exercises de Grammaire), Spanish (Español 2000), German(Oberstuffe deutsch and auf Neuen Wegen)...
Next time I'll share about my dicionaries...

You'll end up with a big addiction if we continue this thread. I have bilingual materials in Spanish, French and English and monolingual sources in Russian, Japanese, German and probably some other languages. It's very easy to get multiple languages with computer programs where you can test-drive several languages to the tourist level.

I didn't buy all my resources. I "inherited" some from relatives. I also use the library and their inter-library services. I rarely pay full price for anything.

Here are some of my favourites:

Memento des Kanji (Jean-Claude Martin) French Kanji book which gives pictures of all of the commonly used Kanji-1,945 and is the best dang book I have ever seen for Kanji in any language. I'd love to translate it (uh-oh) into English for English speakers. Can't remember a Kanji? The "original" picture idea that the Chinese had is shown for each Kanji and examples and memory hints are given.

Vocabulearn Russian (Complete set)- over 7,500 words and expressions. I got it for 25 dollars, I think.

Colloquial Romanian (Deletant) 1983 edition, reprinted in the nineties (borrowed). Excellent text.

I have several resources for Hebrew (none of which I like very much), but my method now is to get the tourist language right away, then go for serious study. For that, easy recordings like Language 30 help to take the language on the road right away.

I found a funky method from Barron's from the 1990s with relaxation exercises. I think I rolled my eyes when I found out that this was what I had purchased for one language, but after a little time, the phrases started jumping out at me.

Thank-you for mentioning your resources. Antimoon would be a better place if we shared more tips like this.

I'll bet this is true of you as well. After a few languages, they just get easier and easier. They seem to leap off the page.

>>I didn't buy all my resources. I "inherited" some from relatives. I also use the library and their inter-library services. I rarely pay full price for anything.
<<

Better pay nothing. Use emule and search "colloquial", "fsi", "pimsleur" and so on.