This guy speaks 5 languages, what do you think?
I'll comment on his Spanish, it was good, prefectly understandable, probably within a year of living in a Spanish-speaking country he would catch up the language.
BTW, everytime I see these type of videos of foreigners speaking Spanish, I'm always amazed at how good they actually speak, I think is just another proof of how easy Spanish actually is, cheers.
It's me again, I forgot to say his English was pretty good as well.
Well maybe Spanish is the last language he learnt and he still needs to practice it but he already knows a lot. And regarding his French, Japanese and English, really very good, all of them!
His English pronunciation is very pleasant to listen to, although he has some problems: his [e:] sound ("working") is nonstandard, he usually pronounces r's but not always, he sometimes leaves out final consonants (typical Asian mistake). But these are relatively minor imperfections. He's an uncommonly fluent speaker that I would certainly enjoy conversing with.
English: Easy to understand. He could pass for someone who came to the US as an older child.
French: Simple conversation about pets. I wasn't crazy about one of his vowel sounds, but his accent is head and shoulders above many Japanese and Koreans I've heard who speak some French. French seems to be a difficult language for many from East Asia, but he is doing well. Easy to understand.
Japanese: Once again, easy to understand. Accent did not seem weird at all to me. I had to listen a tad more than I do with Japanese speakers. Basically, he introduced himself and talked about his hobby.
Spanish: He talked a little bit about numbers in Spanish and said them in Korean as well. If I were teaching him (and he asked), I'd suggest working on his "r" sounds.
Overall, he was extremely easy to understand in all of these languages. I can also speak them, but I can't speak Korean. He seems to have the "ear". One of the languages seems to have a bit of the phrasing or the stop/start of English language speakers. I'd have to go through and listen again.
What I mean (and Parisien reports hearing this kind of thing as well with Dutch and Flemish who speak German as the third language) is that sometimes one's second language intrudes on the third language a bit.
The second language accent or the gestures may carry over. It's not terribly serious here. This was a strong effort, but not enough to judge fully as these are relatively short samples.
I'm not a linguist, so if you disagree, jump in and share your opinion.
Good job at this juncture. It's always fun to hear multilingual people.
I didn't even click the link.
Honestly, 5 languages is not a big deal. :D
It may be a big deal to people living in America, MAYBE England, i'm not sure, but it's actually common.
MOST of my fellow students at college who are from another country speak or know AT LEAST 4 languages. 2 pakistanis, knew Urdu, some other language, English, Arabic, and this other language differred. I know a family from Ghana; the father speaks THREE african languages, as well as English, French, and Spanish, all of which he speaks very well and is comfortable with in conversation. That's SIX languages. I know an indian guy, speaks hindi, 2 other indian languages, and english. another person i know, knew english, spanish, japanese, korean, and i forget what else. you see i have trouble remember and keeping up, lol...
Really, it's quite common.
As better explained in my post on the "what age is better" topic, I can totally see how a person could learn three 3 languages with the amount of effort it takes to learn only 2, if you're in a good situation like mine was growing up. Withe a more dedicated effort, the person could easily thus go for a 4th language, and know them all or be fluent in all 4 before the person turns 20.
I think his looks recommends him better than his linguistic skills.
I think we have to take into account that he is supposed to be a Korean in KOREA. I meet Koreans in the US who have been here for years and they still have trouble with the sounds of English and don't sound as good as this guy.
The fact that he is understandable in all these languages is quite good. No one is saying that he is ready to pass a test to be an interpreter in five languages, but he is working on them and he is young...
I have mentioned before (as the poster above) that people from Ghana and India may very well speak four languages (and so I disagree with people who say that one can only learn three languages well.), however I don't know how close those languages are. We don't hear from posters who are able to discuss the languages of Ghana and India here and I think it would be extremely interesting to get some insight into how similar or disimiliar the local languages are. Probably some of our linguists know, but I don't.
<<I didn't even click the link.>>
And still, you bothered to comment.
<<Really, it's quite common [to know or speak at least four languages].>>
Really, I totally agree with you. Take the Antimooners for example. Oh wait...
hehe. :D
Actually, I just talked to that one Indian guy yesterday. As I already knew, there's lots of languages that are spoken in india, and even more dialects. So I did ask him, and he claims the three he knows are very different. Differences in grammar, some differences in sentence structures, etc... we didn't get into any specifics, but the ones he knows he claims are distinct languages. Of course, there's lots of overlap though... I guess like learning 3 Germanic languages or something, I don't know.
-Of course, there's lots of overlap though... I guess like learning 3 Germanic languages or something, I don't know. -
A Dravidian and an Aryan language have nothing in common. It's like English vs Maori in New Zealand, the same degree of similarity.
K.T: <<French: Simple conversation about pets.>>
Uh? He's inviting Francophone Korean learners and Korean-speaking French learners to visit his blog so that they can practice each other's languages.
"Pets" might have a meaning that I don't know. That's possible. But on the other hand you could have misunderstood him a bit...
<<French seems to be a difficult language for many from East Asia, but he is doing well. Easy to understand.>>
As a native speaker, I second that. Some very minor mistakes that never hinder understanding. Totally unobtrusive accent, too. And very accurate pronunciation.
"Uh? He's inviting Francophone Korean learners and Korean-speaking French learners to visit his blog so that they can practice each other's languages.
"Pets" might have a meaning that I don't know. That's possible. But on the other hand you could have misunderstood him a bit..." IdH
No, I saw another video. I haven't lost my ability to speak French. Aargh!
Indeed, in this video he talks about his blog where only French and Korean are welcome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWxfURVikiI&feature=related
(This seems more like the video I saw. He talks breifly about his dog he used to have and the dog's name.)
I don't know what is going on. Perhaps I clicked on another video at Youtube.
In the video I saw, he greeted viewers in Chinese as well. He talked about a dog (he used to have) whose name sounded like Budi/Buddy?, but it has no meaning in Korean nor in French. His sister chose the name, but he notes that it sounds something like "petit" in French. This doesn't surprise me because Koreans don't distinguish much between "p" and "b" it seems. I only know a bit of Korean and don't claim to speak it, but I can sound out some of the words.
I think speakers of Arabic do the same thing. They don't distinguish between "bat" and "pat". I don't know if this is in all dialects or not.
