Video of The World's Greatest Polyglot: Multilingual

I'm disappointed as well, but he was not my hero. I'm curious and maybe a little suspicious of very high numbers related to languages.

All of the languages that were tested were languages that ZF knows (according to the article in Portuguese that I read), and he wasn't able to answer very well in any of them, imo. He didn't even have to speak, just interpret/translate.

Could he hear the guests well? He was at a distance. He seemed to have trouble hearing the Russian.

I'm not calling the world record folks just yet, but I'm not so sure he's the world's greatest polyglot now.

This wasn't a comedy show, was it?

Did this show originate in Chile? I'm still wondering why he agreed to do the show. Did he just get stage fright?

What language was the last woman speaking?

To the moderators:

Could someone please delete this thread?

Neither of the previous two posts were mine.

This is an good thread! It shows that when someone says "I speak X language", it must be taken with a grain of salt, especially for a "polyglot".

I've looked at the video and I wanted to be fair. It wasn't my idea to mock him. I don't want this to turn into an ugly thread. I saw that you removed one comment or so, Josh.

This is an good thread! It shows that when someone says "I speak X language", it must be taken with a grain of salt, especially for a "polyglot". -Guest

The issue here is what constitutes "speaking a language". For me, it's clear: the person can converse on a variety of topics with little or no problem, the delivery is clear enough that others understand the language and the person shows that he or she can use a lot more than the present tense.

I wonder what the record books want as proof. I don't know how many times I've heard a kid say, "I speak Chinese" or something. I remember a girl saying this at a birthday party when I was a kid. Actually, the one word she knew was, lol, correct, but I doubt she knew more than that, but she sure was confident!

In Spanish, the announcer said that ZF was able to speak and write in all those languages if I remember correctly.

I just want to be fair. Some people who have talked to him think he's a genius.

I respect the man for his wisdom, and I am sure he is very talented at languages, but, it is clear that he is egoistic to claim he is fluent in them. I don't doubt he "is very familiar" with the languages, but that is not equal to fluent. So he should be more cautious it's his own fault for the humiliation.

>>Xie,

the man didn't answer the question, he translated it. Well, actually he pretended to. His translation: "Where did you learn the knowledge (sic) of the Chinese language, and also, where did you absorb (sic) it with ease?"

PS: the show is in Spanish not in Portuguese ;-)<<

Then Spanish and Portuguese must be really very similar!

Was he fluent in Spanish? I suppose so. But judging from your translation, that's clearly not what the supposedly Chinese man was saying about. That man must have been very shocked...

Hi Xie!

“Then Spanish and Portuguese must be really very similar!” —Xie

In many ways they are, yes. And I definitely understand that you would find it hard to tell them appart. But I've had too much exposure to Spanish — and too much trouble to understand Portuguese — to feel that way.



“Was he fluent in Spanish? I suppose so.” —Xie

He was. I didn't like the way he spoke though. Too many fancy words and too little content, as though to make up for the fact that there was nothing he could actually translate. Maybe I'm biased. :-)



“But judging from your translation, that's clearly not what the supposedly Chinese man was saying about.” —Xie

You make it sound like you doubt he's actually Chinese… :-)



“That man [the supposedly Chinese man] must have been very shocked...” —Xie

Yes, actually I had the feeling that pretty much all of the guests putting his language habilities to the test were shocked, though too polite to say something. Except, that is, the Farsi speaker who straightforwardly pointed out his mistakes.
Please excuse me for what is perhaps a naive question, but did you understand the head-shaking that the Chinese — I'll stick to calling him that for the sake of simplicity — made upon hearing Ziad Fazah's surprising translation? As, perhaps, you know, it's a gesture that means "no", but I was wondering if this was understood and used in your country?

Spanish and Portuguese ARE very similar, Xie. The written part is VERY similar. Portuguese has some nasal sounds, and there are some, imo, slight differences.

In Spanish, I would pronounce "casa" (house) as "KAssa", in Portuguese, I'd pronounce it something like "KAzuh" If someone disagrees, that's fine. That is an approximation for English speakers. I don't have any training in linguistics, except a course I took in phonics for French.

I heard part of a phone conversation (in ENGLISH) with Mr. ZF this year. Google this: "Conversation with Ziad Fazah". I don't want to put the address here as I am not so sure if this is the same guy. The man in the conversation says that he was born in Lebanon (unless he mispoke or the Wiki article is wrong), but I've read he was born in Liberia. Maybe he MEANT that he grew up in Lebanon. His English is fluent. He has a baritone speaking voice (like the man on the TV), but I didn't listen long enough to see if I could tell without a doubt that it was the same guy.

Learning Languages (the Micheloud site) has people who have contacted him (at least one person), if you are interested in calling him. I believe Cantonese is one of his languages, but then you saw the reaction to the Mandarin.

"Mispoke" should be "misspoke"...