Thread: Fluent in 11 languages.

BBC News - How do you become fluent in 11 languages?

Impressive.

Unbelievable!!!!!!!!
His accent is really good in the languages that I am familiar with. I can't determine whether his grammar and choice of word is good, but I would guess so.

There is so much hype around people who allegedly speak many languages and often when they are finally put to the test it turns out their accent is awful or they don't know grammar properly.

This guy is just incredibly good. He's the real deal if you ask me!

Да, этот парень - большой молодец. Но все же по-русски он говорит с заметным акцентом и грамматика местами хромает.

He's Russian is awesome. Rather light accent. I've heard only four mistakes. Grammar is not perfect but easily understandable. He's overcompensating the "Р" sound Vowels are perfectly pronounced. Double vowels are apparently hard for him like in word Греции
He said he has been to Ярославль - Yaroslavl - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
He also said that he lives in Russia now

Every time I start to feel like I'm doing pretty good, learning some Russian.... I hear about someone like THIS! Arghhhhhhhhh!

But I guess, for an American, I am still somewhat unusual.

Originally Posted by Doomer

He said he has been to Ярославль - Yaroslavl - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
He also said that he lives in Russia now

I've been to Yaroslavl dozens of times and my Russian is still dreadful

Originally Posted by Deborski

Every time I start to feel like I'm doing pretty good, learning some Russian.... I hear about someone like THIS! Arghhhhhhhhh!

But I guess, for an American, I am still somewhat unusual.

Haha, I never had any illusions...!

Since I started my new job, I had a desk next to two guys, both (!!)of whom have studied Russian as a foreign language.

The first had forgotten a lot, because he studied Russian back in the 1980s. But he was still following the Russian rock scene because he is a big rock fan and prefers Russian rock over American.

The second person started studying at roughly the same time as me, (2009) but he is MUCH better! Arrgh!
He thinks Russian grammar is "fun and challenging" and he has a much better vocabulary than me. He memorized all the spelling rules!

My excuse is that he is practically a genius with a degree in theoretical physics. I probably 70% of his IQ, at the most...

One of the first things he did after starting his Russian studies was to watch lots of childrens film, then moving on to contemporary comedy shows from TV. Then he started watching Russian war films because he enjoys that.
He never used subtitles and he was able to learn a lot by using increasingly difficult material. Did anyone try a similar approach?

He memorized all the spelling rules!

What does it mean? What rules? Or just he spells nearly all the words correctly?

Well, today he explained to me lots of things around pronounciation based on spelling.
For example situations in which "и" is pronounced "ы" depending on spelling, and lots of tips around differentiating between "щ" and "ш" which I find a bit confusing. Last week he told me all about "ъ" which I had misunderstood, for example the difference in pronouonciation of a few words in which ъ is the second letter. I did not know anything about that. He said it would be valuable for me if I memorized all spelling rules.
Really my Russian studies are on hold, but I suppose I could take them up - my colleague inspires me.

Well, today he explained to me lots of things around pronounciation based on spelling.
For example situations in which "и" is pronounced "ы" depending on spelling, and lots of tips around differentiating between "щ" and "ш" which I find a bit confusing. Last week he told me all about "ъ" which I had misunderstood, for example the difference in pronouonciation of a few words in which ъ is the second letter. I did not know anything about that. He said it would be valuable for me if I memorized all spelling rules.

That's not actually spelling. That's graphics and pronunciation. It is useless and very hard to remember all the spelling rules.
Could you tell those words with ъ? сел - съел?
I don't know why is the ш - щ distinction more difficult than л -ль, м - мь?

Originally Posted by Marcus

That's not actually spelling. That's graphics and pronunciation. It is useless and very hard to remember all the spelling rules.
Could you tell those words with ъ? сел - съел?
I don't know why is the ш - щ distinction more difficult than л -ль, м - мь?

Well I am really tired now, but I think he said that the hard sign means there is a sort of break and so it sounds different... ш - щ is difficult simply because this is an "artificial difference" for me, just like adding "the" and "a" is for you. To me, this is more or less the same sound and it seems a bit picky to differentiate between them. For words that I have memorised, I have obviously memorised the correct spelling and I don't mix it up once I learnt it for a particular word. But it just feels unnatural and complicated.

It's nothing but a show-off. Anyone can learn a few phrases, put some effort into practicing a proper accent and you are good to go! There are thousands of polyglots like him on the net flaunting their prodigious flare for languages while in fact, I can bet my bottom dollar on it, they didn't even try to study any of those. Well, maybe they did, but didn't get any further than picking up some basics just sufficient to put on a chip show.

Originally Posted by Man About Town

It's nothing but a show-off. Anyone can learn a few phrases, put some effort into practicing a proper accent and you are good to go! There are thousands of polyglots like him on the net flaunting their prodigious flare for languages while in fact, I can bet my bottom dollar on it, they didn't even try to study any of those. Well, maybe they did, but didn't get any further than picking up some basics just sufficient to put on a chip show.

Don't be too certain about that...

Collins and Livemocha Launch a Search for the UK’s Most Multilingual Child and Student in Britain - Collins Language

Judging will be conducted over Skype (or equivalent) from the child’s school, or at a location agreed by you, with an accredited judge.

The Judging Process

Throughout November, a relaxed and fun judging process will take place, with nominees chatting to the judges fluent in their individual languages over webcam. The schoolchild and student shown to be conversant in the most languages will be declared the winner.

Judges will be supplied by Collins and the ALL (Association For Language Learning) – the UK’s major subject association for the teaching of foreign languages.

Originally Posted by Man About Town

It's nothing but a show-off. Anyone can learn a few phrases, put some effort into practicing a proper accent and you are good to go!

True... for example, I would bet money that if you showed him a photograph of a bird from the genus Passer ...



...and asked him Что это такое?, he would answer Это маленькая птица ("It's a small bird") or something close to that, whereas most Russian children over the age of five or six would answer Это воробей ("It's a sparrow").

Or, if you asked him how to say "Those people are very wealthy" in Russian, he might be able to provide a direct literal translation like Эти люди очень богатые, but it would never occur to him to say У них всё есть, кроме птичьего молока, ("They've got everything but bird milk") because he was too busy learning Hebrew, Catalan, Afrikaans, etc., to study Russian in more depth and learn some common proverbs and figures of speech.

Which is to say that "fluency" can be defined in different ways, and the BBC video shows that he has an impressive ability to master different accents and perhaps also an excellent memory for rehearsed phrases, but he's not actually demonstrating an ability to converse fluently in all those different languages. (Maybe he can, but the video doesn't prove this.)

Originally Posted by Man About Town

It's nothing but a show-off. Anyone can learn a few phrases, put some effort into practicing a proper accent and you are good to go!

I wanna see you trying practicing the proper accent

Originally Posted by Hanna

One of the first things he did after starting his Russian studies was to watch lots of childrens film, then moving on to contemporary comedy shows from TV.

This is what I do with English

Originally Posted by Hanna

He never used subtitles

doesn't work for me at all
I really doubt that it can be true
I mean he might have skipped the subtitles during the showtime but if he doesn't know or understand a word how he could pick up/look up the meaning of it?
Only children can do that through a lifetime of learning

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

whereas most Russian children over the age of five or six would answer Это воробей ("It's a sparrow").

Russian sparrows look a little different
More like this one
But you are correct

Still I think pronunciation is much more important for comfort communication than vocabulary

Originally Posted by Doomer

This is what I do with English

I really doubt that it can be true
I mean he might have skipped the subtitles during the showtime but if he doesn't know or understand a word how he could pick up/look up the meaning of it?
Only children can do that through a lifetime of learning

Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. But that's what he said.
It's really hard to find subtitles for Russian films online unless you really make an effort to locate them. He said he didn't find any so I guess he didn't try as hard as I did.

Another interesting thing is that he only visited Russia once in his life, on a trip to St Petersburg quite recently.

сел is [s'el] съел [sjel], so no any break but an entire consonant [j] (like "y" in yes), ' signifies palatalization. Ш is close to voiceless English R, Щ is pronounced with the middle of the toungue raised.
These are all questions of Russian graphics. It is like [ke] is spelt que in Spanish while [ka] is spelt ca.
As far as I can see such things cause unbelievable difficulties among learners of Russian, I don't know why.
Ш and Щ are as distinct as man and men are in English (Russians don't usually hear the difference).

You can't hear the difference between "man" and "men" in English?

I keep thinking that if uneducated labourers from Uzbekistan can learn to speak Russian in a few years, then I should b-y well be able to manage to!

I do GET the difference between Ш and Щ - it's just that I don't really think of them as different sounds.

My stepmother who is Japanese has the same problem with R and L when she speaks English - she doesn't think there is any real difference and has to really focus to pronounce them clearly. Even though to all of us there is a massive difference.