The five most famous polyglots in the world. Learn languages on your own!: The most famous polyglots The most famous polyglot in the world
The first known in history polyglot was Mithridates VI Eupator, king of Pontus. With his multinational army, he fought the Roman Empire for a long time and successfully. They say that Mithridates knew 22 languages, in which he judged his subjects. Therefore, publications with parallel texts in many languages (especially the Bible) are called "mitridates".
The most famous female polyglot in antiquity was Cleopatra (69-30 BC), the last queen of Egypt. “The very sounds of her voice caressed and delighted the ear, and the language was like a multi-stringed instrument, easily tuned to any tune - to any dialect, so that only with very few barbarians she spoke through an interpreter, and most often she herself talked with strangers - Ethiopians, troglodytes , Jews, Arabs, Syrians, Medes, Parthians ... They say that she also studied many other languages, while the kings who ruled before her did not even know Egyptian ... ”(Plutarch, Anthony, 27). Together with Greek and Latin, Cleopatra knew at least 10 languages.
Giuseppe Gasparo Mezzofanti (1774 - 1849), son of a poor carpenter, who became a cardinal. He knew from various sources from 30 (perfectly) to 100 languages. The English poet George Byron tested Mezzofanti, "it's a linguistic marvel... in every language I know a single swear word... and it struck me so much that I was ready to swear in English." In addition to the main European languages, he was fluent in Hungarian, Albanian, Hebrew, Arabic, Armenian, Turkish, Persian, Chinese and many other languages, and easily switched from one language to another. A.V. met with him. Suvorov and N.V. Gogol, and he spoke to them in Russian. Mezzofanti even wrote poetry in many languages.
John Paul II - Pope of Rome. He was fluent in 10 languages, in addition to this he knew a number of other languages.
István Dáby - Hungarian translator and writer, translated from 103 languages.
William James Sidis - a child prodigy known at the beginning of the 20th century, at the age of eight he knew eight languages; by the age of thirty he spoke forty languages.
Richard Francis Burton was a British traveller, writer, poet, translator, ethnographer, linguist, hypnotist, swordsman and diplomat who spoke, according to some estimates, twenty-nine languages belonging to various language families.
Osip Borisovich Rumer - Russian poet-translator, knew twenty-six languages and did not translate interlinear.
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola was an Italian humanist who claimed to speak 22 languages.
Paul Robeson is a singer and actor who sang songs and spoke more than 20 languages.
Kato Lomb - translator, writer, one of the first synchronous translators in the world. She knew 16 languages. Among the languages she spoke were: English, Bulgarian, Danish, Hebrew, Italian, Chinese, Latin, German, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Ukrainian, French, Japanese. At the same time, she learned all the languages, being already an adult and an accomplished person, and in a very short time. For example, it took her only a month to learn Spanish. With all this, while studying at the gymnasium, Kato was by no means considered a capable student and was even known as a linguistic mediocrity. As she writes in her memoirs, during the Second World War she secretly studied the Russian language, reading the works of N.V. Gogol with a dictionary. When the Soviet army occupied Hungary, she served as an interpreter in the Soviet military administration. continued language learning throughout life. I was engaged in interpretation in 9 or 10 languages, translated technical literature, wrote articles in 6 languages. In her book How I Learn Languages, she outlined her method of preparing for learning a foreign language and actually mastering the language.
Nikola Tesla is a world famous Serbian physicist who spoke 8 languages.
Jean-Francois Champollion was a French Orientalist and founder of Egyptology who deciphered the Rosetta Stone. At the age of twenty he knew 13 languages.
Anthony Burgess was an English writer and literary critic who spoke seven languages fluently and knew five other languages.
Yusuf-Khadji Safarov - 19th-century Chechen engineer-architect, lawyer, theologian, one of Nizam's co-authors. He spoke 12 languages.
Vasily Ivanovich Vodovozov - Russian teacher, translator and children's writer, knew 10 languages.
Shchutsky, Yulian Konstantinovich - Soviet orientalist, spoke 18 languages belonging to different language families.
Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai - leader of the international and Russian revolutionary socialist movement, feminist, publicist, diplomat; spoke German, French, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish and other foreign languages.
Grigory Kochur - Ukrainian poet, translator, literary historian and theorist of translation art, translated from 28 (according to other sources, from forty) languages.
Mykola Lukash - Ukrainian translator, literary historian, lexicographer, spoke more than 20 languages, translated literary works into Ukrainian from 14 languages.
Agafangel Krymsky - Ukrainian Soviet historian, writer, translator, orientalist, Turkologist and Semitologist, spoke at least 16 living and classical languages, according to some sources, almost 60 languages.
Ostrovsky, Alexander Markovich - German mathematician, lived in Germany, knew 5 languages.
Starostin Sergey Anatolyevich - Russian linguist, spoke 40 languages.
Boris Lvovich Brainin (Sepp Österreicher) translator of poetry into German, was fluent in (spoke, wrote) 15 languages, translated without interlinear from 26 languages.
Polyglots include Anthony Grabovsky, orientalist Arminius Vamberi, writer, poet and revolutionary Jose Rizal, Esperanto creator Ludwik Zamenhof, archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann.
There were also many polyglots among scientists and writers.
Leo Tolstoy knew about 15 languages– among them English, French and German languages are perfect, easily read Polish, Czech and other languages. In addition, he knew Greek, Latin, Tatar, Ukrainian and Church Slavonic, and also studied Dutch, Turkish, Hebrew, Bulgarian and a number of other languages.
Alexander Griboyedov was a great playwright and diplomat who knew 9 languages. From his youth, he spoke French, Italian and English, studied Greek and Latin. Later he mastered Persian, Arabic and Turkish. The fabulist Krylov knew French, Italian and German very well. Then he learned ancient Greek, and also studied English.
By the age of 16, Nikolai Chernyshevsky had thoroughly studied nine languages: Latin, Ancient Greek, Persian, Arabic, Tatar, Hebrew, German and English.
The German scientist Johann Martin Schleier knew forty-one languages. Perhaps this is what allowed him to create Volapuk - the language of international communication, which became the forerunner of Esperanto.
There are real polyglots in our time. For example, Belgian architect Johan Vandewalle, in his 40s, knows 31 languages. And a professor-linguist from Italy, Alberto Talnavani, is quite fluent in all languages of European countries. At the same time, the future polyglot owned seven languages already at the age of 12, and at the age of 22 - by the time he graduated from the University of Bologna - his "linguistic baggage" consisted of 15 languages.
Famous Russian polyglots:
Vyacheslav Ivanov, philologist, anthropologist - about 100 languages
Sergey Khalipov, Associate Professor, Department of Scandinavian Philology, St. Petersburg State University - 44 languages
Yuri Salomahin, Moscow journalist - 38 languages
Evgeny Chernyavsky, philologist, simultaneous interpreter - 38 languages
Dmitry Petrov, translator, lecturer at Moscow Linguistic University - 30 languages
Willy Melnikov - Russian polyglot, researcher at the Institute of Virology - speaks more than 100 languages. Nominee of the Guinness Book of Records. He is fond of photography, drawing, architecture, history, speleology.
Based on site materials inyazservice.narod.ru
A person who speaks many languages is called. The history of mankind has many examples of polyglot people who spoke not only their native language, but also spoke, translated, read in many other foreign languages, dialects and dialects.
The very first polyglot was the king of Pontus - Mithridates VI Eupator. In his arsenal there were 22 foreign languages, using them, he ruled over his subjects. In honor of him, "mitridates" are called publications with parallel texts in many foreign languages.
The most famous and outstanding polyglot in history is Giuseppe Mezzofanti (1774-1849) - the son of a carpenter, who became a cardinal, the keeper of the Vatican Library. He never left his native Italy, and at the same time he was fluent in more than 60 languages, and translated from 114 foreign languages! He learned all languages on his own. Even during his lifetime, many legends were composed about Mezzofani.
The most prominent female polyglot of antiquity was the last Egyptian queen Cleopatra (69-30 BC). In conversations with strangers, the queen did not use the services of translators, only with a few barbarians in conversation she attracted third parties. Cleopatra spoke at least 10 foreign languages.
The most famous polyglot among foreign linguists was the Danish professor and linguist Rasmus Christian Rask (1787-1832), who spoke 230 languages! Rask compiled many dictionaries and grammars for dozens of foreign languages, the founder of comparative historical linguistics and Indo-European studies.
There are also many polyglots among Russian scientists and writers. Ivan Krylov spoke 5 foreign languages. Leo Tolstoy knew about 15 languages. Alexander Griboedov spoke 9 foreign languages. Nikolai Chernyshevsky, by the age of 16, already knew 9 languages. Anatoly Lunacharsky was fluent in 6 languages.
There are many polyglots in our time. Belgian architect Johan Vandevalle speaks 31 foreign languages. Alberto Talnavani is an Italian linguist professor who is fluent in all European languages! Hungarian writer and translator Kato Lomb speaks 15 languages. She began to study languages already at a mature age, and at school she was considered mediocrity. British journalist Harold Williams speaks 80 languages. This list is endless.
Russia also has something to brag about. Among Russian polyglots, the following stand out: anthropologist and philologist Vyacheslav Ivanov - close to 100 languages, Moscow journalist Yuri Solomakhin - 38 languages, associate professor of St. already 30 foreign languages.
However, the most prominent and famous Russian polyglot of our time is Willy Melnikov. This is a researcher at the Institute of Virology, a multilingual poet, candidate of medical sciences, an artist who speaks 104 foreign languages. V. Melnikov was nominated for the Guinness Book of Records.
As you can see, in order to become a polyglot, you do not need to be born with special skills. People of completely different professions, genders and ages have successfully mastered many foreign languages. The main thing is desire and perseverance. Do you want to become a bright page in the history of linguistics and linguistics or learn a second language? Then go ahead for knowledge. All in your hands!
Why did the church burn them at the stake? There are five degrees of foreign language proficiency. The first and lowest is reading with a dictionary. But this does not apply to polyglots... According to the academic dictionary of foreign words, POLYGLOT (from the Greek polyglottos - "multilingual") is a person who speaks many languages. But many are how many? Polyglots themselves believe that in addition to the native one, you need to know perfectly at least four languages: speak them absolutely freely and preferably without an accent, translate sounding speech and written text as accurately as possible, write competently and clearly.
How many languages can be learned?
The legend says that the Buddha spoke one and a half hundred languages, and Mohammed knew all the languages of the world. The most famous polyglot of the past, whose abilities are quite reliably attested, lived in the last century - the keeper of the Vatican library, Cardinal Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti (1774 - 1849)
There were legends about Mezzofanti during his lifetime. In addition to the main European languages, he knew Estonian, Latvian, Georgian, Armenian, Albanian, Kurdish, Turkish, Persian and many others. It is believed that he translated from one hundred and fourteen languages and seventy-two "dialects", as well as from several dozen dialects. He was fluent in sixty languages, wrote poems and epigrams in almost fifty. At the same time, the cardinal never traveled outside of Italy and studied this unimaginable number of languages on his own.
I don't really believe in such miracles. Moreover, the Guinness Book of Records claims that Mezzofanti was fluent in only twenty-six or twenty-seven languages. Byron wrote of the famous cardinal:
"... This is a linguistic miracle, he should have lived during the time of the Babylonian pandemonium in order to be a universal translator. I checked it in all the languages \u200b\u200bin which I know at least one curse word, so he struck me so much that I was ready to swear in English ".
Once Mezzofanti was asked: "How many languages can a person know?" He replied, "As many as the Lord God wills." In his time, they still remembered the fate of the Finnish student, who was tried and burned at the stake because he ... "learned foreign languages with incredible speed, which is impossible without the help of evil spirits."
Other sources indicate that the first known polyglot in history was Mithridates VI Eupator, king of Pontus. With his multinational army, he fought the Roman Empire for a long time and successfully. They say that Mithridates knew 22 languages, in which he judged his subjects. Therefore, editions with parallel texts in many languages (especially the Bible)
called "mitridates".
The most famous female polyglot in antiquity was Cleopatra (69-30 BC), the last queen of Egypt. “The very sounds of her voice caressed and delighted the ear, and the language was like a multi-stringed instrument, easily tuned to any tune - to any dialect, so that only with very few barbarians she spoke through an interpreter, and most often she herself talked with strangers - Ethiopians, troglodytes , Jews, Arabs, Syrians, Medes, Parthians ... They say that she also studied many other languages, while the kings who ruled before her did not even know Egyptian ... ”(Plutarch, Anthony, 27). Together with Greek and Latin, Cleopatra knew at least 10 languages.
Kato Lomb is a translator, writer, one of the first simultaneous interpreters in the world. She knew 16 languages. Among the languages she spoke were: English, Bulgarian, Danish, Hebrew, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Latin, German, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Ukrainian, French, Japanese. At the same time, she learned all the languages, being already an adult and an accomplished person, and in a very short time. For example, it took her only a month to learn Spanish. With all this, while studying at the gymnasium, Kato was by no means considered a capable student and was even known as a linguistic mediocrity.
As she writes in her memoirs, during the Second World War she secretly learned Russian by reading essays with a dictionary. N. V. Gogol. When the Soviet army occupied Hungary, she served as an interpreter in the Soviet military administration.
She continued to study languages throughout her life. I was engaged in interpretation in 9 or 10 languages, translated technical literature, wrote articles in 6 languages. In his book "How I Learn Languages" outlined her method of preparing for the study of a foreign language and actually mastering the language.
There were also many polyglots among scientists and writers..
Lev Tolstoyknew about 15 languages - including English, French and German, he could easily read Polish, Czech and Italian. In addition, he knew Greek, Latin, Tatar, Ukrainian and Church Slavonic, and also studied Dutch, Turkish, Hebrew, Bulgarian and a number of other languages.
Alexander Griboyedovthe great playwright, diplomat knew 9 languages. From his youth, he spoke German, French, Italian and English, studied Greek and Latin. Later he mastered Persian, Arabic and Turkish. The fabulist Krylov knew French, Italian and German very well. Then he learned ancient Greek, and also studied English.
Famous Russian polyglots:
Vyacheslav Ivanov, philologist, anthropologist - about 100 languages
Sergey Khalipov, Associate Professor, Department of Scandinavian Philology, St. Petersburg State University - 44 languages
Yuri Salomahin, Moscow journalist - 38 languages
Evgeny Cherniavsky, philologist, simultaneous interpreter - 38 languages
Dmitry Petrov, translator, lecturer at Moscow Linguistic University - 30 languages
Willy Melnikov is a Russian polyglot, researcher at the Institute of Virology, who speaks more than 100 languages. Nominee of the Guinness Book of Records. He is fond of photography, drawing, architecture, history, speleology.
I think many of you have seen the movie. "The plane flies to Russia". There is an episode in the movie:
“- Director, do you know English?
“Well, I taught at school, then at the institute… no, I don’t know.”
Most of us who studied a foreign language at school, then at the institute can answer approximately the same way. Not all of course, but many.
Why is this happening? And what needs to be done to learn at least one language?
What does it take to become a polyglot?
Let's dive into a little linguistic journey and perhaps we will find answers to these questions.
Let's start with the definition
Polyglot (from the Greek words "many" and "language") - a person who speaks many languages.
Other definitions used in this thread: bilingualism (bilingualism) - the ability to speak two languages. Bilingual people are called bilinguals , three - multilingual, more than three - polyglots.
How many languages are there in the world?
On the planet, according to various estimates, there are from 2,500 to 7,000 languages.
These figures are more than approximate, since linguists cannot come to a common opinion in any way due to the lack of a unified approach to distinguishing dialects of the same language.
There is no clear boundary between dialect and language . Hence the difference in numbers.
Vladimir Plungyan. Why are languages so different? Ast-Press Book. 2010
What are the most spoken languages in the world?
If this is considered the language that is spoken by the largest number of people, then it will be English It is spoken by more than 1.5 billion people. Although only 365 million are native speakers of this language, i.e. it is native to them, and foreign to the rest, it was learned for communication.
More 70 % communication in English is carried out between people for whom the language is not native.
What does this mean?
This means that native speakers gradually lose control over the definition of criteria for the "correctness" of pronunciation and the use of grammatical constructions.
Therefore, some experts insist on the introduction of English teaching standards for those who are not going to use it in countries where this language is the main one.
Then comes Spanish. Spanish is spoken 387 million human.
More Hindi - 295 million, Arabic - 280 million, Portuguese - 204 million, Bengali - 202 million, Russian - 160 million, Japanese - 127 million, Punjabi - 96 million Here are the top 10 languages.
German - in 11th place ( 92 million), French - on the 18th ( 74 million), Italian - on the 24th ( 59 million).
Where are the most languages?
Africa is the leader, on this continent about 2 000 all kinds of languages. In Nigeria alone there are more 400 .
Both Americas (North and South), contain about 900 languages. And among this number - mostly Indian languages. The largest number of Native American speakers live in Central and South America. In Mexico about 240 languages, and in Brazil more 200 .
In Papua New Guinea, no less than 850 languages, in Indonesia - 670 , in India - 380 , in Australia - 250 .
Europe- exists here 23 officially recognized languages and 60 regional dialects. This is reported by the report of the European Commission "Europeans and their languages" (2012).
According to the report- 54% Europeans are able to maintain a conversation in at least one non-native language, 25% speaks two foreign languages and 10% citizens of Europe knows at least three foreign languages.
How are we doing: a survey on the level of knowledge of foreign languages, conducted by the Levada Center among Russians in 2014 showed: 70% of Russians do not speak any of the foreign languages, English is the most common language in which the respondents can more or less freely express themselves ( 11% ), Deutsch ( 2% ) and Spanish ( 2% )
How many official languages are there in the world?
Official language is a language recognized at the state level. Today in the world they allocate 95 official languages.
Wherein, Latin language , is also one of the official languages of the world. It is the official language of the Vatican.
The most widely spoken official language in the world is English, it is used nationally in 56 countries around the world. Next come French (29 countries) and Arabic (24 countries).
Six languages - English, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, Russian and French - have the status of official languages of the UN.
Lingua franca
Lingua franca (from Italian - Frankish language) - a language used as a means of interethnic communication in a certain field of activity.
In the history of European civilization, several languages at different times occupied the position of the lingua franca.
During the Roman Empire koine (common Greek) - became such a "lingua franca" for the eastern Mediterranean and the ancient Near East.
Subsequently, for more than 1,000 years, first in the Mediterranean countries, and then throughout Catholic Europe, it was used as a lingua franca - Latin language.
In the XVIII-XIX centuries it became French .
Since the end of the twentieth century, the means of interethnic communication throughout the world has become English language.
"Dead languages"
In linguistics, the concept is used - "dead language" . This is a language that does not exist in living use, which is no longer spoken, and is known only through written monuments. Most often, dead languages continue to live because they are used for scientific or religious purposes.
These include Latin, Old Russian, Church Slavonic and Ancient Greek. And also - Sanskrit, Coptic, Avestan.
There is one unique case of the resurrection of a dead language. After World War II, when the State of Israel was established, Hebrew, which for 18 centuries was considered exclusively bookish, was revived as the official language of this country.
Constructed languages
Of the most famous of these - 16 , the most popular of which is Esperanto , created in 1887 by Ludwig Zamenhof.
Zamenhof was from Bialystok, a city inhabited by Jews, Poles, Germans, Belarusians. The city had very complex inter-ethnic relations. Zamenhof considered their reason for the lack of a single language.
The goal of Esperanto was to spread the ideas of peaceful coexistence among people all over the world. Zamenhof published an Esperanto textbook. He translated many masterpieces of world literature into his own language.
Another language - Volapuk , created in 1880 by the German linguist I. Schleyer.
Artificial ones also include - Basic English, Ido, Interlingua, Loglan and others.
Endangered languages of the world
UNESCO has presented the Atlas of the world's languages in danger of extinction. The atlas contains the latest data on approximately 2500 such languages. The Atlas indicates that there are 199 languages, each of which is spoken by less than 10 people.
During the life of the last three generations of people from 6 000 existing languages in the world have already disappeared more than 200.
Among the recently extinct languages are Manx (Inhabitants of the Isle of Man) ace in Tanzania - disappeared in 1976, Ubykh (Turkey) - disappeared in 1992, Eyak(Alaska, USA) - disappeared in 2008.
Forecasts show that by the end of this century from 50% to 90% living languages may disappear from the face of the earth.
Wherever minor languages are left without the support of the state and the media, the education system, they are “absorbed” by more common languages, most often because only the dominant language finds practical use in everyday life. This is what happened to Gaelic in Ireland, which is heavily influenced by English, and Breton in France, which was "absorbed" by French.
The most used languages of the Internet
According to a study by the Discovery News website, Russian language is in ninth place in the ranking of the most used languages of the Internet. At least 45 million people use it on the World Wide Web.
In the first place is English language, more than 478 million people use it on the Web. It is followed by Chinese– 384 million and Spanish- 137 million.
Also on the Internet are Japanese (96 million), French (79 million) and Portuguese (73 million), Russian (45 million), Korean, used by 37 million Internet users.
80% all world information is stored in English. More than half of the technical and scientific publications in the world are published in English.
So, knowledge of English is also access to fresh world information. In the meantime, many are limited to only 3% of information in Russian and they can only wait for translations of books and magazines.
Other interesting facts about languages
Approximately two-thirds All world languages do not have their own written language.
Just a little more 3% languages of the world have more than a million speakers. More than 95% of the world's population speaks these languages as their mother tongues.
The vast majority (approximately 85%) are “small” languages with less than 100,000 speakers.
The easiest language in the world is Hawaiian (one of the Polynesian dialects). It has only six consonants and five vowels.
But learning this simple and harmonious language is not easy. Try with such a scarcity of elements to build all the constructions that are in other languages.
Among the most difficult languages, linguists include the Chippewa language, the language of North American Indians from Minnesota. It contains about six thousand verb forms.
Also among the most difficult is the Tabasaran language, which is spoken in Dagestan. There are 44 cases in it, there are not so many in any other language.
Few Tabasaran languages are inferior in difficulty to the Haida language of the Indians of North America, it has about 70 prefixes (no language has achieved this).
In the Eskimo language there are 63 forms of the present tense, and simple nouns have up to 252 inflections (endings).
And, of course, Chinese, which is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as one of the most difficult languages in the world.
In the Dictionary of Chinese Characters in eight volumes, published in 1889, there are about 20 million characters.
Languages of the Russian Federation
The state language of Russia throughout its territory in accordance with Article 68 of the Constitution is - Russian language.
More 23 official languages of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
In total, the population living on the territory of the Russian Federation speaks 174 languages (including adverbs).
According to the 2010 census, 99.4% spoke Russian (of those who answered the question about language proficiency), 5.5% English, and 1.5% German.
There are also such interesting figures: only 123 people speak the Izhorian language, 68 people speak the Votic language.
You can expand your knowledge of the languages of Russia from the literature below.
1. "Languages of the peoples of Russia". Neroznak Vladimir Petrovich Publisher: Academy. Year of publication: 2002
2. M.I. Isaev. "On the languages of the peoples of the USSR". Publisher: Nauka. 1978
3. V. G. Kostomarov. "Russian language among other languages of the world". Education. 1975
4. Korney Chukovsky. “Live like life. About the Russian language. Publisher: Zebra E. 2009
There is a lot of interesting information about languages - you can continue endlessly, but nevertheless let's move closer to our topic - to polyglots.
Great polyglots
The first known polyglot in history was Mithridates VI Eupator, king of Pontus (132 -63 BC). According to Appian and Plutarch, Mithridates knew 22 languages, in which he judged his subjects.
The most famous female polyglot in antiquity was (69-30 BC), the last queen of Egypt. Together with Greek and Latin, Cleopatra knew at least 10 languages.
Let's believe the historians and move on to a historical period closer to us.
One of the most prominent polyglots in human history Giuseppe Gasparo Mezzofanti(1774 - 1849), cardinal, curator of the Vatican library. He knew from various sources from 30 (perfectly) to 100 languages, and he easily switched from one language to another.
At the same time, the cardinal never left Italy and studied this unimaginable number of languages on his own.
Twenty-eight languages were fluently spoken by a professor at the University of Copenhagen Rasmus Christian Rusk(1787 - 1832).
Hungarian polyglot Arminius Vamberi(1832-1913) was self-taught. By the age of 16, he already spoke 7 European languages and Hebrew.
It is interesting to read about the life of polyglots, this is what allows you to understand the reasons and circumstances of life that prompted the study of languages. According to researchers of the phenomenon of multilingualism, motivation- the main force in learning a foreign language.
You can read about Vambery in Nikolai Tikhonov's story "Vambury", or in G. Golubev's book "Unusual Journeys", in the story "Under a false name". The book written personally by Vambery is "Journey through Central Asia".
Heinrich Schliemann(1822 -1890).
Many people know this name. German entrepreneur and self-taught archaeologist, one of the founders of field archeology, discoverer and explorer of Troy, Mycenae, Tiryns and Orchomenus.
Schliemann spoke 14 languages (according to some reports 22), although there is evidence that he knew 60 languages.
The exact figures for any polyglot differ significantly, and this is primarily due to the criteria by which the knowledge of a particular language is assessed.
But, this is not the most important thing, more important is that this number exceeds 10, and this is already something outstanding.
And another interesting detail - we are again dealing with a self-taught person, with what is called an autodidact.
Research on polyglots reveals a very important principle: “ languages are not taught, they learn themselves ". This is very important in understanding the peculiarities of the language path of polyglots.
For details, I send to the book of a polyglot V. A. Kurinsky "Autodidactics".
Johann Martin Schleyer(1831-1912), German Catholic priest, knew forty-one languages. Perhaps this is what allowed him to create Volapuk - the language of international communication, which became the forerunner of Esperanto.
Jean Francois Champollion- French Orientalist and founder of Egyptology, who deciphered the Rosetta Stone. At the age of twenty he knew 13 languages.
Istvan Daby- Hungarian translator and writer, translated from 103 languages. But he speaks fluently only twenty-two.
Johan Vandewalle, An architectural engineer from Belgium speaks 31 languages. For exceptional achievements in the study of foreign languages, a special European jury awarded the Belgian an honorary "Babylon Prize". At the same time, he categorically denies that he has any special linguistic abilities.
Alberto Talnavani, a professor-linguist from Italy is quite fluent in all languages of European countries. At the same time, the future polyglot spoke seven languages already at the age of 12, and at the age of 22 - by the time he graduated from the University of Bologna - he knew 15 languages. Every year a Roman professor masters two or three languages. At one of the linguistic congresses (in 1996) he delivered a greeting in fifty languages.
Harold Williams- a journalist from the UK, knows eighty languages, and Harold learned Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French and German when he was only eleven years old.
Ziyad Fawzi, Brazilian of Lebanese origin, teacher of foreign languages at the University of Sao Paulo, speaks fifty-eight languages.
John Paul II- The Pope. Fluent in 10 languages.
Arvo Utilainen(Helsinki, Finland) can translate from over 50 languages. He speaks 12 of them with a greater or lesser degree of freedom.
Donald Kenrick(London, UK) can translate from over 60 languages. He speaks 30 of them, most of them fluently.
Writer Senkovsky(Baron Brambeus) was a well-known polyglot: in addition to Polish and Russian, he also knew Arabic, Turkish, French, German, English, Italian, Icelandic, Basque, Persian, modern Greek. Studied Mongolian and Chinese.
Pent Nurmekund(Tartu, Estonia) (1905–1997) could translate from about 80 languages and spoke many of them.
Friedrich Engels, philosopher and one of the founders of Marxism, knew twenty-four languages.
Nikola Tesla- World famous physicist, spoke 8 languages.
Dolph Lundgren- actor and athlete, speaks 9 languages, including Finnish, Japanese and Russian.
Paul Robeson- singer and actor, sang songs and spoke more than 20 languages.
Anthony Burgess- English writer and literary critic, author of the satirical dystopia "A Clockwork Orange" fluently spoke seven languages and knew 5 more different languages.
Famous Russian polyglots
Knowledge of foreign languages has long been considered an essential feature of high culture. Many historical figures, diplomats and generals were fluent in several foreign languages.
Empress Catherine II knew German, French and Russian.
There were many polyglots among scientists and writers.
There is documentary evidence that M.V. Lomonosov was a brilliant polyglot. We are talking about a written response of a scientist to a request, what and to what extent he speaks foreign languages. The document is dated 1760 and written by Lomonosov himself.
Those languages that he knows perfectly were marked by him with a cross (x) - there were eleven of them. In many other languages, Lomonosov read without a dictionary and could speak and understand quite tolerably. Here is the list:
Portuguese, Spanish, French (x), English (x), Irish, German (x), Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Italian (x), Polish (x), Czech, Bulgarian, Hungarian (x), Mongolian, Finnish, Lithuanian, Livonian, Chukhonian, Romanian, Jewish (Hebrew)(x), Greek (x), Slovenian (x), Turkish, Tatar, Serbian, Permian, Russian (x).
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy knew about 15 languages - including English, French and German perfectly, easily read Polish, Czech and Italian. In addition, he knew Greek, Latin, Tatar, Ukrainian and Church Slavonic, and also studied Dutch, Turkish, Hebrew, Bulgarian and a number of other languages.
Alexander Griboyedov the great playwright, diplomat knew 9 languages. From his youth, he spoke German, French, Italian and English, studied Greek and Latin. Later he mastered Persian, Arabic and Turkish.
Fabulist Ivan Andreevich Krylov He was fluent in French, Italian and German. Then he learned ancient Greek, and also studied English.
Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky at the age of 16 he already knew nine languages: Latin, ancient Greek, Persian, Arabic, Tatar, Hebrew, French, German and English.
Let's move on to politics.
People's Commissar of Education Anatoly Vasilievich Lunacharsky spoke German, French, English, Italian, and was fluent in classical Latin.
Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky knew three foreign languages, one of which was Russian, which he spoke without an accent and wrote correctly (Polish was his native language).
Vyacheslav Rudolfovich Menzhinsky First Deputy Dzerzhinsky knew, in addition to Russian, thirteen more languages, and he was fluent in German, English, French and Italian.
Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai- an activist of the international and Russian revolutionary socialist movement, spoke English, German, French, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish and other foreign languages.
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was not a polyglot, knew French and German, later studied English. He did not know these three foreign languages \u200b\u200bperfectly
A study of the marks on foreign publications in his library led linguists to conclude that Lenin knew 11 languages.
After Lenin, who spoke three foreign languages, few of the leaders of the Soviet state knew at least one or two languages other than Russian.
According to one source Stalin knew Georgian, Russian, Ancient Greek, Latin, German, Farsi, French. Others argue that in addition to Georgian and Russian, Stalin read German, studied Latin, ancient Greek, Church Slavonic, understood Farsi (Persian) and Armenian, and also studied French.
And today, speaking of polyglots in the State Duma, we can name the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky, he knows four foreign languages: English, German, French, Turkish.
Of course, there are more than a dozen people who speak several foreign languages to varying degrees.
Famous Russian polyglots of our time:
Vyacheslav Ivanov, philologist, anthropologist - about 100 languages.
Sergey Khalipov, Associate Professor, Department of Scandinavian Philology, St. Petersburg State University - 44 languages.
He himself believes that he speaks eight languages, speaks another ten fluently, and can read and write the rest.
Yuri Salomahin, Moscow journalist - 38 languages.
Evgeny Cherniavsky, philologist, simultaneous interpreter - 38 languages.
He had to teach eleven languages. He also translated scientific works and works of art from twenty-eight languages, and he knows six so well that native speakers take him for their own.
Willy Melnikov- Russian polyglot, researcher at the Institute of Virology - speaks more than 100 languages.
Translator, lecturer at the Moscow Linguistic University, host of the Polyglot program on the Culture channel - 30 languages.
How many foreign languages can a person know?
First of all, you need to understand what it means to know a language. In assessing language proficiency, there are − Criteria problem.
To determine the polyglot who knows the largest number of languages, it is required to develop some kind of uniform criterion.
Answer: no, you can't. At least you can't know them on the same level.
A well-known polyglot to the question - what does it mean to know a language, gives the following answer:
Petrov himself says about himself that about 10 - I can talk about 20 - I need to revive it a little.
Andrew Cohen, is an applied linguistics student at the University of Minnesota and is himself a hyperpolyglot. His "gold standard" is the ability to carry out professional activities in foreign languages, such as teaching and lecturing, as he does himself.
American linguist and journalist Michael Erard in his book The Polyglot Phenomenon, graphically presented the abilities of the already mentioned polyglot Mezzofanti:
This graph can be applied to other polyglots. Skills and abilities are maximum in a limited number of languages, then these skills decrease as the number of languages in which the polyglot can explain increases.
Tip from Michael Erard:
“Before you start intensive studies, determine why you need to know a foreign language.
And the next, no less important question: how much do you really need it? After all, it’s one thing if your goal is to travel around different countries, the ability to easily and without problems express yourself in a hotel, restaurant and shop, and it’s quite another thing to become a diplomat, to conduct complex negotiations at the highest level.”
Perhaps the answers to these questions will help answer the question - how many languages can a person know.
Michael Erard, based on observation of the life of polyglots, concludes: “ if you want to be successful in learning languages, you must find or create your niche».
Mezzofanti carved his niche in the library where he worked, Helen Abadzi found his niche in the World Bank, and Graham Cansdale in the European Commission. Alexander Arguelles, dreamed of creating his own school of polyglots.
Why have we not been able to learn languages before?
As shown by the 2010 census, the proportion of the population who know the world's most common English language is 5%.
Why so few?
Modern Methodists give two reasons: school and state.
The system of teaching at school does not involve teaching the student to read books, understand films and correspond. There is required minimum, which, in principle, is enough to somehow communicate in the language being studied. But usually that doesn't even happen. For different reasons.
In school, grades come first. Based on this, the efforts of the student are also expended. Let's add an imperfect teaching methodology. At the exit - like the hero of the film "Airplane flies to Russia" (at the beginning of this article).
The state also has an influence. Going abroad is not for everyone, especially earlier. Accordingly, the study of foreign languages was not essential and, as a result, turned into a completely formal occupation.
Now life has changed, we began to visit abroad more often, when applying for a job, the phrase “knowledge of English, German ... is required” is increasingly common. The people perked up and became actively interested in learning languages.
What can the methodology offer?
Principles that polyglots use
Of course, I would like to find "magic pill" , by applying which you will become a polyglot.
You can use the methods that polyglots voice, from their words. But, according to Michael Erard, one should not forget that by learning languages, they develop many other important skills that a person who does not speak a foreign language is not developed at all.
Michael Erard identified the following skills:
1. The ability to quickly switch between languages.
2. The ability to quickly and accurately represent visual and auditory images.
3. Well developed analytical thinking.
4. Pretty good memory, both visual and auditory.
5. Well developed hearing and ability to copy unfamiliar sounds.
But besides useful and important personal qualities, what about the methods and principles.
A study conducted by Shushpanov A.N. allowed him to formulate a number of principles in the study of the language:
1. You need to go from the task.
2. Loads and overloads (for 20-40 minutes, they usually offer various methods, but polyglots are engaged in the mode they work, day, day, month).
3. Physiology (through recitation, communication, in order to pass the language through oneself).
4. Emotions (learning from something personally interesting).
5. Parallel texts.
6. Immediate application of acquired knowledge.
Basic methods of teaching a foreign language
1. Fundamental (classical) methodology (grammar-translation method).
This is the oldest and most traditional technique.
In the learning process, much attention is paid to grammar exercises, memorizing vocabulary, translation, retelling. Proficiency in grammar and vocabulary is knowledge of the language. This is what the adherents of this teaching method think.
This method was somewhat improved in the middle of the 20th century, reading and writing were added. More attention is paid to writing presentations and essays.
I think that many were trained according to this method both at school and at the institute. Abstract artificial texts, cramming words and rules.
You can take exams for five, but in the end, in a real situation, the result is zero.
In general, it gives knowledge about the language, but it hardly allows you to fully conduct a lively conversation.
2. Communicative approach.
The purpose of the communicative method is to teach a person to communicate. This is achieved in natural conditions. Questions and answers correspond to the real situation from the point of view of common sense, and not abstract educational dialogues divorced from life.
Of the 4 "pillars" on which any language training is based (reading, writing, speaking and listening comprehension), increased attention is paid to the last two.
3. Linguistic sociocultural method.
It involves an appeal to such a component as the social and cultural environment.
This allows you to achieve a complete and deep understanding of the language being studied and master the skills of speech, almost indistinguishable from the speech of a native speaker.
Proponents of this method are firmly convinced that the language loses its life when teachers and students aim to master only "lifeless" lexico-grammatical forms.
4. Intensive technique.
She helps out everyone for whom "time is money."
A high degree of stereotyping allows you to study English intensively - this language consists of 25% clichés and practicing a certain range of "set expressions" in which you can explain and understand the interlocutor.
The advantage of the technique lies in the fact that in a relatively short time it is possible to solve any specific learning task: to learn how to explain, to master the basics of grammar. The disadvantage of the methodology is that the material that the student learns in a short time is quickly forgotten due to the lack of constant practice.
5. Emotional-semantic method.
The origins of the emotional-semantic method of studying foreign languages is the Bulgarian psychiatrist Lozanov, who worked with patients according to his own method of psycho-correction.
The advantage of this method lies in the fact that from the first lessons the student learns to communicate in the language and, thus, can very quickly overcome the fear of a foreign language. The disadvantage of the method is that it does not use the abilities of adults to analyze information, without which an effective transition to higher levels of language proficiency is impossible.
6. English for Special Purposes.(ESP - English for Specific Purposes).
Such a course of study is aimed at learning the language for professional purposes, for example, for organizing and doing business in an English-speaking environment, communicating with foreign partners or colleagues, conducting office work in the language, reading professional English-language literature, etc.
Most often, such a study of a language involves mastering special vocabulary, as well as models of speech behavior, speech etiquette, and often a special jargon that representatives of a particular profession communicate with each other.
7. Method of silence.
In the mid-60s, the "Silent way" appeared. The teacher does not speak, but uses color tables for new words, each color means a certain sound.
By manipulating such tables, the student himself advances in learning the language. And his level of knowledge can sometimes exceed the knowledge of the teacher.
The method is for lovers of everything new, including new methods.
8. Method of physical response.
The method is called "Total-physical response".
Here, on the contrary, the student does not say anything, but only receives knowledge, as if passing it through himself. Constantly listens to speech, reads. Then he must react to what he has read or heard—to react with action.
Having thus accumulated a lot of information, he becomes ready to speak.
9. Immersion method.
The “immersion method” (“Sugesto pedia”) was actively used in the 70s of the XX century.
A different world is created in the classroom - the world of the language being studied. Students choose new names and biographies for themselves.
Perhaps under a new name, you can relax and open up. At least that's what the method is aimed at.
10. Audio-linguistic method.
At the end of the 1970s, the Audio-lingual method appeared.
At the first stage, the student repeatedly repeats what he heard after the teacher or a phonogram. Then he adds one or two phrases from himself.
You can consider the following hierarchy of usefulness of training materials by usefulness:
1. Video
2. Audio
3. Text.
Text last. In the video, we see facial expressions, facial movement during articulation, emotions in conversation. Those. the whole package that accompanies communication.
We catch intonations on audio.
When reading, all this is missing. Accordingly, the perception of the language is reduced, which lengthens the learning process.
And here it’s not even the main thing - who you are: auditory, visual. What is important is the amount of information that each material carries - and the video wins.
Opinion: the recommendations of many teachers speak of the great benefits of reading books in a foreign language. But in order for there to be progress from reading, the student must have many qualities: a good memory, analytical thinking, imaginative thinking.
Therefore, reading, as a success factor in learning - questionable.
Author's methods of learning a foreign language
Method of Nikolai Zamyatkin
He called his method "the matrix-meditative method of reverse linguistic resonance with peripatetic elements".
The author believes that reading parallel texts harmful, because they do not make the brain think - " you can never honestly work on a translation when the finished result is in front of your eyes. This is simply impossible. Your eyes will squint at the next page on their own, and there is nothing you can do about it»
1. Read only what you are interested in reading.
2. Read only works of considerable length, one to two hundred or more pages.
3. The categorical minimization of the use of the dictionary ... Do not grab the dictionary for any reason and for no reason - it distracts you from the main thing - reading.
All the details of the method are in his book.
Ilya Frank's reading method
A method that facilitates reading books in a foreign language due to the special arrangement of the original text and translation.
First comes an adapted passage - a text interspersed with a literal Russian translation and a small lexical and grammatical commentary. Then the same text follows, but already unadapted, without prompts.
The method can be used either as a support, addition to speaking practice, or simply for passive language acquisition (if the goal, for example, is to learn to read books in a particular language).
Important: this method will only work if the book is really interesting to the reader.
Books adapted to the method are issued, for example, by the AST publishing house.
Umin Method (E. Umryukhina)
The idea of the method is that a person learns a new language better not through cramming, but intuitively. Constant listening and repetition of phrases reinforces the basic words and constructions of the language. Therefore, at first the student works exclusively on the audio course, then there are books and communication.
Details in his book.
T. Baitukalov's method
We listen to audio recordings, watch video courses and films with Russian subtitles.
Basic principles of the method:
1. Sincere and strong desire to learn a foreign language.
2. The regularity of language classes - at least 1 hour daily.
3. The main educational material for using a foreign language for communication is video or live media.
4. The main educational material in order to learn to read - videos with subtitles in the target language (at all stages of language learning) and audio books (at advanced stages).
Details of the method in his book.
Methodology of Alexander Dragunkin
Doctor of Philology Alexander Nikolaevich Dragunkin is the creator of an effective method of teaching foreign languages.
In his methodology, Alexander Dragunkin abandoned the classical study of the rules for reading English words, replacing the traditionally used IPA with "Russified transcription".
In addition, he deduced 51 "golden" formulas of English grammar, which differ significantly from the classical ones.
Details in his book
Dmitry Petrov's technique
Dmitry Petrov, host of the educational program "Polyglot"- on the TV channel "Culture". Pupils are invited to master the skills of communication in a foreign language during 16 lessons.
What is this methodology?
First of all, we are talking about creating a friendly comfortable atmosphere in which learning will take place. The language is not to be feared. He must be loved. And then it will become another dimension for you, the existence in which will be pleasant and cozy.
Elements of Dmitry Petrov's strategy
1. Creation of motivation.
The beginning of Dmitry Petrov’s class, he talks to everyone and tries to pull out the motivation of this person: “What exactly do you need this language for?”
2. Create a strong positive attitude. Find the emotional key.
You need a strong, as psychologists say, positive anchor that brings you into a state of accepting the language. It doesn't matter which one, but which one is associated with a positive attitude towards the language. For example, Italian is the songs of Celentano.
Being open to accepting the language being studied is a very big part of success. Not resistance when you need to learn, but when I want to learn - these are completely different types of motivation.
This is a state in which one can feel comfortable when tension is released.
3. Watch TV shows. Not news and films, but talk shows, on which people speak a living language.
Movies to watch in Russian and in the original (no subtitles). Understand what the story is about, what kind of people.
3. Bringing simple structures to automatism. Their volume usually does not exceed the volume of the multiplication table.
5. Consider the possibilities of different ways of perceiving information (auditory, visual). psychomotor 16 times fixes better, therefore - to write texts.
Non-traditional ways of learning a language
There are some - this is for lovers of the "miracle".
We highlight two main points in unconventional ways language learning.
1. Some non-traditional methods are based on the principles of suggestology, developed by the Bulgarian scientist G. Lozanov. Methods that use the effect of super-memory, when a person perceives and assimilates information without critical reflection. For example, this is the "25 frame" method and learning languages in a dream.
2. Non-traditional methods involve fast and intensive language learning, when the study of theoretical aspects is minimized or absent at all, and the main attention is paid to live communication, i.e. colloquial speech.
Intensive methods of teaching foreign languages.
A group of methods for teaching a foreign language, leading its origin from the one developed in the 60s. Bulgarian scientist G. Lozanov of the suggestopedic method and currently includes the following methods:
The method of activating the student's reserve capabilities (G. A. Kitaygorodskaya),
emotional-semantic method (I. Yu. Shekhter),
suggestive-cybernetic integral method of accelerated adult learning (V. V. Petrusinsky),
immersion method (A. S. Plesnevich),
speech behavior course (A. A. Akishina),
rhythmopedia (G. M. Burdenyuk and others).
Frame 25 method
The student watches special videos for 15-20 minutes, during the day he listens to audio materials at any convenient time, as if "in between". It is assumed that this method allows you to memorize a large amount of vocabulary in a relatively short period of time. That is, it is rather not a method of learning a language, but a memorization technology.
The idea of the 25th frame itself appeared back in 1957 thanks to the American psychologist James Vikeri. The standard film speed in the projector is 24 frames per second. We paste the twenty-fifth frame and the viewer will not notice it, but the information that the “invisible” frame carries is firmly stuck in the human subconscious.
I will not give an assessment of the method, I will only note its dubiousness.
"Express Method" by Ilona Davydova
This course involves listening to audio material that contains, in addition to standard exercises and rules, also special sound signals , under the influence of which the process of memorizing foreign words is activated.
Among the readers, there will certainly be those who listened to audio cassettes with the methodology of Ilona Davydova in the 90s.
Well, how are the results? I have not yet met people who have learned in this way. Perhaps they are, I do not argue.
The list could go on, but I will limit myself to two more methods.
Milgred Method
Modern patented technology for teaching English to adults.
Firstly, a foreign language is mastered on the basis of the native, Russian language. This allows you to achieve results 3-5 times faster than people learning English without relying on their native language.
Secondly, each language skill is improved separately.
Thirdly, modern Internet technologies make it possible to organize the learning environment in such a way that the student constantly receives feedback.
ASSIMIL METHOD
The main course is called "English (or German, French, Spanish, Italian, etc.) without difficulty today." You will have more than 100 audio recordings of approximately 1-2 minutes and a book for them. The book contains a transcript of texts, translation into Russian and assignments. According to Assimil, it is imperative to do it every day, even if a little.
You can continue indefinitely, but this is not my task. I just showed that there are methods, traditional and non-traditional. There are a lot of them. If desired, readers can easily find them on the Internet.
The main thing I would like to dwell on is that there is a myth - Without effort, you can learn a language. The main thing is to find a secret technique.
This search usually lasts a lifetime, as a result, you don’t know a foreign language and haven’t found a methodology (it doesn’t exist, no matter how much you would like a miracle).
What do polyglots themselves offer?
Below are the main elements Schliemann's polyglot strategies.
1. Parallel texts.
Reading a book in your native and target language.
2. Memorizing the text
Schliemann had a strong, photographic memory. He used this strength of his by memorizing passages from the text. And not just a paragraph or a page, but for example 20 pages of "Quentin Dorward" by heart. He did not voice the text, he saw it.
3. Essay on a free theme
He wrote essays on topics relevant to him. At the same time, he used not just individual words, but phrases, stable phrases, constructing them like building blocks.
4. Check spelling
In the example of Schliemann, he found a literate English sailor who read aloud and checked all his writings, correcting mistakes.
5. Check your pronunciation
Later, he read aloud, trying as closely as possible to imitate the sound of an Englishman.
In this case, he was already sure that his pronunciation was correct.
6. Speaking
He went to the English church and prayed, while doing phonetics and listening. He repeated every word after the preacher, working with his phonetics.
7. Practice mode
For six months, Schliemann learned English - he calmly spoke and wrote.
It is important to emphasize here that there are no universal polyglot strategies.
Each polyglot simply intuitively feels that it is easier for him, and builds his own strategy on this.
Those. first they reach the maximum, using what is easy, and then consciously build up what is more difficult to a working level.
This is a universal system for all polyglots.
Book Review
I'll start with four basic books about polyglots.
Michael Erard's interest in the phenomenon of polyglots, in particular to Giuseppe Mezzofanti, led to the fact that he decided to find out who are polyglots and how they become.
The Polyglot Phenomenon is not about how to learn languages, but is a search for answers to many questions about the life of a polyglot, which will make it possible to understand whether it is a gift, a calling or hard work.
What drives and why do they manage to achieve more than ordinary people? Is language ability genetically determined? Why do people spend time learning foreign languages?
As Erard writes, only a few languages coexist in the active memory of a polyglot, the rest are, as it were, “canned”. That is, a polyglot will not be able to immediately speak them without prior preparation.
All in all, this is not a language learning textbook, but the principles and ideas in this book are perhaps more valuable than conventional teaching methods.
It plunges into the atmosphere of polyglots, and having plunged into it, the reader can understand for himself whether this is mine or not.
2. D.L. Spivak. "How to Become a Polyglot" Lenizdat. 1989
The author freely, modestly asserts that he speaks seven languages, and if necessary, with the help of the methods disclosed on the pages of the book, in a short time he is able to "cope" with any language he needs - European or Asian, ancient or young.
The book shows a fan of methods for learning foreign languages that science advises.
“That's why every time you hear about a polyglot who has mastered more than 10 languages, know: up to 7 you can safely believe, but beyond that - with a big correction. And the biggest polyglots aren't ashamed to admit it.".
The author recommends organizing your classes in the following way: “Spend the first quarter of each lesson on pronunciation and grammar. The second quarter is devoted to reading the text. The third quarter of the lesson is devoted to memorization. The last quarter of the lesson consists of reading the text.
We declare all the remaining time of the day except for the lesson as practice in the language being studied. The first is speech understanding. Grab from the stories of acquaintances, from radio broadcasts and TV programs in your native language, names, geographical names, greetings, individual words of the language that fascinated you. Find recordings of songs - try to get used to the melody of singing, memorize the chorus without even understanding the words.
A lot of useful things can be learned from this book, especially since the author himself is a polyglot.
3. Kato Lomb. "How I Learn Languages"."Argamak". 1993
The book is written in the format of a simple conversation.
The author is based on many years of personal experience in studying various foreign languages: “In almost 25 years I have reached a level in 10 languages where I can speak, and in 6 languages I can translate technical literature and enjoy fiction”.
If we, for example, study Russian or Arabic, then the progress curve will look something like this:
After a difficult start comes a steady and confident rise.
And for such "light" languages as English, Spanish, Italian, the same curve will look the other way around:
At first, we are overwhelmed by a joyful feeling of rapid progress. But the farther, the more clearly we see that we still do not know many words and rules.
« How easy is English, right?” I am often asked. “Yes, easy in the first ten years, and then it becomes unbearably difficult,” I always answer..
Here is how the author describes the process of learning a language:
“Suppose I want to learn Azil. Such a language, of course, does not exist. I came up with it at this very moment to summarize and emphasize the unity of my approach.
Further, the author acquires a large dictionary of the Azilian language. Considers words, counts letters, sounds, measures their length. It reveals other "secrets" of the language, notices how different parts of speech are formed from one root, and so on. This is a test of the tongue for taste, for touch - first encounter with language .
Together with the dictionary, or immediately after it, a textbook and fiction in the Azilian language are bought.
Further, the author seeks to find a teacher who can give me the basics of the Azil language.
And he definitely recommends going to Azilia, because without practice in the country, it is supposedly almost impossible to master its language perfectly.
And finally, the formula for success that gives us
4. Eric W. Gunnemark. "The Art of Learning Languages". Publisher: Tessa. 2002
Eric Gunnemark is a famous Swedish polyglot, founder of the International Association "Amici Linguarum" ("Friends of Languages").
« It took me about 30 thousand hours of independent work in order to develop an effective method for mastering foreign languages through trial and error.».
Here are the prerequisites for successful language learning, according to the author:
A. Grounds:
1. Motivation
2. Knowledge about the rules of language acquisition
3. Organization
B. Activity:
1. Concentration
2. Repetition
3. Practice
Well, “minimum” means that first of all you need to master the main thing.
It consists of three sections:
- "minilex" - for words,
- "miniphrase" - for everyday expressions,
- and "minigram" - for grammar.
Interesting about reading: "h shading is a passive skill. Most often, having learned to read newspapers, magazines and books, people stop there and do not reach the next goal - oral speech.» .
The path to oral speech is oral speech. I think this is an important note.
« Learning words and expressions is a big step towards starting to speak. However, do not think that, having enriched your vocabulary, you will immediately master oral speech in addition.
When mastering oral speech, listening - and hearing - is sometimes more difficult than speaking yourself. That is why I strongly recommend using every opportunity not only to speak, but also to listen to speech in a foreign language».
You will also learn what "transparent words" are, intermediate language, and how 200 words will cover approximately 60% of plain text comprehension.
N.F. Zamyatkin. "You can't be taught a foreign language." Publishers: Neography, IPO "Leo Tolstoy". 2006
The author writes: " in this work, I intend to tell the whole truth about the study of languages, reveal all the secrets, tear off all the veils and finally make the study of a foreign language understandable, logical and simple.».
« The first and foremost thing you should have is a strong desire to teach yourself a foreign language.».
Methods based on the fact that the study of a foreign language begins with the alphabet, the author considers wrong, ineffective. " Time, and especially the energy of the initial impulse to learn the language, is practically wasted».
And he offers his own - Matrix approach. The essence of the matrix technique is in mastering the language through repeated listening and pronunciation of texts.
See the book for details.
Anton Khripko. "How to learn a foreign language?".2004
Why don't most Russians speak foreign languages? After all, we all learned a foreign language at school, many - at the institute and at various courses.
The author answers this question in this way: “not being able to freely travel around the world, we, in fact, did not need foreign languages. Traveling around the USSR, we spoke our native Russian everywhere. And everyone answered us on it ... "
« For "incapable" comrades, the market offers a wide range of lohodromes, where clients with a developed hope for a miracle try to learn a language in an unconventional way quickly and easily.».
In the Little Tricks section, you will find 100 unique tips.
A selection of other useful books on our topic.
1. D. Petrov, V. Boreyko. "Word magic. Dialogue about language and languages. Publisher: ProzaiK. 2010
2. Ermakov A. "Become a polyglot or Secrets of successful language learning". Peter St. Petersburg, 2004
3. Dina Nikulicheva. We speak, we read, we write. Linguistic and psychological strategies of polyglots. Publishers: Flinta, Nauka. 2013
4. Dina Nikulicheva. How to find your way to foreign languages. Linguistic and psychological strategies of polyglots. Flint, 2009
5.Wang Liao Shi. "Foreign language without torture and pain." 2012
6. Zarayskaya Susanna. “An easy way to quickly learn a foreign language through music. 90 actionable tips. Publisher: Mann, Ivanov i Ferber. 2014
7. I. Akulenko. "Quick language learning or Susanin's Guide". 2015
8. Pekelis V. "Your opportunities, man." 1975 Chapter "How to Become a Polyglot".
*****
Of course, there are many books on learning a foreign language. But the purpose of this review is to show only literature close to the topic of polyglots. There are already fewer such books and they are listed above.
Our linguistic journey to the world of languages and polyglots this ends.
I hope that in this topic, something cleared up for readers. At least - when they tell you that a person knows 40 languages, you will understand that only a few of them he can know perfectly.
Also, I think that readers have understood what underlies this phenomenon - in the first place motivation.
Only if there is a real need (as mentioned above - a niche) a person is able to master the number of languages that is required to support this niche / need.
This concludes, if you have any questions, please ask in the comments.
If you liked the article, please click the social button. networks.
Sincerely, Nikolay Medvedev.
When you dream of learning a foreign language quickly, it is important to find an example that would add inspiration and show that it is really possible. And there are many such examples on our planet. These are people who independently mastered several languages in adulthood. They have a lot to learn!
In general, the word polyglot itself comes from the Greek "poluglōttos", which almost literally means "multilingual" (poly - "many", glotta - "language"). At the same time, people who have mastered several languages in early childhood (for example, due to being in an environment or communicating with parents of different nationalities) do not belong to polyglots. Among them are bilinguals - people who are equally fluent in two languages, and multilinguals - who know three.
Interestingly, the US linguist Michael Erard takes the view that people who speak several languages fluently do not know them so well, and those who can read them, in turn, cannot speak them fluently. Nevertheless, the advice of people from our selection of polyglots is an invaluable treasury of knowledge for everyone who wants to learn a foreign language.
So, to your attention are the methods of learning foreign languages quickly and excitingly from those who know what they are talking about!
Benny Lewis
- Languages: German, English, Spanish, Esperanto, Irish, Dutch, French, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, American Sign Language.
Benny Lewis studied at school for triples and, after completing his studies, knew only his native English. Now he calls himself a cheerful Irish guy who travels the world. He became interested in learning languages at the age of 21 and created a unique learning system in the shortest possible time - Fluent in 3 Months. Benny is sure that anyone can become fluent in speaking a foreign language in three months.
Benny advises not to treat learning as a complex system. You need to speak a foreign language from the first day, immediately use it in communication and not be afraid of mistakes. The Irishman believes that words do not need to be taught, they first of all need to be used in speech. You do not need to immediately move on to complex grammar - first you need to learn colloquial phrases and communicate with native speakers.
Kato Lomb
- Languages: Russian, Hungarian, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, German, Polish, Chinese, Ukrainian, Latin, Polish.
The famous translator from Hungary, Kato Lomb, left behind unique commandments for learning the language. She died at the age of 94, but at the age of 90 she began to study Arabic. Kato studied all languages without any help, for example, she learned Russian from the book "Dead Souls" during the Second World War.
Kato Lomb left behind many books on language learning and the Ten Commandments. She advised to practice every day for at least 10 minutes. In order to quickly memorize foreign words, she recommended not to memorize them separately, but to write down idioms and ready-made expressions in a notebook. The woman advised not to be afraid of mistakes and to thank for their correction. She also believed that it was necessary to study the language from all sides, first of all - watch movies, listen to the radio, read books, communicate with native speakers.
Ollie Richards
- Languages: English, Japanese, Cantonese, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, Arabic.
Ollie Richards speaks eight languages and actively shares his knowledge with netizens on the I Will Teach You a Language website. He maintains an author's blog and YouTube channel, where he talks about various teaching methods. Ollie is sure that in order to learn a language, you do not need to immerse yourself in the environment.
Ollie Richards believes that only an Internet connection is needed for learning. It is enough just to listen to music, texts, watch movies and read in a foreign language. He is also a fan of spaced repetition techniques and vocabulary cards.
Luca Lampariello
- Languages: Spanish, Italian, English, French, Swedish, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Polish, Hungarian, Portuguese, German, Dutch.
The young Italian Luca Lampariello began to learn languages for himself from scratch. Soon they began to ask him the secret of such an amazing skill, because at the moment Luka already knows 13! The Italian decided to become a coach and created his own blog LinguaCore, in which he talks about his techniques and secrets. Luka even imitates accents with incredible accuracy!
A polyglot advises to select material for study in two languages at once. Yes, original and native translation. This applies to both books and films. He also advises to immediately start communicating with the carrier, for example, get yourself a pen pal from another country. This is a great option for those who cannot simply move abroad to immerse themselves in a language environment.
Richard Simcott
- Languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Welsh, Portuguese, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian, Croatian, Dutch, Romanian, Albanian, Czech, Catalan.
Richard Simcott is one of the most famous polyglots of our time, he knows more than 16 languages and runs the Speaking Fluently project. He holds various conferences for linguists every year and is a consultant for multilingual projects. Besides, Richard is a dad. His daughter spoke five languages at the age of four, because he personally taught her.
Richard himself learned so much through constant travel. He was not afraid to be in a new country, and he specifically created situations where he simply needed to learn the language. For example, in the Czech Republic, he settled in a Czech family and entered the Czech Institute. For beginner students, he advises to get rid of fear and learn through websites, films, and reverse translation exercises.
Lindsey Williams
- Languages: English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch.
In elementary school, Lindsey began to learn French, but she had absolutely no ability to do so. Much later, she fell in love with Spanish, thanks to Shakira's song, and began to learn others. Now she actively blogs on the Lindsay Does Languages project, conducts Skype lessons and teaches in groups. She has received numerous awards for being active in online language learning.
Lindsey advises to be rational about learning, to devote time to this every day. She prefers to use as much resources as possible from the Internet and explains in detail how to use social networks to learn languages.
Shannon Kennedy
- Languages: English, Croatian, French, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Italian, Spanish, German.
Blogger Shannon Kennedy is a versatile personality. She not only speaks nine languages and runs the Eurolinguiste project, but is also a composer, photographer, martial artist and scuba diver. In addition, she travels a lot around the world and participates in various conferences.
Shannon herself admits that she is an introvert, so it was difficult for her to learn the language with the help of conventional courses designed for extroverts. The girl made her own course on this topic, as well as an email newsletter with tips on lesson planning. In addition, she writes a lot about the cultures and traditions of different countries and even shares local recipes.
Polyglots are amazing people who have been able to rewire their brains to learn languages with ease. They inspire millions of people with their example and push the boundaries around the world! And their ways of learning languages really work in practice. The main thing is to do it!
to chat freely?
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