What IS the dirty little secret of multilingual people??

I had enough of a problem learning Scottish and Geordie!

Bilingualism rocks!



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The dirty little secret of the multilingual? It's good for your health!

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UPI link

Brilliant news!

More evidence for the use it or lose it school of thinking in regard to your brain.

better info at PsychCentral

what did you say ?

was sagten sie ?

wat hest du seggt ?

eh ?

i'm "quatro-lingual" :wink:
hbg

OK. Being a polyglot is good against senile dementia... but what about dementia praecox?

How many crazy polyglots do you know?
Many?
Yes!!!!!

I had to take my wife to the antenatal clinic yesterday. The Thai interpreter we arranged took ill and couldn't make it. So we got a Korean interpreter, which worked out OK-and her english is improving every day.

Well, I am fluent in three languages. Two I grew up with and English I picked up here and I think I am pretty good at it but you'll be the judge in months to come. BTW, Hi to everyone. This is my first post in this message board!!
When I was still at school, my german language teacher insisted on meeting with my parents to get their permission to get me to attend her intensive german language tutoring classes free-She kept telling me that I am natural when it comes to languages. But I was a hyper-active child and German was never interesting for me, even though I speak a bit of it too now and got straight A's in my german class.
Maybe it is something in my brain, or maybe the teacher was just exaggerating and there is nothing special in me being fluent in three languages, speaking broken German and taking Spanish classes right now.

I think there is a definite talent there (welcome to A2K, BTW). Some people paint, others learn languages. Sounds like a good gift to have.

I speak seven languages with varying levels of fluency. I am also currently learning Russian, and Slovakian. I find learning different languages is very easy, and I catch on quickly, and am able to imitate the language's accent with very good precision, to the point where it is thought that I am a native speaker even when I am not. I don't know how I have such a predilection for language, nor for the learning thereof; perhaps the rumor I heard that those who have a talent for singing and music are predisposed to easily learning languages, while people who are 'tone deaf' aren't. I've no idea if this is true, but if it is it causes many interesting questions to come to my mind. I would like to know if that rumor is true, at any rate.

Prečo sa učíš po slovensky, Amarinth?

Btw, welcome to a2k.

There IS a dirty little secret. In my opinion, this is something that you should be born with. Multilingual people just love learning languages. They're doing this with pleasure and thirst for new knowledge...
I speak English, French, Spanish and Bulgarian and I'm fourteen. I think that it is easy for me to learn languages because I have the logical thinking. For example, there's a relation between Spanish and French and between these two languages and English.
It helps if you get it.
Although it's better if you have that "talent", if you don't - just study hard and if this is what you want - it's not that difficult.

If you can grab the relationship between romance languages and English, you're certainly on the right track to learning many more.
I take it that Bulgarian is your native tongue; so the key for you was the first big jump.

I don't think you have to be particularly gifted, but you gotta have the need or want (which so many native English speakers lack).

I have learned (to some extent) two languages in addition to y native English.

In both cases there was a woman involved in my initial desire to learn the language. (Only one of the two was a "romance" language).

There is no better incentive, I tell ya.

Interesting conversation.

Kids in south India are exposed to multiple languages right from the start as opposed to north Indians like me who only grow up with English and Hindi. The south Indian kid will probably know a minimum of four languages growing up: English (because that's taught in school), the state language (Kannada for folks in Karnataka, which is where I currently live), Hindi (because that's the language used in Bollywood movies), and the local language of that district. And if one of the parents is from another state, they'll also pick the language of that state. And these people easily pick languages while travelling, especially other south Indian languages that have similar grammar.

As some of you have already noted, there's a critical period for learning languages. I read sometime back that kids who are exposed to a second language during this critical period are able to not only master that language much better than people who start learning it at a later stage but these early learners are also able to pick up other languages in future quicker than others. That definitely explains the prowess of south Indians with languages.

Interestingly though, the same book said there's a certain percentage of people who will master a second language with same ease and precision as early learners even though they had only learned one language during the critical period.

I've lived in Karnataka for a year now, but I haven't picked more than three words in Kannada, the state's most prominent language. That obviously shows I'm not a genius at learning new languages, but then I haven't been exposed to the language much because I live in a university campus where almost everyone speaks either English or Hindi.

I've challenged myself to learn French and Kannada over the next year. Let's see how far my will takes me.

I guess through aging, I'm moving out from "the dirty little secret of multilingual people."

I've forgotten most of my Japanese (verbal, reading and writing), and I only remember a few Spanish words that I have used in recent travels to Latin America such as Cervesa, gracias, and banos.

Some knowledge of the language plus a bit of additional basic cultural interest can be a great help:

British tourist imprisoned in French "hotel"

I am English mother tongue, but my mother was Swedish. I studied Spanish for ten years, then French, then Italian, Japanese, Danish and now German. HOWEVER I think it is extremely important to distinguish those who "pick up" languages and those who spend great amounts of time studying a language seriously. I grew up with Swedish and learned it via immersion. I have a nice accent and so on, but I studied Italian very very seriously and actually speak and write it more grammtically perfectly. Immersion does not guarantee true fluency. The word "fluency" is horrifically misused, especially by English native speakers and those who "pick up" languages. The European Union has come up with a framework for languages (A1,A2, B1,B2,C1,C2) which is currently the only true gauge of fluency. For example, I have studied Italian for ten years, use it daily/weekly and yet to pass the C1 fluency test, I have to study very, very hard for weeks. And I speak it well, read quite intense books in Italian and work in Italian. Currently my French is C2, after 12 years of living in the country followed by 7 years married to a Frenchman and only communicating in French with him (also all my jobs in Paris were exclusively in French). I studied Spanish for ten years and can read it fluently, but no longer use it at all orally, so my level is more B1-B2 because to be fluent, you MUST write, speak and read perfectly. Today I use English, French, Italian, Swedish and German everyday and have decided to get certificates of fluency from each state (every country has several tests to prove language capability). If you are serious about being multilingual, this is the only way to truly prove it. My children speak English, French, Italian, and German everyday and understand Swedish but speak only a few words. Obviously we live in Europe and our life is particularly international, so it makes it a lot easier to master these skills. Please note that I know many people who have, for example, lived in Paris for years and yet have not bothered to study the language seriously and it is quite obvious when they speak! You might feel comfortable, but the French notice! Also, Scandinavians often speak English well because the tv is not dubbed so they have great exposure to the language. However, from a professional standpoint, they VERY often overestimate their writing skills. Personally I go nuts when people say Italian is easy. Italian, once you get past the beginning level, is very difficult to speak perfectly, much harder than French! Ber very, very careful about using the words "multilingual" and "fluent".

Its not a matter of IQ and other things
It's a matter of how much you want it ,and how much you would do hard work for it ,
and also how much help you get from others

I had like 7 places to help me with school friends and tutoring sooo..yea =D i got alot of help

O.o I came here to the united states of america when i was 7, and i learned english pretty good for 6 months that's all it took me really still had and accent though

Now that i am 15, and i don't have that ambition as i had when i was younger to learn a new language

I know both spanish and english and i guess mixed up in both!!
And because i tried so hard in english >.<
My spanish doesn't sound cuban anymore...i kinda sound spanish but with a little bit of american in me

and my friends say i sound mexican sometimes? wtf XD lolz

And to top it all off, i want to learn japanese, and or chinese just a wee bit though

For me...i think it's just how much you want it and how hard you are willing to work had for it really, ohhh...but the number one thing is
If you enjoy it =D
Enjoying something gets you into it more

YAYYYYY!! I am an american citizen =D

Bien hecho!

Way to go!