Thirty-two years ago when I was a sophomore in college I found myself sitting in the student lounge one evening with little to do. It was after 8 PM and I was hoping that a certain young lady (whom I had my eye on at the time) would make an appearance and join me for a drink. Alas, she was a no-show. In fact, there was no one in the lounge aside from Bob, an accounting student whom I had only spoken to superficially in the past. Bob appeared to be about 10 years older than me, wore a beat up army jacket, and carried a black messenger bag full of books and loose papers.
As Bob seemed to be in no particular hurry to go anywhere either, we struck up a conversation and before we knew it an hour and a half had passed. I have no recollection of what it was we talked about, but I do remember that we decided to continue our chat over a cup of coffee. In those days, there wasn’t a Starbucks conveniently located on every college campus, and our only option was a vending machine located in the cafeteria (by now closed for hours), which dispensed a vile concoction which was coffee in name only. The cafeteria was located at the other end of the hall from the student lounge. We gathered our things and began walking. Although I didn’t know it at the time, it was a walk that would change my life.
By this time, the hallways were deserted except for the cleaning staff. We came upon a classroom where a woman was straightening out the desks. I remember thinking about how her dyed, red hair clashed with her light green uniform. As we walked by, she recognized Bob immediately and gave him a warm greeting. He answered her back and they carried on for a few moments. I had no idea what it was they were saying to each other because they were speaking in a language that I had never heard before. After they said goodbye, we continued on our way.
“Bob, what language was that?” I asked him.
“That was Polish,” he replied casually.
I don’t remember saying anything after that, but as we continued on our walk down the empty corridor, we came upon another classroom being cleaned, this time by an elderly man wearing the same light green uniform as the Polish woman. The same scene as before played itself out. The old man lit up at the sight of Bob, spoke to him in the same type of gibberish, and afterward seemed genuinely sad to see him go.
We finally reached our destination, inserted our coins into the machine and received our beverages. As expected, the coffee tasted like swill, but at least it was hot. Attempting to ease us back into conversation, I remarked to Bob that I was not aware that there were so many Polish people employed as cleaning staff by the school. He seemed somewhat puzzled. “The woman,” he said, “was Polish. The man was Russian.”
Did I just hear him correctly?
Wow, great story. Thank you in advance for the pdf, I’m going to have a look at. I also wanted to be a polyglot years ago and had the same curiosity about how the heck they do it. Now after many travels and jobs I know only 3 languages, but still want to lear 2 or 3 more
Me too! I speak some French if I need to but this fascinates me too. One thing I notice, at least about myself, is that as a musician, I can imitate the sounds of the language rather easily. I’m wondering how many of these polyglots are musicians, as well.
I’ve often wondered the same thing. I suspect that musicians – or at least musicians that are used to trying to pick up songs by ear, as opposed to musicians who learn everything from sheet music and have no “ear” – ought to be better at languages than those who can’t. I have no idea if anyone has ever studied this but it would seem an interesting thing to examine.
You’re right, I know more cases. My cousin is an Opera singer and she has to pronounce very well the lyrics in german, french and italian. She is not an expert in all those languages, but after all that work she started studying them a little to gain some understanding at least. She told me that the fact she was a singer made the learning easier for her.
Which reminds me of the old European joke:
Q. What do you call someone who speaks two languages?
A. Bilingual
Q. What do you call someone who speaks three languages?
A. Trilingual
Q. What do you call someone who speaks only one language?
A. American
Which shows once again the ignorant, snobbish character of western European “humor”. The USA was a polyglot nation from its founding. English, French, Spanish, Yiddish, Dutch, and even the now-dead Prussian were easily encountered in the newly United States. Add to that the indigenous languages on the frontiers, and this “joke” becomes itself a joke.
I think you’re missing the point of the joke.
No one is denying that early America had people from many different countries and that there were many different languages spoken by these people. The point is that contemporary American INDIVIDUALS typically only speak one language.
I suspect that most immigrants to America, whether in its early days or today, are, at best, bilingual: fluent in the language of their home country and less fluent in English. There are still people from many different countries in America but most do not speak more than those two languages, their native language and English. And most people born in America probably speak only English, unless they grow up in an immigrant household where they learn their heritage language and English.
Oops! My remarks @6 were a reply to a qs3 (or something like that), who was responding to Larry J @2. But qs3′s remarks have disappeared and now my remarks appear without context. For what it’s worth, qs3 was pointing out that early America had people from lots of different countries and that languages like French and German and Dutch were often heard.
My point is simply that most individuals still only speak one or maybe two languages (English if they were born here and were raised in an English-speaking household; English plus another language if they were born outside of America or if they were born here and another language predominated in their home).
And a bunch of us don’t even speak American very well.
Yes, American is apparently a language distinct from English. I saw this first hand when traveling in Iran in 1976. After spending a few days with a Jewish family in Teheran, I set out on my own. (I didn’t know Farsi but, what the heck… in one’s 20s we’re more adventurous.)
On the bus to Isfahan, I was approached by a young soldier who shyly asked, “Excuse please, you are American?” Maybe it was the denim jacket that gave me away. I nodded yes. He showed me a language workbook, “Learning American, Book 1″. “Tell me, what means this word?” he asked. I gave him a simple translation. “Yes. Thank you very much.” He returned to me a time or two with another “What means this word?”
Ah, the good old days when thousands of Americans (and hundreds of Israelis) could travel or work in Iran without undue fear.
The Peace Corps Volunteers who were in intimate relationships with nationals were the ones who achieved a higher level of fluency and deeper understanding of the culture, then the ones who weren’t. Its sounds unfair, but that was the case. There is the “public” language, and then there’s the “intimate” language. There are vocabulary words and phrases, and even subject matter that will never come up in polite, public conversation with teachers, host families and platonic friends. Also, make sure you have friends from different walks of life, from university students, to elderly people, to married couples, doctors, lawyers, even hoodlums if you can. It exposes you to a greater range of vocabulary. For example, if most of your friends just like to talk politics, most of your vocabulary range will center around that, as opposed to health, science, or philosophy.
BS!
I’ve lived abroad 43 years, speak (or have spoken) 7 languages and got to know “Peace Corps” brats over many continents.
They rearely fall in with local culture outside government and NGO institutions and academia.
They mostly cleave the local leftists who ratify the Corps-niks’ anti-american collectivism that they started out with.
Many drag home indiginous trophy wives to accredit their mult-cultiness in their otherwise dreary GOVT/NGO lives that follow.
You’re proof the propaganda works.
Thank you for your comment from your real life experience. Most of us are short of the insights of what is really happening since we live in a 21st century world of “new speak” now called “spin”. I am just old enough to question some of the “myths” and “news” that I hear but fear for the younger generation of my children that all accurate reporting of what goes on will soon be even more difficult to obtain. You calling out of the experience of the Peace Corp groupies was an eye opener. I have known many throughout my life and had mixed feelings about their “experiences”. You have helped put some of these people in a better perspective.
I knew a peace corp woman who got herself a trophy husband and a taste for Caxaxas. The husband was a government drone. I consider it more worthwhile that she liked the hooch. Certainly a lot more real world than her husband!
They rearely fall in with local culture outside government and NGO institutions and academia.They mostly cleave the local leftists who ratify the Corps-niks’ anti-american collectivism that they started out with.
It depends. I know two former Peace Corps members who married Latin Americans and stayed in Latin America. They have been deeply embedded in Latin America for over 40 years. One has been a partner with her husband in their various small business enterprises- clothing store, pallet factory, farms, hotel(one business at a time). The husband of the other PCV became a psychology professor in an adjoining country. Perhaps that fits your scenario. She taught English. One of her friends, a colleague at work, was a refugee from Castro’s Cuba. Was that friend a “local leftist?” Don’t think so. This PCV volunteer’s children are high achievers: chemist, dentist, vet, MD.
I met another PCV who worked in a small town that got paved streets while he was there [not his achievement. Just to point out he was working in the nitty gritty.]. His next door neighbors certainly thought that he “fell in with local culture,” as their kids were at his place any chance they could get. He went back to the States and became a schoolteacher. Years after leaving Latin America, he still corresponds with his former next door neighbors.
There was a belief among some leftists in Latin America that Peace Corps volunteers were CIA agents. Or at least some PCV people have so informed me.
How effective has the Peace Corps been? How helpful has it been ? Those questions are debatable.
Hey, like I said, the PCV’s who got involved with locals became MORE fluent than the PCV’s (like the ones YOU ran into) who never ventured beyond the american expat enclaves. In my case, I made it a point to avoid Europeans and Americans and hung out strictly with locals. If you were in the country I was serving in, you would have never met me, even if i saw walking down the street. The time I would spend interacting to a douchebag like you is time better spent learning the language and culture. Mind you, i was in a conservative MUSLIM culture, and I still managed to get laid! Why? Every society has “bad girls”, and the deeper you go into a culture, the easier they are to spot. Once you find yourself flirting, joking, arguing, and playing mind games in a language like arabic, you know your getting fluent! So like i said, the best way to get fluent, is to get a girlfriend (or boyfriend) who speaks that language!
Speaking more than one language helps if you travel a lot too. In the Service, I was stationed in a number of different places and worked with many different troops from other countries. I tried my best to pick up at least a little bit of their language and it made a big difference. On base you would always meet the kind that would do nothing but lay around and complain about hating being there. My first question to them would be have you tried learning a little of the language? Most would just look at me like I was crazy but those that gave it a try most always thanked me. When the locals saw you were trying they went out of their way to help you and I made many friends that way. I just wish I had been better at learning different languages.
I look forward to reading your book. As a former foreign language major who studied six languages in high school and college, the crux of the matter for me is definitions. What does “fluency” mean? What does “speaking” a language mean? In America, it usually is very vague, so it’s nearly impossible to answer. It depends. If by fluent you mean I can hold a bare minimal conversation in tourism-type phrases, then 23 languages isn’t so difficult. If you mean if I can hold high-level diplomatic talks on energy policy or some such, chances are good most people would be hard-pressed to even say one or two other languages.
Therefore, I think the other question I have is whether you ever asked this guy Bob what he actually said in Russian and Polish (which by the way have lots of similarities). If all he did was say hello and comment on the weather, not so impressive maybe. If he asked how the kids were doing or what their plans were after work, then we’re getting somewhere. But in a monolingual society, it’s very, very easy to impress. One time I was working with a textbook in a language that wouldn’t have gotten me past books meant for toddlers in the foreign language, yet people seeing me with it would come over and gush about how I must be fluent in X language. What do you even say? All you can do is sigh and smile.
If you can call Directory Assistance, or tech support, and hold a conversation through the poor audio quality of a phone connection, with someone who might have a thick regional accent (think Minnesota vs. New Orleans)…
If you can understand, and be understood, in such a context, then I would call you “fluent.”
uh? You’re a former foreign language major and you’re asking what does “fluency” mean?
From the New Oxford American Dictionary:
fluent |ˈfloōənt|
adjective
• (of a person) able to speak or write a particular foreign language easily and accurately
There you have it.
de nada
But “easily and accurately” aren’t very precise descriptors. The definition leaves a lot of room for fine distinctions of ability, some of which have never been widely agreed-on.
For my part, I’d say that a fluent speaker can carry on an idiomatic everyday conversation without stumbling, misspeaking, mentally “composing” his responses, or misunderstanding his interlocutor. A fluent speaker might well have an accent, and might get stuck on rarefied vocabulary and cultural allusions, but is wholly functional otherwise.
What an interesting subject, I look forward to reading more.
I learned the Cyrillic alphabet because when I was in my teens I kept a diary, full of silly things sure, but didn’t want my mom or other people to find it and read it by any chance. So I decided I’d write it with Cyrillic characters even if the word itself remained in my native language. I just changed entire words character by character. I became pretty good at it. I don’t remember when I stopped, I guess I just grew up lol, but later on, when I met some russian friends and visited their homes, I suddenly started recognizing the characters in many things in their houses. And yes, many russian words get easily understandable once you identify the symbols.
I learned the Russian alphabet one day in an Advanced Level ( = grade 12?) physics class, just 45 minutes. I subsequently failed physics, badly. I then discovered that the ‘barbed-wire entanglements’ of the script were the EASIEST part of that language. I suppose the speaking was the next most difficult, with the vowel shifts due to stress, and the special ‘Russian’ sounds. More difficult were the mass of new words, when learning a new vocabulary, tempered slightly by recognizable loan words, and words from similar roots, which had a vague resemblance to English, making them easier to recognize and remember. But the killer was the grammar, with cases and gender and gender agreement. I never pursued that much farther.
I would like here to thank Claude Cartaginese, whom I have just ‘met’ for the first time, and PJ Lifestyle, for publishing this enjoyable article. Spasibo, grazie.
I have a prediction.
Some time in the next 25-50 years, neurologists will work out how children are able to learn languages so much more easily than adults (and why some adults learn new languages more easily than others). Then they will find means of artificially inducing that state in anyone who wants to learn a new language.
And then multilinguality and even polyglossia will become commonplace. With easy access, there will be a huge revival of classical Latin and Greek. Quite possibly more Latin poetry will be composed in this century than in the whole Classical era.
The great works of non-Western cultures, heretofore obscured by linguistic barriers, will rise to much greater importance in “the canon”. So will the greatest works in relatively minor languages such as Magyar, Georgian, or Korean.
Also, many “dying” languages will be revived, if only as hobbies or ethnic fads.
Even before then, computer-assisted translation should take off. It’s not “neural” but good enough for tourism and other industries.
All of this is making us non-human. Earth is going to need guidance from somewhere, if ETs aren’t already advising us.
“Machine translation is five years away!” has been the mantra for about sixty years. Too bad it still produces gibberish when translating between English and a non-European language (such as Japanese). It is not as bad when the language is strictly technical, but my guess is that five years from now, machine translation will still be five years away.
534 pages! Perhaps you need an editor. I would maybe condense this to 250 pages. But fascinating project; I have, only in later life, discovered an ability in language.
Mia, my definition of fluency is “you do not translate” one talks and operates in the language of conversation.
It is all relative to what your definition of “fluency” is. I remember asking a Japanese/American friend and his Japanese wife who have lived in Japan for the last thirty years how their children all born and raised in Japan, albeit at english speaking American schools, if their children were “fluent” in Japanese. There answer was no. Now the Japanese have high standards for things like this, but it made it clear to me that obaining fluency in Japanese might be a little harder then I had expected.
I visited Japan a few times and tried/learned a little of the language. I think that ‘no’ answer is to do with the ‘layering’ of the language. I believe that there are four different languages: one for family, one for friends, one for business, and maybe one for children/school? I know for business, one must use appropriately deferential and differentiated language to your boss and to his boss, to your co-workers and to your subordinates. We probably do that subtly through slight language modification, and through body language. Just English “I” can be watakushi, watashi, boku and others.
So without growing up 100% immersed in Japanese, some nuances, or even substantial items are not learned, perhaps ingrained. Japanese readers will give you a better, more complete answer.
I was fascinated with languages since I was 4 years old. I clearly remember that.
During my public and high school years, I ended up studying French, German and Spanish. Then in university, I continued with French and German, added Chinese and Japanese, and then discovered Linguistics.
My fave university prof taught a number of the Linguistics courses there. He was also the head of the Japanese department. The kicker? His native “learned at the mother’s knee” languages were English and Yiddish.
During my Linguistics studies, he exposed the class to: French, German, Spanish, Hungarian, Finnish, Chinese (both Mandarin and Cantonese), Russian, Japanese, Igbo, Xhosa, and I’m sure others I’ve long since forgotten. I remember him saying that he could speak Mandarin fluently, but that he could “get by” in Cantonese. I once asked him how many languages he could speak, and he coyly replied, “I think it’s more a question of how many languages have I forgotten.” Zounds!
Other folks who have posted comments here have mentioned the musical connection. While I don’t recall if the above professor was musically inclined, I had been trained in classical music (piano) at a young age. Probably one of my more memorable language anecdotes was my first year studying Mandarin, when after 1-2 months I suddenly had what could be best described as an overnight epiphany regarding the correct pronunciation. The very next day, I had the opportunity to read a passage aloud in class, and the course instructor gave a very pleased “Zhen hao!”
Other than that, my closest brush with fluency was a German exchange student programme. After spending 4 weeks in Bavaria and having my counterpart spend the same amount of time with me back home, I found myself surprisingly versatile in Bavarian. I ended up being able to comprehend Hochdeutsch with no issues, although I found responding in Bavarian to be much easier than attempting Hochdeutsch.
There was the one time I was watching a Dutch technology documentary on the local multicultural TV station. Between the technology and my German comprehension, I easily understood 50% or better of what was being said.
My grandchildren are all polyglots. Their mother is fluent in Spanish but did not use it at home. She majored in linguistics in college asnd has always been interested in language. My grandson, particularly, picks up language very easily. He took courses in Turkish in college because they were small classes. The one or two students sometimes met in a bar or restaurant. My son was fluent in German when he was little and could pass as a German child. Unfortunately he did not continue and has lost that skill. I am just a typical American who uses one lauguage but can read a menu in several. Somehow the French and Latin I took did not translate well into frequent use. I am sorry that Latin is seldom taught anymore. My Latin teacher was the best I ever had. I can still remember the popular songs in Latin and those toga parties.
Excellent article. Thanks for the free book offer. I look forward to reading it.
As someone who has extensively studied Spanish and German, I know how hard it is for many people to learn languages – me included. But I think in today’s world, it is important for individuals to learn at least one foreign language.
I have written about the business/career benefits as well as for personal enrichment.
For additional commentary on this and other topics, please visit http://www.personalwm.com.
There are exceptional individuals who soak up knowledge like a sponge and then there are others who have to resort to a daily regimine of study. Repetitio est mater studerium. I count myself among the latter. Some people have foreign language anxiety in the same way that many have math anxiety. If the anxiety is not overcome than you are just weaving a rope of sand. It took me some years to come up with an enjoyable method: I read a novel in my target language along with an english translation. For one you are learning new words as they are used in context. For another, you start to pick up the rhythm of semtence construction and certain patterns and word groups will start seeping into your consciousness almost by osmosis.
Also, I used to listen to Voice of America in my target language (Farsi) but I was rather dismayed to find that the Voice of America Persian broadcast is less directed towards the people of Iran than it is a chat forum for the exiles who fled the country during the revolution. I istening to NHK Persian although it is understandably “Asia Centric” in its content. It wasn’t until a month ago that I discovered Radio Israel. (radis.org). Their persian broadcast beats Voice of America all to hell. They have an hour and a half a day solid news that is directed towards the people of Iran. If you listen to it you will understand why the Iranian Government tries to jam the Israeli broadcasts as much as they can.
Interesting topic. As I read I flashed back to being 8-9 years old and tuning through the shortwave bands late at night when the school headmaster thought I was asleep. Through the headphones I was treated to a cacophony of languages, some I could at least recognise, some completely unknown to me. I later went on to learn German, and during a 15-year marriage to a Dutch national, I gained a working knowledge of Dutch.
Though my conversational abilities are often inadequate, I’ve taught myself to read and write perhaps a dozen-plus languages. It’s a personal drive whose causes are obscure to me, but maybe one can point to a few.
For one thing, I’m a devote of literature, and monolingualism has always struck me as a species of subliteracy–an inability to step outside the forced perspective of one’s native speech and see it as a whole.
Additionally, for 40+ years I’ve suffered from a devouring yearn to travel abroad, but have never been able because of limited means: a Dr. Lecter once said of his sketches that “memory is what I have instead of a view.” Perhaps languages are what I have instead of a realistic shot at seeing Munich, Prague, or St. Petersburg.
One suggestive detail: I was raised by Pentecostals. I’ve sometimes wondered what associations or echoes stuff like “speaking in tongues” may have set up in my young mind, and how it may have subtly shaped my later stance towards languages. Maybe sometimes deep down, there’s a fugitive hope that behind all the words of men lies the Logos.
Sorry for waxing biographical, but I set it down for whatever use it might be to the author.
I (as a person who was known in Moscow as an author of published translations from 16 languages: 10 books and over 600 articles) found some comments here a little too snobbish.
For instance, a certain MIA expatiates upon the question what we can call “fluency,” as if an ability to greet people in five-six languages is less remarkable than an ability to express boorishness in just one language.
Meanwhile, that same MIA dares to proclaim that “Russian and Polish…by the way have lots of similarities.”
I dare to say in response that those similarities do not appear so obvious in a fluent colloquial utterance: they are revealed rather on a professional linguistic level.
I am very glad to meet such an interest for foreign languages in America, shown by the author of “the Polyglot Project.”
My grandchildren are students of New York public schools, and the level of education given to them drives me into a deep depression.
So, this Polyglot Project is to me like a light beam in a land of darkness.
I’d only suggest to the author to include in the list of participants those who not only can speak foreign languages, but also do some creative work in them (literature, poetry, etc.)
Regards,
Constantine Ivanov