How do you categorise fellow members?

[Cavesa]

Those I can quote without checking their nickname's spelling, and those I cannot remember that well yet.

[Deinonysus]

I agree with Cabeza.

[mick33]

There was actually some analysis video-talk, either on polyglot conference or another platform a while ago. Can't find it anymore. But there was a way higher percentage than average of people in the autism spectrum, left handed, gay or other sexual preferences or identification. Very high percentage of male. Definitely a lot of Europeans and Americans. Some people are depressed or have psychological problems (me included).

I think I watched the same speech and I can't find it on YouTube now either, but this sounds like the Geschwind-Galaburda Hypothesis. If I remember right, the hypothesis claims that hyperpolyglots ( or members of our families) are more likely than the average population to be male, lefthanded, on the autism spectrum, gay, have auto-immune disorders such as asthma, and show an aptitude for mathematics or music.

It is an interesting mix of people. There are the travel junkies, the academics, linguists. Some people of mixed heritage, or trying to explore their own identity. Others from parents with traveling jobs who grew up in various countries, the occasional diplomat.

People I have met in real life who study many languages are actually often women in an university context. Just learners who finish one course after another, and then another. They were actually not really interested into this community when I invited them here.

I found an interesting video by a YouTuber in Japan (or is it China) Best Japanese Speaking Foreigner I Know: REAL POLYGLOT (although she talks with a young man in this video) who says something similar and also insists that many polyglots are at universities or in business and use their languages in face-to-face interactions and are not active online. She's probably right, but the only other evidence I've found (sort of) is a woman on Instagram who says the same thing.

[Raconteur]

I think I watched the same speech and I can't find it on YouTube now either, but this sounds like the Geschwind-Galaburda Hypothesis. If I remember right, the hypothesis claims that hyperpolyglots ( or members of our families) are more likely than the average population to be male, lefthanded, on the autism spectrum, gay, have auto-immune disorders such as asthma, and show an aptitude for mathematics or music.

This is also noted in Erard's 2002 book, Babel No More, which actually cooperated with HTLAL community to gather data. So, especially given the connection to our community, it might be interesting in the context of this thread.

[...]no one had ever linked verbal abilities in a foreign language with any of the Geschwind-Galaburda traits.

We discussed how I might capture similar information about clusters of traits from as many people as possible, and I eventually designed an online survey that collected information from nearly four hundred people from around the world from January 2009 to January 2010. People who claimed to know six or more languages were directed to the survey via English-language linguistics blogs and language learning websites like http://how-to-learn-any-language.com. There they gave their consent to answering questions about their background, their language learning, and their cognitive styles.*

The results, which were analyzed by an academic statistician familiar with this type of data, give support to some parts of the Geschwind- Galaburda hypothesis. For instance, people who reported knowing six or more languages and who said that learning foreign languages was easier for them were more likely to report homosexual behaviors, preferences, and/or orientations than would be predicted. This finding was statistically significant.

This same group also was more likely either to have immune diseases themselves or to have family members who did. However, neither of the other traits (handedness and twinning) had any meaningful relationship with either number of languages or ease of learning.† Despite an anecdotal connection between homosexuality and verbal abilities, no connection between language talent and homosexuality had ever been shown in research before. Again, this isn’t saying that people who speak a lot of languages or learn them easily are necessarily gay; it’s that there are more gays—and people with immune diseases, for that matter—among talented language learners than you’d otherwise predict. Testing this with numbers allows us to move beyond anecdotes and to suggest why these patterns exist[...]

[garyb]

The main one for me is those who prioritise speaking their languages and these who don't. There's no right or wrong reason to learn a language of course, but they're just quite different goals with different approaches and different timelines and in the past I've found some of the ideas and advice on here to be biased towards the non-speakers. Seems more balanced these days though.

[Lisa]

any sort of survey results should include "and who are online/visiting forums to be aware of surveys, and who bother to answer surveys". Self-selected groups are not representative.

[Ogrim]

I agree with Cabeza.

And I agree with Dionysius.

[Ogrim]

Those I know from the HTLAL-days and those who ask "What is HTLAL"?

[Cainntear]

I agree with Cabeza.

And I agree with Dionysius.

I think the joke's wearing a bit thin now, Ogham.

[gsbod]

Those who use the forum to practice their languages, and those who use the forum to avoid practicing their languages.