New Prof Argüelles Youtube Series

[jonm]

BTW did he confirm that the timeout warning is not really a warning but an indication that your answers are no longer being recorded?

No, just that he had gotten in touch with the support network for the survey program and alerted them to the problems people were reporting, but that he wasn't sure they would be able to do much about it.

I think it's very possible that I also left a question blank the first time I took the survey and that's what caused the error I got. Since the error didn't give any information, and since I'd already gotten that inactivity warning around the fifteen minute mark even though I was busy filling in the survey, I assumed the error was related. But it could have been leaving a question blank, especially if you think that's what happened to you. I feel a bit bad if I caused people to rush through the survey, and I edited my post a couple days back to let people know I'm not sure if it's really a timeout issue after all.

[David1917]

The first video in response to fan requests is now live: Raising Multilingual Children



In it, he explains how his 2 sons grew up essentially bilingual in English & French, with early exposure to Korean at home and Spanish/Arabic in their surroundings, and having been taught German, Russian and Latin. He details their varying levels in each and outlines some current and future study plans for these languages.

Next week he promises to answer questions people have regarding the information presented today. Then I assume the week after he will create a lecture-style video on another new topic, and continue this pattern.

[PeterMollenburg]

The first video in response to fan requests is now live: Raising Multilingual Children....

Thanks David1917 for posting the above video. I'm going to take the liberty of quoting you and the video and posting it into the homeschooling thread. Cheers

[David1917]

Follow-up Q&A on raising multilingual children.

Thanks David1917 for posting the above video. I'm going to take the liberty of quoting you and the video and posting it into the homeschooling thread. Cheers

You may wish to crosspost this response as well!

[Jim]

Follow-up Q&A on raising multilingual children.

Thanks for this David1917. Does anyone know what the CDs are that Professor Argüelles refers to at 08:05?

[David1917]

New video. This is an interesting one - the Professor's brother passed earlier this year, and in order to be cremated he had to be placed inside a cardboard box. Prof took it upon himself to decorate the box with famous passages referring to death or the underworld, and otherwise religious texts in various languages. I didn't keep a running tally but the list includes: Sanskrit, Cuneiform, Korean, Classical Chinese, Arabic, Latin, Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Welsh runes, Norse runes, Anglo-Saxon runes, Greek, Persian, Hebrew.

[jonm]

New video from Professor Arguelles drawing some conclusions from the survey about which traits correlate with success as a polyglot.

Here are the traits where he sees a correlation:

• being gay
• identifying as male
• having Asperger's
• being ambidextrous
• being an oldest child
• coming from a monolingual background
• having obsessive-compulsive tendencies
• having a doctorate
• having a high GPA
• aspiring to learn as many languages as possible
• spending more than two hours a day learning languages
• studying in a systematic way

And he doesn't see a correlation with being left-handed and having allergies, two traits that were mentioned in the recent New Yorker article about polyglottery.

[David1917]

Two emphases I think should be added: One is that a successful learner might only display some of these traits, if any, and the second is that while orientation, gender, birth order, etc. are not conscious choices; others such as forming good study habits, having a strong/obsessive drive (which is characterized by Prof A as "OCD" using the pop culture definition of the term), being a good student and seeking higher ed are all choices one can make to be more prepared to undertake the study of multiple languages.

One thing that I see recurring in Prof A's writing/videos over the years is the need for the world to recognize that polyglottery is a high achievement but not due to any sort of luck or hidden talent; rather due to a deliberate effort, focus and discipline. I think he only gives credit to good accents as a function of talent (I wonder if musicality is tied to this?) and everything else to just be a result of dedication. I think it's nice to see that a handful of conscious choice traits showed strong correlation here in addition to some other innate ones.

[Serpent]

Did he mention the forum in any of the recent videos?

[jonm]

Did he mention the forum in any of the recent videos?

In the introduction to this one, he talks about "the polyglot community, which is a very real entity that has emerged in the Internet Age starting about fifteen years ago, forming in forums, making YouTube videos, and now for the past six years meeting as the Polyglot Conference..." So he mentions forums, but I don't recall him mentioning LLORG or HTLAL specifically in the videos I've watched.