New Prof Argüelles Youtube Series

General discussion about learning languages
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Re: New Prof Argüelles video and survey

Postby Iversen » Mon Oct 01, 2018 8:01 pm

The biggest problem for me was to define 'studying'. For instance I have read Georgian and Basque and Finnish and Groenlandic and Tagalog/Pilipino grammars (quite attentively, not as entertainment), so as I understand the question I had to include them among the languages I have studied. But I have not yet tried to learn any of these language as complete communication systems so with a more restrictive definition I shouldn't include them.

The next biggest problem was the time limit of 15 minutes. I wrote that I have studied 50 languages, which may be true - but it could just as well be 45 or 55 (with the sloppy definition). It would have taken too much time to do an exact count. It is much easier to count languages you actually know, even with the inevitable slack due to widely differing skill levels.
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Re: New Prof Argüelles video and survey

Postby jonm » Sat Oct 06, 2018 11:39 am

Professor Arguelles just posted a follow-up video. He talks about a few things, including the survey and home schooling with his sons, which I found interesting. And he's inviting people to use the comments section to suggest topics for future videos.

Edit: I forgot that I can embed the video here...

Last edited by jonm on Sun Oct 07, 2018 9:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: New Prof Argüelles video and survey

Postby David1917 » Sat Oct 06, 2018 4:23 pm

Yes, it definitely seems like a good time for anyone who hasn't already to subscribe and be apprised of all the new videos the prof is making. I'm extremely excited, I re-watch the old ones all the time.
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Re: New Prof Argüelles video and survey

Postby Serpent » Sat Oct 06, 2018 4:42 pm

trippingly wrote:Professor Arguelles just posted a follow-up video. He talks about a few things, including the survey and home schooling with his sons, which I found interesting. And he's inviting people to use the comments section to suggest topics for future videos.

Can't watch it right now, did he clarify any survey questions?
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Re: New Prof Argüelles video and survey

Postby jonm » Sat Oct 06, 2018 7:05 pm

Serpent wrote:Can't watch it right now, did he clarify any survey questions?

No, nothing about specific questions. He starts by saying how appreciative he is that so many people responded to the survey: two hundred on the first day and three hundred more in the week since. Then he says that he got about fifty responses that were just the first page and not the second. He asks people who might be among that group if they wouldn't mind retaking the survey.

Incidentally, he doesn't mention this in the video, but I did tell him that it seems like leaving a question blank causes an error, and I had already mentioned the inactivity warning I had gotten. So he knows about the glitches, but unfortunately, it sounds like there's not much he can do to remedy them at this point.

And then he says that about 70 percent of respondents were male and 30 percent female and says that the gender ratio of language learners is probably not so lopsided and encourages women who might be interested to take the survey.

Speaking of clarifying survey questions, I've been wondering if I misinterpreted the question about the total number of languages you speak at any level. I didn't count languages I've studied at one point or another but really can't speak at all. My answer to that question was the same as the total of my answers to the questions about how many languages you speak at a beginner (A1-A2) level, how many at an intermediate (B1-B2) level, and how many at an advanced/native (C1+) level. But there are other languages that I've studied and have some knowledge of but can't speak even at an A1 level. So for the later questions about how many languages you've studied from a particular language family and so forth, I included more languages than are in that initial total that I gave. Now I'm wondering if that first question about your total number of languages was meant to include cases like that.
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Re: New Prof Argüelles video and survey

Postby golyplot » Sat Oct 06, 2018 11:12 pm

The ironic part is that my experience with in-person language classes is that they are disproportionately female.

Maybe males are over-represented among the "internet autodidacts" crowd.
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Re: New Prof Argüelles video and survey

Postby zjones » Sun Oct 07, 2018 1:51 am

There were a lot of interesting questions (the MBTI one intrigued me) but I would have loved to see a question about what kind of formal education one had as a child, for example: public school, private school, homeschool, unschool, boarding school. I was homeschooled (more like unschooled) and I've met a lot of other homeschooled autodidacts who self-study languages, whether or not they learned foreign language as part of their homeschool experience.

I just think it would be an interesting point to consider when looking at polyglots and language learners.
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Re: New Prof Argüelles video and survey

Postby Serpent » Sun Oct 07, 2018 3:32 am

trippingly wrote:Speaking of clarifying survey questions, I've been wondering if I misinterpreted the question about the total number of languages you speak at any level. I didn't count languages I've studied at one point or another but really can't speak at all. My answer to that question was the same as the total of my answers to the questions about how many languages you speak at a beginner (A1-A2) level, how many at an intermediate (B1-B2) level, and how many at an advanced/native (C1+) level. But there are other languages that I've studied and have some knowledge of but can't speak even at an A1 level. So for the later questions about how many languages you've studied from a particular language family and so forth, I included more languages than are in that initial total that I gave. Now I'm wondering if that first question about your total number of languages was meant to include cases like that.
Well, the question clearly defined "knowing" as "use or understand to any degree". this also includes languages you understand due to similarities with your native language.

As for me, I'm puzzled by the "family members who were polyglots or language lovers" question. he appears to be using the terms interchangeably but i can't bring myself to tick "my father is a polyglot" when that's definitely not true.

BTW did he confirm that the timeout warning is not really a warning but an indication that your answers are no longer being recorded?
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Re: New Prof Argüelles video and survey

Postby tarvos » Sun Oct 07, 2018 8:16 am

I had the same thing as Serpent did - my parents aren't polyglots. They are certainly not monolingual though, but I do not see that as a result of language loving; more as a result of general Dutch upbringing and in my mother's case, higher education (she has worked with various sign languages and other things over the years). I always find this hard to judge because in the Netherlands, especially among the older generations, studying foreign languages was very much just a mandatory thing at schools, and pretty much all of us over 25 or so have studied four languages at least (Dutch, English, German, French). Knowing a foreign language isn't really something strange. But they're not that interested in learning languages on their own.

That said, I learned some of my first French and German words from my parents, and my dad still regularly uses German to order from Amazon hehehehe
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Re: New Prof Argüelles video and survey

Postby jonm » Sun Oct 07, 2018 12:42 pm

I wrote Professor Arguelles to ask for clarification on what counts as "languages you know" and what counts as "polyglots or language lovers in your family." He said it would be OK to copy-paste his reply...

It seems like the biggest thing that people are interpreting differently is what to count as "languages you know." You say to include those languages you "can use and understand to any degree," but is there any lower limit at all?

Yes, of course!

Would you count the following situations?

- Someone has just started learning a new language and has done, let's say, the first ten lessons of Assimil.

No.

- Someone could once use and understand a language to an appreciable degree but barely remembers it now. Maybe just a few words and some vague sense of "what the language is like."

No.

- Someone has focused on a language in the course of studying linguistics and so knows some things about it (e.g., its phonemic inventory or that it has certain unusual features), but has no experience actually using it.

No.

- Someone can almost certainly use or understand a language to some degree by virtue of knowing other languages in the family, but they've never actually encountered the language. They just know that it's similar enough that it would be somewhat comprehensible.

Yes if they have encountered it and interact with it. No if this is just a theoretical possibility.

And then the other question we've been wondering about is on the first page:

Are there any polyglots or language lovers in your family? Check all that apply:

Would that include...

- Family members who speak a few languages because that's the norm where they grew up but who don't have a particular interest in or passion for learning languages?

No.

- Family members who do have a particular interest in or passion for learning languages but who probably wouldn't be considered a polyglot? For example, maybe they know their native language and one foreign language, but they're very passionate about that foreign language.

No – I used “passionate about languages” as a synonym for polyglot so that I did not have to repeat it on every line.

If you do have a chance to respond, would it be OK for me to copy-paste any clarifications to the forum discussion? I know folks there would be very interested.

Yes.

And if clarification of the above led someone to want to retake the survey, would it be possible for them to do that and let you know how to identify and omit their previous submission?

Yes.

(Or would it be better to let the previous submission stand? Possibly if the data reflects people's different interpretations of the questions, that's also meaningful or informative.)

No, that would skew the demographic part of the study.
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