This man speaks 30 languages (German TV)

[NIKOLIĆ]

From the 'conversation' at the end:

-How are you?
-I'm learning Hindi and...



Sure, perhaps he was just nervous but the only moment we hear of him speaking Hindi is him not answering the native's question and vomiting pre-prepared sentences at him.

Romanian:
- Is it a suitable present?
- It's a present.

[eido]

Romanian:
- Is it a suitable present?
- It's a present.

So, in other words, he didn't like it.

[zenmonkey]

The title gave me enough info - surely the link has been posted here before.

One would thinks so, but I decided to watch it anyway, since it is in German and I can use the practice. It's a bit old...

What is interesting for me isn't whether he speaks 10, 15 or 30 languages well or not. But, once again representation and truth of someone who is hyper-focused around language learning. Few friends, social, early isolation and difficulties interpreting emotional subtitles in literature leading to the question of autism (apparently diagnoses as not being autistic ...) in the show. But he clearly has no timidity in his job, interview or going out and trying his new language acquisitions.

Plus, he's got the perfect job to interact with people in multiple languages daily.

Which brings me to the Bazaar Effect™ (by me, 2009 or by some English traveller in the 1800) - go to Istanbul, go to the Great Bazaar or NYC in the old camera shops and any seller there will be able to look at you and tell you where you are from and talk to you in any of many, many language. Travel to Nepal and hire a trekking guide and he will speak a dozen languages. The essential daily commercial contact creates an opportunity for people to speak many languages, if the conditions are right.

The essential conditions are a desire to learn the language, the focus to practice and, as far as I can tell, the essential personality trait of not being shy about slaughtering a language. His Hebrew and Hindi accents are atrocious but he doesn't care, he just goes forward and disarmingly chats. We here worry about B1, B2 or C1 and is he good enough and what not. Meanwhile, he's talking.

With the vast numbers he's acquired, he's forgiven himself his imperfections. He's gotten to the point of chatting.

Comparatively speaking, I'm over-educated, over diploma-ed and certainly much, too much, reserved to be asking people daily "can I help you" in all these languages. I'd probably panic the second the person answered back "I'm looking for...". He's in the flow of the experience.

Yes, the other effect of the Bazaar Effect is that he doesn't have the depth of subjects or comprehensiveness of the language in all his languages. You want to judge if he speaks Estonian as well as Polish? You do that, but clearly Michal Perlinski is focused and having fun with his languages. The interesting thing isn't does he truly speak all those, but what can you learn from how he works ...

Michal Perlinski has apparently learned 3 more languages since that 2015 video ... so no, he isn't adding one every month. And no, they aren't all perfect. But he's certainly the type of person I wan't to hear from in the space of language learners...

[tarvos]

I've butchered languages his way and gotten somewhere too. I like the guy. He just goes for it. Aim for the horn!

[zenmonkey]

I've butchered languages his way and gotten somewhere too. I like the guy. He just goes for it. Aim for the horn!

I really think this is a quality present in a lot, if not all, the hyperglots.

[tarvos]

I've butchered languages his way and gotten somewhere too. I like the guy. He just goes for it. Aim for the horn!

I really think this is a quality present in a lot, if not all, the hyperglots.

The question really being... am I a hyperglot? Ok, that's not a question.

What my point really is is that quibbling about level is an academic exercise and much inferior to simply putting in the work and ignoring the internet chatter.

[zenmonkey]

The question really being... am I a hyperglot? Ok, that's not a question.

What my point really is is that quibbling about level is an academic exercise and much inferior to simply putting in the work and ignoring the internet chatter.

Yes, both by the count but really also by your attitude.

[Iversen]

I have of course read this thread with my own situation in mind (and with that of other 'language collectors').

I have dabbled in a fair number of languages, but currently my own focus is on their written forms - and then I expect their spoken form to mysteriously materialize itself by itself after a few days in a suitable location - provided that I know those languages well enough in their written form AND that I have invested enough time in knowing how they are pronounced. My first (passive) test is whether I can read a text at the Wikipedia level (i.e. non-fiction with an educated reader in mind), my next test is whether I can think in the language ((incoherently at first, coherently later on), after that whether I can write a message in the language with limited use of 'green grammar sheets' and a dictionary, and the last test - which happens much later - is whether I can live and speak and think for a week or so in the language in a country where it is spoken. But apart from isolated prelearned words and phrases I don't like to speak to human beings before I trust I can understand their answers.

The man with the 30 languages has apparently another strategy, namely to start speaking at a very early time and then pick up the elements he needs along the way, and apparently he is good at it. I'm not quite sure how much hardcore study he does beside his conversations, but the difference in speaking strategy is very clear. Nevertheless the end result is the same: we end up with a ladder going from our native language down to the latest fragile newborn. And we apparently share the idea that once we have decided to speak in a language we do check whether the native speakers understand what we say, but we can't be bothered with claims that we should speak at a near-native level from day one. And it is hard to see how you can learn 30 languages or more at any level if you try to get near-native in each one before you proceed to the next one on the agenda.

[Tristano]

The most notable thing is that I actually understood very well the german spoken in this video. I used to think that my German is atrocious but at least I'm going somewhere

And ok, this guy is no average guy, and he seems to have really a lot of time to study. That doesn't cancel his accomplishments though.

[Medvedik]

It was interesting to read about it. Author, thank you.