Monday, April 23, 2012

Kid Is Disgustingly Good at Languages

Ugh, god, why can't I be a "Teenage Polyglot"? (Besides the fact that I'm old and lazy.)

 From the New York Times article last month:
 Elsewhere he is said to be fluent in 23 languages. I doubt that, but the fact that he's studied so many languages is impressive.

I'm gonna go curl up in a ball and cry about how talentless I am now.
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2 comments:

  1. RuroushaApril 23, 2012 at 11:34 PM

    Hmmm. If you look at Wikipedia's entry on polyglots, which I just did, you'll get even more depressed. Champion seems to be Cardinal Giuseppe Mezzofanti, who could speak 39 languages fluently.

    This kid Doner, incidentally, has a YouTube channel:

    http://www.youtube.com/user/PolyglotPal?ob=0&feature=results_main

    I listened to two languages I'm familiar with, Arabic and Swahili. (I can't speak them anymore, but I'm familiar with their sounds.) His Arabic pronunciation is very good; his Swahili doesn't sound native to me. His fluency is impressive. Yikes.

    I also discovered this interesting blog:

    http://stujay.com/

    If you listen to this guy, speaking only (!) 10, he definitely seems to be more at ease in some languages than in others.

    PS: May I come cry with you?

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    1. イレインApril 24, 2012 at 10:56 AM

      Yeah, as someone not very familiar with his languages I can only really imagine his fluency based on the amount of English sounding-ness (or something) in his speech, the rate of his speech, and the reaction of the native speakers in the comments (when I can understand them). It seems like he's pretty good at what he does.

      OK, I checked out stujay.com and now I'm more depressed than ever. So many languages, from so young! It's a really interesting site, though. Not only can he speak more than several languages and come at it from interesting NLP angles, he speaks Thai. I lived in Thailand when I was little and vaguely remember being able to speak/understand it, but even my little brother who had become fluent (for his age) in Thai and Lao has forgotten all of it since we've been 15 years in America, and it's a sore spot for both of us. He does seem less skilled in some languages/areas. His Japanese sounded pretty foreign, but it seems like he probably has a good grasp on it reading wise (in terms of comprehension). Still super impressed. I've subscribed to his RSS feed now...

      And yes, there is room in this snuggie for the both of us. I have tissues for you.

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