Post: #1

Kid got some language game...

Post: #2

very impressive and incredibly difficult.

Post: #3

I want to know what this dude's schedule is like.

I can see him being a massive burn out in a couple years.

But maybe I'm just mad hating on him right now.

Post: #4

Very impressive!

Would love to have a chat with this guy.

Post: #5

There are some seriously dedicated guys out there. Check out Laoshou505000. His name is Moses - conversational in 50 languages. Benny over at fluentin3months is pretty good too. There are videos of them hanging out together and talking to randoms in multiple languages. It's pretty awesome, and a goal of mine.

Post: #6

Very smart kid. His linguistic intelligence is astounding. I admire polyglots.

This guy's videos have taught me a few things about language:

Post: #7

Yeah man, I speak German, Spanish and English fluently and am conversational in Portuguese, but this shit is just humbling.

Post: #8

I speak a few of those languages, which took me a few years to master.

The 16 year old kid is amazing. I'm blown away by his pronunciation, command of language and accent and especially in such a short space of time.

Post: #9

(03-18-2013 04:28 PM)A CLOCKWORK TRADER Wrote:  Very smart kid. His linguistic intelligence is astounding. I admire polyglots.

This guy's videos have taught me a few things about language:

That was really hard to watch vs. the OP's video. Guy can't enunciate and everything just runs together.

Post: #10

(03-18-2013 04:55 PM)presidentcarter Wrote:  That was really hard to watch vs. the OP's video. Guy can't enunciate and everything just runs together.

Which of the 16 languages in that video do you know? Because I can tell you his Spanish and Portuguese enunciation is on the money.

Post: #11

Some people are language NATURALS

Post: #12

(03-18-2013 05:09 PM)A CLOCKWORK TRADER Wrote:  

(03-18-2013 04:55 PM)presidentcarter Wrote:  That was really hard to watch vs. the OP's video. Guy can't enunciate and everything just runs together.

Which of the 16 languages in that video do you know? Because I can tell you his Spanish and Portuguese enunciation is on the money.

I don't doubt that he was on the money with the words, conjugation, etc...it was more a personality/sound of voice that made it sound like he wasn't enunciating. That's what made it hard to watch vs. the first kid's video actually being entertaining.

Post: #13

Fucking hell, I'm having a hard enough time with just Spanish.

Post: #14

The kid blows away the nerdy bald guy with his pronunciation and flow. I know two foreign languages he is speaking.

Post: #15

I remember reading Nietszche talking about how polyglottism is degenerate. His argument was that if you are good at many languages, you will never learn to be excellent at one of them.

He further mentioned that cultures that generate the most 'classics' are those that refused to learn other languages, eg. the ancient Greeks, because they spend time refining their language to literary perfection instead of learning other languages.

Not to say I'm personally against learning other languages, but it's worth a thought.

Post: #16

(03-19-2013 04:13 AM)Thomas the Rhymer Wrote:  I remember reading Nietszche talking about how polyglottism is degenerate. His argument was that if you are good at many languages, you will never learn to be excellent at one of them.

He further mentioned that cultures that generate the most 'classics' are those that refused to learn other languages, eg. the ancient Greeks, because they spend time refining their language to literary perfection instead of learning other languages.

Not to say I'm personally against learning other languages, but it's worth a thought.

I don't really agree, and historically it isn't really true. Most educated men had to poly-lingual anyway because the language of Science has been Latin, and that hasn't been the native tongue for any scientist.

Also, mastery of language doesn't preclude knowledge of another. The two might correlate, but they aren't mutually exclusive. I suppose they would be if you wanted to be both Shakespeare and Tolstoy and write epic novels in your target languages, but I'd imagine that's a bit abstract.

Post: #17

(03-19-2013 04:13 AM)Thomas the Rhymer Wrote:  I remember reading Nietszche talking about how polyglottism is degenerate. His argument was that if you are good at many languages, you will never learn to be excellent at one of them.

He further mentioned that cultures that generate the most 'classics' are those that refused to learn other languages, eg. the ancient Greeks, because they spend time refining their language to literary perfection instead of learning other languages.

Not to say I'm personally against learning other languages, but it's worth a thought.

Learning languages in this sense is not really practical in my opinion. Although the kid in the video seems to have a great command of them.

If you devote time to one foreign language. Then in turn learning another becomes a simpler task. It actually helps you to master another.

The Greek language and culture was dominant in the Mediterranean, and Greek was used as a lingua franca in trade. Perhaps a similar comparison could be made with English today. But then the Greeks didn't live in the age of globalisation, where the world is at your fingertips.

Seems to be a rationalisation not to learn languages from Nietszche.

Post: #18

It's extremely admirable and impressive, but I agree not all that practical. Definitely more worthwhile than devoting one's childhood to playing a sport or being a Chess player and more useful as well. However, the kid will probably end up being an academic for life in a linguistics dept. or working for the State Department. Not that anything is wrong with that.

If he was business-smart as well, he could build worldwide recognition in the language community then open his own network of schools.

Post: #19

If he was truly red pill he would have spent his time learning a couple of Slavic languages instead of those two or three lame-sounding African languages he taught himself...
Just joking he's really impressive, his ability and flow is almost beyond human.

Post: #20

(03-19-2013 04:13 AM)Thomas the Rhymer Wrote:  I remember reading Nietszche talking about how polyglottism is degenerate. His argument was that if you are good at many languages, you will never learn to be excellent at one of them.

He further mentioned that cultures that generate the most 'classics' are those that refused to learn other languages, eg. the ancient Greeks, because they spend time refining their language to literary perfection instead of learning other languages.

Not to say I'm personally against learning other languages, but it's worth a thought.

I agree, at least partially, that it is not useful to learn 50 languages. It is better to focus on 5, or even just 2 languages, and master them well.

Learning 20 or more languages is merely a good exercise to TRAIN YOUR BRAIN. But here, as with many things, less is better, if the quality improves consistently.

Post: #21

(03-19-2013 08:28 AM)dk902 Wrote:  Seems to be a rationalisation not to learn languages from Nietszche.

Nietszche was fluent in German, Latin, Greek and French, so I don't think he was hamsterising. He did mention that the Greeks stopped producing great works once they were conquered by the Romans (and forced by them to become bilingual in Greek and Latin). The Romans themselves produced some great works only while they were monoglottic.

Post: #22

Ok Thomas, but learning other languages allows one to have access to lots of knowledge otherwise inaccessible. And also it improves one's mental capacity and memory, and it even gives ability to understand better the mother language and its mechanisms.

Probably learning more than a certain number of languages becomes counterproductive because it takes too many time that could be spending on focusing on some subjects.

I think this is like the old debate of whether it's better to be a polymath or a specialist. I think the virtue is somewhere in a middle balance: not too dispersed neither too focused.

The same with languages, nowadays with things becoming so universal through technology, fluency in 2 or 3 languages (being one of them English, obviously) is more than enough to be well informed, self-reliant and have access to a broader spectrum of knowledge.

And by the way, I think the majority of the best writers and philosophers of all time knew more than one language.

Post: #23

His French pronounciation sucks (I'm a native French speaker).

Too bad it was the first one because the other languages are pretty impressive

Post: #24

I speak Mandarin. I can't be sure, because pronunciation of Mandarin varies so much even in China, but his 'accent' did strike me as a little forced.

Regardless, Chinese is really frickin' hard. Just being able to get your tongue around the most simplest of the basics can take months. To have been able to speak as well as he does at 16, without having spent some time formally studying the language is downright impressive.

That being said, he is clearly a natural. Being able to just 'pick-up' language skills from a movie is not something most people can do until they reach an advanced level. At least in my experience.

There is a difference between the effects of bilingualism on a society and an individual is different. If this kid stays sharp and picks up a Ph.D., there will be a very respectable position waiting for him at plenty of universities when he decides he wants it.

Post: #25

(03-18-2013 11:05 AM)BoiBoi Wrote:  Kid got some language game...

His gestures and facial expressions also change when he switches.