A lot of people ask me how I managed to acquire working knowledge of 10+ languages despite my young age.
Even seasoned professors managed to wonder how I could present on many topics before college classes with such clarity…or, as I often get, “how does all of that information fit in your head?”
Well, I don’t believe in keeping secrets and so today I let forth everything that I did right and, more importantly, that I did DIFFERENTLY.
I make efficient use of “dead time.”
This is probably the MOST important thing that will net you results with your time. Do this within a week, and you’ll notice significant results in any goals you have your heard on attaining.
If I’m on the subway and standing? I’m listening to audio in one of my target languages.
Am I working out? I’m doing very much the same.
Waiting for an appointment? Flashcards or books. Easy.
This is the difference between someone who struggles with their second language and someone who becomes a hyperpolyglot. This is, to some degree, the only difference. But there are other ones worth mentioning.
I focus on what I REALLY WANT.
How do I manage to learn many things succinctly? Easy. I find things that I like and I focus on them.
This results in a situation where I focus more on the languages I care about than those that most in society would deem “useful”. But so what? Better to have knowledge of something you care about DEEPLY than to have forced knowledge that someone else thinks or says is a good idea.
Obviously, if your “language love” is a global language, choose that. If it’s a small national language or minority language, choose that too. But remember this: the very thought of studying it should be like getting a treat to you. If that isn’t the language you’re learning right now (or ones you’re maintaining), pick ones that DO fit that bill.
I have an ego (and I’m not afraid to admit it. On here, at least).
I have a drive to be the best and be a legend. Admittedly not everyone has that drive. And that’s okay.
What really drives me to accomplish things is a sense that…I’m not ashamed to admit it, I like attention. And it’s not a bad thing, as long as you use it for HELPING others in your community and building yourself in a positive way. (Make yourself into a hero, not a villain who tramples on others for the sake of puffing themselves up.)
In line with that: while I am not a descendant of Holocaust survivors, I am a descendant of pogrom survivors and, to some degree, I see that I have to life a good life as much as I can for the sake of my distant family members (including other Ashkenazi Jews as a whole) who didn’t get that opportunity.
I’m fluid in my identity.
I post about Pacific Islands regularly, as I do with Greenland, Jewish culture, Scandinavia, video games, stupid puns and countless other topics besides. I see a gift of living in the contemporary world with infinite masks.
Making someone curious about the world is one of the SUREST ways to make the fluent in several languages. And the fact that I’ve found myself confused about who I am for most of my life (including as I write this) helped with that, even though it harmed me in many other respects.
And another important thing is…
I don’t ask myself “what do I use to learn a language?” Instead, I ask myself, “what DON’T I use to learn a language?”
I think of my life as in need to “mobilization strategies”, as what the United States did during the Second World War and also what I hope it (and all of human civilization) will do for the sake of saving the climate and the human future.
If I have a goal, I have to warp my life as much as possible to point towards the directed outcome. Make sacrifices. Build habits. Make the right friends. Join the right groups. Surround myself with material conducive towards fulfilling that goal.
There’s a difference between using one method to learn something (what many people do, especially with apps [and those apps are usually more invested in their profit than getting you to learn and this is no secret at all]) and those who use almost ANY method they can get their hands on to learn something.
And it doesn’t all have to be book-learning either!
If you want your life to change, you will have to change your life.
And the good news is that anyone can do that. At any time!
A friend of mind recommended that I write this piece when he asked me how on earth I managed to live a multilingual life at a young age. Granted, I do have some advantages. Living in New York City means that I have opportunities to hear and use these languages. Being a freelancer that works with translation and teaching has as well (although this does tend to benefit the languages that I have the strongest command in above all). Then, of course, there is my peer group.
If you want to have any mental or professional attribute, surround yourself with people who have it and you’re more than likely to acquire it yourself.
With that said, I also think that anyone can learn 10+ languages to very high levels as long as one crushes any limiting beliefs or any hint of “I can’t!”. History was never changed by people who had this sort of thought.
Here I’ll lay out the variety of mindsets that my hyperpolyglot peers and myself have adopted:
An Altruistic Desire to Help One Another
The best language learners help each other up. They share tips and are willing to rehearse languages whenever necessary and provide feedback / praise / constructive criticism. They draw other people to them with the power of thinking “you can do it!” and “I’m willing to help you!”
They cultivate an openness that is likely to draw in speakers of their target language as well as similar “bridge builders”. They’re willing to provide advice of any sort and provide whatever courage needs to be provided with nary a hint of any toxicity or discouragement at all.
This is NOT saying that hyperpolyglots are angels, because all of us have flaws as human beings. Rather that they see the value in spreading positive energy in encouragement.
A Growth Mindset
Contemporary educational systems tend to focus a lot more on the “fixed mindset”, in which only the current result is judged in ADDITION to ignoring the fact that it is very possible for human beings to improve, even drastically so.
Often on the Internet a lot of people judging people’s language abilities judge what they HEAR and SEE, as opposed to what it WAS and what it has the POTENTIAL TO BE.
Hyperpolyglots see the potential to growth in everything and foster that path in others.
A Distinct Lack of “Perfectionist Paralysis”
I think it was Benny Lewis that coined this term.
When I upload my Fiji Hindi recordings next week or so, there are probably a LOT of things that I got wrong. There is a chance that I may have used too many English loan words or that my formality may be completely off.
That said, I’m going to upload them anyway, even at the cost of potential dislikes. This idea of “waiting until you’re perfect” or, even worse, assuming that anything less than near native fluency is useless, is dangerous.
A lot of today’s institutions as well as common mindsets try to make people adverse to risk. This only serves to breed conformity (which is helpful for the proliferation of income inequality). Always try with what you have, because those form the steps which will lead you to the legendary skills of your dreams.
An Awareness that Learning a Language is a Very Vulnerable Act and that People Don’t Undertake It Precisely Because of That
There is a lot of negative energy in the world, not also to mention many people having heard horror stories about language learning. Some of them include, for example, a man who got a Mandarin Chinese tone wrong and was told by his in-laws to “never attempt this language again” as well as a Dutchman who said “I’d rather speak in English rather than listen to your shit Dutch”.
Half of my language-learning classes at the very beginning is programming people to have my mindset in which to not be afraid of mistakes and realize that even the “pickiest” of native speakers are usually very forgiving.
There is a huge veil of doubt, discouragement and limiting beliefs that prevents people from living their dreams. Every day. We all, as humans, have to get rid of that veil’s power—on ourselves and anyone else we may know.
A Recognition that Everyone’s Accomplishments Deserve to Be Celebrated
Even a few words of your dream language is something.
Your first conversation is a milestone you’ll remember.
Making a video of yourself speaking the language also deserves celebration.
Getting praise from native speakers and /or getting mistaken for one is also very noteworthy indeed.
No matter the language, every single one of these steps has to be savored and congratulated.
Being Intrigued by the Differences Between Nations and Cultures
This is one that sets apart those who speak three languages from those who speak 10+. They’re fascinated by what the world is like, what sort of surprises are present in the literatures, cultures, customs and traditions of the many languages of the world.
Those who get endlessly intrigued by this “world with little worlds” get thrown into a desire to endlessly explore, break comfort boundaries and do what it takes to acquire skills in many languages to degrees they can be proud of.
I find it no coincidence that my Polyglot Awakening occurred at a time in my life in which I shifted four countries over the course of four years.
A Love of Humanity in General
Even if they don’t agree with most governments on the face of the planet, all of my hyperglot friends realize that all of our human cultures deserve to be learned about, shared and loved.
The human soul, brain and heart are infinite beings. We will never realize the full extent of our own conscious, yet alone that of any one human being at any point in history.
Those who learn languages with great passion see in it the door into realizing how we as humans can all come together and realize exactly how much we have in common.
I’m drawing up a video in which I’m writing the script for (this is a scripted “inspirational video”) and I’m using one language I chose from each continent as well as … well, you’ll have to wait and see. Despite the fact that these languages come from completely different places in terms of climate, values and history, they still share so much.
And that’s the beauty of being alive right now…and being a polyglot (or an aspiring one) in the 2010’s and beyond.
The 1st of April is here, and with it many reflections!
I’ve decided to provide a number of thoughts that I’ve been thinking about lately about language learning and skill acquisitions.
Keep in mind that the most important thing that will drive you as a language learner is validation from native speakers. As humans we are built to find approval for ourselves given that in older days not having that approval meant being outcast which in turn meant not surviving. You need to use your language learning as something to broadcast very widely and get approval from. Then and only then will you acquire true motivation with which to continue going.
You don’t really need native speaker voices to learn a language, given how pronunciation in a lot of languages is very similar. Maori and Zulu have very close pronunciation schemes and the “Spanish rule” is usually applied to many vowel sets throughout the world. Your Lonely Planet guide should be enough with the extremely well-written and precise guides for what letter means what.
If you encounter any variety of discouragement from native speakers, take it very, very seriously. Languages other than English and other global languages are becoming more guarded secrets as a result of the UN official languages being so massively proliferated. Most L1 speakers want to keep the languages to themselves.
You should invest as much as possible with every variety of program or book aimed at learners. Immersion can often lead to confusion and demoralization so you need to hold if off as much as possible.
You should realize that the culture present in some places of the internet (e.g. the subreddit /r/languagelearning) in which pretty much every single online polyglot is criticized and deemed a fake is actually very legitimate. Standing up for well-known 10+ fluent language speakers is deemed “cringey to the extreme” and rightly so, as is a culture of encouragement that this feeling-laden and oversensitive world doesn’t need anymore.
Realize that most people in the world aren’t out to encourage you. Not only that, most people will actually view learning any language with extreme jealousy.
There is absolutely no advantage to learning any minority language whatsoever, not even in the translation market.
Realize that there is nothing you can do to stem the tide of mass language death that mass media is creating.
Be as extremely critical with yourself all of the time. The only language skills that are truly valued are those that are near-native. Remember that. And that ties into…
People who post on the Internet are usually always right, because often the critical eye of the average Reddit user will be a lot more honest than that of your friends or that of most native speakers you will encounter.
Virtually every American knows something about Yiddish whether they know it or not. 100 years ago, Yiddish newspapers were so mainstream and respected that they often received election results before ENGLISH newspapers. The Yiddish literature rush that occurred from the 19th century up until some decades after the Holocaust is considered by some the largest outpouring of human thought in all of history, anywhere.
Yiddish has changed countless lives, and not just those of Jews. Isaac Bashevis Singer spoke of it as a language never spoken by people in power (you are welcome to debate this accordingly). In comparison to languages of nobility and large, established countries, Yiddish established itself as “mame-loshn”, a mother’s language, not necessarily tied to any earth or ground, but transcending the Jewish experience wherever it may go.
In online Polyglot Communities, there’s one Yiddish-speaker or Yiddish learner that seems to get everyone enchanted with one Yiddish phrase, or at least cause others to take another look at it.
Well, today we’re going to teach you exactly how to BEGIN that journey.
Before we begin, however, let’s outline exactly how Yiddish is different from High German (with which it shares a lot of words):
The pronunciation of words is different. Yiddish has a distinctly more Slavic lilt to it, and those who speak languages from that area of the world can often just use their “home accents” and be passable (e.g. Polish, Hungarian, Russian, Ukrainian, etc). There are vowel shifts that are followed with great consistency. German au becomes Yiddish oy. In many Yiddish dialects, the German ei sound is pronounced like “ey” (to rhyme with “hey”).
The grammar is also closer to that of English or even that of a Slavic language at times, although it can also follow German conventions. “Du herst?” (are you listening?) makes complete sense as a question, even with the subject first…much like the casual English “you hear?!!?”
Some common words in German have vanished completely and replaced with Hebrew / Aramaic or Slavic equivalents. Surprisingly I’ve noticed that linguistic borrowings from liturgical languages follow similar patterns in language throughout the world (e.g. Tajik uses Arabic loan words in many of the same places that Yiddish would, such as the word for “maybe” being an Arabic work in Tajik (Mumkin) and a Hebrew one in Yiddish (Efsher).
Using too much German pronunciation and / or Germanic loan words in your speech results it what is called “Deitschmerisch”, which was a variety used by some Yiddish speakers in more enlightenment-related spheres to make it more acceptable. Throughout most of its history Yiddish was deemed the language of “women and the uneducated”.
German can help, but using too much German influence in your Yiddish can have negative effects. Knowledge of Jewish Liturgical Languages definitely helps, especially given that “Yeshivish” exists (or, roughly put, English spoken amongst some Orthodox Jews with the Hebrew / Aramaic Loanwords from Yiddish intact). Knowledge of Slavic Languages can also prove helpful, especially given that some gendered nouns in Yiddish can lean more towards Slavic than Germanic (not also to mention many Latinate loan words end in “-tziye”, which shows obvious Slavic influence).
Keep in mind that there is also a lot of incomplete and flawed material out there, but you probably knew that.
Yiddish also has no centralized academy. Among secular Yiddishists, the prestige dialect will be Lithuanian Yiddish (which I speak). Among many Hasidic communities, the prestige dialect will vary depending on the sect. For example, among the Satmar Hasidim, Hungarian Yiddish will rule (which sounds slightly more like High German and a very, VERY distinctly Finno-Ugric rhythm to it. In areas of Williamsburg you can hear it spoken on the street with regularity. Did I also mention that you can order your MetroCards in Yiddish in various subway stations in New York?).
Oh, and one more thing! With the exception of Yiddish texts from the Soviet Union, the Hebrew and Aramaic words will be SPELLED the way they are in Hebrew and Aramaic, but the pronunciation is something you’ll need to MEMORIZE! And I bet you’re wondering, “oh, if it’s the Hebrew word, I could just memorize its Hebrew pronunciation, right?”
Nope! Because Israeli Hebrew uses the Sephardic pronunciation (precisely so the Zionists could detach themselves from the “Diasporic” pronunciations of Hebrew words) and Yiddish’s Hebrew and Aramaic components use the Ashkenazi Variety (which is still used by some Orthodox Jews in prayer). The Yiddish words “Rakhmones” (mercy) would be “Rakhmanut” in Hebrew, although they are spelled the EXACT SAME WAY.
The meanings aren’t necessarily the same either. A normal word in Hebrew can be a profanity in Yiddish (I won’t give examples here).
So here are various resources you can use to begin:
For one, Mango Languages is put enough together with good accents to the degree that you can begin using Yiddish with your friends RIGHT AWAY. The Hebrew alphabet can be learned accordingly with writing out the words on the screen. (Also! Words that are not Hebrew or Aramaic in Origin are written phonetically, exactly as they are spelled. If you are a reading a Soviet Yiddish text, ALL words will, much like Lao standardized Pali and other foreign loan words. Communism did the same thing to two completely different language families).
The book I started with nearly ten years ago was Sheva Zucker’s Yiddish textbooks, which were very well put together and also outlined the differences between Yiddish and English / Hebrew / German. Between dialogues there were various songs and the grammar was explained clearly in a way that you can begin making your own sentences in no time!
Uriel Weinreich’s immortal classic “College Yiddish” is also a fantastic choice, given that the stories themselves are extremely topical and cover a wide range of secular and religious topics. Some of the topics include: Chelm Stories (the equivalent of Polish Jokes in the US and Swedish / Norwegian jokes in Norway and Sweden respectively), sociology, songs, Jewish holiday origin stories, and even a quaint piece about moving furniture.
The book is mostly in Yiddish although glossaries are provided with English translations.
Routledge’s Colloquial Yiddish also covers usage of the language in classroom situations, ordinary conversation, as well as stories about Hasidic Masters and the aforementioned Chelm stories (which you can never truly get away from when you know enough Jewish people).
The Yiddish Daily Forward is also very well put together, with topical articles that would be equally at home in its English edition (and sometimes featured in both). What’s more, the articles will come with an in-built glossary function where you can highlight any word and have it defined.
If you choose to get it sent to your inbox, the titles and summaries will be bilingual in English and Yiddish, which makes for good practice even as an advanced student because then you can see how the translation changes things.
Lastly, SBS Radio Australia has its archives of Yiddish programming, given that Yiddish was discontinued (I believe). That said, a lot of interesting interviews with fluent Yiddish speakers from throughout the world are provided as well as “snippets” of English that can also provide context clues for the beginner. If you want to know how to discuss politics in Yiddish, THIS is the place to find it.
Yiddish will change your life. It provides a huge amount of untranslated literature that you can spend several lifetimes with. Your other languages will be enhanced with new idioms that possess the story of a people who have been everywhere and continue to be everywhere. You will become more theatrical, you will become cooler and, best of all, all Yiddishists everywhere will pretty much be willing to become your friend.
Probably one of the more painful pieces I’ve had to do “research” for, and another for which no other writings out there existed already. This is, very sadly, a necessary piece.
On Reddit and in many YouTube comments there is often an idea that almost ANYONE who posts videos of him/herself speaking many languages online is almost guaranteed to be a fake and that they “don’t understand how much work goes into a language”.
Benny Lewis seems to get the brunt of a lot of this, but the truth be told is that all of us online polyglots get accused of being fake—it is just that some of us do a better job at hiding it.
It has sometimes gotten so bad that many of my friends just REFUSE to post videos or, if they do, will shut off the comments. What’s worse is the fact that people who are complete outsiders to this craft will say nonsensical things like “you should expect to get criticism if you put yourself out there” (which is just as stupid as an excuse as saying that wearing certain clothing means you were “asking for it”—both serve to absolve the wrongdoer of any fault.)
This toxic energy of internet culture is holding innovation back and it NEEDS TO STOP. IMMEDIATELY.
At first glance it seems that this battle is actually between (1) hyperpolyglots and (2) HATERZ but there are actually two categories in (2). The first one consists of jealous bilinguals and the second one consists of the no-less-jealous struggling language learners.
For the best of the hyperglots (and I’m getting there), we’ve been so desensitized to being called fake and all sorts of names that a lot of just don’t care anymore (and this indifference occurs naturally with age).
But I’m going to reveal something that very few people on both sides realize:
Usually the most admired polyglots online are actually more admired for their ability to act natural in front of a camera AND speak the languages rather than just speak the languages alone.
I in NO WAY mean to say “all polyglots prepare scripts / read from the screen” or ANYTHING OF THAT SORT. But video making is not just a “point and shoot” variety of deal, and some people have had experience making videos and others, not so much. (And experience doesn’t necessarily correlate to the ability to look and speak naturally in front of a camera, although it does help).
When I made my first polyglot video a year ago, I was FRIGHTENED.
Part of me still is frightened to do something like make a Let’s Play video in Tok Pisin even though I would really like to do that in part because of, yes, some people telling me that a white person has no business speaking this language (which is, frankly, ridiculous—because in the contemporary world, all cultures belong to everyone). Even for “Kaverini: Nuuk Adventures” I was told that maybe some Greenlanders wouldn’t particularly LIKE the fact that I was making a video game set in their country (although everyone I spoke to about it, both inside and outside of Greenland, was enthusiastic about the idea).
Okay, where was I?
There are multiple types of anti-polyglots and each one tends to have different motivations:
The one who claims “this one internet polyglot is good, but almost all of the others are fake”
What this person doesn’t necessarily realize is that it isn’t the person they’re actually admiring (or not) but actually the presentation of the person.
People accused the 4-year-old hyperglot Bella of being fake and only memorizing a few things but my friends told me that she conversed in all of those languages with other kids readily—something that couldn’t have been captured on video.
There is a lot of sadness in the world, and people can be very good speakers in person but may not show it ideally on the Internet. With a master presentation a lot of the polyglot community would be more “equalized” than most people give them credit for (and when meeting in person, we realize exactly how similar we are to each other skill-wise, something that I’ve seen again and again at polyglot conferences)
The one who claims that most polyglots overinflate their abilities
I have a feeling this one comes from a misunderstanding that some languages are more easily picked up than others.
Mandarin Chinese may be the work of many years but a Creole Language could be picked up readily in a month.
Those who accused me of being fake when I said in Ari in Beijing’s video that I spoke seventeen to eighteen languages fluently didn’t realize that I had multiple sets of very similar languages (and in the case of the creoles of Melanesia, ones so close that even classifying them as separate languages may be debatable!)
There’s no way you can generalize about a group of so many people, and saying “people can only reach C1-C2 in 2-3 languages tops” is demonstrably false.
This comes with frustration with one’s own progress and the cruel road of projection. Nothing less.
The one that says that all polyglots memorize a few sentences and judge themselves fluent
What exactly are we supposed to do, then? An eight-hour video?
Also, especially after the whole Ziad Fazah thing, do you really think most of us would be naïve enough to lie about our skills? Especially in this time of human history? Especially when any one of our readers or fans could evaluate our skills in PERSON and write home about it?
I am professionally held accountable for the image of me projected. If I don’t live up to that, it is a liability on my reputation and I’m fully aware of that. Maybe you might want me to downsize my skills so as to upsize your ego, but I am who I am and I intend to OWN IT. My haters (and the haters of other polyglots), not so much, actually…
Particular Criticism about the “Fluent in 3 Months Thing”
It’s a challenge, not a promise. Even if he fell short in his missions, honestly, who cares? Benny Lewis has inspired millions of people, far more than people who write nasty things about him on the Internet ever will.
Accusing all polyglots of being a “jack of all trades, master of none”
A simple case of confirmation bias (which is selectively choosing data or experience to suit your conclusion that makes you feel better about yourself / confirm your existing beliefs).
Most hyperpolyglots that I know have a “core” of languages that they know very, very well and others that are all over the map (my core would, no doubt, be the languages of Scandinavia, Yiddish and the Melanesian Creoles. With time I’d like to bring at least some native languages of Oceania into that core as well.)
What people who say this ACTUALLY mean is “I’d like to think that this person is terrible at all of their languages so I can feel better about myself”.
Once you realize that pretty much everyone who espouses the viewpoints on this list does so from a sense of personal insecurity, you actually learn to not take them seriously anymore. In fact, you might actually…have pity on them.
The one who accuses polyglots of reading from the screen or using translation devices
Again, we polyglots are aware that mis-portraying ourselves or overinflating our skills can get us into trouble in our in-person interactions. If we use a language in one of our videos, we either have to be prepared to use it with other people or explain that we’re learning it or that we forgot it. There is not fourth option
This accusation is just another form of the generalized hate for the polyglot community which is, essentially, a security blanket for insecure people.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. People always have the chance to fulfill their language dreams, whether it be learning one language to near-native fluency or twenty languages okay.
I hope we live to see a day in which this internet toxicity that is holding our community back dies out for good. We all can do our part by putting the effort towards making our OWN dreams a reality.
You can start TODAY! And don’t believe ANY pessimism! Not now, not ever!
Believe me, I’ve looked and looked all throughout the internet on finding a piece on how to deal with online hate (not that I did NOT use the word “criticism”, we’ll get to that shortly) as a language enthusiast. Perhaps surprisingly, there wasn’t any, and it is high time one got written.
I’m not gonna lie, I’m very sensitive to what other people say about me in my HEART, even though in my HEAD I know that I shouldn’t care. After all, whose judgment am I going to trust about my language skills: Richard Simcott (who told me that I spoke the Scandinavian Languages “very, very well” and was also impressed by my commitment to Greenlandic and languages of Oceania) Nanook (who also though I spoke Greenlandic and Danish well) many other famous polyglots whom I’ve met OR randos on the internet who write barbed comments?
I’ve developed deep friendships with people with virtually no English (only a handful of cases in which no English was used at all because, well, the person in question didn’t speak it, but usually my English-free friendships sometimes have to switch to English if there are others that don’t speak the target language who want to join in). I’ve had teachers, professors and native speakers compliment my accent. I KNOW I’m not a fake and that I’m good at what I do, although I have had my share of failures.
However, sometimes one comment somewhere accusing me of reading off the screen / not speaking the languages as well as I do / telling me that speaking 17 languages is “impossible” (anyone who has ever studied very closely related languages at all will know that it IS possible) / any number of things gets under my skin somehow.
This was because, throughout my life, I’ve been very much bred to please people. I know I’m not the only one, and I really need to break out of it and I KNOW that I have to, but it is a difficult journey made even more difficult by insensitive people who say “if you don’t like something about your personality, then just change it!”
Okay, enough ramblin’, let’s find out how to ensure that you are NEVER affected by online hate, ever, ever AGAIN! (A follow-up piece to this will be written about in-person haters).
The first thing to understand is that haters are NOT Critics.
Examples of criticism would include:
“I think your accent needs work. The syllable stress is something to pay attention to. Good luck with (insert language here) in the future.”
“Great work! A minor thought to consider for the future: perhaps your choices of sentences could be a bit more original in your next video. Keep it up!”
“Your (insert language here) does have significant problems, but keep at it!”
Examples of hate would include:
“Terrible accent!”
“You’re just a fake polyglot who memorize a couple of sentences and calls him/herself fluent!”
“Your (language) is awful!”
Spot the difference? Of course you do.
Criticism acts to build people up. Hate just simply knocks people down. As a friend of mine said about online haters, “they need more love in their lives”.
One thing to understand about haters is that the very fact that they sling such remarks actually indicates dissatisfaction with their language progress. There’s a reason that I don’t go around accusing people of reading off the screen or using Google Translate or having bad accents even if there’s a part of me that may think that to be true. That’s because I’m busy building up my OWN skills. (And even if they DID do things like that, honestly, who cares?)
Yes, I think some people in the online Polyglot community could “diversify” their language choices a little bit, but I never write anything to that effect on comment sections because, again, setting a good example with my own work would be more effective to that end.
Haters are dissatisfied with their life and progress and, seeing no way out (when in fact there IS one), take it out on people on in Internet enjoying the success they wish they had.
A person online who constantly accused me of being fake in my videos, inflating my skills, and telling me that speaking the languages that I do was impossible, well…suffice it to say that he tried to present himself as an expert on a language which he failed the proficiency test in. Multiple times, in fact. The fact that he tried to take it out on me just simply shows wasted effort and dissatisfaction with his life. I wish this person great luck in all of his language journeys, because I know that having these setbacks can be difficult, but hurtful comments only make you look desperate, wounded and actually…just plain silly.
The same also goes to people who agree with haters as well (e.g. people who like their YouTube comments).
Also, keep in mind that just because haters may be native speakers of a language you speak, that doesn’t mean that their opinion is valid, because as any experienced language learner knows, native speakers can have diverging opinions on what makes an L2 speaker “good”. Obviously the better you get, the higher the percentage of people who think you’re good will be, but even with your native language you can’t please everyone (e.g. some people think that I’m not a native English speaker when I am one). This is even MORE true with a language split across political lines (as global languages are wont to be).
There’s a reason that highly successful people, in the language-learning world and otherwise, have never questioned my language skills at all (demonstration or no demonstration), and that’s because there’s satisfaction with their lives. Sure, some may think that maybe I may be overestimating myself a bit, but they never voice that explicitly, much less on the Internet. That’s because satisfied people don’t “hate”.
Especially haters trying to tell you that are fake are trying to tell themselves that they need not be threatened by their success. Over the course of the past few years, yes, sometimes I have felt threatened by the success of other people, but with each coming year I’ve shrunk it and I’m continuing to shrink it.
And haters actually do an EXTREME disservice to humanity, preventing people who would otherwise show their true selves and their true skills to the world from ever flourishing. So if you’ve EVER written anything like the hate comments I mentioned above, please stop. Forever. Because it doesn’t say anything good about you and, to be honest, most sane people are going to see right through your hate for what it is—a poorly managed bandage function on your OWN dissatisfaction.
The hate is ALWAYS about the person who writes it. It is never about you, especially if you intend to keep on climbing higher and higher. The End.
Especially if you’re not a veteran language learner yourself, it may not be apparent to you, but the path to poylglottery (well, mine, because it is the one that I see best and, what’s more, in a “behind the scenes” manner) is littered with great pain alongside great mirth (but isn’t this true about acquiring any skill?
Let me tell you about some extremely embarrassing incidents that have taken place throughout the years:
Froze up in front of an Icelandic native speaker (last November)
Froze up in front of a novice Irish speaker, hadn’t practiced for weeks (earlier this month)
Had difficulty having an Ecuadorian visitor understand my Spanish (March of this year)
Struggled in giving a presentation in novice German so badly that one of my lecturers was visibly frustrated (February 2014)
Told off by some speakers of Hasidic Yiddish (twice this Spring / summer)
Crashed during a German conversation (earlier this month)
Pretty much every time I’ve been answered in English while ordering food in places like Israel and Sweden (in Israel it was more frequent, I’ve noticed that Swedish-speakers from immigrant background NEVER used English with me after I got the basics “down”) (2012 – 2013, and 2009 in the case of Hebrew only)
Having a Burmese taxi driver telling me that I needed to work on my tones (May of this year)
Having that same Burmese taxi driver telling me that I should learn languages from “people” rather than from “books” (he has a point, actually! But I didn’t have access to too many Burmese speakers in New York. Hoping this will change in the future!)
Having trouble understanding Burmese numbers at times (also May of this year)
Drawing blanks when trying to speak novice Vietnamese (July of this year)
Speaking super-slow Hungarian with iffy grammar with both native speakers and learners of all stripes (pretty much this whole summer)
A good deal of my languages from across levels are involved in this list, but interestingly some of my strongest languages (Danish, the one language that I have CONSISTENTLY been complimented the most by native speakers, as well as Norwegian and all English Creoles) are absent from this list. And those of you who know me well know that, very sadly, I keep a tally of pretty much every negative thing that has ever happened to me (hey, I’m working on improving it!)
It goes without saying that I’ve noticed patterns in my “defeats”:
Rusty practice (Irish and Icelandic have been subjected to this the most…)
Novice status (Burmese!)
Lack of deep cultural resonance (my mild antipathy towards global languages like Spanish or German is well-documented in this blog, I say that I “don’t love them any more than I have to”, and I’m under the impression that they’re not my strongest languages, nor will they ever be, barring circumstances like getting into a relationship with a native speaker)
Sometimes not feeling well (interestingly one time I showed up to Language Exchange NYC, met a Danish native speaker and managed an entire conversation with a native speaker without slipping up. I was on five hours of sleep and kept telling my friends that I “shouldn’t have gone” and that I “should have stayed in bed”)
The one important thing to do in situations like these is detach yourself from the situation. I don’t care if you’ve been interviewed by global news outlets or are revered as a global star of language learning, realize that you’re allowed to be defeated at times and that, at your core, you are someone who is (1) either on the way up or (2) very much on the top with well-deserved work.
Recognize the many times you’ve managed with languages that are not your native language(s), or without using your native language or English. Remember the many victories and compliments from native speakers, not also to mention the bridges that your languages have built, including those you’ve learned to fluency and those that you haven’t made fluent quite yet (I got free drinks out of Hebrew, I also got it out of French back when I was quite bad at it, and also with Burmese with three weeks of practice [at the Shwedagon Pagoda, no less! Relax, by “drinks” I mean “water bottles”! I wasn’t drinking beer at the Shwedagon Pagoda! I promise!])
If you’re still feeling pain so deep that you can’t bring those victories to mind, allow yourself to experience pain and just…wait. (thankfully I haven’t undergone anything like what Ziad Fazah underwent on Viva Lunes, nor has any friend I know—namely, being asked to speak a handful of languages and being unable to muster basic phrases in almost any of them. Oh, and I’m super-careful to ensure that what happened to him won’t happen to me in the slightest).
Come to the realization that it is through these defeats that you will find progress. Mr. Burmese Taxi Driver Who Said that Jared Needs to Improve His Tones served as a motivator for me to get better with the language, even though it doesn’t seem that I’m returning to Myanmar at any time in the near future (plenty of Burmese diaspora folks around many places, though!). Each of the embarrassing incidents above motivated me to get better. EVERY. ONE.
In the event that you weren’t feeling well that day, keep in mind that it doesn’t reflect on your true abilities. And in the event that you DID manage to speak a language very well when you were ill, give yourself applause. You deserve it!
Keep in mind two things:
Don’t compare your L2’s (or L3’s or any other languages beyond that) to a higher standard than your native languages. So, SO many English monoglots expect me to understand EVERYTHING that’s said in (Spanish / Hebrew / Yiddish / Swedish) all of the time. I don’t understand everything in ENGLISH a good deal of the time, so why would I expect it in any other language?
Don’t compare your L2’s to foreigners having learned English. English is like half-a-native-language to many people almost everywhere. In some places like the Netherlands, Scandinavia, or areas of the Pacific or Africa where English is an official language (and any other places besides these), it’s even more than half-a-native language. They’ve been encouraged to learn English their whole lives, you’ve probably received loads of discouragement, even from learning global languages like Spanish, and possibly even more for languages like Danish, and even MORE for endangered or minority languages.
Realize that every journey comes with slip-ups, regardless of HOW good you are with a language. Heck, I’ve even messed up English spectacularly on several occasions (and some HATERZ might like to think that it is because I’m a polyglot, but that’s not true because I’ve heard monoglot English speakers mess up their native language in similar ways).
Remember to give your “failure” some time, and then it will be something to laugh at. But it will become something to laugh at on one condition: if you rise above it and use it as a motivator to become even better at the language(s) involved!
I’m with you, encouraging you every step of the way! Don’t pay attention to discouragers or haterz! Get up and get going again! You’ll reach your goals before you know it!
This in: I’ll be headed to Buffalo, New York this weekend. This is the first time I’ll be back there since two years ago (roughly when I began my teaching career).
The one thing I associate the trip with is very long drives, and this time (given that I’m not going to be driving) I’ve decided to develop a routine to maximize language learning in passive car travel (active car travel, such as when you’re the driver, is another thing with significantly more limits, and it becomes a different animal depending on how many people you have with you, and also if they will tolerate you learning the language there or not.)
I decided that I’ll be filming my next polyglot video in Milwaukee, the only place that I have had consistent memories of since my…infancy.
As things stand, I intend to use the following languages in the video, probably for about thirty second each: English, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Tok Pisin, Hebrew, Spanish, German, Finnish, Breton, Pijin, Bislama, Icelandic, Irish, Krio, Polish, Hungarian, Palauan, Mossi / Moore, Greenlandic (Kalaallisut), Guarani, Lao, Kiribati / Gilbertese, Tongan, Trinidadian English Creole and Bileez Kriol.
I have about half of these in very good shape, and the other half I’ll probably only say very simple things. It is also likely that I’ll just do one with my fluent languages before the year is up in ADDITION to that.
This practice really isn’t entirely about that video, however (and I’m likely taking a week off beforehand so that I can hone my pronunciation to ideal heights. Also, I’m putting this out there, I’m going to be coming out with these videos regularly and I literally will not stop until one of them goes viral. I know that I may be subject to a lot of pain and criticism, but we need more global polyglots that genuinely go for rarer languages and we deserve to have be watched by millions. Tim Doner himself became a voice for languages like Hausa and some indigenous languages of Canada, and it would be great if I can do the same with my rarer languages. Words cannot capture how determined I am).
Anyhow, enough of me being lightly arrogant (or am I?)
Let’s detail my goals and my plan. I’ll be improving three languages this weekend: Hungarian, Trinidadian Creole and Bileez Kriol.
Hungarian
Probably the only language I’m working on right now that I want to be professionally fluent in. Sure, being professionally fluent in something like Breton or Gilbertese is cool, but Hungarian means a lot to me because it is one of my ancestral languages. My one living grandparent has memories of Hungarian being used in her family and I want to connect to that piece of my story before it is gone (note to the curious: she herself doesn’t speak Hungarian or understand it, I even wrote “Happy Birthday” on her Facebook wall in Hungarian and she didn’t even recognize the language until I told her.)
I’ve found Hungarian a relief because of the sheer amount of materials both for learners and native speakers. One thing I definitely could do is watch more animated films and cartoons in Hungarian and I really haven’t been doing that, instead focusing more on learning materials. Maybe that’s a bad sign.
Also, the Hungarian Duolingo course is very, very difficult (and I’ve heard even native speakers found it moderately painful to go through). I’m on Level 9 with one-third of the tree completed and I doubt I can complete the course without a notebook. What’s more, that voice is something I’m hearing in my nightmares already. (I’ll go on record saying that the Catalan voice is the worst that Duolingo has, period. It literally sounds like an alien parasite. My favorites among the courses are Vietnamese, Irish and Guarani, in that order)
Goal: Long-term, I want to be able to talk about my life, my job, the Kaverini games, language learning and my family. Short-term, I want to master cases, verbs and the most common 300 words in the language.
Where I am: I have the Colloquial Hungarian book and the audio for the book on my phone, I have an Anki deck of 3,000 Hungarian sentences that are surprisingly useful in demonstrating the grammar. I’ve plugged 17+ hours into Hungarian Mango Languages during my commute (you can play it on auto mode when is helpful if I’m on a crowded subway and I still want to learn things). I also have a Memrise course with 3,000+ sentences in Hungarian and I’m about 800 sentences in.
In short, I have everything deployed and I’ve begun to see results. I’ve begun to have conversations with some non-native speakers of the language although sometimes I have to slow down.
I tried immersion (with Let’s Play Videos, etc.) and while I’m picking up some vocabulary with them I feel that I can only understand 15%. But the idea that I’m using the language of my ancestors that came to this country in the past 150 years gave me the same warm feeling when I was learning Yiddish, Swedish and Russian.
Tried finding Hungarian music I liked, so far haven’t found anything that clicked…
Plan: Part of me thinks “you’re doing a great job, just keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll be fluent in no time!” But I want to sprint further.
I don’t want to be “manageable”. I want to be great.
To that end, I need to change my routine.
In a car ride, I only have so many things (and made even more complicated by the fact that I tend to get ill when reading in a car).
Luckily, the book will never run out of electricity it doesn’t need.
But what exactly should I do with the book?
Study vowel harmony. This is important because I think I mess it up a little bit (For those unaware: Hungarian suffixes will change form depending on the vowel makeup of the word it is attached to. Hungarian uses suffixes to indicate “to”, “in”, “on”, “of”, etc. That’s called vowel harmony, and given how often Hungarian uses suffixes this is not something I can afford to screw up. In Finnish it came by more easily but in Hungarian there are some suffixes with two forms and others with three. Unless you’ve studied a language like this, this probably means absolutely nothing to you and so I’ll stop writing it at this point).
Study possessives. Possessives come in two forms in English. We have “my book” and “the book is mine”. Both of these exist in Hungarian. The “my book” is expressed with a suffix and “the book is mine” with a separate word. The possessive suffixes (e.g. letters you put at the end that make the word change meaning to say “this belongs to you / me / us / etc.”) are VERY important in Hungarian because without them, you can’t express any concept of “to have” clearly enough to have a conversation. (Hungarian has no “to have”, it just has “there is my book” instead of “I have a book”)
Study relative pronouns. These were an almighty pain in Finnish that I literally NEVER would have learned properly if it weren’t for immersion. For those of you who don’t know what a relative pronoun is: the book that is mine is good. (the “that” is a relative pronoun, saying that it is a pronoun relative to the other elements of the sentence). The only thing I can really say about relative pronouns in Hungarian right now is that I think that they tend to start with the letter “a” somehow.
Study transitive verbs. This is a big one. In English we say “I choose you” (totally not think about Pokémon here, I promise!) In Hungarian, the “you” bit is actually expressed to a suffix on the verb. I literally can’t converse without these, so I need ‘em.
On top of the book, I should go through the Anki deck and review as many sentences as I can. (I know some people don’t like “turbospeeding” through Anki decks, but with some languages like Tok Pisin I’ve done it with no problem. I’m also probably going to go on an Anki-binge with Hungarian shortly before my trip to Milwaukee, actually. That binge, if all goes according to plan, is more likely to be review).
Weaknesses to keep in mind: Sometimes my eyes get weakened from staring at screens too much, and sometimes I can’t manage reading in a vehicle for very long. I expect the latter point to be less of an issue if I am reading VERY small bits of information. I can always put the book down and rest. Or use it over the course of the weekend when I’m actually not in a vehicle.
Trinidadian Creole
I have one (1) book for this language, one that I got as a gift upon recovering from Lyme Disease and moving to Crown Heights in Brooklyn shortly thereafter.
Immersion in Trini Creole has been both easy and hard. Easy because I can understand a lot of it already, hard because Creole is often interspersed with Standard English very often among Trinidadians. (Again, keep in mind that there are those that don’t even consider it a separate language!)
Where am I?
I have excellent vocabulary except for the loan words from Indian Languages. I have a good although not great grasp of every grammatical concept and I understand how the grammar of Trini and English are different.
So what’s my plan?
When I have internet access, undergo immersion with Calypso music and Radio and PAY ATTENTION. What sort of verb forms are left out? What words are different from standard English? How do Trinidadians pronounce their vowels and consonants, in both Creole and Standard English?
Learn the Loan-Words from Indian Languages. Got a list of them in my book (the Kauderwelsch book which is literally the only learning-book for Trinidadian Creole I’ve ever encountered anywhere). I never heard of any of them before.
Master all aspects of grammar with a thorough review by reading out every sentence from your book in the “grammar” sections.
Combined with occasional speaking exercises, I think I could make very deep progress.
Unlike Hungarian, I’ll be using primarily book sources (or, more accurately, book source) for this rather than for a combination of digital and book sources.
Bileez Kriol
I literally have no good book for this and what I’m using now is…well…the Memrise course that I have in development (in which I’m writing all the sentences and words from the dictionary published by the Belize Creole Project [Bileez Kriol Projek]).
I’m going to literally have to be a detective and note general patterns in the sentences. Before I go, I should get the dictionary as a PDF on my phone and any other devices I’m taking with me.
Another thing I need to do is read things out loud in the course, otherwise my memory development isn’t going to be as honed.
Where do I stand now with Bileez Kriol? I know pronouns and a rusty form of verb conjugations, but that’s pretty much it. And I’m supposed to be speaking it on camera in less than a month. Great place I’m in!
But given how close it is to Trinidadian Creole, I expect to sprint much in the same way I’ve done with similar languages before (such as within the Scandinavian family and within the Melanesian Creole family).
I may need a notebook of sorts with this. Of all of the projects that I think will take the most effort to succeed this weekend, this one will be it.
Reading resources I found online: the Bileez Kriol Wikipedia Incubator, the Gospels in the language (I’ve only read Matthew and pieces of Mark in English in my college courses), my Memrise course, the dictionary.
And the one song that I’ve encountered so far in the language is probably not appropriate for younger audiences. (For the curious: just put “Belizean Music” in YouTube and see if something in the first few results catches your eye…)
The dictionary is probably going to be my best friend during this time.
I’ll let you know how it goes when the week is over.
Everyone who ventures into the world of growth makes an effort to take on a way of thinking that most people don’t have.
Choosing to be somewhat edgier than normal, I decided to write this piece to explain what sort of mindset led me to become a legend in my own sphere and, increasingly, on an international scale.
To become successful in any fashion, much less become revered captain of industry, a certain narcissism and ruthlessness is required.
Which each passing day I feel that my dark side is somehow strengthening, but along with it, a desire to assist people bring their dreams to reality, live fulfilling lives, and build bridges and help cultures understand each other.
It’s odd, because throughout my life I’ve been taught that “being a nice person” is the most important thing. In my understanding, being nice and courteous is what’s EXPECTED of you, it isn’t a bonus or a skill and should not be treated as such.
The most important thing, in my life, is do anything it takes to fix the world or protect it from bad futures. In Jewish understanding this is the idea of “Tikkun Olam” (World Reperation), which oddly enough was a phrase that I literally DID NOT HEAR until I enrolled at Wesleyan University, despite several years in an Orthodox Jewish background (although a lot of my Orthodox friends, and rightly so, do value Tikkun Olam with great pride…and not just Rabbis, mind you!).
Here are some opinions of mine that you may not share, but I’m okay with that…
The online polyglot community seriously needs to consider expanding languages learned.
Too often is the same set of ten languages bounced around over and over and over again.
Too many people on the online polyglot community consider the question of “usefulness” rather than asking themselves what they really want.
Too many seek outsider approval or, even worse, ask their friends what sort of languages they should be learning. (Don’t do that! Ask yourself that question instead! And I think I’ve written that on this blog before, methinks…)
Truth be told, with few exceptions, just learning popular languages without any deep motivation dominates a lot of the Facebook groups.
Again, it’s one thing to learn a language because of a genuine connection, but a lot of people just do it “to get ahead” or “out of civic duty” or are more focused on the results they read about in that Business Insider article rather than the process of getting to know a culture (which is as in-depth a process as getting to know a person).
Obviously among the best-known polyglots in the world, this almost never happens. Among my deepest friends, this doesn’t happen.
It pains me to see how Fluent in 3 Months, formerly a source of inspiration that I would visit in tears whenever I was worried that I would never learn Swedish or Hebrew well enough to be good enough to talk to anyone, has turned into a predictable array of articles that just show off a handful of the world’s most powerful languages in favor of showing the true diversity of the human spirit. It’s shameful.
I don’t encounter innovation among most polyglot communities, I just encounter the predictable and the dull, and that could change if only people were REALLY willing to do something different. Source: I became world-famous all over Palau and Greenland because I thought different.
Mostly I’m talking about Facebook communities rather than blogs and websites (and certainly not those blogs and websites belonging to friends of mine who have not only provided me inspiration but also a platform!)
Most people will end up sacrificing their true potential for conformity or comfort
Do you really want to become a legend? Do you really want to become someone who the world and your family will be very proud of indeed?
You have to make sacrifices and think differently. It is an essential law of the universe that states that conformists never win. EVER. They never have, nor will they ever go on to do so, anywhere, for all of human history.
But which would most people rather pick? A safe group identity, or a life of shaking things up and being remembered and revered for it?
Most people are not willing to make that sacrifice. A lot of people will be unduly attached to their entertainment, to their predictable jobs, and choosing to slog away at routine rather than asking themselves “what can I do to make myself the very best?”
Granted a lot of this may come from limiting beliefs, and if you have them, throw them away without any second thoughts. The people who want to discourage you are always wrong (even if it is I myself that is discouraging you from anything, however implicitly. Don’t be discouraged!)
But I’ve seen this throughout my life. Given the choice between making valuable connections and investing in self-improvement and putting your all and living a quieter life…it’s clear which one most people want. But at the end of their life, I’ll guarantee you that all of those who chose the quieter path will regret it. Very, very deeply.
And this leads to a point that a lot of people don’t actually want to believe but I’m very convinced of. And that is…
Most people don’t actually want success in their lives
From my preschool years I noticed that I was surrounded by people (even adults) who often would cut off their best versions of themselves with limiting beliefs. “I can’t”, “no, I don’t have the talent for that”. “I’m smart, you’re not, you can do these things, I can’t. You know that”.
The limiting belief is actually an evolutionary mechanism. Believe me, getting the wisdom and going through the process of learning all of these languages and learning more about it year after year is…painful. You find yourself surrounded by people who seem to talk about nothing, who don’t care about the world and are anything put the explorer types to whom our future and present as a species is indebted!
Plainly put, fame is painful. Talent is painful. You’ll have the weight of many people trying to drag you down. And the higher you are, the more of them you’ll get. No wonder a lot of people choose a life of non-adventure!
They might SAY they want to be successful, but aren’t willing to undertake the personal sacrifices and become the variety of character to whom success shows itself.
If you don’t like me, you are the problem, not I
My good friends are among the smartest and well-spoken people I can imagine, ones who strive for justice, ones who are endlessly eloquent, those who think differently, bring light into the world, build bridges, build ropes to help others climb up, and ones that bring hope into the world.
I surround myself with these people and I actively seek them out. I want to learn from them and ask them for advice, share life experiences and ponder the world together, finding the newest ways in which heroism is required in the world.
And then there come times in which I attempt to start conversations with people, inquire about their journeys, their passions and how they feel great and heroic in THEIR own life…what sort of small (or big) victories they have achieved…
And sometimes the conversation gets actively shut down, sometimes they’ll choose to walk away or otherwise ignore me and give me short answers. Or worse, be explicitly mean to me, insult me based on my nationality or my job or my choices (although this has almost never happened in recent memory…)
I know where I stand in this world, and it is with the healers, the makers, and the heroes. I think as many people deserve to be in such company as possible! I think YOU deserve all the success that your deepest self dreams about, and has dreamt about for years!
If you somehow try to shut me out of your life, it is clear where you stand. You are the problem, I am not (although I know that I am very far from perfect, as are we all).
Lastly…
Most people have a visceral hatred towards the type of people who avoid the dustbin of history.
Any successful person knows this. A lot of name-calling, shunning and cruelty awaits for those who think differently.
Most people not only don’t want success, they don’t really like types associated with personality traits that are associated with it.
Often I find in the world that there is a conception that smart people or project-starters or entrepreneurs or those who have acquired great talent are somehow “making up” for something, so as to turn the very idea that these people help our species and our world get ahead is actually a flaw.
A lot of people are going to take the predictable paths in life with low-risks and many of them are going to make the non-conformists and the “movers and the shakers” feel bad.
But that’s only to try to prevent them from getting ahead during the one time that they have the advantage.
Because you, O dreamer, are going to head into a legacy that will make you, your country, your family, your ancestors, your progeny and everyone who even met you once extraordinarily proud!
And then it will be worth every pain, every doubt, every calamity that you incurred along the way.
SOME CONCLUDING THOUGHTS:
I understand if you disagree with me or even want to try to dissuade me. I am gladly open to any discussion of anything that I’ve given here. What’s more, I want absolutely none of you to construe any of this as a personal attack.
Yes, I know I can be harsh at times, but the trying times of humanity right now call me to be more indignant then I ever have been. I’m not wasting the one chance of life that I get, and I know you won’t either!
Yes, I know, polyglots don’t play favorites. Or at least that’s what we say we should do. I’ve noticed with great consistency that polyglots get attached to certain sets of languages a lot more than the rest of the group.
For example: I have a greater affinity to Jewish, Nordic, Celtic and Pacific Languages than I do global languages like German, French or Spanish. I have friends that focus on Balkan languages, Central Asian languages, Official Languages of the UN, Germanic Languages, languages of East Asia, and too many other types to list.
Today I’ll write about the five languages (note that I do not say “language learning journeys”) that changed my life the most.
And if I were to write a post about “The five language learning JOURNEYS that changed my life the most”, that would result in something different. The reason? Because the processes you undertake during a journey is very different from the benefits you reap from it. These discuss the benefits.
Krio
“Jared, I don’t want you to learn this language. It makes you sound like an idiot.”
That’s what someone said to me once about two years ago when I was discussing my parents’ journeys in Sierra Leone and the conversation turned to Krio and how to learn it.
Suffice it to say that I was not of that opinion in the slightest, aware of the fact that my parents needed interpreters at times when they were in up-country Sierra Leone.
Learning Krio truly enabled me to understand African-American culture in ways that I hadn’t before (this may surprise some of you that don’t know it, but the African-American culture in the US, the Afro-Caribbean Culture on the Islands [and places like Belize and Guyana], and the Krio culture of places like Sierra Leone and Liberia are actually linked to each other and have ties of solidarity and cultural mindsets).
Elements from Krio and its relatives from these three areas I mentioned entered American English not only in its informal registers but also its sentence structure. “Now that’s what I’m talking about!” is one such sentence that may have Krio influence, as a speaker of Krio would say “na ya a deh tok!” And, of course, we haven’t even discussed jazz jive, which exhibits way too many elements from Krio as well as native African languages to list coherently
The proverbs and idioms are also extremely colorful (as they are in all languages in the world and Creole languages especially).
In listening to Salone Krio speakers on YouTube, they find themselves poised between many aspects of their identity that they describe in a heartfelt matter, including the Civil War in recent memory, the hope of the country moving forward, as well as the solidarity ties to their cultural cousins on the other side of the pond (and in the rest of Africa as well).
The people of Sierra Leone seem to carry an extraordinary fortitude that someone like me can’t possibly understand, and my parents also remarked on the collective cultural work ethic and willingness to hang on as something that continues to inspire them to this day!
Krio speakers in the past century or so have been emphatic in making their language a symbol of Sierra Leone as well as a language that wasn’t just seen as “broken” or “mislearned”. You can even access Google Search in Salone Krio as well! (google.sl and press “Krio”)
Also one of my favorite rappers, who lays down a lot of realities and pains of the developing world, Bone na Throat, is very much worth checking out! (He uses Krio and English, not also to mention his performances alongside guest stars from other parts of Africa).
Modern Hebrew
I knew Ancient Hebrew as a child, and when I saw what happened to it as a result of one Eliezer ben-Yehuda and millions of determined people, I was stunned.
For one, my previous knowledge of English and Russian made it clear how much foreign influence was present in Modern Hebrew, right down to the verb structure.
But despite that, the charm of Hebrew that one can feel from reading the Hebrew Bible in the original is still kept very much intact. The verb system is not only kept in place but expanded upon to as to include words related to SMS and Facebook, among many other things.
(For those unaware: Semitic languages use a system in which a set of consonants form the basis for a verb stem. These letters, known as the root word or “shoresh” in Hebrew, will dance around in various forms that differ in terms of activity / passivity, as well as in verbs-turned-to-nouns. “l’kabel” is to accept, “kabbalah” is something accepted, which is not only the name for the Jewish mystical tradition [accepted from a divine source] but also a receipt you would get in an Israeli store).
Hebrew’s development found parallels in my own life story, in which my mannerisms and even my accent (not to mention my personality) changed as a result of hopping around the world. Jews hopped around the world as well, and Modern Hebrew, with its abundant influent from Slavic languages, English, French and many others, shows it, all while retaining its primeval charm.
Greenlandic
A language with HUNDREDS of suffixes! The hardest language I have attempted to date! And, then as well as now, my overall favorite language of them all!
Greenlandic, above all, was different. No other language I have studied (with the obvious exception of the closely-related Inuktitut) has worked in a similar manner.
It confounded me to no end. I had dreams of becoming fluent but no matter what, it seemed that understanding the radio or a lot of songs was always out of reach. And my writing abilities were in the trash (and sometimes they still are).
However, I decided that I was going to do SOMETHING. And the decision to do something , however small, with consistency—it edged me closer and closer to gaining a vocabulary that will probably serve me well during my trip to Greenland in October 2017.
What’s more, the culture I gained insight into actually inspired me to make my first video game, “Kaverini: Nuuk Adventures”. That’s not nothing!
I’d say more about it, but there’s only so much I can spoil for a product I haven’t released yet, right?
Tok Pisin
Up until I studied Tok Pisin, the languages I had studied in my life had been tongues of the developed world. Tok Pisin changed all that, and in encountering it I felt that I had encountered a time capsule.
The world that was captured in the cultures of PNG felt stuck between the present and whatever our ancestors were before many forms of technology made (and continue to make) our genuinely human side closed off to us.
Tok Pisin taught me how to be a human again, how to think in a language that was minimalistic yet expressive, and also gave me access to a culture that knows all too well that we are poised on a precipice in which either our desire for profit or our humanity will win (the time is not too far off in which we cannot have both!)
It also showed me that, even if I never intend to visit “the country”, I can feel a great resonance with “the culture” from a distance, sometimes even stronger than for countries that I had actually visited once!
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Irish
Ah yes, a language more commonly used by non-fluent speakers than by native speakers…or that’s how it seemed to me when I first encountered the way Irish is used on the internet.
Given how many non-natives were using it enthusiastically online and in speech, the many usages of the Irish language, from those who speak a handful of sentences to full-on TV shows and YouTube series, has captivated me. The Irish-Language sphere on the internet is one of enthusiasm and acceptance, one that many other language learning communities, endangered or not, should take note to emulate.
Trinidadian English Creole
My first language with no standardized writing system, it truly made me think about code switching more deeply than in any other language. Trinis will often shift between standard English and Trini Creole very quickly, and listening to informal radio programs with a substandard knowledge of the latter requires you to be on your toes.
What’s more, this was a language I chose in part because I live in Crown Heights (and I’m writing this article from there). I learned this language enough to have conversations in it, and suddenly my neighborhood came to life in a way I didn’t even think possible (although my knowledge of other Caribbean Creoles, such as Vincentian, Grenadian, or Jamaican, remain weak as of the time of writing).
Finnish
The language everyone tried to tell me was impossible. Finnish made me think about how distinct formal and informal language can be. The various “grammar games” that are played in Finnish’s more informal registers made it easy for me to switch from the colloquial variety to a formal one. A useful skill to have if you ever want to learn, let’s say, East Asian languages in great depth.
Finnish music can be heart-wrenching, but also some of the edgiest music I’ve ever heard, one that truly causes me to embrace my darkness and fuel it into my missions of peacemaking and bridge-building. The great pride that many Finnish speakers take in their culture and language is also something that profoundly affected me, and it made me realize that all cultures and languages have it—they just sometimes need more coaxing to get it out and fully expressed.
AND #1…
YIDDISH
I bet none of you is surprised at all right now, right?
Yiddish was the first language I became fluent in as an adult, and for the rest of my life it seems that I will be of the opinion that it is an excellent choice for the first language I definitively mastered. (That said, I’m still learning new things about it and at times, if I’m rusty on practice, I’ll slip up, but given that I do that in English too…I’m okay with that, I guess…)
Yiddish showed me that a language could be a community.
Yiddish showed me that a language could echo a culture in ways that reading from a guidebook or even holy texts just couldn’t.
Yiddish showed me that a language can serve for a depository of cultural memories, as “Yiddish-Taytsch” wandered off further East, picking up words along the way from Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Hungarian, and many others. The people groups you encounter rub off on you (as an individual AND as a nation), and that became clear with the story of Yiddish.
What’s more, the enthusiasm of the Yiddishist community all throughout the world is, I have to say it, unmatched.
The songs and stories of the Old Country are coming back to life, even among non-Hasidic Jews.
Certainly there may be some light tension (or sometimes not-so-light tension) between the secular and religious Yiddish speakers, but hey, when it comes down to it, we’re all “Klal Yisroel” in a sense (even if you happen to be a gentile Yiddish speaker, I would say! The time wasn’t long ago in which even non-Jewish Yiddish speakers were honorary Jews, as well as non-Yiddish speaking Jews as an oddity)
Yiddish showed me what the true prize of fluency in a language is, and even when I wasn’t fluency, I was still getting plenty of prizes. Yiddish made me a better Jew and a better human being through its proverbs, songs and, above all, the community and friends that I’ve acquired through this fascinating tongue that will probably not only remain with me throughout my life, but I hope to raise my children speaking it one day! (Of course they’ll have other languages, too!)
What languages have changed your life and how? Let me know!
A World With Little Worlds 