Welcome to the Listening Time Podcast.
Hey everybody, this is Connor, and you're listening to episode 200 of the Listening Time Podcast.
Thank you all for helping me reach episode number 200.
I'm really happy that I've made it this far with this podcast, and I think I mentioned this before.
Really, I'm just happy that there is this much content out there For English learners who are looking for interesting content.
That is easier than just native level content, but much more interesting and more difficult than lower level content made for beginners or whatever.
That's kind of what this podcast is for.
And this is the type of content that that i like as a language learner when i learn other languages, and i'm not ready to just listen to native content.
So i'm glad that there are 200 episodes out now.
That's a good amount of content, but i'm planning on doing many more episodes, so Hopefully, throughout my lifetime, I'll be able to release a lot of content for English learners.
Thank you all for helping me reach this milestone, this important number.
And in this episode, I'm going to talk about polyglots.
I wanted to talk about a language-related topic in this episode.
I thought it would be cool to talk about polyglots.
I'll talk about my definition of what a polyglot is.
I'll talk about whether or not I'm a polyglot or if I will ever be a polyglot.
I'll mention some polyglots that I admire in terms of their language learning experience and their successes.
So I'm sure you'll like this episode.
And, of course, I want to remind you that you can get my training, my listening practice seminars online, my pronunciation seminars, which will help you pronounce things more like a native speaker, and my advanced episodes, my sound training videos.
All of that content is available for different tiers of my membership.
The link to sign up is down below, so go and check that out.
And please try out my US Conversations podcast.
Give it a try.
See if you like it.
This is great practice for your listening, because I talk to native speakers from all over the US about tons of different topics.
It's super educational, really fun, and it's the type of practice you need so that you can become accustomed to listening to more than one person talking at normal speed.
I know it's hard, but you have to practice with it.
And that's why I made that podcast.
So check out my US Conversations podcast.
The link is down below.
And as always, please give this podcast a five-star rating and write a review if you can.
All right, let's get started.
Are your ears ready?
You know what time it is.
It's listening time.
Okay, let's talk about polyglots.
Let's start by defining the word polyglot.
And let me just tell you, there is no one definition that everyone agrees on.
So what is my definition of a polyglot?
And by the way, I'm not strict about this definition.
This is just my current idea of what I think a polyglot is, but this idea might change in the future.
And if you have a different definition of what a polyglot is, I'm not going to argue with you because I think this is just a personal choice of how we want to define this word.
I think I've said this before that for me, a polyglot is someone who can speak five languages at a B2 level, like an upper intermediate level, the level where most people would consider you to be fluent.
If you have a B2 level, in my book, you're fluent.
By the way, we can use the phrase in my book to mean fluent. in my opinion, according to me.
So if you have a B2 level in a language, in my book, you're fluent.
For me, that's clear.
Other people might be stricter with that.
I'm not, and I think that most people would probably agree that if someone is at a B2 level, they can speak a language fluently.
Of course they're going to have many mistakes still, phrases and structures that might be a little bit wonky.
Wonky just means strange, bizarre, not normal.
So they're not going to be really advanced, but they'll be able to speak to you in a comfortable way about almost any normal topic that's not too technical, right.
So I've said this before that I think, if you can speak five languages At a B2 level or higher, you're a polyglot.
But I'm starting to think that this definition is a little too strict.
I think most likely the number should be four languages, not five.
I'm starting to change here and think maybe it's four.
I don't know.
I would say four or five, but it's probably better to say four.
And why is that?
Well, I think one of the reasons why I'm starting to think that four languages is enough is because when someone speaks two languages, we would say they're bilingual.
If they speak two languages at like almost a native level, right?
Some people don't have a high, strict standard for using the term bilingual.
Like if someone just speaks one foreign language fluently, they might just say that that person's bilingual, even though they're only at a B2 level or a C1 level.
But you get my point.
If someone speaks two languages, we might say they're bilingual.
And if someone speaks three languages, we might even say that they're trilingual.
That's not as common, to be honest, but we can say that that person is trilingual.
Tri is a common prefix that we might use.
However, with four, I guess you could say quadrilingual, and I think I talked about this before, but honestly, I've never heard anyone say that in my whole life.
I think once someone speaks four languages, almost nobody would say that they're quadrilingual.
They would not really have a good word for that, besides quadrilingual polyglot, unless they say the person speaks four languages.
It's either that or they're a polyglot.
So I think that's one of the reasons why I think four is maybe the proper number, because bilingual is a very common word.
Trilingual is not super common, but it's still kind of normal.
It doesn't sound weird.
Quadrilingual just sounds crazy to me.
So even though that exists as a suffix like quadra, it just isn't what we would say.
So I've changed a little bit on that recently, I think, because I think I said five before.
Now I'm starting to think that four is probably the right number.
But even three might be acceptable because in geometry, we have the word polygon.
If I'm not mistaken, a polygon is a shape with three or more straight sides.
And the fact that we use poly for that word and it only needs to have three sides.
Technically, that means to me that poly can be used for things with three.
So maybe a polyglot only speaks three languages.
I think some people might have that definition as well.
But I'm going to say four to five, because I think our image of polyglots nowadays is like someone who speaks a lot of languages.
And three doesn't really seem like a lot anymore.
It is.
Three languages is fantastic.
I'm not trying to downplay that.
But I think in general, a lot in people's minds might start at four or five.
So let's just say four or five at this point, maybe four.
So I think that the fact that my first reaction in the past was to say five and not four or three, I think that shows how high our standard has become for polyglots.
And I want to talk about that a little bit because I feel like we've mystified what a polyglot is.
We've made polyglots seem like really amazing, mysterious people with this incredible talent to learn languages.
And I think that our standard of what a polyglot is has just become very high.
I don't necessarily think it's a great thing that we have raised the standard of what a polyglot is and we've mystified it like.
Only this small select group has what it takes to become a polyglot.
And so...
I think that's kind of our modern image of polyglots.
I may be wrong, but I think that's just kind of our modern take on what a polyglot is.
And I think this is due to the internet.
Before the internet, we didn't really see a lot of people showcasing their skills.
When you showcase your skills, that means that you show them to people by using these skills.
So before the Internet you didn't see a lot of people showcasing their skills, their ability in different languages.
But now we have the Internet.
And so you can see people talking in different languages, showing how many languages they speak.
And I think because of that.
Now we tend to glorify polyglots more, probably more than before.
And not only that, I think that we're also more critical now.
Now people have this certain image of polyglots, that And if someone falls short of that image, they might not agree that that person is a polyglot, because they don't live up to a certain standard.
Or maybe they're not a good polyglot because...
When they made a video speaking different languages, they made a few mistakes when speaking one of those languages.
Like we might start to become more critical now, because people are showcasing their skills online, in videos and on the internet.
People like to criticize other people.
I talked about this in the episode about haters, right?
So I think that it's no surprise that now you'll see people glorifying certain polyglots but also being really critical of certain polyglots.
Like, I'll see this sometimes.
People will comment on how a certain polyglot is not impressive because he learned a bunch of romance languages like Spanish French Portuguese Italian, etc.
And they act like that's no big deal.
Like oh, that's easy because those languages are related to And let me tell you, as someone who has focused most of his attention on romance languages, it is not easy to learn all the different romance languages.
Sure, it is easier, in my opinion, than learning languages that are way different and have nothing in common with your language, but it is not by any means easy to learn multiple romance languages okay.
I've learned Spanish, I'm learning French, and they're both romance languages and let me tell you, it's not easy.
It's not easy to become fluent in French just because I'm fluent in Spanish okay so uh, i think people can be too critical of polyglots um and, of course, like i said before, they can also glorify polyglots.
So the internet really makes things more extreme right, and really, in these videos where polyglots are talking, they're speaking in different languages.
We can't really get a good sense of their level, because oftentimes they prepare these videos in advance.
They have a script, so they know what they're going to say and they might just prepare really well to say that one thing.
But if you start asking them other questions in that language, they might not be able to hold a conversation very well.
So It's kind of hard to judge people's levels just based on one video or whatever.
But there are some polyglots that have been around on the internet for many years and that for sure you know that they're legit polyglots.
They're very experienced language learners.
I wanted to give a few shout-outs, meaning I wanted to mention a few names that you might find interesting.
You can look them up afterwards and get inspired by their videos.
For me, the most impressive polyglot I've ever seen in my whole life is Richard Simcott.
You can look him up afterwards.
He speaks many languages. at a very high level.
He is super impressive.
There are videos of him speaking a bunch of different languages and you scroll down to the comments and almost everyone is saying wow, he sounds like a native speaker in my language.
So he's the most impressive polyglot I've ever seen.
Go check him out.
His name's Richard Simcott.
And another polyglot I really like is Luca Lampariello.
He is Italian.
I like him because he's He speaks a lot of languages very well with a really good accent as well.
And I like that he shares certain techniques that he uses.
He kind of shows you a lot of what he does when he learns languages.
And I found that these techniques are pretty interesting.
And I'm not exactly using them how he uses them.
But they've kind of inspired me recently to do some things differently with my own language learning.
So I wanted to give him a shout out.
And I also want to give a shout out to Steve Kaufman.
He has probably the biggest channel out of any of these polyglots.
The reason why I like him a lot is because he's really transparent with his languages.
Like he'll speak these languages and upload the video of him speaking them with a tutor, even though he doesn't have a high level in these languages.
I really like that because he's not just trying to hide the fact that he doesn't have a really high level in some of these different languages.
He's just open about it and sharing his language learning experience with you.
So his videos are always a pleasure to watch for me.
I like hearing his perspective on language learning as well.
So you should go check out those channels when you're done with this episode.
So now let me talk about myself a little bit.
Am I a polyglot?
Some people have called me a polyglot.
And let me tell you, I am not a polyglot.
And I'm not just being modest.
I am not a polyglot by most people's definition, I would say.
By my criteria, I'm definitely not a polyglot.
And I think it's important to be really honest about this.
I talked about being transparent.
That's a good thing because it helps language learners feel encouraged.
I don't want to pretend like I'm this amazing polyglot that speaks all these languages at a high level.
No.
I want you to know that I struggle and I'm still learning how to learn languages better, and I still struggle in my language learning journey.
I'm still figuring things out.
I have succeeded in some areas, but in other areas, I'm still trying to succeed.
I hope that that encourages you and gives you a more realistic image of language learning.
I don't want to just portray myself as a talented skilled person in terms of language learning.
I want you to see that I'm like you.
Maybe I've just been learning languages for longer, or maybe I've just tried learning more languages than you.
But really, I'm not a polyglot.
And so I want to clear that up.
I want to make that crystal clear here.
Specifically, I speak English and Spanish fluently.
Okay, so you can say that I speak those languages for sure, and English is my native language, obviously.
I'm hoping that I can consider myself fluent in French within the next six months.
I've talked about this recently here on this podcast, I think on YouTube and I don't know where else, but I've talked about the fact that I'm using some new techniques and I'm seeing some benefits already.
And I'm trying this out over the next four to six months.
And then I'll talk all about it afterwards.
And I think this new method is really going to help me.
It's going to boost my learning.
And I'm hoping that...
Four, five, six months from now, I'll say six to be safe.
Hopefully in six months, I'll be able to tell you that I speak French fluently as well.
So I can converse in French about a lot of things already.
I can understand pretty well French.
I have a decent level, let's say, but I wouldn't consider myself fluent yet.
I still have some work to do before I can say that I'm fluent.
So I hope that maybe in six months I'll be fluent in French, so that will be English, Spanish and French.
And in the past, I spoke Portuguese at an intermediate level.
I haven't touched it in a while.
It's been almost close to two years, maybe, since I've last spoken Portuguese.
So my level is definitely not very good right now.
But I think that I could revive it in a relatively short period of time if I wanted to.
And I don't know if I'll go back to Portuguese and try to reach a B2 level or not.
If this new method that I'm using for my French learning goes really well and I become fluent over the next six months, I might be tempted to try it with Portuguese, just to replicate it and just gain more experience using these techniques.
So I might go back to Portuguese.
I don't know.
I'm not super interested in it right now.
So we'll see.
But I guess you could say that if I become fluent in French and if I revisit Portuguese and become fluent in Portuguese, then by some people's definition I guess at that point I would be a polyglot.
I would probably be just barely a polyglot for most people's definition, because I would have a few foreign languages in addition to my native language English, and they would probably be at a B2 level.
My Spanish is a little higher than that, but French and Portuguese maybe at a B2 level.
So I would probably barely be a polyglot for some people, especially because these are all romance languages and people tend to criticize when people just learn different romance languages.
So I guess at that point, you might be able to call me a polyglot depending on your definition.
But I'm not there yet.
So I'm not a polyglot right now.
And do I want to be a polyglot?
Yes, for certain reasons.
Really, I just want to learn languages.
I don't necessarily want to be a polyglot, to say I'm a polyglot, but I want to be a polyglot because I want to learn different languages.
So I guess the answer is yes.
My reasons are various, actually.
Part of it is just for my career.
I give a lot of language learning advice here on this podcast and in my membership, my YouTube channel.
So I wanna get better at language learning.
I want more experience with different languages.
So I wanna be able to do that, take a few languages up to a B2 level and be able to give advice about that and help more people.
So part of it is like my job.
I feel like I have a duty to learn languages, gain more experience with different languages and not just one language like not just focus on only one language and not have other experience with other challenges that other languages present.
I want to face different challenges in different languages, gain experience with all these different elements of grammar and pronunciation or whatever, because that's going to help me, help my audience more.
Right.
And I'll be able to give better advice.
Right.
Of course I want to learn different languages because I'm interested in different cultures and countries.
So that's an obvious one that fascinates me.
And I want the brain benefits.
I want to always be learning languages to...
Have that exercise for my brain.
I think it's very good for the mind.
I really want those good benefits of doing that.
And really, it's just fun for me.
I'm fascinated by the world of languages.
I love the challenge.
It's really interesting for me to discover the world that the language opens up to you.
So it's just fun.
So I think that for those reasons, I want to be a polyglot.
I want to learn languages, right?
And I might become one.
One day.
I hope I will, because my goal is to become fluent in French, and so that'll be three languages.
I want to take another language to that level to gain more experience as a language learner.
So, whether that's Portuguese or Greek or whatever, I want to do that again with another language after French.
So I hope that I become a polyglot in the future and I hope I gain a lot of good experience in terms of language learning, at least in European languages.
I've never tried to learn a language that's really distant from my own.
That's really just far out there.
I haven't done that yet, but at least for European languages, I've had some experience.
So at least I'll have some good advice to give for people learning these different languages, maybe.
And now, at this point, I'm interested in reaching that B2 level in some languages, like I said, just for those different reasons that I mentioned.
I want to perfect my method, my philosophy about how to reach a fluent level.
I want to challenge myself to do this in more than just French, to do it in another language afterwards.
And I really like that B2 level because you can communicate really well at that level.
You're fluent.
You can talk to people.
So that's my goal now, to reach that level in at least a couple more languages.
But later on...
I might just hone in on one language if I get really interested in it.
Like, if I get really interested in French or Greek or whatever, afterwards maybe I'll just hone in on that language and try to reach an even higher level.
By the way, when you hone in on something, it means you pay special attention to that particular thing.
So right now my goal is B2 with French, and then another language after that, and then maybe another one, who knows?
But I might eventually just become really interested in focusing on one language and reaching an advanced level in that language, for whatever reason.
So maybe later.
But right now, because my goal is what it is.
Hopefully I'll be able to say that I'm a polyglot in the near future.
I don't know how near, but...
You get my point.
So I'm not a polyglot.
I like getting advice from polyglots.
I like getting inspired by polyglots.
And maybe one day I'll be someone that you could refer to as a polyglot.
So I hope that you found this episode interesting.
I hope that you like when I talk about these language-related topics.
And I want to encourage you I'll see you next time.
So check that out.
The link is down below.
And check out my US Conversations podcast, in which I talk to native speakers from all over the country.
It's a lot of fun.
It's great practice for your listening.
The link to sign up is also down below.
All right.
Thank you so much for listening to this episode.
And I'll talk to you on the next episode of Listening Time.
