Exposing YouTube's FAKE POLYGLOTS and their Lies
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- Опубликовано: 24 авг 2024
- Who is a real polyglot and who is fake? RUclipsr's in the language learning community have been getting bolder and bolder with their claims. This video is to help the all the viewers learning languages keep on the right path to success. There are a lot of fake polyglots out there pretending to be fluent speakers. I sat down with Matt vs Japan to talk about how some people are faking it and making a fortune deceiving viewers with language lies and bad advice.
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Thanks so much for having me on!
I'm really tired of all these so called polyglots and the conversations they show on their video is pretty much the same over and over like why not talk about something different in those languages.
@@mattvsjapan I can’t wait to see your version of the 2nd part of this conversation when you finish editing it.
Man Matt's one of the biggest reason Im able to pick up japanese so efficiently.. a genuine guy
So Polyglots are people who are fluent in speaking and writing the language as well? Not just speak the language but know how to write and read too?
As Bruce Lee said:"I don't fear the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks. I fear the man who practiced one kick 10,000 times."
Although I disagree in that statement when to do with fighting as the opposite is true.
Wow that's a great quote
@@BenjjyBoi it’s absolutely true for fighting. It’s why Kano’s judo students wiped the floor with traditional jujutsu masters and their “hundreds of moves.”
Judo just took a handful of effective jujutsu holds and throws, which were safe enough to train at full contact instead of just kata, and focused on perfecting those into muscle memory. It proved FAR more effective.
@@bluesdealer
Maaaaan, what does this “Bruce Lee” guy know about fighting anyway?
@John Doe That's unnecessarily rude of you.
My experience with speaking Chinese/Japanese: When you start learning/speaking with natives they will compliment you a lot. Once you actually reach a decent level, your native friends will start to tell you how shit you actually are.
Lol, they might start to point out the flaws more.
Lol yeah it’s a joke in the Japanese learning community that if they say “your Japanese is very good” it means your Japanese needs more work. The true way of knowing when it’s good is when they don’t say anything about it
Truth! I'm still waiting for the day when I'm told my Chinese is s*** as you say.
Yes they will humble you!!
This only really happens for white people. I get shat on immediately lol.
I was inspired to learn french by a fake polyglot , and I really went for it.
I studied for 8 hours a day for 5 months. And then I came back to that same video that inspired me, and I couldn't believe it, his french was super basic, he made tons of mistakes and made weird sentences. This time I was able to notice.
Ikenna?
@@testingsomething5280 Yes. The dude was pretty basic and stuttering a lot when he speaks other language.
Not a fan of ikenna, but I will play the devil's advocate here. If he inspired you put that much effort, you definitely owe it to him. But in conclusion don't believe everything you see on the internet.
@@omarm2426 as a french speaker I think Ikenna is pretty fluent at speaking french, he even know how to blend words like ("j'sais pas" instead of "je ne sais pas" as we do in real casual conversation, So I'm curious about which video you're talking about pls ? he just have an American accent no ?
@@rupkumarmurmu4840 Absolutely. I wouldn't buy his book tho.
I'm Swedish and I used to watch a youtuber who claimed to be a polyglot. It was really fascinating watching videos of him interacting with people in their native tongues. Then one day I watched a video where he walked up to a Swedish girl and started "speaking Swedish". She looked super confused and I was super confused too because he was pronouncing words SO terribly that it was impossible to tell what language he was speaking... The girl clearly had to use all her brain power to be able to figure out what on earth he was trying to say and what really annoyed me was that he put text on the screen that read "She is so shocked that I can speak her language" or something similar to that. It made me realize that he probably wasn't fluent in all those other languages either and that it just seemed like he was since he was so confident and since I only speak Swedish and English.
Was it Wouter?
Vem var det?
@@stella11777 Wouter Corduwener
Wouter?
Interesting, thanks for posting your thoughts!
I had an interesting experience. I had been in Japan for about 2 years and was visiting Tokyo to renew my Visa. I had to stay in a hostel in Ikebukuro. In the evening I was sitting with some tourists. One guy was from the US with his Japanese American girlfriend (nisei) and there was this girl from Europe. She had basic Japanese down but was claiming to know more than me. I didn't call her out on it. I let it slide. So I asked her how many languages do you speak? She said that in Europe most people can speak multiple languages. I speak French, English, Swiss and German. The American guy asks "You speak German?" looking surprised. The girl was so proud of the fact she is a polygot and said yes. And he asked, at what level? She said, University level. Then the American guy started speaking absolutely fluent German... and it sounded so cool. Apparently he was from a military family and he had lived in Germany for about 10 years as a child. He was just so excited to be able to speak with someone in German. And the so called Polygot girl from Europe couldn't understand a word of what he said (because he spoke so fluently and at a natural speed, it was too quick for her to pick up) and she had to admit her German was that of a 4 year old. She thought she was safe boasting among us simple Americans and Australians... no way did she expect that the American guy spoke fluent German. It was the coolest thing I have ever seen. So you never know. Best policy is to be honest about your abilities.
I just ask out of curiosity. What country was she from? When I read she claimed to speak "swiss" I thought she might be swiss and assumed, she was speaking german as mother tongue (is this correct english?). I am swiss, from the german part, and learned french and english in school. Unfortunatly i lost almost all of my french :-( In the french part they do learn german in school, but not swiss german, so i'm a littel confused about her homecountry 😅
I also try to learn japanese for about 7 years now and I'm still so bad it hurts. I don't know how my japanese teacher has so much patience with me honestly.
I agree:)
Yeah wait...last time I checked, there is no language “Swiss”. In Switzerland, they speak France at the French border. German near that border and Italian near the Alps and Italian border. So she must have been more than full of shit. She must have been flat out stupid.
Edit: oh I missed the part of your comment @TrullaDerBergzwerg where you said you’re actually Swiss, that’s great so I can ask you...is my comment correct? No language “Swiss” just the languages of the countries that border you? And yes “mother tongue” is a correct way to say that...also “first language” is probably what I would say. Also it’s on my bucket list to visit Switzerland. However I’d be in the Italian region, as I’m half Italian and trying to learn the language. My Spanish is better though (I’m half Mexican too).
Oh and is it true that you have your whole country rigged to blow up with the push of a button in case you’re like invaded and as like a last resort you can take out yourselves as well as the invaders? I heard that somewhere and now I can find out if it’s true :D
@@ZolFox Yes, that girl was full of shit and to my knowledge the languages of Switzerland are: French, German, Romansh and Italian.
No such as thing as Swiss language however these people in Switzerland have accents and their own cultural ways of speaking.
In Belgium they speak French, German and Dutch and they have their own dialects there too and again there’s no such thing as Belgium language.
It’s really shallow and plain silly that there are people out there trying to impress others hoping they will always encounter uneducated or people who are simply unaware and don’t know foreign just to get a compliment and feel better about themselves.
Let me tell you a story I’ve just remembered.
Years ago there was a woman that stopped talking to me because her brother fancied me, she preferred his ex at the time and I was not that interested in him but that’s all besides the point.
At the time I was unaware of my Prussian ancestry and I was talking to someone next to her about how German language and it’s spoken in Austria bla bla they use a few different words here and there and this woman that didn’t speak to me decided to butt in the conversation and just to show off about the words she knew and she wasn’t even involved in the conversation and after that we have barely spoken, her German level is no higher than A1-A2.
Some people just like to show off.
As it was said in the video real polyglots work extremely hard at their passion and don’t go around showing off.
My pet peeve: polyglots claiming "I learned language X in 15 days!", when they should actually say that they studied it FOR 15 days.
Subtle difference in a cheap shot.
I think the video shouldn't be called exposing when there is nothing exposed ,just established. "Talking with matt about youtubers we dont like without saying their actual name" seems more appropriate too, quite a cheap way to get views looking at it from your perspective
Yeah anyone can learn some basic words and phrases in many languages in a couple of weeks.
@@kaprisun6486 Yes, key difference though--and you'll notice a theme here--is that Oriental Pearl explicitly says in this video, why people, including herself use sensational titles, and why there is no sense in denying that using the psychology of headlines and clickbait is necessary to sell your video, literally or just to convince people and the algorithm. You are comparing "claims" to "what the video should be called", you're narrowing his premise for the sake of an exaggeration. Many commenters here defend Laoshu, who also, apparently, does not pretend to be a master of these random languages, but claims to have studied them for a short time. He apparently also claims that his self-taught method for learning languages is repeatable and sells a course to teach that, not the languages themselves as far as I know. People clearly respond to that, and this video.
Having a level of proficiency from beginner conversational to 6-year old level language skills are impressive to a lot of people, precisely because language-learning skills don't come naturally to a lot of people without good teachers and practice. I am wanting to say...your sarcasm took me a second to register...because it seems kind of tonedeaf. There is such a difference between clickbait and the content it's on, if the content of the clickbait is also making false claims then you have a problem. A cheeky exaggeration for the sake of drama is pretty universally accepted as long as the first line of the article or video corrects their intentions. Pearl does this immediately. There are those "I learned X language in 2 weeks" that don't. And there are people that just want to study a language for a couple weeks and do a social experiment, they start thinking of themselves as polyglots (they also don't realize how cringey and terrifying it is to approach a stranger in a busy city market in a metropolitan city, and speak their potentially obscure language without explaining themselves first, and if they do explain themselves or ask any questions, they reveal themselves to have no social skill). I think Laoshu is popular also because he has good social skills in general despite some cringey moments here and there from the bits I've seen.
@@rawkhawk414 spot on
I'm Brazilian and after 10+ years studying English, I started teaching it at a school (I did it just to get more material for improving myself, but I did my best for the sake of the students). The last teacher was someone who went to Ireland and lived there for 2 months and he said he's learned English in only two months! I don't agree with this kind of thing. They make people feel bad about themselves for struggling so much to learn a new language when they "learned" so fast. And the reality is that they just know the basics...
My cousin is bilingual -- Japanese and English (we are Hapa), and he teaches English in Tokyo. He says that his students aren't allowed to join his advanced English class untli they are proficient and fluent enough to have an argument with him. He says that arguing requires a high level of proficiency in a language because you have to defend your stance, and then use a bunch of different rhetorical tools (Logos, Ethos, and Pathos), to try and persuade the other to your side. He says that it's for that reason why couples who have a fight will often flip back to their native tongue when they're really angry because it's easier convey what you want.
When my partner and I fight, we use our native languages and it's really disjointed. We make it work though. 😅
They use the term “Hafu” to describe someone who is half Japanese.
By that logic I’m not fluent in English because I got kicked out my debate club for just trying 😂
This is what convinced me that I had mastered French, when I would have to argue and attempt to reason with my irrational ex in French. She even acknowledged that this showed I really knew the language 😂
Somebody should tell you that nobody cares what your cousin says in at least one language.
Read about Ziad Fazah. He claimed to be "fluent" in 59 languages, and was even listed in the Guinness Book of world records. He always rehearsed his "act," and was therefore able to convince people. Then on a Chilean tv show, the show hosts surprised him by having people ask him questions in different languages. He could only answer the first one (Arabic), which is his native language.
Thanks, I just watched the show and it was hilarious
Looks like the judges where drunk on Guinness when evaluating him.
yeah, we got him! haha
Looking this up now hahaha
@@cookdislander4372 Let me know if you can't find it. I have rarely laughed as hard as when he tried to speak Finnish (which l know). Incomprehensible gibberish and worst accent l have heard.
All these "Polyglots" who know so many ways to say "hello", "how are you", "I'm fine", "thank you", and "I know a little ____"
I think that the real thing to appreciate with these channels is their extreme amount of confidence. They are extremely good motivators because even though they are basically walking through a maze blindfolded they still somehow get to the fine and have a good time doing it. Language skills are not only vocabulary, grammar, etc. but also communication skills. If you aren't confident enough to talk to someone in their language, you will never learn. Laoshu and other "good" polyglot channels that don't have crazy sponsors really just do it for fun, and they are pretty good at getting people motivated. His extreme confidence was what made me able to have my first Japanese conversation, because if he could, why couldn't I?
@@loganpatriquin9443 But if I'm gonna be honest though, they shouldn't call themselves polyglot just by being confident enough to regurgitate basic phrases and words and attempting to illicit shocked responses. Maybe an "avid language learner", but I know that won't get clickbaits lol
@@alistairt7544 Actually, he is a polyglot, he speaks Mandarin, Japanese and Spanish fluently. For other languages, he knows and speaks only the common greeting words to make them happy. He makes his videos to show us people's 'REACTIONS' when he speaks their native languages. We don't watch his videos to see if he really knows, learn and shit. And btw, he never said he is a polyglot. I speak for laoshu in particular, i don't know about others.
I think this video is made because they're jealous of his success by knowing what they've already known too (and a bit more).
“The reason I learned this language is because ____”
@@Conn_0088 It's weird. Some people say you need to know at least 3 languages to be a polyglot, and others say 4.
I speak Tagalog, Bisaya and Waray. I’ve seen a few prank videos of white people speaking 12 or so different languages and whenever they speak to Filipinos I could barely understand them because they’re accent was so bad. It was painfully obvious they had only memorized a few sentences.
I'm glad someone who knows the language is here to confirm this.
I joined to Philtalk thanks to you and I'm happy learning tagalog.
This is true
indonesia join talk, even if language in close region and same root, but in end up 80% different. And u completly not understand what other talk. liek java and maluku is completly diferent. even in same country indonesia
What about the Filipino boy whose video of him "speaking" 20 languages or so that went viral? That was pretty lame.
As a polyglot lady, I am always forthcoming in the fact that I am not fluent in every language that I speak. Coming from a multicultural family, I grew up in a multilingual environment. From a young age, I gained a passion for languages, watching my father switch effortlessly from French to English, to Spanish. That inspired me to learn different languages when I was in high school, and then university. While I am now able to converse in seven languages, I am by no means fluent in all of them, and I don't pretend to be. Learning languages is difficult. It takes a lot of time, effort, and dedication. Chinese classes exhausted me, I used to cry in frustration whilst doing my homework. German grammar is extremely tough to me, it made me wanna drink lol! Just be wary of people who pretend to be polyglots, because they count on the fact that you have little to no knowledge of the language, in order to fool you into thinking they're fluent. If you wanna learn a new language, I fully encourage you. It has opened doors for me, and I have been able to make new friends from all over. It also helps immensely on the job market.
I really relate to what you said. I am kind of aiming to be where you are and can probably converse in 3-4 languages with others more basic and inconsistent skills (listening good, reading bad etc.) and I feel these youtubers make it so black and white when it isn't at all... for me and I'm sure for a lot of other people, learning languages is a very personal journey that involves a lot of self-critique, self-reflection etc and a lot of time and commitment... most of the language videos just scratch the surface of that lifestyle and give a false view of it.
that’s impressive as hell- I’ve been learning german for a little over a year now, i can’t imagine learning another language on top of that, let alone seven! side note, ive heard a lot of people say that german grammar is confusing, and it is, but I actually like it a lot. I’m the kind of guy that likes to break down intricate things to try and understand them, so ive been having fun learning the grammar. Except for flavoring particles, flavoring particles can kiss my ass lmao
I just speak 3...but I'm fluent in all of them. I can wannabeing in french, Japanese, Portuguese and Italian...but I'm garbage In those languages 😂😂😂
SO RELATABLE. that’s why i find so funny those who claim to be native speakers and know 0 about the culture of that language and have horrible accents and know 2 phrases
True. I am learning my 7th language now. Although languages are very much my thing, l most definitely did *not" learn to speak anything by studying "15 minutes every morning." The problem is that there are so many people out there who claim to know a language without even having the ability to order coffee in said language. It makes those who do not know two or more languages feel inadequate, and those (like us), who spent entire chunks of our lives on living in different countries and studying, seem "average." Time and time again have l caught someone pretending to know a language having to admit they didn't (with excuses, of course), because l knew the language and tried to talk to them.
I think it's cute when "polyglots" like XiaomaNYC learn a few phrases of rare languages to surprise people at markets and restaurants and stuff. It seems to warm people's hearts when a foreigner learns basic things like how to order and say "thank you" or "this is delicious." If you're not pretending to be fluent and are open about how you only know a few words and phrases I think its ok.
The thing to be careful of is misinterpreting cultural cues, which is a problem I have with these videos. The polyglot pitches the videos as impressing native speakers, but they can't read the room. Instead of being impressed, they are politely tolerating the guy who is holding a camera grappling with a few lines in their language. It's why these videos can sometimes come off as arrogant, especially when there is a mix of cultures that are verbally expressive versus people who are more inclined to be stoic.
@@NUSensei What I've noticed, too, is that the videos are always about "I fooled these people and then they were SHOCKED when I spoke to them in their native language!" I have only seen a few of these videos, but they seem to be much about shock/headline value.
I have always felt something off about that guy…. There is something not very genuine about how he interacts with people. If I’m not mistaken it’s always the same phrases also.
@@xdranzer0004 well yeah, people tend to ask the same introductory questions (where are you from, is your wife [ethnicity that speaks my language], etc), so he learns what he needs to learn to answer those questions and order food and that's about it. I don't think he claims to be fluent in anything other than Mandarin.
@@jameverywhere He has gotten pretty good at Spanish as well now
The more you know a language, the more humble you become about it. Some real polyglots won’t even tell you because even though they’re almost at a native level they will still be insecure about it.
Exactly. The more you know, the more you realize how much you don’t know and that makes humble
@@user-or5rq6fk1x facts!
That's it! My German is intermediate level, I can understand not every thing but a lot, and speak enough to get by, but I'd never say I'm fluent in German.
@@user-or5rq6fk1x Truth
Yeah. Brazilian Portuguese is my second language, and I’m always afraid to say I can speak it because I worry that if I talk to an actual native speaker I’ll mess up.
Person: "Hi, I'm a polyglot. I speak 10 languages!"
That same person: *Only speaks one language fluently, has basic conversational skill in one, and knows how to say "hi, how are you" and "thank you" in 8 languages and "read" badly Google translated phrases.*
That's Wouter basically
@@sokidanz aha 😂
@Kalevipoeg There's no need to lie, we all see that English is not your native language
@@smrtfasizmu6161 what?? it's believable..
Hahahhah!!!
Translator here, native Italian speaker. I understand the entertainment value of the "I've learned X language in 3 hours" videos, but I've talked to a lot of people/students who literally decided not to study a certain language anymore because they got SCARED by these "polyglots" and completely gave up their studies for fear of being inadequate at what they did. That's incredibly sad, knowing that many people think these videos are realistic. (I have to add, their learning method is so WRONG most of the times. They don't even try with the basics, they just go and learn some sentences without grammar/vocabulary and that's... useful for a trip? But nothing more?)
You're totally right.
That's what gets me. Learning only the basics is the bare minimum. I want to know WHY it's said that way. People just want to know phrases when I really just want to learn the language, genuinely, because I find it fascinating. So I am studying grammar. It's important! And I hate when people say it isn't. Saw some polyglot channels that were saying that is the method. "I read the dictionary in that language" yeah sure you did and learned nothing about conjugations, I see.
I was one of the people who watched those videos and thought, "wow, I guess they're a genius and I'm pretty dumb." I know better now, thanks.
Thank you. I've felt terrible struggling with learning german and in the mean time seeing all those "I've learned a language in such a short time!" videos. It really makes you feel just ... not capable enough?
I know right... You started to think that your brain is weaker than many people...
Don't give up! German is a really tough language if you're coming from English, and way harder than French or Spanish. Du kannst es schaffen 👍
Lmao...why should that discourage you??
You should know that people have different paces in learning languages..it's normal..I am also learning german and some of the people I started with are far ahead of me now..it's nothing bad cos some people have that talent of learning languages fast
Like someone else said everyone has their own pace at learning. Iv been learning German for 11months now and I’d say I’m in-between A2-B1. Compared to those people that be like “I learned German in just 6 months” scams. Everyone moves at their own pace and that’s perfectly alright
Me too! I'm two months into German and can form some.... Very simple phrases. Id be comfy ordering a coffee, basically lol.
But I saw one guy claim that A1 proficiency in a romance language should take 2 months minimum. I felt like an idiot, like maybe I don't have what it takes to learn a second language. Thankfully I haven't been discouraged, I learned that A1 takes like 200 hours of legitimate training, and piling that into two months would mean you probably have no job lol.
When you realize the average 5 year old has a vocabulary of 10,000 words in their native language, you realize how little you know and how far you have to go.
Just checking if this is a legit statistic? I completely agree with the sentiment but I'm pretty sure a 5 year old doesn't have a vocab of 10,000 words in their native language.
@@daysandwords a 5 year old has an active vocabulary of around 2200 words and a passive vocabulary (they can understand) 10,000 words. By age 6 it's 2600 active and 24,000 passive.
I learned English since I was like 4 years old. However I barely speak English in my daily life so I still struggle with speaking.
Hah, I know 75 words in Korean 😎😎😎
@@UczuciaTM hah I know 400 words in Japanese
I lived in Japan for 22 years. Within a given week I would always be asked, (in Japanese) Where are you from? How long have you been in Japan? And when are you going back to your country? Do you like living in Japan? I got tired of answering the same questions. I was always polite and friendly... but it did make me feel, that no matter how long I lived there, I would always be seen as a foriegner that had just arrived in Japan and was just visiting for a short time and would go back to my country in the near future. And the looks I got from arguing with my children in Japanese in the street. My kids look more Japanese than foriegn and can you imagine me a grown man dragging a crying two year old down the street - with them screaming at me in Japanese. Someone must of thought I was kidnapping a child LOL.
Lol
[Copying this list to learn in jaoanese]
Oh no 💀💀💀
Damn dude that’s rough. Yeah I’ve heard that Japan is quite a xenophobic culture. I didn’t know how true it was but it seems to be the case in your experience.
What motivated you to move to Japan if I may ask?
Laoshu505000 is missed so much these days for this very reason. He was so humble and so honest about his progress in certain languages and you can watch him ask foreigners to help him learn rather than him just bloviating his own ego.
Rip. Moses.
I miss him, too :-/
Rip
big RIP, i binged his videos in early covid days. really enjoyed him
He was rad.
Such a great human being.
this has made me realize that the face of “shock” and “awe” that someone knows their language in those videos is actually just a person’s face when they’re desperately trying to understand what you’re saying and don’t know what to do lol
Worse than that are videos like "I learned italian in 7 days". Bruh, not even a native could do this, how did you do that?
They started the week knowing Italian
Italian here, in the video he spoke pretty crappy, but he was understandable, some months later he came in Milan and did a video in italian, he's accent can be terrible but I can ensure you that his italian is very good
My understanding is he had learned it previously and was saying he forgot it and therefore was starting fresh. Even if you don’t have immediate recall though, you have a foundation so it isn’t quite the same as learning in a week
Wow .. Here we see another Italian who says that Italian is difficult .... Kkkkkkkkkk ... You are like Brazilians, Spanish, French, English, Swedish speakers etc. You have to accept, YOUR LANGUAGE IS EASY ...
@@myers4067 dude calm down, I didn't say my language is difficult, just saying that it is possible to speak it a little after one week or two of studies
There's also a difference between fluency and proficiency. "Fluency" usually refers to how automatically you are able to produce language, relatively free of internal translation or native language interference. In this sense, a toddler is "fluent". "Proficiency" refers to a depth of knowledge (that high-level vocabulary, for instance) and nimbleness with the language--responding to native speakers, noticing and correcting one's own mistakes, mastering intonation, etc. You can speak a bunch of stuff fluently and not have anywhere near native-level proficiency (I have an MA in applied linguistics, btw).
good point
Love this comment.
Interesting, so the toddler is naturally fluent when he speaks his native tongue.
But there seems to be a lot more to proficiency than just more advanced vocabulary.
Learning the critical core of the language would seem to be the first step to native like proficiency.
Very interesting, thank you for your comment.
.
"Fluency" gets thrown around so much that it doesn't have a single meaning anymore. I agree with your definition, just pointing out that it seems like everyone has their own definition, which makes it difficult to have a discussion about.
@@raenastra I agree completely!
I speak three languages at C1 / C2 level and still feel like I could improve so much. Even in my mother tongue I could be more elegant. I could never be arsed to learn another one ever!
I can relate. My friend invited me to take free Korean lessons with him, but I don’t want nor need to learn another language. I know 5 languages at different levels and I have to study them frequently to better them (and not forget some of them). My brain is overloaded 😩
how did you learn them? i’ve been learning German on and off for the last 3 years and i still think im at a basic level
I think C1/C2 is about grade 8/9.
@@InternationalScoop I think the key here is consistency
The illusion of fluency by just spitting out a lot of words in basic and probably rehearsed sentences is seen in so many creators.
Yes, yes, yes. Very rehearsed.
yes, that is so true, I have seen a few. one is the american XioamaNY and the the dutch man wouter. they takeover the conversation and start talking at great speed
I speak 700 languages and learn them all in 700 days take that haters *troll grin* hola bonjour namaste nihao . I just killed the language game
¿Dónde está la biblioteca?
@@97carrera A tu izquierda
🤣🤣🤣
7829Moriarty como una manzana y bebo el agua 😀😀😀😀😀
Kingkong bling blong
When I watch polyglot channels, I don’t expect them to actually know the language. It’s just for entertainment purposes. I don’t take them seriously.
This is good advice!
Check out Lindie Botes and Luca Lampariello. They're genuine polyglots.
The problem is that they try to make people believe that they actually are fluent in these languages, and the ones with a lot of subs make a lot of money out of it, which is unacceptable. It's basically linguistic fraud.
@@vinnyx4526 Well, their channels are mainly about entertainment and interactions with the public. That gets more views than most "real polyglots" who are simply fluent in a language. Unless they can find a way to market that skill and make it entertaining and addicting to watch, people who have a cursory understanding of many languages but are charming and extroverted will rake in far more views than a channel just focused on the nitty gritty of learning a few languages in depth. Most don't tend to even make claims of fluency, people just complain that they aren't fluent, as if they did claim fluency. Most are just curious people who like to talk to strangers.
"Real polyglots" seem to take themselves REALLY SERIOUSLY and seem to be jealous that their content doesn't have as much of a pull. I don't think many of these "fake polyglots" are fooling anyone. With someone like Laoshu505000, who people LOVE to hate on for only knowing a few phrases in over 50 LANGUAGES fail to see how quickly he's able to tackle the basics of so many different language families and tend not to see the videos where he truly does have impressive range and a wide variety of languages. He's really good at Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Somali, Spanish, French, etc and can have basic conversations in many many more.
The fact people find this contemptuous is laughable. Especially if they go as far as to call him a "fake polyglot" which many have directly accused him of being for daring to have a beginner conversation with someone speaking a language he just started learning a week ago. His whole method is about practicing in this way, as it's the best way to make mistakes and have them corrected as well as to stay motivated. Language is a living thing, I'd rather see people practice with strangers at a beginner level than stay studying in their rooms or on skype calls with teachers. People say he's just in it for the reactions...well, sort of, yes? The reactions are what's motivating for him and many others to learn. Is that so bad?
Half of his videos are him explaining he just started learning to the people he engages and he merely films himself practicing with people. He makes mistakes and gets corrected all the time. He makes no claims of fluency in his 50+ catalog of languages he's attempted. People live to find one example where he preformed poorly and then claim this is proof he's a charlatan who has no business telling anyone how to learn a language. They forget he's interested in ALL languages and if he only knows a few words or phrases, he'll use them in public if he has the chance and maybe he learns something more. It's hard to argue that he doesn't have a good method for learning. If he stuck with one or two languages at a time and really focused on them, I bet he'd be fluent quite fast. His issue is he's obsessed with learning so many and keeps going back and forth with which ones he wants to learn.
@@amphibeingmcshpongletron5026 it may get more views, but it's way less impressive
I would add one thing: you don't just learn a language to buy stuff and impress people, you learn it because it enables you to understand the culture you're in (the way people think and why they do what they do) from a much better vantage point. So when a Vietnamese native extols praise on you for just learning a few words, it's also because that person implicitly assumes you to be more willing to learn about them and their culture as opposed to "my way or the highway" thinking. I wish more language teachers would emphasize that learning a language allows you to see things from a different viewpoint and the more viewpoints you understand, the more well-rounded a person you generally are.
well said.
I had a French teacher in high school that was a polyglot. Dude spoke like six languages which is nuts. He was an awful teacher though. Just goes to show that just because you know it doesn't mean you can teach it
Haha! Same here... Back in 1977, our secondary school French teacher Mr Bladon was fluent in seven languages, and was also an accomplished pianist and basso profundo singer, but he hadn't the slightest clue about how to control a class! It was very easy to distract him away from the lesson in hand, and he was very popular with staff and kids alike. 🙂
It's the pronunciation that does it. Some people are just naturally good at pronouncing sounds that don't exist in their native language. Other people aren't. I remember watching an American diplomat speak German on German TV and his pronunciation was _horrible..._ but he knew all sorts of words I had never heard before. Having knowledge on that level shows the amount of effort that was put into learning the language.
A lot of people in east Asia can read and write English very well, but have really bad listening skill and pronunciation.
Sort of, but it's a skill that can be developed, and I doubt that most of those folks weren't practicing it in some other context before trying to learn. Before I tried to learn a foreign language, I had to go to speech therapy for my native English and then later I got interested in trying to replicate the weird sounds I heard in rap music. Then, by the time I did start to try learning languages, my ears were in fairly good condition.
The only real tricks are to stop trying to make sound out of foreign words at first, and minimal pairs that underlie the differences between similar sounds.
It's also worth noting that most language prep programs teach pronunciation for a few sessions at the beginning and then ignore it from then on. There's also a shortage of qualified teachers teaching pronunciation, as properly doing it requires a lot of training. Speech therapy itself requires an advanced degree. Accent coaching doesn't require quite as much, but it's not typically taught to people just looking to teach language.
It's also worth noting that if you are better at hearing accents and mimicking, it tends to push you forwards as the native speakers won't let you off the hook for not knowing the language as easily as if your accent sucks.
@@emmachomao That isnt only a east asia thing, i know many ppl in southeast asia where its the same.
And its most likely the case for other many several other countries around the world too..
Coming from a asian family myself (My whole family is from thailand, but ethnically our family is asian mixed: Chinese/Thai/Viet/indian)
most in our fam. can read and write english ...but when it comes to speaking they dont really know much...
(and those who can speak at least on a basic level of english , still wont speak to anyone
in english , bcs they think its too bad so they wont use the language at all...)
My German pronunciation is flawless but my grammar and vocabulary are terrible 😩😞
As a German, I always wonder why other Germans cannot learn how not to spit p, t and k when speaking french. I understand that people don't notice until you really point them to this problem, but it's doable...
The most prosperous "polyglot" on YT is Xiaomanyc, as we all know, who never claims to be a polyglot! He always says that he knows "just a little" of each language that he features, even when he is fully fluent in some. He mentions that that he has been studying Mandarin for 10 years! He doesn't have 4 million subs by accident. He is humble, very talented and the real thing.
he is the one who inspired me to learn Mandarin
im planning to go to China in 2023 Inshallah 🇨🇳🌚
@@Jess-737 i heard he passed away... so sad
Edit: i've been helpfully (and quite a few times) informed that this is not the case. It was Laoshu (Moses) who passed away in March 2021. Keeping this comment here because of the replies; take care!
Actually, every video of his features these inaudible natives allegedly saying how 'amazing' he is.
I wonder why this one didn't get a like from the uploader
@@_VISION. It's very telling, isn't it?
It is kind of funny that in a video about fake polyglots, even in the comments, people feel the need to mention how many languages they speak. They do it in a sort of humble way, "I speak 7 languages, but only 4 at an advanced level". There just seems to be something about speaking multiple languages that make people want to let everyone know that they do
To be fair, learning a language takes a lot of dedication so it's definitely an achievement and I can see how someone would want to express how proud of themselves they are for accomplishing that.
@@droptherapy2085 In a way I do understand the pride in learning something, but that applies to anything a person becomes proficient in. Still, you can watch a video on math, and you don't often see people posting how they are great at algebra, trigonometry, and calculus, Their comment may be at a level that is beyond my understanding because they use the lingo, but that's about as far as it goes.
@@_PM__ You have a point here, but I also think there's a difference in how they can express their proficiency in their field. A math practitioner can show his proficiency by solving the problem, giving a walkthrough, or discussing the solution. People who know multiple languages can't just randomly speak other languages to express their point or converse and expect everyone to understand. What they can do is give a short introduction and provide their statement. I do not think it is just about letting everyone know for no reason. It would add value to a statement, especially if it is one about sharing an experience of how to learn languages.
Finally someone said it.
I'm so tired of people saying they speak something when all they know is a few phrases or small talk.
I speak a few languages but I also say clearly that I speak 3 fluently, one intermediate level and one I can understand but can't speak.
The whole "I speak a language" when they cant is so annoying. I always tell people to say "I need to run upstairs real quick to get bread that grandma gave me for my friend".
If they can't say it, they can't speak the language. It's a lie. As someone who speaks french fluently, I always find these polyglots bad at it.
However I do disagree with the writing part. I knew someone who lived in Japan for 5 years and was totally fluent but couldn't write. Some people focus so much on writing 400 kanji, but don't know the sentence structure, or basic adjective. My kanji isn't great but I can ask for help reading it.
日本語をしらない, however I manage to boast as a trilingual living in Russia. Sometimes I hate myself for capitalizing on those 50 hours I tried japanese, and I feel like I'm not the only one who feels that about them, even not considering languages, I can fake tons of stuff like I'm good at it for someone who has no clue. I have 50 hours in JavaScript, 50 hours in japanese, thousands in english, better than average Russians' russian, goes for maths, physics, games, you name it... Now I want to kill myself, because I'm only good at pretending to be so.
@@aricin Sounds more like you're experiencing impostor syndrome! 'Cause in reality, what you "have" are the basics that you can build on-a foundation upon which more information & knowledge can be attached to. And that's not "pretending to be good", that's being GOOD ENOUGH to go even further & deeper.
@@aricinI sympathize with what you said because I often feel the same way. However you shouldn't be so hard on yourself because the thing you describe naturally comes with having a lot of different interests.
You only have so much time in a day and you simply can't be great at everything, it's just not possible.
Imagine effectively rendering yourself an illiterate in the country you move to. That honestly sounds like a nightmare to me.
I learned how to say "Good day my friend. How are you?" in 7 languages. Am I a polyglot yet??
Ha ha, nope but that’s enough to make RUclips videos! LOL
You have to add "I am self-taught"
You are a polygreet, I'd say 🙂
@@Diotallevi73 Nice ! 😆😂
Casi. ¡Aprende más!
Non-Japanese who say they can speak the language tend to mean they can order food in a restaurant, or hold a simple conversation. People who have got much further along the road than that tend to be more cautious, less likely to claim fluency, more aware that, despite all that they know, there is still more that they don’t know.
That’s right. Ordering food is the simplest thing to do in another language.
My Chinese friend said he spoke restaurant Chinese
This is me with Russian and Spanish
It's the Dunning-Krueger effect.
there is always more you can know about your own language too,like japan has like 50,000 kanji,i don't think they can remember all those characters,and i'm a english native level and i like to learn rarely used words in my language.
I've been learning French since I was 10 years old. I went to a French-speaking college in my country (curriculum taught in French) and then moved to France to complete my studies, staying for a couple of years. I'm a professional translator and I use the language on a daily basis. You could say I'm fluent, or even on a near-native level. Yet, I've never stopped feeling insecure or that there's always new things to learn. I can't help but wonder how many people expect to be fluent in 6 months, or even claim to be...
If you don’t mind me asking are you from Canada by any chance?
Was gonna ask the same thing. He could also be from africa
@@jordan8213 hey! No, I'm from Greece :)
@@mpforeverunlimited hi there! I'm Greek
@ Christos: I have lived in France for 27 years, I'm married to a Frenchman and I speak, read and write the language on a daily basis. I worked as a translator and a court interpreter for a number of years so I guess one could say that I know what I'm doing, but I still feel insecure sometimes (though not very often). People who were born here and have spent their whole life in this country tell me that they still need a dictionary from time to time. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that in French it is impossible to tell how something is spelled by simply listening to the sound. You have to know how it's spelled in order to understand it. You have to know the vocabulary and you have to know the rules. Just think about the fact that *o/ô/os/au/aux/eau/eaux* are all pronounced the same way. Same for *sot/saut/sceau/seau* How much more complicated can it get for someone who is trying to learn the language.
When I was in high school back in the 60s I took 4 years of Spanish. I was really into it. In my senior year I could hold a slow conversation with my teacher, a Cuban exile. Now, over 50 years later and never having a chance to use it, I've forgotten 99% of what I learned. I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, one of the biggest things about a learning a different language is sentence structure. I remember I was really good at memorizing words in Spanish but to use them in a sentence was very confusing to me.
For me the structure comes more naturally, but that’s because I was raised with Welsh, which has nearly the same syntax as Spanish. That said, I’m having such a hard time with the tenses. It’s never too late to get back into learning!! I’ve been doing Spanish for 6 months now and I’ve been really enjoying myself :)
I hear you on this, at least as far as memory. I took a year of Latin, then 3 years of German, with the 2nd year of Latin simultaneously with German 4. Yeah, the I had the same teacher for all of the German, my senior year of English and then, because he somehow talked me into taking the Latin and German in the same class. I did well in the beginning, ending each year in the top two until senior year. Like you said, vocabulary was easy to memorize. German 3 was strictly a translation of literature class, and of course that was formal German, not conversational. I adjusted to the odd, (for an English speaker), sentence structure fairly well until that last year. Trying to slam both languages at the same time, in the same class with the same instructor proved nearly fatal. Additionally, I should note that I had no native speaker with whom to practice the language in a real world sense. That last class was 1969. Very recently I started messing around with with a free language app, and I now realize how little I remember. That combined with other personal situations leaves me feeling pretty dumb and defeated. Nonetheless, I'm continuing to plug away. I hope you can, too. At the very least, I wish you very good luck in your efforts.
@@nostressjustcress-fr1uvSo, you mean welsh is not that hard to learn for a Spanish native speaker? :0
@@ALEX-fq7hh compared to other languages, I think spanish speakers would have an easier time. It’s probably a geographical thing as well, since the uk and Spain are considerably close, and there was a big migration of welshmen going to Argentina years and years ago. Even though one is Latin and the other is Celtic, they borrow similar words from eachother.
Sometimes it's sentence structure, sometimes it's having 50 different versions of every word (like in Slavic languages), sometimes it's pronunciation.
One thing that trips me up when I haven't practiced Spanish in a while is the ordering of words. It's very different from English; you have to read sentences in a different order than you're used to. Like, how instead of "I like ", you say "Me gusta ". So instead of "I like Mexico", it's "Me gusta Mexico", which more literally means "Mexico pleases me" or "Mexico is pleasant to me". Except, the words are in a completely different order from English. If you translated the Spanish word-for-word into English you'd get "me pleases Mexico".
Spanish puts pronouns before verbs quite a lot, and it uses pronouns in places you wouldn't expect. You don't say "I shower", you say "me ducho", which is more like "I shower myself". You wouldn't just say "ducho" (which means "I shower"), you need the "me" to specify that you are showering yourself and not your child/dog/etc.
Putting that all together, reading Spanish newspapers involves a lot of pronouns-before-verbs, lots of "me"/"te"/"le"/"lo"/etc. Sometimes I'll read multiple pronouns before I even see what verb/verbs they're attached to, so it takes some effort (especially at first) to parse what's going on and figure out how the pronouns and verbs link up. Spanish logic and English logic are different.
I enjoy Spanish, but certainly each language has its challenging bits, and I think that public schools do not go about the best way of teaching languages. I didn't like Spanish until I started practicing it outside of school.
I'm very impressed by Matt's Japanese speech. He sounds like a native Japanese speaker. I can say this since I grew up in Japan.
Not native level. He makes consistent intonation errors throughout, and there's a major pitch error for the word yesterday "kinou." That sentence was translated from English anyways and isn't very natural at all in Japanese. His words don't flow from one to the next, and he doesn't reduce certain sounds as a native would. Also many consonants are not exactly accurate either ... The list goes on :)
Seems like your ears aren't so sensitive
@Akira S you seem to have a strong distaste for people who learn languages, my partner is a native Japanese who moved to the US 3 years ago, I showed her Matt and she didn't believe he wasn't born and raised in Japan.
It's fine to say he isn't perfect, but it doesn't seem debatable that he's essentially native level, considering natives also frequently fail to speak their language perfectly.
But he is not a polyglot
Matt sounds very good speaking Japanese. Let us praise his commitment, motivation and skill to learn Japanese. I am still learning, my wife is Japanese and its very difficult for me. Kudos to Matt! Bravo to Anming also! I am a native mandarin chinese speaker and I understand her. As long as you can communicate who cares for the pronunciations or errors they making the effort to communicate and that alone is commendable!
@@MrJerrylu2424 I wish you the best of luck! Matt's Japanese is near amazing, you're a native Mandarin speaker, so English is second language to you? Anyone who goes out of their way to learn a second language, let alone a third deserves praise :)
The problem with being a pretend polyglot is that you may initially inspire people to learn other languages but because you were basically lying to them you, in the end, end up totally turning them off due to the hard work that one needs to put in. I feel it does a huge disservice to those who honestly want to learn.
I always try to discourage people from trying to learn a language unless they are fully committed daily and are willing to put in the time for many years. Too many people get motivated and think they will be fluent after using Duolingo for a few months but that is never the case. It's grueling, boring, and we all go through the phase of being discouraged, especially if it's our very first L2. Sadly, many people would rather believe that I'm just somehow gifted which is far from the truth. I've spent over 400 hours just to learn A2+ spanish but without the subjunctive and over 200 hours just to know A1 German but without the declensions or the split infinitives :(
@@roseforeuropa keep going, I'm right there with you. There's no deadline for fluency, you will get there when you get there. The most important thing is consistency; ever since I started making italki lessons a priority I'm already feeling a lot more comfortable in the language. I've been at it for over two years. Sigue adelante amigo
@@techtutorvideos I mean... I'm already pretty fluent in 日本語。There's no risk to injury if you study hardcore in a language, unlike the weight lifting analogy you used.
If someone wants to attempt to learn Japanese for example, good luck. In my experience, about 90% of people who attempt it fail to become fluent and it's almost always because they didn't know how much effort it would take. That time attempting to study, then quit was a waste of time in my opinion.
It's like people who want to be a navy SEAL then realize how difficult it is and that the dropout rate is around 85%. You really have to know what you're getting into before potentially wasting time.
@@techtutorvideos Yes, wasting 100s of hours and not achieving fluency is not better than wasting zero hours and not achieving fluency. If someone one wants to impress their family and friends with a few cringy (and incorrect) phrases such as こにちわ！(total cringe due to lack of ん, and incorrect particle), and be an anime nerd, fine.
If someone is serious and wants to achieve fluency, then spending 100s of hours to not get there is a total waste. Let's not give people false hope. Language acquisition is not an easy journey, if it was, I would have mastered the subjunctive and future perfect in Spanish by now.
@@techtutorvideos Yup. Because pretending will lead to inspiring people into believing it's easy. Then they will be smacked upside the head with the dirty smelly rotten mackerel of truth.
Interesting video. I have interested myself much in the “who is a polyglot” question. When I started to listen to Steve Kaufman, it was because he was interesting, and I got helpful tips for learning. One thing I noticed. When I was still studying Russian, I got a lot of positive feedback from friends as to how well I spoke. That told me that I was speaking poorly enough so that friends wanted to encourage me. I knew I was really making progress when they started complaining that I was missing the point or simply misunderstanding what was being said.
You point is very deep. Sometimes we misinterprete a complement, you speak well, which should be translated as well done for trying. Much later do people actually correct us and depends on humility.
I’ve been “studying” Japanese for 22 years. I watch anime, movies and read and listen to books in Japanese. But I can’t keep up with a normal conversation in Japanese. I’m sure that’ll change quick if I could stay in Japan for a while. But I can’t afford that.
I can get by in many languages but I’m not the definition of a polyglot.
These RUclipsrs are cute to watch but I feel so bad for their “victims” lol 😅
Thanks for your comment. Have you considered getting a tutor twice a week? That’s gotten me on track with learning Korean.
Im shure you are better than you think, ganbareee
Yeah, I grew up speaking German and my family moved to America when I was a kid and I've found it's can be almost impossible to learn a language without being surrounded by natives to practice with.
@@OrientalPearl agreed make he can exchange his language in order to EARN a tutor....
like for example if he can do GERMAN-ENGLISH fluent and helps someone ...
the perhaps that person can help him with ENGLISH-JAPANESE
Studying Japanese for 22 years? I would expect you to hold a conversation by now! Maybe not native level as you have not experienced Japanese culture, But you don't need to, to learn a language. I guess this all depends on how serious you have taken this subject and if you have been frustrated over the years? Have you ever taken up any professional tutoring, Had tutoring in your school days, Or have you just been doing this on your own back?
When I was in high school I used to be so impressed by the RUclipsrs claiming to speak 12 different languages but now that I have gotten to a high intermediate/ advanced level in 2 languages I realize that I would personally much rather learn 3-4 languages over the course of my life and speak those really well rather than speak 10 or 12 languages poorly or at a very low level. Maybe that's just a personal preference.
I have
1-German Goal:C1
2-French: Goal:C1
3-Spanish Goal:B2
4-Russian Goal:C1
5-Japanese Goal: B2
Reason i am learning All of this is because i love literature specially novels so i wanna enjoy them in their true language no matter what
@@22_Briel-us6rh it is the CEFR:Common European Framework of Reference for Languages
@@22_Briel-us6rh The CEFR organises language proficiency in six levels, A1 to C2, which can be regrouped into three broad levels: Basic User, Independent User and Proficient User
I can understand that but alternately it can also be useful to know basic conversations in places like NYC where you may run into a lot of different people and languages. I studied French for many years and have used more Spanish (very basic phrases) in real world situations.
I love languages i feel like it would be cool to know basic self introductions in a while bunch of different languages but like knowing and focusing on a few like
I speak English and Spanish
Im currently learning Korean and Portuguese
Next id like to learn Tagalog and
Arabic (I'm not really looking to be like FLUENT)
And MAYBE Chinese or Afrikaans of German y'know but that a big maybe
God, it kills me when polyglots claim they speak Mandarin and their Mandarin is absolutely TERRIBLE. Idk, I had to do an hour long presentation about the differences between Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism totally in Mandarin so it’s like hearing someone say a few basic sentences then claiming fluency just... bothers me lmao.
The September 11th example was really good! Yes! Get it girl! God, yesterday my 导师 did a three hour meeting critiquing our research and it was like... lord, Jesus. My brain was melting because it’s hard to understand even in English 😂！Y’all are awesome!
I kinda wanna see this presentation now lol
It SHOULD bother you! Americans certainly heap scorn on heavy accents and poorly pronounced English, especially if they're from certain areas (Central/South Asia, Arab countries, North Africa).
The presentation was okay, I could have done better on the content side. I am thinking about filming my dissertation introduction in two weeks and posting it. Talking about sex education in China for an hour, woo!
I agree,i don't speak any mandrin,but i know it's hell to get all the pitches and writing right.
Wouter Corduwener is the first one that comes to mind; he studies a set of words that are most used and says a lot of gibberish in between and pauses so he would appear fluent. Let him hold up a conversation for an hour in that language about a real topic instead of just "hey how are you, you also speak [...], wow I studied this language for..."
I'm sure he can't have a conversation for 10min
I was wondering about this one.
I watched his polyglot talking to a polyglot video the other day, and the subtitles said things like “are you doing that tomorrow” or “would you like a drink” which I thought were weird to throw in the middle of a conversation that he was trying to have.
In my opinion, if you were switching languages during a conversation it should just be a continuation of the same conversation but in a different language.
If you have established the basic greetings during a conversation you don’t keep looping back to them…
Dunno. Interesting though.
@@tinylittleanj2 You're right, I had the same with Russian, I understand it, can read it but speaking is difficult (no opportunity) but I can def recognize when someone is either faking it or saying a few words and gibberish in between. So yeah you're def right in that, even those without fluently speaking a language can detect whether you're faking it or just talking basics with gibberish
His native language is Dutch. He claims to speak Afrikaans ( a sister language) but even his Afrikaans pronunciation is absolutely terrible
I think he’s very good at recognising which language is being spoken to him and then he always says something like I speak X, I love X I have friends from X etc and that’s his main patter
I watched a polyglot girl claiming that she spoke 14 languages. My native language is portuguese, and one of the languages she's spoke through the video was portuguese. She seemed like she had rehearsed it, but I can't tell if she was faking it, because according to some english speakers that is learning my language, they claim that words in portuguese isn't easy to pronounce, so IDK...
I love japanese. I wish I could speak it, but I'm learning english first and it's been a hard path
Technically, those "polyglots" do speak many languages....at a beginner level. No, you are not gonna learn Spanish in 6 months. No, you didn't learn Portuguese in 7 days.
I had like 4 years of spanish classes, already speaking portuguese and I can't speak Spanish at all.
Is that accurate? I was under the impression that a true polyglot speaks 6+ languages at a solid proficiency level.
Even for us ( Brazilian and spanish speakers) who share about 70/80 percent of the same words It takes a lot of time to achive fluency ( like 3/4 years of hard work) the same amount of time for french and italian,not to mention the pronounciation. By the way ( we came from the latin). I' ve been studying english for fourteen months Now .can understand you pretty well ,but... I guess I still have a long road to Go If I want to say to myself ( I nailed It) 😀😀
As an English speaker you can totally learn Spanish in six months. It’s an easy language. But you have to be committed.
@@AnnM223 There’s a distinction in what "fluency" actually entails. Both a 12 years Mexican kid and a University teacher from that same country are fluent in Spanish but the level is definitely not the same. When you see a RUclips polyglot speak 10 languages and such, their level of fluency is that of a native child. It's good enough for small talk but nothing more. I'm sorry but if an Hispanic came up to you and spoke with his natural speed, expressions and accent, you'd be quickly overwhelmed. There’s absolutely no way your 6 month of Spanish can handle a native machine-gunning you with words at a speed he has been practicing his/her whole life.
I don't think enough people realize that there is great pride to be found in acknowledging that you are still learning and practicing. Rather than needing to look like the smartest and trendiest polyglot (who can't speak beyond the first chapter of a Rick Steve's pocket phrasebook), there's a lot of merit to be found in foregoing the show-off video and, instead, uploading your real-life practice sessions. I would love to find more channels with "Mandarin Speaking Practice, Day 39" or "Japanese Shadowing Practice, Week 12" because it's a far more realistic guide to what someone can expect to achieve in that same amount of time. These weird exhibitions of people rapidly cycling through 14 different languages in one video feels like the linguistic equivalent of trying to be the prettiest and richest girl on the first day of school :')
BROVO!! 👍👍👍
OMG Rick Steve's travel guides HAHHAHAHAHHA
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:9
The last analogy was bizzare, but, yeah, it's better to be authentic. There is so much fakery everywhere because people that shouldn't have access to potentially enriching technology abuses of it.
I was actually reading a blog or maybe watching a RUclips video years ago by a polyglot and he said he never says that he "knows" a language. He always says that he's "learning" a language. I thought that was really humble and cool.
Kudos to you both for acknowledging that even though the clickbait polyglot videos may be misleading, it can be potentially inspiring to beginners. I admit I was drawn in by those videos at first, but it did inspire me to learn more and eventually start my real language learning journey.
I learned Spanish for about 6 months and was really enjoying it. Usually 2-3 hours a day and was improving very well. Then I had some family and work problems and couldn't put the time in. Within 3 months of stopping I could barely remember anything.
It can get boring if you are not regularly having conversations and just listening, repeating and writing it. A bit like learning music theory, scales, modes etc without having an instrument to practice on.
there are really two sides to this argument. There are a lot of bullshitters in the polyglot community. And you can pick them out quickly. I'm cautious anytime I see a twenty year old that claims to speak six languages. The immediate question is how well do you speak? You can discount the more extravagant claims. But several of the polyglot youtubers I watch are quite clear that they want to speak a lot of languages at B1/B2 level. they are mostly just interested in communicating with lots of people from different cultures at a low level. there is nothing wrong with having a specific goal like this. The problem comes when you begin to mislead people. But not everyone does this.
I agree with you. This said, b1 and b2 levels are actually fluent levels. Sure, you won't be able to give a philosophical speech in that language, or understand the medical terms in a series like House or defend yourself in court. You get my drift. But you will most likely succeed in saying almost everything you need and want. Intermediate and upper intermediate levels are no low at all. C1 (let alone c2) take years and years of daily practice to reach. Probably a dozen.
The higher you get in the scale, the harder it is to make fast progress. There is a difference between being fluent and being so sophisticated that you could be hired instead of a native for the same job. When you are hired abroad for something else but your mothertongue, you know your level is very very good. But until you reach that level, you remain intermediate. And that's good enough to live decently by being able to express yourself without feeling overwhelmed.
so b1 or b2 is not enought to be considered a polyglot? a I think it is enough to understand, for example, all the content of this video, that is, to communicate in non-artificial contexts
B2 is very much a fluent level. Also age doesn't mean anything when it comes to how many languages you know.
Thank you for shedding more light on this topic
It needed to be said.
Interesting what you say about native speakers reaction in Japan and China, because as an L2 French speaker I have had almost the opposite experience. French people expect foreigners (specifically anglophone foreigners) to speak French, but badly. When they hear me speak they ask me things like "why don't you have an accent" or make surprised comments that I don't sound American. I only got compliments on my French when I was at a very high level. Interesting how expectations really influences reactions.
I think a really constructive thing to do would be for you and Matt to review language videos and point out what is good advice and what is not and explain why. You can either feature the video or just analyze it in the background and share some "general" tips and what to do and what not to do if you want to avoid potential drama. This will help beginners spot useful videos and videos that may be detrimental to their learning process.
I had a moment of realization about this polyglot fakeness a few weeks ago.. I speak Greek fluently and saw a “polyglot” video claiming they learned Greek among other languages in a short time. Needless to say this was my face when he started speaking in my mother-tongue... 😐
Ακριβώς. :-))
😂
Ποιον λες ;
What a μαλακά!! How do they think they are going to explain the smackdowns in the comments section? How does it benefit them to look like a moron? Also, I want the link so I can see it spoken poorly. Please?
What's the link to that video
I'm Brazilian, every time some polyglot speaks in Portuguese we understand because in our culture there is a huge ability to deduce things, even speaking wrong we will know what you want to speak, people speak Spanish we understand what they want to say even don't knowing Spanish, if you speak in a broke Portuguese missing The conjugation and words we will say "you spoke well" because we are happy only to have someone speak our language and we support the person in learning
I am learning Brazilian Portuguese and I can only agree with what you said. Always a pleasure talking to Brazilians. 🥰
I went to Brazil with broken Spanish 🤦🏽♀️
This illustrates what most Brazilians act and think like when meeting a foreigner speaking Portuguese (or trying to) very very well. Heck, sometimes people only do mimics and we go like "oh sure, I understand what you mean" with all patience in the world.
Aí.. Agora entendi porque a gente sempre me tinha dito "Vc fala muito bem!" kkk
"Portuguese" is [ Lol ] ...like Spanish, merely, a dialect of vulgar Latin.
Wouter Corduwener.... First ever polyglot I saw on youtube and I was stunned by his knowledge... I watched a few videos and in one of them he spoke Greek. I speak Greek natively. His level wasn't basic or amateur it was less than 30 words put together on repeat barely making any sense and masked as a "conversation" with another speaker. That was when I suspected that this might be the case with many of the other 20something languages he claims to speak. I looked for signs that I saw in greek in his use of other languages like constant stuttering, blank stare of the other speaker in response (Meaning that they couldn't make sense of what he was saying), constant repetition of words and very long pauses between sentences. And I noticed in almost every language he claimed he spoke except for two or three.... So yeah... :/
LOL he's same with every language I know besides English (Spanish, Italian, German). I wonder whether he's actually fluent in anything besides Dutch and English.
I ve just listened to his russian, it sounds fake tbh and at very low level.He himself said that only 6 of these languages he speaks fluently
yeah i heard the same in his french... (and that's a language we're taught in school as well in the netherlands)
He spoke some Japanese to me and my wife when we ran into him selling his paintings at the windmills in the Netherlands. To be blunt...his Japanese sucked. Wasn't intelligible really, couldn't hold a conversation with me and my wife so puts my trust in his ability to speak other languages that I don't speak to a high level. Saw him in a video with Xiaoma interviewing him and his Japanese was still bad :/
He just picks the common words he can to be able to put together a simple sentence. I am a filipino and his tagalog is composed of something in english like " I have never been to Ph and I want to visit soon, i learned this language with my friends" and thats it...its barely a conversation because he is somehow not "talking" to the person...
I was a NATO Advisor in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the only American in the building. My coworkers were either Austrian, Italian, Czechoslovakian, Slovakian, or Turkish. I know basic Spanish and I took it upon myself to say good morning and thank you in each of their languages. After a while I perfected the accent. But those are the only words I knew. They were so proud of me.
some people isn't even fluent, or "eloquent" in their own language, even a second language that you use everyday will have a point where you don't know a word or make a grammar mistake. Legit language learners all agree on this: Learning a language is hard, it requires a lot of dedication, motivation and lots of time and effort.
Some people aren't*
Anming: “A simple introduction isn’t a lot”
Mandarin learners: 👁👄👁
TBH, it really isn't if that's what you're training for, and you don't worry about being able to write it up front. You can choose to include things that are easy to say and memorize the relevant words. If you're in a place where they're speaking the languages, you're going to get to say the same things over and over again. From what I remember of the PRC, they tended to want to know where you were from, whether or not you were married and what your job is. You would then add onto that anything in particular that you wanted them to know, and you'd say it so many times that you could rattle it off fluently before too long.
Even without effective language instruction, I managed to learn enough over the course of a few months to get around on my own. The amount of Mandarin you really need for most things is a lot less than you'd think. Obviously, there's a ton of things that I couldn't do, but I could get around the country, get myself fed. If a taxi would actually stop for me, I could take a cab. Most of the time they wouldn't stop for me, so I wound up taking the bus a lot, or just walking places.
Whenever possible, I would prelearn the vocab that I needed to conduct my business and pray to every available god that they wouldn't ask me something I didn't know or that there would be no problems with the task. If I really needed to, I'd mime things out. That was nearly 10 years ago and I didn't have Pleco to help smooth things out either.
Legit LOL I am still stuck in the classics. LOL
Well, a simple introduction in Mandarin is at the end not that hard, as long as you dont have to "write" it 😂😂😂
Thanks for this. Especially when he said "talent isn't really that relevant." I remember one of the real polyglots (I think David Kaufman) saying this same thing. He actually said talent only speeds up the process by 3-6 months, after this, it is just time and practice. I have actually studied two languages, and can agree with this. When I was learning Albanian earlier this year, everyone was like wow, your so good. Then after about 3 months of lessons, the acquisition tapered off. Same when I started learning Czech about 6 years ago. Now, it is just time and practice, and unfortunately, I don't put the time in either, so both have plateaued. But heres to hoping the rest of this year I spend more time studying Czech.
I remember one of these guys made a video where he was challenging people in public to "speak a language I don't speak and win $20." A girl came up and spoke Croatian to him, and he didn't understand it at all, couldn't even identify it as Croatian (or anything else similar). He was stumped, so she told him it was Croatian, then he claims "oh, I speak Croatian" and said some stock phrase, even though he very clearly did not speak Croatian. And people in the comments were defending him 🤦
"The positive about these polyglot channels is that it encourages people to learn another language."
As long as they're not telling you how to learn, I like this
This truly the best part of promoting these polyglot channels. This is a globalized world and learning other languages helps people understand other cultures from a different level.
I dissagree, it may give false expectations, especially since that there is a myth that learning a language comes out " naturally" just one needed to " want to.." as this hies for all self help up to curing cancer, " just let yourself be..." And the rest will mysteriously unfold.
@@oreradovanovi5204 I don’t believe it comes naturally for most people. It’s damn hard work learning another language, but if you truly study it as you learn then you start to understand the culture, even if just at a simple level.
@@oreradovanovi5204 Acquiring a language is different from learning one. One comes more naturally from hanging around native speakers. One comes from intense study. Guess who tend to become conversational faster? People who hang out or work with people who speak another language and have the intention of communicating with them. It's a different style. You think babies and children bury themselves in textbooks? That's helpful for improving vocabulary and deepening your ability to use grammar correctly and whatnot. Being able to understand and be understood, while making plenty of forgivable mistakes, is quite possible through "natural" acquisition. That said, if you hope to become fluent, you will need to put the work in to studying. People act like being able to casually converse is a bad thing and shows a lack of discipline or even disrespect for the people you're talking to. I think that's rubbish. If you see someone speaking simple phrases and think you can become fluent in no time by doing the same thing, you're a fool. Those videos are entertaining, not instructive, and I think most people know that.
I agree I also like the fact that many are self taught because sometimes the problem is not so much the student but how languages are taught in school which is why people often study a language for several years in school but never learn to speak it.
The higher your proficiency in a non-native language, the less likely you are to claim perfect fluency in it..is my experience.
Dunning Kruger effect
I loved the concept of “the fluency illusion” by Matt. It used to happen to me, I would watch and believe they could speak all these languages. Then I tried learning some of them, some just a bit…. and wow the shock! When I checked again, they were not even trying hard enough, not even B1 level stuff… This gave me a lot of reassurance in my own abilities and methods.
Great video!!
I've been noticing this problem since a long time ago even with the people who call themselves bilingual. Hey it's fine if you don't know any other language beside your mother tongue one! it's also fine to say "I'm still a beginner". Many people give themselves an intermediate level especially in English, and they can't even make a basic sentence. They think if they can understand 60% of what they listen to then that's it.. we're fluent! Noooo it really takes time and effort 😢 having an illusion in a language learning journey is a real thing especially when you get to the level when you're finally able to understand native speakers and most of their content.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who sees this. I can’t stand those “polyglots” who only know beginner level phrases. It’s so easy to tell if someone is actually proficient in a language. It makes me appreciate true polyglots even more.
Any RUclips "polyglot" speaking Finnish has always made me feel kind of sad. Their grammar is bad, their pronunciation is bad and there is no doubt they don't know how the language works but have learned some basic phrases and kind of guess what people say to them. But yet you should compliment them because they are learning such a difficult language and are "interested" in your culture, even if they only do it for the views and likes (money).
Great video. I studied French for years and lived in France but still cringe hearing myself speak French. I went to a restaurant with friends and was perfectly happy ordering but I was the last person to order and the person before me ordered exactly what I wanted. They all ordered in broken French or English. I said “bah...même choses pour moi.” The waiter assumed then that I was French and everyone was impressed. I basically said “same thing.” It’s very easy to appear much more fluent than you are in the right situation with the right phrase. Luckily, I could keep up with the rapid fire conversation that followed, but at the end of it he did say “sorry, I just assumed that you were French due to your eye rolling and ease with saying ‘I will have what he had.’ 😂
By the way, a native French speaker would have said "la même chose pour moi".
Language isn't just words and grammar but also gestures, body language etc.
@@user-hh5bx8xe5o tg, comportement typique des francais
It's okay, don't worry. I bet your french is really good
I'm a French native and I could have said "même chose pour moi". You can drop the "la", it doesn't sound weird.
A really good video. I am bilingual Russian/Ukrainian. My working languages are English for more than 20 years and German for approx 10 years. I am currently learning French (in a really relaxed manner) - and I would say that if I would learn it really intense, it would take several years anyway. I hope to start Spanish sometime and would like to speak it fluently, if Alzheimer will not cancel my plans 😁.
Who knows? Learning Spanish might scare it off. Apparently, form what I’ve heard learning languages strengthens memory and reduces the risk for Alzheimer’s or dementia
@@dionysus1394 Learning languages does not reduce risk of Alzheimer or any other dementia but makes brain compensatory mechanisms stronger. That means that Alzheimer people who speak 1-2 languages become disabled some years earlier with the same level of the brain atrophy than those who speak 3 languages or more. For those who enjoy language learning - this is not a wasted time, I guess :)
@@oleksandrsemenov9825 this was really helpful, thanks for the correction
I've been studying Scottish Gaelic for over a year, now. The grammar is very difficult, and I still speak at a beginner's level, but I am determined .to speak it fluently. I have no interest in being a polyglot or deceiving people about my level of fluency, I am learning Gaelic because I love the language. David
Prof. Arguelles does not get the recognition he deserves, because he is not focused on speaking like most fake polyglots, but rather learning to read and listen in order to consume literature, movies and other works of culture and the sciences etc. in their native language. The material he reads in a lot of languages is pretty advanced (I can vouch for my native German, as well as Russian and French that I both learned for a long time).
He does not claim to speak all languages he studies, he just wants to create more access points to cultural and scientific knowledge for himself.
Prof Arguelles speaks Arabic at a very high and native-like level, he read Najib Mahfoud (Nobel prize winner)' s novels in Arabic and had a long, deep talk with an Arabic literature University professor.
Oh this dude is legit for sure. Just look at his daily routine video and you can tell this guy is a high functioning autistic and uses that hyper focus power for language.
I am not as smart as, or anywhere near as learned as, Prof. Arguelles. But like him, I am much more interested in developing very high listening and reading skills than in speaking. I love reading quality literature in the original languages.
@@imadelk5040 same man when I saw him talking about Najib I couldn’t believe it because Najib’s books are a pain to read. Even though I grew up in Oman speaking Arabic my whole life, I sometimes need a dictionary to read Najib Mahfoud’s books
@@FOXMAN09 yep and with autism when you are very interested in something, it stays in your brain super well.
For example, I'm autistic, when I was 9-11 I was EXTREMELY interested in Australian native insects, which is a very normal interest for 9-11 year old girls (not). It was to the point that even though I don't have such an intense interest anymore, I can still identify a lot of Australian insects, even though it's been 10 years since I've gone over a lot of it.
On the other hand, I can't remember my times tables at all. Like I got the autism but I'm shite at maths which is very rude of it tbh. I've done the posters in the bathroom and flash cards, it's just slipped out like a phone in a jean pocket.
Might be the ungodly combo of both autism and ADHD though so my special interests tend to change more rapidly than someone with just autism, though I have kinda "core" interests that I regularly come back to. And no, Australian insects and bugs aren't part of that lmao.
when I first saw the thumbnail I thought Matt was being called out as a fake polyglot lol. I think one of the negative aspects of youtube language learning videos is that so much of the draw is seeing people get that extrinsic validation and not necessarily being inspired to learn a language because of interest in the language itself but a desire to receive that same kind of extrinsic validation. Early on when I was getting into chatting with native speakers in Japanese I was often thinking about what fancy words or expressions I could use to impress them and it pushed me towards learning those sorts of things rather than developing my overall ability to communicate and exchange ideas clearly. It turns language learning into a parlor trick instead of a means to get to know people and their culture better. I think that's one of the reasons why although I have a pretty decent vocabulary and know a lot of somewhat obscure or specialized words, there are a lot of holes in my Japanese ability where I struggle to say even really simple things. When it comes to youtube polyglots, they do something similar where the goal is to get a reaction, and maybe they learn some idioms and more traditional sayings to make their level seem higher than it actually is, not because they're bad people but because the way the youtube algorithm creates a financial incentive to make this sort of content.
Ha ha, nope. Matt is very good at what he does.
@@OrientalPearl for sure, I've been following his language learning advice for a while now and it's helped me tremendously :)
@@AConnorDN38416 have you been using his MIA method?
Which language are you studying?
Well said, we all need to beware of the self-obsessed method of practicing where we are always trying to show off how amazing we are. . .
I also was confused by the thumbnail haha!
I’m lucky to have found your channel early on, instead of one of these fake jokers. Your hard work and skill is amazing and inspiring. Keep on learning and guiding others!
I speak 3 languages, and I always felt like it was nothing compared to these insane people online, but then I heard a few of them speak Danish and Spanish, which is my first and third language, and noticed how poor they spoke it compared to what they claimed. I feel prouder about my 3 languages now, cause at the very least I speak them all completely fluently.
I also think that this kind of content can be really discouraging to beginners. People will produce videos like “I learned x language in a week!” and beginners might hold themselves up to a standard that’s not realistic.
Edit- they touched on this :)
This is true. No one can learn a language well like that.
You are basically shouting out his name
@@JHuatuco not really, there are several youtubers who have done this kind of video
Yeah, I definitely hate those titles but that's a RUclips sensationalist thing.
To his credit, he usually shows his work (as math teachers say). He makes it clear that when he says he spent "15 hours learning...", that he crammed vocab and spent a lot time with tutors. He showed it more in some videos than others of course.
I'm a fan... It is getting a bit ridiculous though. I'd like to see him take his more recent languages to a higher level before selling me more international cookies.
@@williamhogge5549 Totally agree with you in a lot of ways! I just think a lot of what people portray on youtube is totally unrealistic and people don't really think about the fact that these RUclipsrs essentially get paid to learn languages. Due diligence is so important, and knowing whats realistic for a person who has a job and priorities.
I think speaking a lot of languages at a basic level for the sake of making anyone that you run into feel human (especially in the and UK where there are a lot of immigrants but mostly english speaking white people) has a lot of value. I speak several languages kind of poorly, but I find that people really enjoy being able to communicate in their own tongue even if you don't speak fluently. So where I would not qualify as a true polyglot, I think being able to communicate with anyone is a valuable skill as well.
Who even cares. As long as you can have a basic conversation. The majority of Americans don't speak proper English but they get through life just fine.
Sure, the difference is that you aren't selling courses online!
@@tehblizz true
I 100% agree. Its very respectful for us, as native English speakers, to learn another language rather than expecting everyone else to learn English for us. It makes them feel more comfortable being able to speak in what they feel most confident in and it is so refreshing to find that someone has taken the time to learn how yo communicate with you. In my personal opinion, it just shows how much that person cares if they dedicate that much time and effort if only to ask basic questions and hold a short conversation with the person and I think that's beautiful and so important that more English speakers do this
you know, other than English speakers, they get irritated easily if you do not speak good English even in the countries that English is not the native language, some English native speakers, as foreigners expect people to speak good English to them. ok I am not saying all native English speakers is like that, just want to vent a little.
Melania Trump was said to speak several languages. Well I heard her speak French, a few words. She did not understand Pope as he spoke Italian with her. So this happens a lot.
My daughter studied Japanese language and Asian studies and just finished grad school and is now teaching foreign language students at University and she tells me all the time she isn't fluent.
She can communicate in Japanese with Japanese people and read and write Kanji, Katakana and Hirigana but says she isn't quite fluent.
When she says this it reminds me of my bilingual English-Spanish friends who I always thought were fully bilingual until native Spanish speakers told me otherwise.
Its important to be sure that who you learn from really knows the language, just think how someone would sound if they learned English from someone who barely spoke it.
thank GOD for this video. these “polyglots” got me feeling real insecure for struggling at a language for 6 years and still feeling like i suck
please keep trying! It is totally normal to get frustrated or to have a hard time forming your own sentences. You will get there eventually :)
@@CallmeXtina80 thank you i really appreciate it ❤️❤️
Same
My Dad would always remind me that learning language is like walking up a mountain.
You think you're going good and you're rising and then all of a sudden you drop, only to climb up again, then to drop.
And you're going, "But WHY!?"
You can do it; quality not quantity when it comes to languages.
Example, I can always say, "Oh, I know five languages,"
When in reality, I speak one fluently, one semi-fluently, one basic level, one like a baby, and the fifth one I can't even read that well let alone speak it.
Yeah, I have been learning Spanish for 6 month, and one of these guys appeared to be better than me after 7 days. Really made me think that maybe languages just weren’t for me.
In defence of non-fluency: I just want to greet my girlfriend's parents in Japanese, I would like to be involved with my French coworkers' conversations, I want to understand the Latin phrases we use in English. For none of these things is fluency relevant.
@Akira S I disagree. If someone tries to speak another language, regardless of their level, I will always immediately try to speak it with them.
Agreed. And linguists may know a huge amount number of different languages without having to be fluent in any or the most of them, while still being really knowing those languages better than some native speakers.
If you can write awesome poem in, say, Italian, and your readers who are Italian native speakers can appreciate it. No one cares whether you use your own brain or a printed table or a programmed software to conjugate verbs...I guess.
@Akira S You do understand you're a very good example of someone of what NOT to do, right? You don't do that to someone just b/c you are too impatient. I bet if people gave up on you you wouldn't have gotten anywhere either. People who are trying should be spoken to in a way that helps them. Not tell them to f off in a passive aggressive way.
You're better off not learning the language and speaking to anyone if that's your attitude towards people who are honestly trying. Would you do the same thing to a young kid that speaks it natively and is still learning? You're a douche my guy.
"I would like to be involved with my French coworkers' conversations." Don't.
The rest, carry along.
@@njuvanrui2951 Linguists know *about* a huge number of different languages, they can describe them and how they work. This doesn't mean that they actually know how to speak them, even at a beginner level.
My linguistics professor knows that Russian has the verb in the past tense specify the gender of the subject, but she doesn't speak a word of it.
14:42 Pearl is 100% right.
The more complicated the Japanese, the less views. Lessons for JLPT 1, 2 and 3 (on RUclips) get next to no views compared to N5, N4 and beginner/introductory lessons.
And, videos that talk about learning Japanese (but don't actually teach any Japanese) get hundreds of thousands of views...maybe even millions
I don’t think it’s necessarily bad to take the shortcut of only focusing on being conversational. I’ve been learning Vietnamese for years now and let’s be real: even if I did put in all the extra effort to learn Vietnamese formally to a very high level I’d still never want to work a job in Vietnam that requires Vietnamese or take college classes in Vietnamese, I’d still never read Vietnamese literature, and (like a lot of my Vietnamese friends) I’d still prefer American movies, music, etc.
However, I love being in Vietnam and hanging out with Vietnamese people. For me being able to comfortably talk to basically anyone in the country about just about anything is incredibly rewarding.
I seriously doubt I’m missing out on much by never reading Vietnamese poetry
I doubt anyone actually believes they are polyglots. Wouter Corduwener usually knows how to say Hi and that he learned the language on his own. Tries to take over the conversation and say his "lines". When he tried to speak Romanian in an amusement park with some employees, he didn't understand anything the girls were saying and it was obvious he only knew a few sentences. I don't blame him, Romanian is hard to learn, because of the slavic+latin grammar combo that would mess up your logic. He is the only one I watched and I've never heard of Matt (will check him out). I'm Romanian, btw, that's why I gave my opinion on his Romanian skills only, but I believe it's the same with most of those 20+ languages.
Wouter Corduwener even speaks poor English.
@@Neophema That's because he is Danish or something.
@@skd He is Dutch I believe
@@josephe3697 Yeah, not an English native is what I meant.
@@skd I know he is Dutch, but his poor English is a clear sign that this guy is not gifted when it comes to languages. Most Dutch people speak good English.
The funniest thing I ever heard was an American Congress man making a mistake in Spanish while in Mexico. He said he was so embarasado which means pregnant in Spanish! Lol
very pregger
Embarazada. Needs an a at the end.
Depends tho
😂😂😂😂
Embarazado also means embarrassed, just check the dictionary.
Oh god, I've studied linguistics for years. This makes many people wonder how many languages I speak because they usually don't know what linguists actually do. They often have this naïve notion that linguistics is about learning languages. What I also often notice is that people are usually only interested in superlatives: What is the hardest language to learn? Which language is the oldest? Which is the best? Really stupid questions. No wonder people are easily fooled by alleged RUclips polyglots. In the course of my studies I had to learn many ancient languages to a basic level in order to be able to compare them for reconstructive purposes. I also like learning languages and understand a lot when I read them. But whenever I am asked how many languages I speak I say two: German and English. This is because I think that (really) speaking a language requires more than a mere passive knowledge and the ability to ask for the way to the airport.
Thanks so much for this topic. The worst most cringy one for Chinese learners is of course xiaomanyc who is just awful, really really bad. I’ve had an online exchange with “fluent in 3 months”, who is at least honest about what he thinks ‘fluent’ means, which is basically just a very basic level, but spoken fairly fast.
There’s a really positive part about the sensationalist claims, which is of course that normal folk get the idea that language learning is fun, and actually doable.
If you can read like 10 kanji people will freak out how "advanced" your Japanese is. Matt I showed your talking to my native Japanese friends and they say you sound like a native Japanese from outside Tokyo.
I like how you get into character when speaking Japanese. Bowing and nodding constantly.
Yh, it's really cool to see.
I think when you get into a culture so much and especially with the language you tend to add those subtilities like hand gestures, certain facial expressions etc.
Don’t forget the giggling
Speaking certain language you switch to a different personality, for sure. People can be weirded out you are just a different person.
Its not so much get into character. It's like... imagine speaking Chinese with both American Standard English accent and American Standard English mannerisms, it really doesn't fit well, and in fact can actually drag down your conversational skills. I don't know any professional words, but when learning another language if you purposely ignore the accent and mannerisms that come naturally when speaking in the environment for awhile can really be bad. When I lived in China I had a high school teacher that lived and worked as a counselor in the school for years and had family, however after all these years he still kept his American accent when speaking Chinese and it really caused people (including me) to not know what he is saying, he didn't realize I think that people had to really strain to get what he is saying. So if your language teacher is talking a lot about culture and accents/pronunciations, don't ignore those topics XD without them you will never be able to speak clearly and accurately enough.
When everyone around you is doing it you learn to to, because otherwise you feel silly not fitting in.
Are you talking about that Xiaomanyc guy? Because that dude always makes it seem like he is astounding people with his knowledge of their language, but all
I hear is him stuttering a few basic sentences. Granted, I don't understand what he's saying, and the people that he's speaking to seem duly impressed. But I think that's because people are always impressed when a person makes an effort to learn their language, especially if it's a language that not many people make an effort to learn. My opinion on language is that most people don't care how well you speak their language, they care more about the fact that you're trying to speak their language. I think the effort is appreciated more than the ability.
This is slightly off topic, but I can totally relate. I'm a professional retoucher and in the last 10 years I've seen a massive drop in quality on Photoshop tutorials on RUclips. It's all regurgitated 'quick tips' that I always cringe at because it is usually not the best method, it's just the quickest method that only works with the circumstances of the image they have as their example.
I was just waiting for a collab between you and Matt Vs. Japan! And thank you for calling this stuff out, this has been my biggest frustration with these "polyglots" on RUclips.
It's been that way for Matt and I too.
Some genuine polyglots : Lindie Botes and Luca Lampariello.
Tim Keeley is the most impressive polyglot on youtube
Whats your opinion on Kauffman he seems like a nice fella
You’re forgetting the OG. Steve Kauffman.
Also Richard Simcott.
Luka's russian is perfect and he almost has no accent, Kaufman speaks russian very good
Language is a very wide ranging issue. People can have different reasons and goals for wanting to “learn” a language. What does it really mean to “know” a language after all? What if you are just planning a visit? Or maybe you are a temporary or permanent immigrant. It might be that you only want or need to achieve a certain level of skill. You might not want or need to go beyond basic conversations.
Language is a part of human relationships and human relationships have a very wide range of levels. It might not be your goal to achieve native level of pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary.
My family lives in India, where multilingualism is a fact of life. It’s very common for a person to speak one language with your parents and close family, a second language with your fronds, a third or fourth language at school, and maybe a fifth or sixth language on the streets. You’re not going to learn every language to the same depth and that might be fine. You’re still experiencing a depth of diversity that is more than living as a monoglot in a monoglot society.
Also, the “fake polyglots” might be a source of inspiration, the idea that you can for example walk around in a multicultural setting and make connections with people with just a shallow level of skill in a language and make connections you would not have made before.
For example if you live in the United States, and you speak only an isolated dialect, such as an Appalachian dialect, and you interact with people who speak a more standardized dialect, or you are an immigrant and you speak a heavily accented or grammatically imperfect form of English are you “not really speaking English”?
Living in Germany for six years working with Americans, I worked very hard the first 18 months to learn the language enough "to be dangerous...". Somewhere around my fifth year my neighbor stopped to talk, "Herr Perkins, was ist mit Ihrem Deutsch passiert? Es ist furchtbar! (Mr. Perkins, what happened to your German? It sucks.")
I really appreciate when Matt was hitting on that point about how people watch these videos and get excited about learning the language themselves. And they hear this person saying "I learned it in 2 weeks! You can too!" And then when you get to some of the difficult stuff, even right at the beginning, it seriously discourages you. It's like what Matt said, you think something is wrong with you, and that you just can't learn it. When the reality is it's not at all what those people are advertising and that it is legitimately hard. Sometimes people don't even realize how hard their own native language is because you literally spend your entire childhood learning it a little at a time.
Growing up trilingual these "polyglotts" just made me feel like crap and I was ashamed that I could not speak/read/write one language 100%😂
Matt and I believe that a lot of people feel discouraged from the videos because when they go to study the languages they can’t do it in 3 weeks like their RUclips idols “seemingly” do.
Honestly, same. German is my second language and when i was younger i had huge difficulties learning to write it properly. Seeing these “polyglots” just made me feel even worse
Exactly this. Sure it's great speaking several languages without "effort", but not being able to express yourself comfortably ever is a bit depressing. Some people are trilingual and can indeed express every nuance with ease (orally), but then there's us who can't? XD I guess we aren't exactly gifted in languages, in opposition to what people think.
If it makes you feel better, even monolinguals probabaly don't know their language 100% 😉
@@kireidoll To be completely frank, to express yourself comfortably even in your first language is something that you have to put effort into learning, as it doesn't come naturally to all natives. This is much more the case when your native languages are not one but three. I believe you're not supposed to be able to do it like magic, but having grown up with all three puts you in a really good position to learn that skill if you wanted to, for each of your languages. You're a solid above C2 at all three lol, they may all be far from perfect but getting into a solid C2 is no easy feat if you had to do it from scratch.
I like the way Sabbatical presents language in his videos since he learns what he can and tries speaking to locals in their countries. He gets better as he makes more videos because he's interacting with people in their languages and taking their criticism. I think not being afraid of saying the wrong thing and being corrected is also an important trait when really learning another language.
It takes about, and if not more then 900 hours of study to be fluent in Japanese and that is if you your studying it four 8+ hours a day. Thats just to speak not to write. So when someone tells me they are fluent in multiple languages it always makes me wonder lol
As a slav. When I see videos like “how i learned Russian in just 5 months!!”.
I always doubt it cause slavic languages have HARD grammar; and hard pronunciation especially for english speakers. Like as a native Macedonian speaker, even I make mistakes when i speak sometimes
And I remember how much I doubted my abilities in Korean when i saw videos titled “how i became fluent in Korean in 6 months!”. It was really discouraging lol
I’ve lived in Korea for 1.5 years and even though I speak better Korean than most foreigners here, I would never call myself fluent. But I’ve finally rounded the corner into true intermediate and it feels amazing. It takes time. And definitely more than 6 months! Hang in there Angela! 화이팅!
@@abigailinkorea 고마워요! 제가 한국말은 이제는 1년과 5개월동안 공부하고있어군요. 저도 아직 유창하지 않고 모르는 문법, 어휘 진짜 존재 많아요. 근데 요즘은 한국어 말하다가 되게 편하게 말할 수 있고 생각하지 않아요 이젠. 한국말로만 생각하는 걸요, 한국어 말할 때. 제가 참 늘었던 거 같은데 다행이다 ㅋㅋ 곧 유창하게 말할 수 있으면 좋겠네용. 너도 화이팅 !!
Don't use 너도. It's rude. Just say 화이팅 Look up Go Billy Korean's livestream on how to say 'You'
@@jasminegold6890 Girl it’s not that deep lol. Koreans have addressed me as 너 when we first meet lol
@@bpdgyal 정말요? That is really weird. I guess when to use 너 depends on the person lol
Unless you’re near B2 in most of your languages I don’t really think ppl actually KNOW the languages.
@David Suazo you’re a bit wrong on ur scale
A1/2 you’re able to communicate at a child’s level of vocabulary
B1/2 you’re able to communicate at fluent level
C1/2 you’re able to follow high level conversation that you wouldn’t see everyday
@@mannycomedy what does child's level mean? 2 year old, 4 year old, 6 year old?
I am pretty sure a 5 year old child knows his native language better then a B2 learner.
A1/A2 you know some basic sentences and some basic rules
B1 you can understand a lot of the content made by natives for natives
B2 you can speak with natives about almost anything
C1/C2 The best that you can get as a non native speaker
At 8:23 you described me. Thank you! I am a legitimate polyglot and am working on putting out more non-English videos without feeling like a dumbass while I do so. I love using RUclips in other languages to retain it in my brain. I am going to attend a few virtual Toastmasters groups in Germany, Spain and Hungary because in the American chapters, they are fabulous. The German ones I attended in 2020 were so interesting and fun. Real conversations. Real people. I can’t imagine giving lessons on RUclips in another language. I’d have to do that in person, and even then I’d have a hard time enjoying it (unless I’m tutoring one-on-one). So kudos to you teachers! I’m first generation American and can appreciate those who studied (and were raised in) other languages for so many years, like myself. Hard work but it becomes a part of you.