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Gaw, you feel wonky today. What the hell happened?![br]Oh my life! Oh, I don't know if I'm gonna

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survive this video. Hey! So, today, I want[br]to address a little thing that is kind of,

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er, annoying. But it's also a little bit confusing.[br]And it's annoying because it's confusing,

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and it's confusing because it's annoying,[br]and it's just....it's a vicious cycle really.

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Today I want to try and answer the question[br]what is a polyglot? A polyglot is something

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that I..It's a word I'd never really heard[br]of to be honest until recently in the past...5

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years let's say. And so the fact that I hadn't[br]heard of this word means that a lot of other

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people also hadn't heard of this word and[br]also still haven't heard of this word. But

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this word, 'polyglot', is now being used more[br]and more and more within the sort of online

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language learning community and I feel like[br]for some people, it kind of is, erm, scary,

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because the think "Oh my goodness! I'm not,[br]I don't speak seventeen languages. Maybe I

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do speak seventeen languages and I don't speak[br]them to C2 level that means I'm not a polyglot,

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that means I can't go to these events that[br]have the word 'polyglot' in the title. Oh,

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what a disaster!". But I just want to say[br]to those people that it's totally ok. See

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the thing is about the word polyglot - there[br]is no strict definition. Like, if I, if I...where's

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my phone? Let's do this right now. Ok, let's[br]see, what is a polyglot? Let's check and see

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what the old er, search engine extraordinaire[br]that begins with a 'G' says. "Are you trilingual?

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Are you monolingual, bilingual, trilingual,[br]multilingual or a polyglot?" See, there you

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go multilingual and polyglot are being used[br]separately even though technically 'poly'

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means multiple, like many, like a polyglot,[br]polyglot, a poly- , polygon! That's a shape

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with many sides, right? And then 'glot' is[br]language. Kind of like in the term, one of

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my favourites, 'glottal stop'. But-ter! So,[br]it just means multiple languages. Ok. So it's

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not 4, 5, 6, 7, 17, 52, 103. It's not to A1,[br]to A2, to B1, to C2, blah blah, to C2. There

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is no clear definition of what it takes to[br]call yourself a polyglot. Now I actually filmed

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a video, erm, a few months back before I went[br]to the Polyglot Gathering this year in May

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in Berlin. And I filmed this video and I never[br]actually edited it. In this video, basically,

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I was of the opinion that, you know, there[br]is no clear definition, let's all calm down,

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let's not worry about specifically what a[br]polyglot is. I actually kind of ended it by

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saying that at the same time, I feel like[br]it's saying "Yes! I am a, er, I'm the best

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footballer you'll ever find". It's something,[br]there was some kind of arrogance there I felt

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so I would never have called myself a polyglot.[br]And then I went to the Polyglot Gathering

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in Berlin. I know it's ironic the name 'polyglot'[br]and I said I wasn't blah, blah, blah! But

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I went there and I went to one talk with Richard[br]Simcott, who I'm sure you've heard of if you're

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watching this video, and he outlined that[br]for him, the definition is changing and a

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polyglot is someone, for him, who actively[br]goes forward and learns languages for no particular

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reason, just for the pure love of language[br]and the love of learning language and the

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love of communicating with people via different[br]languages. And I thought this was so beautiful.

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It's so open, it's so accepting. There is[br]no definition, there is no specific number,

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specific requirement that you have to, erm,[br]achieve, that you have to attain before you

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can say, yeah I'm a polyglot. And before you[br]can say, yeah, I'm going to go to the Polyglot

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Gathering or the Polyglot Conference. No![br]If you love language and I'm telling you this,

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like, from the heart 'cause the battery's[br]about to die! If you love language and you

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actively learn languages and you enjoy that[br]process, and you have no limit to what you

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want to do and how many languages you want[br]to learn, then you are a polyglot. And I think

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that that is now becoming the widely accepted[br]definition. And it's something that I myself

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would, err, would like to believe. I would[br]love, I want, for me, this is the new definition

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of what a polyglot is. I hope that cleared[br]something up. What do you think? Do you agree

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with this definition? I've very much taken[br]this definition that I use myself from Richard

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Simcott so thank you to Richard for, err,[br]for sharing his opinion on this in Berlin.

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It really helped me personally to kind of[br]get a bigger, much broader perspective of

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this word, and that's what I want to share[br]with you today. But do you agree? Is this

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your opinion? Let me know in the comments[br]below. I'd love to get chatting with you about

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this and to know if you think "no, it should[br]be this set number of languages or it should

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be a set level" or, whatever you think, please[br]just share in the comments, I'd love to hear

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some opinions on this. And as usual, if you[br]enjoyed, please subscribe. I hope you enjoyed

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this video, I hope you found it useful and[br]I hope that it will inspire you to use the

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word polyglot more confidently, more comfortably,[br]and to perhaps even attend a polyglot event.

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This isn't like a sponsored video of any of[br]those events! I've been to two events myself,

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one Polyglot Gathering and one Polyglot Conference[br]in the past year, and I loved them both. The

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atmosphere is incredible, there's no competition,[br]there's no, err, like peacocking, if you like,

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of you know, "Well, actually my badge says[br]err, I speak 52 languages, so, you know, come

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at me!" There's none of that. It's just really[br]friendly, really warm, really open, and just

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to share some time with people who share that[br]same passion for language learning as you

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do is a real gem and it's something that I[br]think if you're watching this video, you should

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probably take advantage of. Ok, thank you.