the 2015 polyglot gathering is brought
to you by I talkie become fluent in any
language
ever Gaja on more games non mahir nobody
gets people going actually when I start
singing my dulcet tones okay so thank
you all for for coming
I feel very lucky to have so many people
in the room and so some of you are
probably sitting in this audience
thinking I'm not I need to finger of
English what the hell am I doing here
hands are fifty fall into that category
Oh actually okay not as many as I
thought so they probably all gone to
somewhere else more interesting so in
case you didn't recognize me this is me
my name is Richardson cop for those of
you don't know who I am and then I quite
like languages and that's why I'm here
today and these are a few the things
that I'm engaged in online speaking
fluently actually the Facebook page is
probably more active and the polyglot
workshops and polyglot conference which
I'm sure some of you in the room may
have heard of and but my story today
about learning language is a native
English speaker that doesn't actually
just hold true for speakers of English
as a native language it actually goes
beyond the borders of other countries as
well where there's a dominant single
language and they don't tend to learn
many of the languages or any of the
languages so hopefully they'll be
relevance in this for other people the
idea and the goal for me is to actually
explain some of the difficulties in
learning languages for people from these
countries particularly from my
experience as a native English speaker
that from the United Kingdom
and I hope that it will help to make
people and/or understand and be more
aware of of those difficulties so they
can help language learners when they're
speaking to them
so that's the the goal for me for this
talk but let me just demonstrate what I
mean by this not being true just for
native English speakers and for other
people with a little story so a Spanish
man walks into a clothes shop in London
and he goes he wants to buy some socks
so he walks in he says I'll allow one at
the EM get a comparable didn't I put
forward he's from the south of Spain and
then the shopkeeper looks for in case
I'm sorry I don't understand what you're
talking about
it's red posh and Spanish guys like
quiero comprar una cadena sport for
speaking out a little more clearly and
the English guys well it's a closed shop
so it's gonna want clothes isn't he so
comes back with a shirt he goes no no no
no no es una camisa yo quiero calafate
Ynez por favor
see okay pop see wrong so comes back
with a pair of trousers no no no no no
es un pantalones
yo quiero calcetines por favor see Chris
back again eventually comes back with a
pair of socks he goes s o ck s because
we bloody knew how to spell it in
English why don't you do that in the
first place so as you can see this isn't
a thing just for the native English
speakers so one thing that we always
hear is what you call somebody who
speaks many languages what we call them
oh yeah first one up that was very good
who would have known you'd have said
that first Oh
multilingual or Luxembourgish right
representing the looks and burgers how
many in the room there we go
they don't need to be here they're
already experts what you call somebody
who speaks two or three languages well
there we go look at this
bilingual it's like you wrote these
flies it's amazing okay I'll go thinking
man thana but saying Apple and what do
you call someone who speaks one language
I love it it's like you really seriously
oestrogen and there's a lovely flag that
I found thank you google okay so but why
why do English natives find it so hard
to learn language why why is that a
problem well through this presentation I
wanted to discuss the following things
grammar vocab accent pronunciation
practice picking a language oops and
we'll start with grammar but let's just
look through that quickly
whoa so these are all aspects of what
makes it difficult and as I say this
applies not just to native English
speakers but to other people as well
people who are native speakers of other
languages but why why is this problem
well from my point of view speaking as a
native English speaker born and raised
in the United Kingdom
grama is a problem because in English we
don't have gender in the same way as we
do in other languages so when you get to
Loula in French lessons and people say
the wrong gender and then you get to
German you think okay I've cracked this
gender with French okay it's lawful as
you see nota an old form yep a problema
Mia
duh skinned vow home why is it neuter
why is it then change gender in German
all of this is kind of weird for native
English speakers and you often hear that
they'll make mistakes with the gender
because it's for this reason but this
also applies to finish speakers to
Turkish speakers who don't have gender
as well in their languages verbs
English speakers fluff the verbs that
they already have and they don't change
that much anyway and through the the
pronoun so you know I see you see he
sees oh wow big change but you know then
you get to some of the Latin languages
and the changes are huge they are
there's beer very much
etc etc etc in case oh I love the
reaction in the roof who likes cases you
sick sick sick individuals seriously
there is something we can do for you
later it's in the back room I think
there's a talk on Esperanto it's only
got one case so you'll be quite happy
but it will make it a lot easier ok
grammatical rules and terminology when I
went to university in the UK I went to
study languages so who here thinks that
language students tend to be quite good
at grammatical terminology and what
things mean and getting nods you see
it's the wrong audience for these things
people going yeah definitely they're all
fantastic one of the first things that
they did is took us all aside and said
ok we need to teach you English grammar
because you don't get taught it in the
school in the UK you're not taught
English grammar in the same way as you
you're taught French grammar or German
grammar so often you have a better
understanding of of a foreign languages
grammar than you will of your own but
that isn't that actually is is it is a
problem because when you get to things
like cases if you don't know what a
direct object is then the accusative
sounds really strange or an indirect
object or who here is taught and what a
verb is by saying it's a doing word what
does that mean
none of these or nouns and naming word
ok and then you give a few examples that
you need to write down in a test right
that's it then you get to the vocabulary
and it's vast it's often exotic unless
you're talking about French and then
it's basically 60% of English ok and
this is my picture that I took in
Albania just want to show you and such
an attention [ __ ] that's terrible but
it there the idea is the vastness you
get me yet the imagery right but it is
its vast I mean if you look at language
and who has had people come up to you
say ok I speak French or I speak German
they go oh so you know everything right
I get that all the time so so what's the
word for this and then they'd like to
test you so you can translate it but
actually what they don't realize and
what you don't realize yourself as a
native speaker of a language is that
sometimes what you need to do is a sort
of a mind flip when you talk about
vocabulary so you don't always have the
words in the language that you're
learning or language you're speaking
just to give you an example I live in
the Republic of Macedonia Macedonian is
my home language but there's no word for
bookmark they sell them they have them
but there's no real word that people
that use for bookmark there's no real
word that everybody uses for chives
there are these kind of bits of
vocabulary that you want to say and then
you don't really have a word so you have
to bend your mind to express things in a
way that the natives will understand and
that is one of the big stumbling blocks
for native English speakers because
we're used to dominating with exact
precision what we want to say and how we
want to say it and you can't always do
it the exotic thing relates to the
sounds or how the word is made and and
and whether it trips off the tongue
whether it's easy to pronounce it can
just sound weird to native English
speakers and it can be confusing because
sometimes very small change
in a word means something completely
different
there's anyone got any good examples of
words that they've heard there's a word
for Cheers in Hungarian and a word that
means something very different that's
very close yes what is it come over and
speak a con come on I take I take active
volunteers you can come up you've just
volunteered by saying it now here we go
I know you love this I guess you gather
- eggy zeg editor I guess sugar is
choosing their gates check out those
like to spank your ass person like that
so look that's one Thank You Vlad okay
thank you very much kissing him seven
and one of the typical things I used to
hear when I was at school as a school
boy and in French was merci beaucoup
instead of merci beaucoup so one is
thank you beautiful bum and this leads
me on to accent to pronunciation so
especially for native English speakers
but also again for other speakers of
other languages this is true and there's
kind of a sounding weird saying these
things like saying these weird sounds
that you sound it sounds a bit strange
and to go and get it into the right word
at the right time and then not
overcompensate and say Mel C book you is
not always easy for for a native English
speaker because they don't always relate
to okay how do I actually use this and
make it sound normal and then when
you're in a classroom environment
especially at school you can be seen as
putting on the talk so if you're the
only child well where I grew up there's
kind of a mix of accents but if you
imagine a school in Liverpool with a
learning French and they say yeah
bonjour je m'appelle Richards and just
SWE's to Liverpool
your pal fronts area beyond and I've
just gone over to Yorkshire by the way
sorry but then the point is you've got
this local accent and then you're the
only kid that goes boardroom a perfect
shot and the other kids can start
laughing at you because they think oh my
god what are you doing it's it's like
you're giving up your identity so when I
talk about prestige accents and keeping
your identity
it doesn't mean you sound posh and you
sounds sort of all highfalutin in your
language what it actually refers to is
the group language the pack language and
that is the accent and that's the
vocabulary that you use so as soon as
you move away from that especially in a
language society like the English
language in the world where we very much
judge people on their accents from the
standard to where they're from it can
take you away from that group and it can
it can make you feel isolated or people
can make you feel isolated because of it
so sometimes it's a badge that you wear
with pride this strong accent and you
think it's fun to do it especially as
kids when we will learn the numbers in
French I remember I had to go through
the basics of French even though I'd
studied it as a smaller child I had to
go through it with with my peers and
they were they got through the numbers
and they were going on dicks twice,
Quattro Cinque six
tweet nerf dicks and that was hilarious
still is actually my mum came over to
actually talking on this my mum came
over to visit me in Poland when I was
staying there in Poznan and I've got
into this really weird mindset if I
don't see the natural English link
always straight away so who here knows
polish okay so it was a place where you
sell alcohol in Poland and it will have
written alcohol oh yeah
in Polish my 24 alcoholic yeah and my
mum came over he's a native speaker of
English too and monolingual and she said
I wasn't that really clever they've
called it the alcohol so then practicing
the language so you know this is a thing
that native English speakers have a real
issue with everybody speaks English
everyone I mean that they want to speak
it they want to practice and this can be
an issue and the level of English in the
target languages language etiquette and
reactions so just to explain some of
what I've written on on here and who
here has been in a situation where you
want to learn the language you go to the
country and then it goes and yeah you
get your your Dutch is very good sir
sure it's really where were you from in
England I
okay explain a longsword this curve a
fairly man a Lanza and the but they look
in the game yes but I think is probably
easier in English right
and then it's not that they always want
to force you to speak English it's that
they enjoy it and sometimes it's native
English because we forget this and you
can get offended as I need to English
speaker as well because you think oh god
they won't even let me speak but it's
not always the case so from the one side
they're trying to make your life easier
by speaking English because they know
that you're not going to stress but from
the other side you're seeing is Wow is
it really that bad that I can't even
speak to you for more than five minutes
without you turning this conversation
into English and it leaves the English
speaker feeling very sad disappointed
and bit embarrassed and oh dear maybe I
should just not bother everyone speaks
English and the level of English does
play a part because sometimes when you
go when I went to Poland the level of
English is generally quite low compared
to say the Netherlands or Sweden or
Norway or Iceland or somewhere like that
where I'd say the average level is a b2
upper echelons of a b2 whereas in
somewhere like Poland it's probably an
a2 level the functional they get by is
you can go to Poland n' and talk to
people generally but you can quite
quickly overcome like Alex was talking
about yesterday you know when you get to
that level you can then quite easily
just speak in the target language that's
more difficult for some languages than
others and that can be intimidating but
as a native English speaker as well
we're always very used to having the
upper hand and we use this to our
advantage of course because you can
dominate a conversation very easily
because you have a rich vocabulary
automatically because you is you're an
educated native speaker of English you
know you you're used to learning how to
debate or or talk or put your points
across in a very eloquent way whereas if
you've learned English as a foreign
language then naturally it's more of a
struggle to get to that stage so as a
native English speaker you can get
complacent with this ability to express
yourself without any boundaries and
sometimes actually the practicing the
language is an issue internally because
you feel restricted for all the reasons
we talked about before of grammar
vocabulary that you don't have the same
domination of the language that you do
in English but then also some of the
things come into place language
etiquette has anybody heard me talk
about language etiquette before no
for me there is a real strict language
etiquette that goes on with learning a
language or speaking a language and
practicing a language and it relates to
where you are and what you're doing in
who it's with
so for me personally if I'm sitting at
home in the United Kingdom and a German
or a Spaniard or whoever else walks up
to me and speaks to me in English maybe
a low level of English but my instant
reaction is not to go
I had vamos vamos all learn it but
you're not because I know how that feels
from the other side so I sit there and I
okay let's speak slowly take this slowly
and help them out because they're making
an effort to speak my language so this
is the thing that native English
speakers don't always get abroad because
the reactions are what the hell are you
learning my language for this is Iceland
well the people is I want 300,000 you
get it in all sorts of places waiting
whales as well sometimes you'll get it
where people you know a native English
we call them Welsh and it's like why
you're speaking Welsh it's like you can
just be English in Wales some people are
now the attitudes are changing slightly
especially because of immigration and
people wanting people to immigrate to
assimilate into the culture so they
don't know always but the the language
etiquette of speaking the language of
the country you're in I think should
hold true so when I'm abroad I don't
feel the need to have to speak English
to accommodate somebody if they want to
just practice their English but I can
compromise I can be nice about it yeah
visit Yeti and Iceland each kind of toy
train
you must be linked nor English bleedin
either your masters I need NICs hours
each mine explosions or weasel fish pond
to house on does this me you have kind
image manage can often low English so I
don't really worry so much personally
anymore I used to when I was learning
the languages but now I live in in
Skopje with my with my wife and my
daughter we speak five languages at home
on a daily basis and then other
languages outside I don't worry so much
but I understand why people do and and
it is important to show that support for
people learning your language
the reactions actually in
english-speaking countries particularly
the UK there is soft and very strong
reaction against speaking a foreign
language socially it's I'm not going to
say unacceptable but people and do do
have a reaction Polish people definitely
pick up on it in the UK and a lot more
reluctant men to speak Polish to
somebody who's not Polish speaking in
public as well sometimes they feel the
eyes going to them what are you talking
about you're talking about me aren't you
foreigner and I've experienced this
myself
and as a native British person and
you're growing up speaking English as a
first language when my wife and I moved
to the UK to live for 3 years and we've
only ever spoken Macedonian at home
we've never used English when we went
out into the city this is my home city
of Chester and people actually almost
psychologically there's a psychological
barrier to refuse to believe that I was
really British because they heard me
speaking Polish Slavic language it
sounds lovak and the amount of people
that came up to me in the UK to say
excuse me at which language you speaking
there and I'd say Macedonian okay you're
not polish then I thought you polish no
I'm actually British no and you're
speaking Macedonian because and people
actually did this to me it's been in the
curious realms to the blatant rude
realms and it's it's a strange it's a
strange thing to see of your own country
so you think you know people have these
great reactions all you speak all these
languages fantastic but sometimes the
reality of speaking all these languages
it actually makes people a bit
suspicious sometimes and why would you
do it why would you actually speak all
these languages why would you speak it
in front of me when I can't understand
and and it goes back to the language
etiquette as well it's like hmm there's
a tight sort of line to tread with with
these kinds of things and you know I've
had people say all sorts all sorts of
things the only language in the UK that
I found got really positive reactions
generally was French because it's seen
as a as either a cultural equal or
slightly posh still but and the other
language is Spanish and German so so but
but speaking a Slavic language was
definitely I got more negative reactions
and positive unfortunately so that comes
takes me to picking languages so how do
you actually pick the languages you want
to speak bearing in mind all of this you
know the thing that we're talking about
a you know pronunciation how easy it is
for you to actually learn the vocabulary
to learn the grammar to speak it for
that to be then acceptable where you're
living to get the practice that you need
well sometimes the languages are picked
for you so you go to school you start
and you have in the UK French German
possibly Spanish or some other language
that's quite commonly used and they're
picked for four good reasons there
they're quite you know well spoken
languages in the world and are useful
for the job market later on so there is
some some method to the madness but
there are also these prestige languages
that you think of you know people will
talk about I want my child to speak this
really good rationale or you get these
you know posh private schools that will
teach Japanese or Chinese because it's
seen as a prestige language in addition
to the prestige language of French and
then there's heritage so in places like
Wales you have to learn Welsh to some
degree if it's is the first language or
a second language its I think now
they've changed it so you only learn it
till about fourteen or something like
that but you you have to do some Welsh
because it's obviously with the official
language of the country next English and
but there's often a lot of stigma
attached to some of these heritage
language languages
people don't want to seem different so
I've met people who are either from
Welsh extraction who are actually very
against and the Welsh language I've met
people who who speak languages from from
India or penguin Bangladesh or Pakistan
and their parents spoke them at home but
they speak them with a very strong
Yorkshire accent or but other regional
accents and they become very British and
it's it's not it's not that they shun
the language because they use it at home
but you you get these reactions of
wanting to fit in so anyone seen East is
East it's a really good film in the UK
British film that demonstrates this this
struggle between a Pakistani father and
a Yorkshire nun who and the children are
sort of caught between the two cultures
I like what they're speaking and they go
to they go and they read the Koran and
they learn Arabic and they but they
don't take the language so seriously
because then I suppose the scene being
seen is different to the local community
and these are things that I find really
quite sad because that the diversity and
and actually having these these
additional heritage things are really
nice and and quite quite good for myself
personally I actually I heard Welsh as a
child and nun and I always knew I grew
up with speaking English but there were
always sort of elements of Welsh put
into the English as well like we knew
Qaeda gag shut your mouth you know
lovely lovely little things like that
like the Irish people that learn point
Mahorn yeah gets my bum but they learn
all it's one of the first things that
you learn right how'd you learn Irish
and but the there are other things that
motivate you learning languages I mean
you know even in my later stages of
language learning when I had who has
language lists that they want to learn
all right [ __ ] room isn't it's a
great audience for this and you've got
like Burmese you got more so just
because you can say it
Zulu all these fantastic languages that
you'll probably not learn but you dream
of it and never in my wildest dream
did I ever put Macedonia on the list and
because of this this last reason it's
like one of the best languages that I
speak and just because yeah not now my
family is half Macedonian and and we use
it at home and we use it all the time
the road ahead so the first one is the
hardest the first language so anybody
out there are notes like in this room
it's like preaching to the converted
right but there are people that look on
this on YouTube look at the video and
they're struggling with the first
language and I think bear in mind the
first one is is often the hardest one to
learn and people often come to you and
say well isn't it really easy after that
and yes it is no it isn't it is because
once you've learned one you can imagine
what it's like to speak another language
and I think that mindset and that
ability to to consider what it is to
speak another language stays with you
then for further learning and the other
thing that's really important when you
learn a language is language bridges
created so when you go through the
process again grammatical terms often
repeat themselves or have similarities
you can you can sort of associate things
better we go back to the vocabulary it
doesn't seem as vast anymore I've learnt
French now I'm going to Spanish oh okay
it's quite a lot of words here are the
same or even if you go to Turkish and I
found lots and lots of French words in
Turkish so what the hell and the same in
Russian you know you get all these
French words that go through because
it's it was a it was the English of
before English times right it was French
so it's permeated all of these different
societies in different ways and and it
really helps my advice is always if
you're a native English speaker learn
French it helps you with English it
helps you understand English literature
it helps you to expand your vocabulary
without having to work very hard because
you have French and you have a better
vocabulary in your own native tongue and
it's one of the reasons I chose French
as a native language for my daughter as
well because I knew that it would be
really important
and taking on new languages so when you
when you've got all of this you've got
this new mindset you've got all these
links and bridges from the new language
that you've learned then you don't feel
so scared to take on a new language and
you can also pretend that you're no
longer a native English speaker
an interesting thing actually on this
link to some of the cultural things we
talked about in the UK my wife and I
were in Scotland I was working on the
Antarctic Treaty and we went to a
restaurant and the the the guy working
there I came over to take our order and
he had he had a strong accent and at
that time Polish people only started
arriving into the UK so we weren't
really clear we hadn't really been
following you know the immigration that
was to follow and I think Poland only
been here for a little bit of time so it
was anything possible to come over and
the guy was speaking this Slavic accent
my wife and I was speaking in Macedonian
and we said excuse me where are you from
because we thought maybe there's a
chance he's from the Balkans and he went
and from Croatia had thought of Brad
there modulo the Givaudan joaquina
janosh gone we can speak our language
and he just looked horrified as Annie
went and then Alan had also mish-mosh
died over well caught you what we
couldn't understand why didn't
understand this Croatian guy was like we
were speaking in the language why can't
you understand us and at first we
thought maybe we were standing too
serbian so we know have we crossed some
sort of line etiquette boundary here
that we shouldn't be doing with okay we
didn't use the infinitive sorry and but
we we had soon started to realize this
guy didn't understand the word we were
saying anywhere actually I'm from Poland
and then it clicked and we went why did
you say you were from Croatia because
because I get less negative reactions if
I say I'm from Croatia than Poland yeah
and you can you can use this trick but
make sure you speak the language that's
kind of the moral of story so if you go
to a new country and you want to say I
don't speak English you want to pretend
just what one of my tricks
was always I'd go I don't understand and
then they just get they got to get
nervous about their own level of English
and then turn back to their native
language there's a really good trick by
the way it works really well you go
strain and then they may repeat it once
or twice now if you do it three times
ago oh my god my English is crap should
maybe stay with the language that he's
trying to speak to me instead but make
sure you can speak hit me if you can and
they happen to speak the language that
you claim to be a native of ich and so
if this is going to go for there we go
there's a lovely little thing I like
this I like bridges there they're a nice
little thing to add on
I thought pictures would make you
interested in what I was saying was
boring okay so multilingual vs. polyglot
does anybody else make this distinction
nowadays for me these has changed in my
head so anybody else make the
distinction anymore you make
distinctions yeah for me the
multilingual is the Luxembourgish person
who has had to speak three four
languages through necessity they go to
kindergarten in Luxembourgish than they
do primary secondary school in French
German German French whichever way
around the duets and they learn English
because everyone learns English and they
may learn a foreign language like
they've got the largest number of
immigrants from Portugal in anywhere
else in Europe outside Portugal and in
Luxembourg I believe that wasn't a
statistic ten years ago when I first
learnt it and I'm sticking with it it's
a good one so they may have a home
language like Portuguese or Serbian
there's quite a lot of Serbian speakers
that moved over during the war and so
they have four or five languages just
without starting but does that make them
particularly a polyglot in the way we
think of polyglots in all
online community well the question I
asked a minute ago who hears from
Luxembourg no one answered and I think
there is one there's one person that I
have met called Christine I think her
name is who is from Luxembourg and is in
the community but I don't come across
them very often and I think because for
me polyglot doesn't just mean speaking
languages and people often ask how many
languages is it for me it's not the
amount of languages per se
yes it's speaking more than maybe one or
two but beyond that is it really
important no it's actually this
deliberate action going forward and
picking languages and learning them that
is what a polyglot is for me it's
somebody who does this deliberately and
for no apparent reason
yeah am I right or am i right
haha so we see people like these you
know natural multi linguist from America
you know professor aguas our very own
Alex
Benny Inman ola you did because Germany
as well
pretty monolingual country you learn a
bit of English but you don't always
learn the languages so for me these like
all these countries count it's not just
about english-speaking countries who
knows who that is
yeah Hungarian Katherine yeah
hunger Hungaria hungry is also one of
those countries where they tend just to
speak Hungarian right but these are the
people err Tim yeah there we go she's
there at the back Lindsey at Lucca noses
Steve Suzanna David its - Jay yeah oli
Mike Campbell and Donovan and these are
all people from pretty monolingual
backgrounds and yeah they may have
had languages a little bit younger they
may not but these people all went on to
do something incredible with learning
lots and lots of languages these are
just examples that I chose randomly
because of you know they're known in the
community and they're their faces that
you will instantly recognize and maybe
attach a meaning to straightaway but I
could equally have used a number of
faces in this room and have the same
effect so really that is me and I'm
happy yes
okay let's take another country as an
idea instead of Luxembourg because they
do education in in a number of languages
so if anybody didn't hear that the
argument was whether or not there are
differences in levels between
multilingual and polyglot so whether or
not you would have a bilingual as a
perfect bilingual I'm guessing you mean
by this or a trilingual perfect
trilingual or multilingual
and extension of that beyond these three
languages and I think probably a better
maybe maybe a better country to pick
would be somewhere like India or some
African countries as well where they
will learn languages of people around
but they'll learn them for different
reasons it will be for business for just
having a coffee trade whatever they
doing they'll do it for different
reasons so they don't need the same
level in the language and they didn't
means necessarily they can't necessarily
say the same things in all of the
languages either they may not even have
one mother tongue that's very strong it
may be a mixture of languages and this
happens in a lot of places outside
Europe and even in Europe as well I know
people in in the Republic of Macedonia
who who just go in a conversation
between five languages and they do it
because that's just the way they talk
where they live because they'll mix
Turkish in with Albanian with Macedonian
with Serbian and then they may know a
smattering of German and whatever else
and but it's it's it's that's why I
would say they were they are
multilingual for me and there are
different levels so I wouldn't make that
distinction myself and if you talk about
other languages like French Belanger
everyone's belonging French if they
speak about in three words of English
they belong who I mean I remember people
saying that all the time I teach younger
let go my OC yeah
okay so which one of your parents is
from is from the UK oh no more clearly :
okay so your you'll be lying you'll
that'd be lying you and it's nothing
nothing wrong with being belong in that
way but it's a it's not all in English
term bilingual it's not what we
understand we understand and assume that
it's a perfect bilingualism but actually
even in even in these countries where it
seems like a very good bilingualism
almost perfect it doesn't take long to
scratch the surface as a very competent
fluent speaker of a language to see that
it's not quite the reality even for the
people that seem very very very
bilingual there is often a stronger
language in areas and it will it will do
the same thing as happening in India or
African countries where where this is
the norm between tribes or between
regions of the country for just general
conversation but it will be be maybe a
high educated level because they've
studied maybe in all the languages okay
I'm open to other questions as well yeah
please
hello hello and you said that mmm
do you mind the second language was the
most difficult and then after that it
got easier
I actually thought perhaps the third
language was the challenge because this
is the point at which you consolidate
how to learn a language
yeah I know what you're talking about
and it's kind of went up when I said I
kind of went ish and sort of winced a
little bit because it's true that it's
the first is the hardest in terms of
that mental barrier of understanding how
to speak and communicate in a different
language and that's the one thing that
you do you do once in terms of that
mental flip but you're right and this
happened to me when I started off with
the Romance languages and that was my
first group of languages and when I
started learning Germanic languages I
started Swedish from my first Germanic
language
naturally so I I had Swedish at
university but I didn't have German at
school at all
I spoke no German until I was 22 and
never studied it but Swedish I found
more similar to English because of the
structure and the way it was flowing and
the the putting different article the
end was a bit weird but it was more or
less okay when I got to German and this
whole flippin Lee the sentence round and
putting verbs at the end of the sentence
yeah we do it in English as well
sometimes but in German the way of doing
it was a bit of a mind flip
and for me there was a real I felt I
would describe it as a physiological
change in my brain from the the Romance
language set to the Germanic and once
you go through that change there's no
going back
and so that's that's kind of what I'm
getting out with the first ones the
hardest because that going forwards and
then not being able to go back from
understanding that and and visualizing
speaking in a language that's why I say
it's the hardest but there's definitely
struggles with each new family because
there are new grow new ways of thinking
that that change completely and you have
to make that flip again interesting that
you should mention German I think
because that was actually my third
language it's sort of like tasting from
the tree of knowledge mm-hmm yeah yeah
exactly yep
thank you great presentation loved it
thank you I wanted to ask you I'm not
I'm definitely I'm Italian not a native
English speaker and not Anna but I've
lived there before I lived in Finland
and now I've been living in Lavinia and
I like this the concept of dominance
that I use English you know to dominate
conversation because both literally and
finish are never strong but I also found
out that Lithuanian and Finnish they're
not used to people speaking their
language as a second language so for
them it's very awkward and when I try to
learn Russian in Lithuanian for me was
way easier to practice Russian because
Russian as Italian I think they're used
maybe to see other people
struggling so themselves they're used to
adapt in a way to somebody speaking
their language as a second language so
my question is what can we how can we
help these societies maybe to open their
eyes and to realize that look there are
lots of people that would love to speak
your language and what can you do
natives - yeah this is really true as an
English language native we're used to a
huge wide variety of different accents
and people from different cultures
speaking our language so our air can
tune in and can adapt quite quickly and
a lot of other smaller countries where
they're not used to people learning the
language and I live in a country exactly
the same you know in the Republic of
Macedonia people didn't really study
Macedonian and it's it's there aren't
many that speak it well you know now
from abroad that come in and I remember
when I first went there and they that I
went to the school to try and learn
Macedonian that way to have proper
lessons and they went yeah we've we've
taught really successfully beyond the
basics we've got this American guys been
over two years he's fantastic but he
calls we don't stand a word he says but
it's because it's because of the accent
how you can combat that it's tough it's
this is one of the reasons why I wanted
to make this presentation because I know
it will go on YouTube but I know that
within the community people will see it
and they'll understand this struggle and
it's taking the time to be patient and
listening to it and sometimes I find it
quite hard to understand why a native
can't bend their ear a little bit to
understand but it's it does seem to be
something that's pre-programmed and how
you would do it I think is just with
with actually making people more aware
that this is okay to do and and and
getting more used to people learning the
minority languages and you as a
foreigner living in Lithuania speaking
to more people in Lithuanian so that
then because you are an ambassador for
foreigner speaking Lithuanian when you
learn any language you will then an
ambassador for a foreigner learning that
language and that's how you need to see
yourself so don't get scared when they
reply to you in English or in another
language
that you may speak just you know be
important as you say just carry on and
and and and you know and actually stand
by what you're trying to do and
represent represent so hi
Richard thank you for the go talk I
would like to dig into a little bit
about this distinction between Multi
multi lingual and polyglots
and we've had this conversation before I
self identify as a multi lingual I call
it accident or polyglots but I like it
but for the sake of clarity I would call
them circumstantial language or
circumstantial polyglot or intentional
polyglot and I find as a circumstantial
polyglot I would love to be intentional
polyglot and from from what I've heard
from many intentional polyglots how they
managed to become poly or how sorry how
intentional polyglots managed to become
in terms of public polyglots is they
check themselves into being
circumstantial polyglots you know they
create environment but they create this
as it includes the the things that you
mentioned yourself you know these are
all the different reasons people learn
languages so I think maybe the the
distinction really isn't that clear and
there's a lot of back and forth between
yeah the two domains oh I agree that
this isn't a clear distinction it's just
something I perceive and I wanted to
express in a public way because I this
is a shift in in my thinking
more recently actually a process in the
last year or so I started making this
distinction in my head and I think it
comes from people asking am i a polyglot
and probably yeah there's probably a
crossover it's like when people talk
about being as agnostic theist and
atheist you can actually be an agnostic
theist and an agnostic atheist
it's not it's not one of the other it's
it's all and I think probably this may
fit into that kind of category of you
could be a polyglot multilingual
polyglot why not you I said there's one
person from Luxembourg who would
probably I would define as that
a natural multilingual because of
environment because of heritage who then
also went on to learn other languages hi
Richard
hello this behind him thank you so much
for this presentation I wanted to ask
you since I'm a native English speaker
from America and there's several of us
in the room now which is great I think
it's amazing I was wondering if you have
experienced or if you'd like could share
with us any psychological boundaries or
like obstacles you faced being a native
English speaker because I know for
Americans there's a reputation around
the world for being either unable or
unwilling to learn other languages and
so it kind of comes to my mind every now
and then like while you're American so
you're supposed to have these problems
have you experienced anything like that
um yeah kind of I suffer the thing that
I think many of us native English
speakers suffer and that you take this
time and you make this effort to learn
languages but actually the picking the
language is very difficult because
there's not always a natural language to
pick and it doesn't matter how many you
pick you'll still learn a native English
speaker when you go to the country that
you don't speak the language of and you
still feel lazy and you still feel that
you're representing a stereotype and I
definitely feel that as well when I go
to like when I go to hungry and I just
know like you know a few words and I
feel are why can't I just become Gareth
but then you think like I can't do this
in every single country in the world
either that's to me one psychological
barrier potentially not what you were
getting out with your question but one
of the things that for me is is an
important thing sort of linked to that
idea in terms of people people's
reactions
yeah I've certainly had like in the
Netherlands when I lived there first six
months were very hard for speaking Dutch
because I didn't have the vocabulary to
say everything I wanted and I didn't
have maybe the right grammar and maybe
maxint was a bit off and I don't know I
mean I don't worry too much of accent to
be honest I like to go to be clear in my
pronunciation if I can and
but after the six-month period of people
constantly turning back to English and
it started to ease off but if ever I got
to a point where I went to buy tickets
or anything that I had to show my
passport to write my passport thing they
go oh yeah we're speaking in Dutch for
like half an hour about where I'm going
to fly to what I'm going to do and why
need it and they go oh show her you're
from United Kingdom yeah and they only
give manator long side leg needs the
hater and I can still speak Dutch
haven't forgot met just because I gave
you a passport and it says I'm British
does not mean I can no longer speak
Dutch and they went our sorry old so but
it's a natural thing that you get as a
native English speaker people like to
speak to native speakers it's just the
way it is I mean it's it's a rare thing
for a lot of people a lot of communities
so they go oh you're from the US or
you're from the UK you're from Australia
Wow we can practice English with
somebody who speaks it really well and
you know don't judge me on that could be
awful but it's it is an issue and I
think it's being polite and saying you
know yeah if you you know it's really
good you want to speak English it's
great you know what I really like your
language and I really like your culture
and I'd love to speak to you and
actually improve and most people are
actually quite nice when you say that
you know I've taken the time to come
here it's really nice if you could carry
on in your language that I can improve
and that's kind of what I do that's my
trick when I first go to a country even
if I know they speak better English than
I speak their language I don't think
that should be an issue I think it
should be a language etiquette thing and
that takes me back to the language
etiquette because I think that even if
people unaware of that to themselves you
can you know sort of passively show that
there's a language there to get here
this is the boundary I've come to your
country and and I've come for the for
the reason of learning your language so
therefore please do me that favor and
speak to me in your language hello hello
um this is relating to what you said
about language etiquette
one situation that always feels really
awkward to me is being on an airplane
especially if it's like a Japanese or
Chinese airline and everybody around me
is Asian and so of course the flight
attendants take one look at my face and
they speak to me in English this always
makes me feel just really awkward
because I don't want to be like you know
the foreigner on the plane
who needs to be spoken to in English and
my ex my instinct is to reply to them in
their language but at the same time I
don't want to make this person feel bad
you know feel like maybe their English
isn't good enough and I know you know
they're only doing their job it's only
natural for them to think that you know
I would prefer to speak English and so
I'm just wondering if you have any sort
of protocol for this type of situation
okay a good question I think of the very
short interactions and you know that
it's not going to be a comic become a
conversation depending on how confident
you feel or how uneasy you feel about
the situation you could do one of two
things just say okay I'm just going to
say something back in English and be
done with it
or you could say in English and then say
something nice like thank you or just a
couple of words in that language after
the English to show that you have an
awareness of their culture in their
language and that night spark and a
reaction in return that they say oh
you've learned some some Japanese or
you've learned some Chinese and that's
really nice and then you go then you say
oh yeah I studied it over Beauvoir and
they may it may spark a tiny
conversation in those situations it's
unlikely to spark a huge dialogue
because it's it's a plane ride right and
they've got a job to do and they're
doing their job to the best of their
ability and if they went up to some
every every every person on the plane
white who was white or or black and just
randomly spoke to them in Chinese or
Japanese they probably make more enemies
than friends
do you like what the hell you know and
it is the language of the sky English is
used in the sky so they're trained to
make the announcements in English so
there's kind of that mindset going on in
that space
pick environment but that's what I yeah
but that's not I mean it's a natural
thing to do right I mean were the only
sort of language is where you wouldn't
do that as English because anyone can be
British anyone can be American
it doesn't really depend on your outward
appearance because we're all mixed right
but but how many white Japanese people
do you see you just don't you just don't
come across them it's it's not it's not
them yeah there we go got one in the
back there but you you don't get that
many and and so it's it's fair it's fair
enough today I mean I get that every day
pretty much in the Balkans people look
at me and I'm too white to be Balkan I
am I mean you know it's like I went
round with and I'm sure Danny won't mind
me saying this but I went round Skokie
with Danny Ferguson and Danny Ferguson
as as black as I am white and and we
went round and it was like the circus
had come to town ha ha ha everyone's
heads were turning who are these people
and then you know we started speaking in
Serbian which freaked them out even more
ha ha these policemen went speaking
Serbian what's going on the world's gone
crazy but it was late time's up returned
yeah sorry yeah we have to finish oh
sorry ok I can't see where you are okay
okay
thank you