What is a Polyglot?║Lindsay Does Languages Video

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

reason, just for the pure love of language
and the love of learning language and the

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

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

specific requirement that you have to, erm,
achieve, that you have to attain before you

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

probably take advantage of. Ok, thank you.