Learning languages as a native English speaker - Richard Simcott at the Polyglot Gathering 2015

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