Jan 24 2008
Cardinal Mezzofanti the Polyglot
Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti was a Catholic Italian cardinal who lived from 1774-1849, and learned how to speak thirty-eight languages and fifty dialects completely fluently and without accents. In addition, he was also proficient in several others. He learned everything he did while living in Italy, and without the use of any of the modern technology we have today.
He was a professor of several Oriental languages, Arabic, and Greek at the University of Bologna
That’s inspiring, I think. Although he was clearly gifted in language, he still didn’t have the Internet or podcasts that are available these days. Therefore, we have the advantage and should be able to become masters of language faster and easier. Right?
For more reading about Cardinal Mezzofanti, see here and here.
He wasted his time learning all those languages.
He should have learned the science of the saints and saved souls at the time of learning languages.
I agree. In modern times we have the potential become as good or better than Mezzofanti. Studies show that we can learn as many languages as we have time to study and practice. I suppose if you were somehow sponsored so that you could spend your life studying and practicing languages then you could learn 100+, but to what end?
Knowing foreign languages seems to be a very complimentary “side dish” to most of life’s “main courses.” Take your case, knowing fluent Spanish and being an MD in the USA would be very advantageous in most cases. That said, being competent in 5+ languages and hoping that someone will give you a good job is not very likely to work out very well. Like being a successful chef, massage therapist or martial artist, being a successful linguist (in the traditional sense) requires additional complimentary skills.
[...] is definitely possible, and is something that people today are accomplishing. You may have heard of Cardinal Mezzofanti, who was a priest that mastered a huge number of languages. In fact, during his time and earlier, [...]