May 06 2008
Modern Polyglots
I think it’s fun to read about people who have made significant achievements in the language-learning world. It’s inspiring to know that learning two, three, four, or even more languages 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, it was pretty common for most people in Europe to speak a handful of languages.
But nowadays, the art of language-learning has decreased dramatically, with most people being able to speak only one or two. Americans especially are “crippled” in this area, and the majority of us can only speak our native language–English.
Ryan over at The Linguist Blogger has compiled a list of modern people who have learned how to speak multiple languages fluently. A good number of Americans are in that list, and it’s cool to read about them. Hopefully they can act as role models for us to get in gear and start learning some languages.
Thanks for the reference Zach. I hope people who read my last two posts will feel motivated to learn another language or two after seeing how other people have done it. I think I accidentally convinced my father-in-law to learn Portuguese the other day. Viva o Brasil!