http://www.youtube.com/user/laoshu505000?feature=watch
There are videos of him talking to Justin Wong and Daigo in their mother tongues. there have been numerous videos of him talking to random people in their native tongue.
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20 years old & fluent in 11 languages, I'm jealous.
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http://www.youtube.com/user/laoshu505000?feature=watch
There are videos of him talking to Justin Wong and Daigo in their mother tongues. there have been numerous videos of him talking to random people in their native tongue.
The fact there is not a universal sign language is a truly wasted opportunity?
heh i recognize him, that guy was in the year below me at school; smart guy, i remember watching him in the debating society.
i love the idea of learning languages and envy the skill, but i'm absolutely hopeless at it, just can't wrap my head around whats needed. a shame, i hate being the traveller that bumbles his way through with just english.
i love the idea of learning languages and envy the skill, but i'm absolutely hopeless at it, just can't wrap my head around whats needed. a shame, i hate being the traveller that bumbles his way through with just english.
Phat Michael
Banned
because chinese isnt a language?
Don't beat yourself up, you went to Oxford you'll make a shit tonne of money regardless. I forgot my mother tongue, that sucks more than only speaking English.
haha i wish i went to oxford. he was in the year below me at secondary school.
Oh fair enough.
Patrick Bateman
Member
His German is mindblowing.
Deadly Cyclone
Pride of Iowa State
I've been meaning do learn some more languages. We have French and Spanish Rosetta Stone free for work, I just need to start it. I am wary of the way you learn on that program though.
I really want to start with Italian.
I really want to start with Italian.
Baconsaurus Rex
Member
Didn't need the subtitles for the Dutch, German and Afrikaans text. I can't be the only one who thinks Russian sounds awesome, right?
Leona Lewis
Banned
Come on, everyone who says this knows we're referring to standard Mandarin.
Maleficence
Member
I really don't see how that's all that amazing if it's his hobby and something he spends a lot of time studying. Anyone could do it if they had the patience and actual interest in the subject.
ShinNL
Member
Yeah, if you're from The Netherlands, Dutch, German and Afrikaans are pretty much understandable by ear. But Russian..! Have you seen the movie The Terminal? Well, me and my friends were using a Russian flight company to fly to Japan, so the trip was long to say the least. While getting bored as heck, we started deciphering the movie guide which was completely written in Russian. Well, after a while we managed to decipher most of their alphabet by using the real names we know of the movies (they translate most of the movie names). So then we applied a bit of a sore throat and started reading text and we really sounded Russian
After the weird alphabet, most of the words were very recognizable as words you know from either Dutch, German or English. Surprisingly not that hard of a language.
Meus Renaissance
Member
I would love to learn Latin, Arabic and Korean
williamsan
Member
I can speak English fluently, Spanish moderately well, and just a smattering of Korean.
Neither is Spanish then.
triplestation
Member
3 here, as well.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
There was a guy in Thailand who was friends with my family who spoke dozens of languages.
My uncle told the story of how they traveled to one of the hill tribe villages, and this guy learned their language in less than two weeks. On the first day, he wrote down a few hundred words (using those linguistic symbols) and memorized them. On the second day, he memorized a few hundred more. On the third day, he began speaking, picking up the grammar as he went.
In less than two weeks he was fluent.
Some people just have the mind for it. It's like how Mozart could play a piece on the piano after hearing someone play it just one time.
My uncle told the story of how they traveled to one of the hill tribe villages, and this guy learned their language in less than two weeks. On the first day, he wrote down a few hundred words (using those linguistic symbols) and memorized them. On the second day, he memorized a few hundred more. On the third day, he began speaking, picking up the grammar as he went.
In less than two weeks he was fluent.
Some people just have the mind for it. It's like how Mozart could play a piece on the piano after hearing someone play it just one time.
Knowing Tagalog really helped me in my Spanish class. Pronunciation was almost a breeze. Forming and completely understanding sentences were another story, though.
Alligatorjandro
Banned
Wow thats impressive.I can only speak English.
Ultimadrago
Member
One language has always worked fine for me.
That said, pretty neat interest.
That said, pretty neat interest.
Well, seems that most sign languages are invented around each school or community of deaf people, so there was no way to create an unified language any more than there was a chance for an universal spoken language.
IIRC sign languages don't even necessarily resemble the local spoken language grammatically.
YoungMandu
Member
I'm Korean but my family moved to Canada when I was young so I forgot what little I knew and became fluent in English.
I've been trying to learn it again by listening to Korean music and watching shows, and I'm slowly getting there. It sucks when I visit family because it's difficult to communicate with each other
I also know little French because I took it in high school but did not continue it after that because I have no further interest in it.
I've been trying to learn it again by listening to Korean music and watching shows, and I'm slowly getting there. It sucks when I visit family because it's difficult to communicate with each other
I also know little French because I took it in high school but did not continue it after that because I have no further interest in it.
Fusion Pizza
Member
That man has a gift.
I'm Korean but my family moved to Canada when I was young so I forgot what little I knew and became fluent in English.
I've been trying to learn it again by listening to Korean music and watching shows, and I'm slowly getting there. It sucks when I visit family because it's difficult to communicate with each other
I also know little French because I took it in high school but did not continue it after that because I have no further interest in it.
Are your family very proficient in English? I suggested this as a reason why a lot of Nigerian parents don't speak to their kids in their mother tongue and thus the kids don't pick http. I suggested Mexican and Asian parents' English might not be so good do they would prefer to speak in their native tongue.
krameriffic
Member
Fixed.
You're just majoring in business at a party school for the chicks man. I'm gonna have a real job when I graduate!
YoungMandu
Member
Do you mean my immediate family? My younger siblings basically grew up in Canada so English is their only language. My mom can speak English well, not as good as my siblings and I but better than most Koreans that immigrate here. My stepdad is Canadian, which helped my mom's English a lot and probably was the reason she didn't continue speaking Korean to us.
Mushroom021
Member
Im 23 and I know one! Sad.
I know what you mean. My Cantonese is fluent but lacking in vocabulary, most of the time I mix German and English in it. Alpha Bromega said that one can speak his native language fluently no matter what, but I think it isn't always the case. I even think in German...
Smiles and Cries
Member
I love languages I wish I was not so lazy and my memory was better
the video is funny because his voice seem to change with each language he speaks
sixteen-bit
Member
I sadly just know the one.
Choke on the Magic
Banned
He may speak 11 languages, but he's going to need them when he's in Times Square selling fake hats, and I know Gucci when see it n***a I'm rich.
Yeah immediate family.
Some people just have a talent for languages. My mother picks up languages very quickly, wherever we lived, she had a good grasp on the language within a month. While my father and I would still barely be able to speak basic phrases 3 years later.
Best way to learn a language is a sleeping dictionary though, it was the only reason I was fairly adept at spanish for a short time.
Best way to learn a language is a sleeping dictionary though, it was the only reason I was fairly adept at spanish for a short time.
Nothing but respect for this dude.
Also pleasantly surprised by his Dutch.
I only speak Dutch and English (semi-)fluently and I know a decent amount of German. I've always wanted to learn other languages, Japanese in particular, but I just can't commit myself to putting in the work.
Also pleasantly surprised by his Dutch.
I only speak Dutch and English (semi-)fluently and I know a decent amount of German. I've always wanted to learn other languages, Japanese in particular, but I just can't commit myself to putting in the work.
The Omega Man
Member
What kind of bullshit is this?, I am fluent in 4 languages yet I speak to my son in my mother tongue, not because I don't speak the other languages good enough, in fact, the only time I get to use my mother tongue is at home with my kid, you tent to speak to your kids in your mother tongue because it comes natural plus you are giving them an extra language for free (if you live in a different country where a different language is spoken)
Parents who don't teach/pass along their mother tongue to their kids just because they live in another country are making a huge mistake, kids will pick-up whatever the official language is at school, your mother tongue however might be lost forever or will become increasingly hard to learn as kids grow up.
My 2 and a half years old son speaks spanish to me and switches to german right away when speaking to his mom (my wife is german), that's 2 extra languages he'll have besides the 2 official ones from here (we live in Montreal), he just started daycare in french and his teacher already told me he understands a lot and he had begun to repeat and say some words in french.
not to shabby for a 2 and half years old
childplease
Banned
I only speak 2 languages, English and Spanish. If Ebonics counts as a language I guess you can say I understand a 3rd language. I really need to learn Mandarin or Arabic those two languages would be extremely valuable.
Baconsaurus Rex
Member
A classmate of mine is doing a test study in Russian and he knew that I was interested in Russian so I helped him with his homework. I can pretty much decipher written text with some difficulty, really awesome language.Yeah, if you're from The Netherlands, Dutch, German and Afrikaans are pretty much understandable by ear. But Russian..! Have you seen the movie The Terminal? Well, me and my friends were using a Russian flight company to fly to Japan, so the trip was long to say the least. While getting bored as heck, we started deciphering the movie guide which was completely written in Russian. Well, after a while we managed to decipher most of their alphabet by using the real names we know of the movies (they translate most of the movie names). So then we applied a bit of a sore throat and started reading text and we really sounded Russian
After the weird alphabet, most of the words were very recognizable as words you know from either Dutch, German or English. Surprisingly not that hard of a language.
Alpha-Bromega
Member
ICH HAB DARAUFHIN AUFGEGEBEN
his accents are just out of this world good, i'm honestly emberassed red with my american accent in german but he's just 'herp derp a skerp' like a native
btw if you guys are inspired you can always come over here!
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=446208
Don't really consider it cheating though, Dutch and Afrikaans are two separate official languages. They may be mutually intelligible to some extent, but they are still different languages.
Wikipedia's entry on Dutch and Afrikaans' mutual intelligibility is an interesting read and confirms what I have experienced myself, that often it is easier for a Dutch person to understand me than it is for me to understand him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differences_between_Afrikaans_and_Dutch
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