World record: Worlds most multilingual person...

Is there anything like this? Like a world record of someone who can speak the most languages, fluently?

I reckon it's about 8/9 - there's no way someone can speak 10 fluent languages discussing say, opinions on international migration, in all 10.

I have found people like to say they can speak 4 language, but this includes English and a few words in the other 2, and one fluent.

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Reply 1

Piggsil

There's a guy who can speak loads of languages, we had a thread on this ages ago, and I've been searching depreately on Wikipedia but I can't remember his name....... :mad:

Reply 2

discombobulation

I know someone who can speak 9 languages. He's Angolan with a Ukrainian wife and they live in Germany, he speaks LOADS of african languages, russian, german, spanish and portuguese!

Reply 3

Astor

How do you call a person who speaks many languages ? Answer: multilingual.
How about two languages ? A: bilingual.
How about only one language ? A: American

Just found that Joke,

Apparently "pope's" can speak several languages..

Reply 4

Profesh

Becca

There's a guy who can speak loads of languages, we had a thread on this ages ago, and I've been searching depreately on Wikipedia but I can't remember his name....... :mad:

Not only, but also.

Reply 5

hobnob

Astor

Apparently "pope's" can speak several languages..

I'd say that depends on how you define "speaking" a language. Popes only really need to be able to say a few phrases, like blessings etc. per language. It's more of a gesture, though; I doubt they're actually fluent in all of them.
Although I suppose they'd be fluent enough in Latin.: :p:

Reply 6

Piggsil

Profesh

Not only, but also.

Ah yes. But I swear there was another guy who we discovered last time!! Grr, this is annoying me.

Reply 7

Profesh

I can speak Greek; behold:

Alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, et cetera.

(Oh, wait; that's Latin. Ah well.)

Reply 8

Leonardo85

Ziad Fazah is known as the world's greatest linguistic.. he says he can speak 58 languages!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziad_Fazah

I can speak 3, hopefully I'll get into Edinburgh and learn Chinese as well! :smile:

Reply 9

Piggsil

Leonardo85

YES! That's him, the guy I was thinkng of. *is relieved* :smile:

Reply 10

Cunning Linguist

Astor

lol!

Well I aim to be able to speak 8 (pretty much) fluently by the time I'm about 30:

English
Gujarati
Urdu
Hindi
(top 4 already pretty much fluent)
French
German
Chinese Mandarin
Arabic
(and maybe Spanish if I can be bothered)

:biggrin:

Reply 11

AngryBaboon

Our own lovely Enoch Powell could speak about 12 languages (Lots of African languages, Hebrew, Urdu, European languages)

Quite odd for a notorious xenophobe.

Reply 12

swirl

William James Sidis was a child prodigy. The real polyglot is Ziad Fazah (damn someone beat me). Here's a more detailed article. He has since learnt another two languages; a modest sum of 58 languages in total.

Some of them are very similar however, and in some cases just a different form of dialect. Still, nothing to undermine.

:eek2:

Reply 13

Leonardo85

swirl

hehe sorry didn't mean to beat you! :smile:

yeah like you said they might be many dialects, but 58 languages, you must be a genius to know how to speak all of them! for what I think, I can get to speak up to 5, because Ive learnt English in 2 years and I already speak Italian and Spanish, so I bet I would learn French in a year or 2, as its another Latin language! and well Chinese because Im learning it at the moment and will study in uni.. :smile:

but 58, not even if I studied all day for the rest of my life!! I'd love it though, just imagine to be able to put 58 languages in your CV!!!

Reply 14

swirl

Leonardo85

hehe sorry didn't mean to beat you! :smile:

but 58, not even if I studied all day for the rest of my life!! I'd love it though, just imagine to be able to put 58 languages in your CV!!!

Wow, you sound like a budding polyglot yourself. :p:

I have a soft spot for Romance/Latin languages. :love:

Though despite having studied it for some years, I'm still grappling with a single, mere French. *sigh* c'est la vie ...

Good luck with your studies, Leonardo. :wink:

Chinese is a very challenging language. :eek:

Side note: I use way too many emoticons. Must cut down.

Reply 15

Leonardo85

swirl

Wow, you sound like a budding polyglot yourself. :p:

I have a soft spot for Romance/Latin languages. :love:

Though despite having studied it for some years, I'm still grappling with a single, mere French. *sigh* c'est la vie ...

Good luck with your studies, Leonardo. :wink:

Chinese is a very challenging language. :eek:

Side note: I use way too many emoticons. Must cut down.

haha dont worry, I use a lot of emoticons too! maybe its msn's fault, good thing I dont use it anymore that much! havent got the time, always studying Chinese!

its not that I have a passion for Latin languages (as I hate Latin..), but because since I was little I've been speaking Italian and Spanish...so not only French its not that hard, but also is one of the most spoken languages, thats why I want to learn it, so I can speak another important language with English, Spanish and hopefully Chinese! I'll have the most 4 spoken languages, shouldn't be hard to find a good job! :smile:

thanks for the good luck Swirl, you too with your studies! you in college? :smile:

Reply 16

swirl

Leonardo85

thanks for the good luck Swirl, you too with your studies! you in college? :smile:

Yep.

And I have (yet again, damn it) been inveterately procrastinating from the very thing. I have coursework due next week and an essay for tomorrow morning. :redface:

I should now return to them... È stato un piacere conoscerla. A presto. :smile:

Reply 17

Leonardo85

swirl

Yep.

And I have (yet again, damn it) been inveterately procrastinating from the very thing. I have coursework due next week and an essay for tomorrow morning. :redface:

I should now return to them... È stato un piacere conoscerla. A presto. :smile:

conoscerla??? thats way too formal! better if you say " è stato un piacere conoscerti" :biggrin:

sounds much better! (btw nice italian!!! you learning it?)

Reply 18

swirl

Leonardo85

conoscerla??? thats way too formal! better if you say " è stato un piacere conoscerti" :biggrin:

sounds much better! (btw nice italian!!! you learning it?)

It's a sign of courtesy (or limited translation on Google rather, sshh. :p:

) Non parlo bene l'italiano. I have a close Italian friend who I pick up random words from, but they tend to be inappropriate for daily conversation, as it were. :p:

So I make do.

French is the main priority currently - so no time for other languages. Ma grazie. :smile:

I think we've hijacked the thread. :lollypop:

Reply 19

Leonardo85

swirl

It's a sign of courtesy (or limited translation on Google rather, sshh. :p:

) Non parlo bene l'italiano. I have a close Italian friend who I pick up random words from, but they tend to be inappropriate for daily conversation, as it were. :p: