Linguaphiles Anonymous
Am I a polyglot? Hardly.
As any polyglot can tell you, a ‘polyglot’ is a person who is proficient in several languages.
They will then explain that the term “polyglot” is derived from two Greek roots: “Poly” (πολύ) means “many” or “much.” “Glot” or “glott” is derived from “glotta” (γλῶττα) in Greek, which means “tongue” or “language.”
Like philandry but with languages instead of spouses.
With this definition in mind, let me take you through my own journey, one that meanders through languages but doesn’t quite land me in the realm of the traditional polyglot.
From 18th century’s Cardinal Giuseppe Mezzofanti to the internet’s Benny Lewis, I’ve always been both inspired by, and a little bit envious of polyglots.
Early evidence would be that I want to be one. I still remember the sentence “Mein Koffer ist schwarz” from the Linguaphone German 1972 Cassette Tapes I borrowed from the municipal library some time in the 1980s.
One of the first computer programs I wrote (in a similar period) tried to teach you Italian by asking you to translate the greeting “buon giorno”.
And in primary school, and then high school, I was one of the few Australian teenagers to enjoy being inoculated against foreign languages with a weak dose of Bahasa Indonesia.
I may have also done a night adult education Spanish course to help my parents before a trip.
And I took French as part of my high school certificate and even did a short spell at the Alliance Française. Before picking up Chinese at university, specifically because it was hard.
And two semesters of Latin, because a liberal arts education isn’t complete without a dose of classics as well.
And Turkish.
Two whole semesters of Turkish. Just not useful enough when I spent two days in Turkey, though the one phrase that snaps to mind “gök gürültüsü ve şimşek” would be useful if I needed to describe that I was in a lightning storm.
My engagement with languages wasn’t confined to textbooks and apps; it also found expression in the melodies of songs from around the world.
Karaoke in Chinese “明明白白我的心”, Indonesian “Kasih Putih” or Korean “Gee” please.
I can tell you the Thai word for chicken is ไก่.
Oh, and some Danish because I have family there.
And I switched my iPhone to Japanese for a few years.
I have collections of foreign language dictionaries.
I bookmarked the public domain resources of the Foreign Service Institute.
And Tin Tin in as many linguistic editions as I can find.
I know that “Hol von a VC?” gets you directions to the Water Closet in Hungarian, even though I’ve only transited once through Budapest airport.
And some Bulgarians at an Italian youth hostel taught me how to say my name — “Казвам се Пол”.
And I can sing the first line of the Hindi song about the fish being the queen of the water.
And enough Portuguese to go with the Garota de Ipanema.
But no grammar or vocabulary beyond Bossa Nova.
I’ve never been to Brazil.
I avoid sun and sand.
I run a blog all about human and computer language acquisition.
My primary use case of chatGPT is for etymology.
I made my kids watch Disney movies in foreign languages. I know “Let it Go” in Chinese.
I have a paid subscription to Glossika. Setting different source and target languages helps me avoid wasting time with English.
For both personal and professional reasons, I’ve kept up my Chinese. I can read and type (and write my name), listen, and speak with some degree of proficiency. And my French (reading at least) is okay.
So I’m not monolingual.
But am I a polyglot?
Am I proficient in several languages?
Hardly.
I spend more time learning about learning languages than actually learning a language.
Казвам се Пол. And I’m a linguaphile.
A combination of “lingua,” which means “language,” and the Greek root “-phile,” indicating love or affinity.
Gifts for the linguaphile in your life…
Further reading for linguaphiles…
