The Pursuit of Polyglotism

The Pursuit of Polyglotism

Timothy Doner was brought up monolingual. After listening to a few Hebrew songs, he realised he had accidentally begun to memorise Hebrew vocabulary. Ten years later, and he is the world's youngest hyperpolyglot, with an impressive twenty-two languages under his belt. What spurs someone to learn a language?

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Polyglotism

Polyglot. Noun. A person who knows and is able to use several languages.

43% of the world's population is bilingual. Only 13% are trilingual. Less than 2% of the world speak more than three languages or dialects. In fact, in an era of global lingua franca and readily available (albeit rough) translation software, learning an extra language is often seen as unnecessary.

Despite this, a small group of people from around the world actively pursue the acquisition of foreign languages.

Language learners have a few key traits. They are usually inquisitive, find patterns easily, and enjoy the critical process of breaking patterns into their component parts. It's easy to see how these traits are conducive to language learning - memorising vocabulary and grammar structures is just an exercise in pattern recognition ad infinitum.

Something that is not common among polyglots, however surprisingly, is extraversion. Upon reflection, this is odd. Why learn a language if you're going to shut yourself in your room and never speak it? This is something I'll touch on in a later post, but the process of learning a language brings out any extraversion from even the most staunch of introverts. I found myself becoming, to my chagrin, much more outgoing than I was comfortable with. Studying foreign languages is a gateway drug to actually enjoying conversation with people in your mother tongue.

Neurologically, polyglotism changes the way information travels through your brain. Languages act like operating systems for your mind - it doesn't matter which one you use, you'll have the same basic results. There are subtle differences, however, in the requirements of certain languages. Korean, for example, carries an honourific modifier which forces the speaker to become acutely aware of their relative social status in a conversation. Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language, with subtle pitch shifts denoting massive differences in meaning. Arabic script omits specific vowels, instead relying on intuition for readers to parse. The end result of learning more than one of these languages is that your brain becomes far more accustomed to different styles of information. No longer slave to one modality, the brain begins to connect the dots differently. In social situations, this is incredibly important. Conversing across cultures requires an ability to see from the perspective of the other, a sort of 'linguistic empathy'. Polyglots are therefore invaluable assets when it comes to communication, problem solving, and abstract thought.                        

"The limits of my language are the limits of my world."
Ludwig Wittgenstein

Wittgenstein's musing is an incredibly succinct and accurate assessment of the importance of multilingualism. The simple truth put forward by Sapir and Whorf, that of linguistic relativity, rings true - language shapes thought. In George Orwell's dystopian class 1984, the creation of Newspeak involves the removal of words seen as challenging to the power of the Party. If the people cannot express a concept, then they cannot think it, effectively eliminating resistance.

The path to multilingualism can seem insurmountable at times. While learning a language is certainly easier when you are younger, there is no limit to the power of a well-exercised brain. In fact, repeated studies have shown that language learning is a path to avoiding dementia and Alzheimer's.

There has never been a better time to start learning. Perhaps you want to reconnect with your roots and learn a language spoken by your ancestors. Maybe you have an interest in Scandinavian literature and want to experience it in its purest form. Or maybe you just want to stave off senility. Regardless of your motivation, there are hundreds of resources online. I'll revisit this topic in a later post, and explain my own approach to language acquisition.