#Polyglottal

[mybuddyjimmy]

Polyglottal

[aibhilin-atibeka]

I just saw an ask game :D and I do have a question that I think would be fun for you.

What actually interested you in learning multiple languages in the first place and what draws you to a language that makes you want to learn it?

Oohhhh, now that's a fun one! :D

Well. I learned my first "real true" (no, seriously, honest) foreign language at the age of 9 and I felt absolutely neutral towards it.

Meh, 'twas another subject at school, so what? XD younger!me was not specifically very interested in languages at all. I had the world to explore, after all! What's languages compared to manga? Compared to anime? Compared to books?

Compared to the real world? Darn, no, I sure am not throwing time at something I might never use again at a later date in life, see me go "nope" at languages and "yes" to life experiences.

And then my sister went and learned to fluently speak five languages somehow. It seemed very much like "all of a sudden she can speak five languages" to me. Dammit all, I had to learn at least as many, didn't I?

That - along with my school offering languages as their educational focus - helped. Still wasn't ideal, but I'd gotten that certain nudge into this direction then. And at that point my love for Japan was noticeably not fading, so I got gifted a Japanese language class. And... sort of haven't stopped learning Japanese since. Whoops?

At the same time my school offered French and in a choice between Italian and French? Sure, I'll choose French (the language sounded nicer at that time and the teacher kinder). I can learn Italian later on, once the school offers another language choice two years into the first one, right?

Right?

Wrong. Had to choose between Spanish and computer science, so no Italian for me back then. But Spanish is basically Italian on crack, isn't it? (pls don't dunk on teenage!me, teenage!me was a bit of a teenager back then) They're 1:1 understandable to one another, right? Right?

Also wrong.

But that didn't stop me from starting Italian on my own at university.

And a friend offered to teach a class of Turkish right in-between school and university, so there we went~

And university itself offers language classes too, how could I not check them out and study Hindi for a bit?

... somehow, without even consciously being aware of it, I'd accumulated a starting vocab for about twenty languages before I was twenty (how do I know that exact number at that exact age? I had to do a language autobiography collecting, chronologically listing and presenting all my language studies and some of the knowledge I'd obtained in detail for a class shortly after turning twenty).

By now it's probably stayed *roughly* the same in number (... maybe I added five to ten-ish languages since then? no clue), though I couldn't say whether or not that's simply because of where I live or what opportunities I had or what little time I've had to spend on accumulating more languages since. Life's a busy bee, sometimes, and the life of an author/linguist/leisure-social-media-scroller (tumblr I'm looking at you) feels even busier. Never mind any other engagements I have ended up in so far.

I have an ongoing interest in languages cause I find it fun to be able to communicate with the world in whatever language I can. They're a means to reading, listening and interacting with people and there's wordplay to consider. ;) In short, I find it fun.

To answer your questions:

What actually interested you in learning multiple languages in the first place

I stumbled into them like Winnie the Pooh might stumble into a pot of honey XD there was no definitive moment of "Oh, I'm interested in becoming a polyglot now" - at the point in time that I had that realisation I already was one.

and what draws you to a language that makes you want to learn it?

Depending on the language, I have different motivations for learning them:

Japanese: "stopping now makes just as much sense as a prisoner breaking out might stop in front of the 9th out of 10 walls they'd have to climb", also "I've got manga to read in Japanese just to get all the jokes in them" and "I bought and imported books from Japan that I still have to read"

French: "I still haven't read all of the Arsène Lupin series" and "from time to time the Frenchspeakers release funny movies that I wanna watch in the original language"

Italian: "darn, originally I was in this for the bit but I'm committed to learning it now with whatever means necessary"

Spanish: is "just sort of there" and "Sometimes I find articles and news pages and books I want to read that just so happen to be in Spanish, so why not read them in Spanish, I don't even need a translation"

Korean: "I want to be able to read you at one point, darn it all to hell"

etc. ad infinitum. I didn't even mention all the ones I'm fluent in here, never mind all the ones I started to learn at one point in my life, so yeah.

I love the challenge? I love the way learning languages open up a whole new world view to you as you go along? I adore being able to read yet more books by just learning a language? I love word games?

All of these and more count towards my interest in languages. :D Gotta say, languages rock. Polyglottism ftw.

@stereden cause I can

@a-knight-owls-curse thanks for the interesting ask!

[ivory--raven]

i think I now know a debatably useful remark in four languages

[transparentgentlemenmarker]

Tu peux m'aider

[deriangrayve]

To become un Polyglott, eu trebuie sa meistern die art of Trilingualitate zuerst.

[multlingvulo]

English

Day 1 of talking to my parents about being overprotective:

I was telling them about how they wanna follow me to every new thing like I'm a child. I know they mean well, but I told them they actually make me feel underestimated.

They went to a nudist resort with me, and the were visibly not into that; the owners didn't even charge their visit.

The two times I've been to a furcon, they went with me.

They don't let me drive when there's too much traffic.

They don't want me to go to a furry camp without them coming along, yet again.

I think I managed to show them they're like a helicopter over my head 24/7, and I don't feel like an adult. I have my limitations from being autistic, but not only I'm aware of them, I don't put myself in risky situations in the first place: I don't go skinny-dipping alone, I don't drink too much without eating a good meal first, and I don't let strangers approach me when I'm alone.

Besides that, I also worry for my parents: their health and their safety. I want them to worry for me the same amount I worry for them. There needs to be a balance.

I think I made that clear, but time will tell if I got the message through them. Good night.

Français

1ère journée parlant avec mes parents sur être hyper-protecteurs: Je le parlais sur le fait qu'ils vont me suivre à n'importe quel nouveau lieu comme si j'étais un enfant. Je sais bien qu'ils veulent me protéger, mais je leurs ai dit que je me sens sous-estimé.

Ils étaient allés à un club naturiste avec moi, et ils étaient visiblement embarrassés ; les propriétaires ont dit qu'il faudrait pas de payer pour sa visite.

Les deux fois que j'étais allé à une convention furry, ils étaient allés avec moi.

Ils ne me laissent pas conduire lorsqu'il y a de l'embouteillage.

Ils ne veulent pas me laisser aller à une camping furry sans eux venant avec moi encore.

Je crois que j'ai réussi leurs montrer qu'ils sont comme un hélicoptère sus mon cap 24/7, et je me sens pas comme un adulte j'ai des difficultés parce que je suis autiste, but je suis conscient d'elles et je ne me mets pas dans les situations dangereuses premièrement : je ne nage pas nu seul, je ne bois beaucoup sans aver mangé un bon repas, et je ne laisse pas que des gens inconnues m'approche (est-ce que c'est la conjugaison correcte?) lorsque je suis seul.

D'ailleurs, je m'occupe pour mes parents aussi: leur santé et sécurité. Je veux qu'ils s'occupent pour moi la même quantité que je m'occupe pour eux. Il faut avoir un équilibre.

Je crois que j'ai rendu mon message clair. Le temps dira s'ils l'ont entendu. Bonne nuit.

[yoannblogging]

05/04/24 14:38

yoann fait des trucs cursed comme d’habitude

[selfiesforalgernon]

Oh yeah bridge graffiti update, main place got wiped down completely, possibly officials lol so I put up a new Kawaii cyclops and demon hand... then my spot that usually no one goes to got completely done-over.... mixed feelings cause the art is damn good.. I just... really man? It perfectly covers just the area where all my stuff was drawn. Actually met the dude who did it weirdly enough, he rolled up on his bike and was like "like it? I got bored and did it" I said it was badass, deciding to drop the fact that it was over my shit.. he probably pieced together that I was the other motherfucker anyway, no one comes to that section of the bridge and I mean no one.. lol ffs I jerked it and came a couple times there, that's how private it is.. or was I guess now... huaaahh oh well.. good art at least (writing is bad Português por "Hey, it's tired/ I meant to say tiring. I'm tired" in the hand is bad Italian for "fuck off o/ go fuck yourself")

[lesemausbuchblog]

Mit Alexander Oetker durch Paris. Der etwas andere Reiseführer… ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Wenn man das Buch ‚Nice to meet you, Paris!: Auf Entdeckungstour ins Herz der Stadt‘ von Alexander Oetker liest, ist es, als ob man mit ihm direkt durch die Stadt der Liebe flaniert. Das Buch ist wunderbar geschrieben, und man bekommt sofort Lust in die nächste Bahn oder Flugzeug zu steigen um mit ihm Paris zu entdecken. Was Alexander Oetker geschrieben hat bezüglich der Freundlichkeit der Pariser gegenüber Touristen kann ich nur bestätigen. Man fühlt sich sofort wohl und willkommen. Für meinen nächsten Besuch bin ich jedenfalls gut gewappnet und vorbereitet.

Ich hatte ganz große Freude an ‚Nice to meet you, Paris!: Auf Entdeckungstour ins Herz der Stadt‘ von Alexander Oetker und kann das Buch jedem Reisenden sehr ans Herz legen.

[avidex]

Dordogne, 3 juillet 2022

Hypolaïs polyglotte à Pombonne

[waldschimmel]

That was quite the list of languages 😄

The way Paul watches Till speak different languages to thank 🤣 Park de Nieuwe Koers, Ostend, 27-06-2024 @ bp_spotting

[transparentgentlemenmarker]

Combien de langues parles tu

[restonscalmes]

Nullipare 8e langue

[myanxietydemonaretootired]

Emily: Do you think you would have notice me if we had gone to the same high school?

JJ: Emily, you were a weird closeted goth polyglotte with a strange addiction to poker and cigarettes. I would have noticed you and not in a good way.

[ao3cassandraic]

Angels, demons, language, and culture part 4: Literalism and metaphor

Part 1 (angels are never children, and that matters), Part 2 (written language is mostly coded human rather than ethereal/occult in Good Omens), Part 3 (human writings contain useful social rules, which is partly why Aziraphale values them)

It may be time to restate @thundercrackfic's original questions?

How good is Aziraphale’s reading comprehension? How much does he understand subtext and metaphor? Because his behavior this season struck me with the impression that he didn’t really understand the books he collects. He’s clever at puzzle solving, and contains vast knowledge; but he always seems to take things at face value (when he’s not willfully misunderstanding), and refuses to give up black-and-white thinking, which would make it very difficult to analyze texts.

I think there are definite reasons to believe that reading comprehension of human literature (as defined in the question) is difficult for Aziraphale. One of them, as stated in part 1, is that Aziraphale doesn't get the tremendous advantage of childhood and its brain plasticity, which (among other things) is known to help with learning language. I'm not surprised his French is pretty bad. Learning another language from the ground up as an adult can be a cast-iron PITA (yes, experience speaking).

Another is simply that Aziraphale is not human. He's an outsider to humanity. He's fairly empathetic, and he does learn (unlike almost all his fellow angels!), but that leaves him without much of a yardstick to gauge when human literature is being literal and when it's not. There also seems to be a general angelic tendency to believe what they're told? Muriel definitely has it, Michael seems to as well, and even s1!Gabriel can only (and barely) muster skepticism on one occasion that I recall (the photo incident). I can see this making Aziraphale's reading, especially early in his existence on Earth, a good bit harder for him than reading is for, say, me. I'm used to unreliable narrators and figurative language and other sorts of clever fun productive lying. Aziraphale's acquaintance with lying is -- well -- his lies don't usually involve much metaphor? I suppose one could argue that "big sharp cutty thing" is a kenning, but not really in the human way of kennings because he only uses it the once.

Moreover, it appears (based on the s1e3 cold open, mostly) that he bops around the world quite a bit until finally settling in London (with the occasional jaunt elsewhere when he gets peckish). Nothing at his creation other than the auto-polyglottism She bestows on Her angels seems to give him any tools for navigating the bewildering variety of human cultures and customs... and literary metaphor (along with lots of other literary things) is commonly culturally-bound, culturally-specific.

I mean, if you read something (maybe in high school (or analogue) or college) that was written A Long Time Ago and/or Very Far Away, didn't it probably have a ton of what lit-critters call "apparatus" in it? Explanatory introductions, bibliography, and above all footnotes/endnotes/margin notes, many of which explain figures of speech that otherwise wouldn't make sense? Not to mention stuff like (just as an example) which local then-current political morass Dante threw this particular historical person in this particular circle of Hell for. Stuff that if you're not there, not embedded in the culture and the time, you're just plain gonna whiff. Hell, even Shakespeare editions have a ton of apparatus, and Shakespeare's in Early Modern English for pity's sake!

(Which is not to say that something has to be ancient or not-from-here to benefit from some apparatus. What is The Annotated Pratchett File if not apparatus for Discworld?)

So our peripatetic angel reading literature of whatever time he's actually in (which mostly won't have apparatus he can rely on for help) will often find himself not clued-in enough to a given human culture to completely understand its literary figures, metaphors included. And sure, that's going to lead to some misreadings and misunderstandings and overliteral takes! I can't read Dante's Inferno and understand everything in it! It takes Italianists years, if not decades, to do that!

And to make the problem even more difficult, literature feeds on itself, and on other arts as well. (Hi hi hello, comparative literature major, I totally studied various flows of literary and artistic influence in college and wouldn't trade that major for anything ever, it was the best major.) Think about all the time and effort GO meta-ists have spent of late teasing out callbacks and allusions and references in GO s2. That kind of work is also part of what Aziraphale has to do to understand fully what he reads... and it's a lot of work, even for a reader as voracious and possibly sleepless as our angel.

So yeah, in sum, I don't think Aziraphale has a perfect -- or even good -- track record on understanding what he reads. I adore him because he reads anyway! He never gives up on trying to understand! That's absolutely praiseworthy! (Crowley has something of an analogue to this in his love for human inventions. He doesn't understand how anything actually works, for the most part, but he loves it all the same.)

I think there's also an outstanding question about what Aziraphale gains from reading, a sense of social rules (Part 3) aside? Well, it's known that reading (especially fiction, especially fiction about characters who are Not Like The Reader) increases empathy. I don't know if Aziraphale reads specifically for that reason, but I'm absolutely willing to believe that fiction works on him that way, just as it does on us, even if he doesn't fully understand everything he reads. Did you fully understand everything you read as a child? Or even as an adult? I would never claim that of myself. Yet I certainly will claim that I picked up a lot of what I suppose I will call my character -- it runs deeper than personality -- and my general understanding of life (insofar as I have one) from reading.

If I had to answer why Aziraphale reads, though? I'd think back to my own childhood, as a bullied child with somewhat neglectful parents who held outsized expectations of me. Reading for me was peace, was escape, was enjoyment, was something to think about that wasn't my own unhappiness, was -- now and then, honestly not often enough -- seeing myself reflected in a book and feeling less alone. I hope and believe that human literature and music served similar purposes for our poor angel.