Polyglot's story

[jhg123456]

Conversate?

[TheAlyatay]

Have you ever travelled to places you can speak?

[jacobytyler]

what do you do for work as a polyglot? I study languages privately and like you had a difficult time in school with a similar mindset however I'm nervous about where to look in turning this into something I can do for a living so I don't have to dedicate time to something I don't care to do just to make money when I'd rather be just learning and developing my skills in another language.

[adiaz80]

This is truly inspirational, and I'm glad that there's a community of polyglots. I admire your knowledge. I'm a polyglot myself. I grew up speaking English and Spanish (family from Puerto Rico), but have been studying French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Swedish, Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese, Korean (living in Korea at the moment), Farsi, and Russian (have a private tutor). I'm at different levels with each. I wish you continued success, brother!

[MrDanielFittipaldi]

How many languages can you speak good?

[afterlifer]

I am an Arabic native speaker , I speak english ,french, italian, I study spanish , german, and some russian, I nearly drooled today when I saw a czech course book, yesterday too when I saw an indonesian dictionary, do I qualify for a maniac or a psycho? please please please?

[jugglingotaku]

I agree, I'm a native english speaker, but I still don't know all the words.

[sabakimsg]

You are an inspiration!

[TheDatsunKing]

I laughed so hard at "language pyscho" is it sad that I have over 40 different books in 8 languages in my room at 18... :D

[KaninBunny]

You have my utmost respect for your ambition and sheer passion in learning languages. I'm content with learning 2 (French and Norwegian) but to see you learn lots and lots of languages (ESPECIALLY ones which are difficult, exotic and rare) is awe inspiring

Keep up the great work and I wish you all the best in your goals.

[Densegrandeduvan]

Do you speak any swedish? It's my native language and except for english it's the only language I'm able to speak! I tried to learn spanish and french but I have a hard time learning that type of languages! German is somewhat similar to swedish so I'm able to understand some but speak none! Bye the way do you find it harder to learn an asian language than a european one?

[mariogabana]

Why would you say that you speak Chinese? Chinese is not a language - there are different languages spoken in China. For example; Mandarin and Cantonese among others.

[mariogabana]

Why would you say that you speak Chinese? Chinese is not a language - there are different languages spoken in China. For example; Mandarin and Cantonese among others.

[tumsabai1]

@mariogabana

The following are Chinese languages:

Mandarin

contonese

Shanghalise

Hokkien

taechew

[CheeseBubbles]

I wish you lived near me, lol. I'm the exact same way. I'm considering dropping out of college cause everything seems boring and irrelevant. the only thing I want to learn is languages. I wish we could hangout, lol. But I'm in Minnesota.

[ofelirris]

Hello! you are gorgeous... had to say it.

I was wondering if you could help me with this... I want to get a tattoo that says:

am I dreaming?

But i want to try it in different languages... so if you could please translate it for me in the languages you know i would appreciate it a lot.

Thanks!

[1qewretry]

i'm sure you get this all the time, but you haven't put this on your youtube channel info: which languages do you speak/are you studying?

[u2bealot]

I think it is cool to be very, if even extremely, passionate about something ... I am a language goof myself ... it is often the geeks who in the end manage to do extraordinary things ...

[Homogenous]

yay! so there are lots of other people like us...i'm exactly the same way

[ridthedelusional]

I think my story is similar to yours, i mean, im not a polyglot. But like you mentioned about yourself, i only started to realize my obsession with languages after i started to learn my first foreign language... and i as well find myself always bringing up language with whoever i am talking to. If im with someone speaking a different native language, ill ask them to teach me the basics, or if im with a fellow native english speaker, ill start randomly trying to teach them another language. lol

[h0652570]

at the moment i'm studying chinese(普通话)too! it's very interesting

[Orishas24]

Hello! I'm intrested on learning Swahili. I speak English and Spanish in very fluent way, I like Swahili that much!

[BMtodaP]

This sounds like me .. I can't stop thinking about languages either haha

[AAM1492]

@ 1.00 You mentioning you driving your wife crazy due to your (healthy) obsession with foreign languages and stating that languages are always on your mind, frankly gave me some relief that Im not the only one falling into this phenomenon, lol. Languages is a sign of Allaah's power in creation, just pondering on it makes me marvel at the diversity in His creation.

[Jorce]

I kind of was in the same situation as you. I've didn't take French in High School, but though I am able to converse in it. I also took languages serious too as an anglophone, which was Japanese first, then German, and Russian later.

[BMTH0084]

Hehehehe........Right on!!!

[BMTH0084]

Did you pull lots of all-nighters during your hardcore studying days when studying Chinese?

[laoshu505000]

Man...not just for Chinese,I've pulled and still am pulling all nighters for language study.

[TylorDark]

@laoshu505000 Hey... is it possible for me to learn more of a language if I did all nighters?

[Paulbarbato]

Haha is that a real sword on your wall?

[BrokenClocks08]

@Paulbarbato LOL

[orduni90]

i understand this dude. I also have a hard on for languages!

[concertmatell]

More or less I have come across what you experience. I have started learning German on my own and soon realize I really had to organize my time properly. I would concentrate so much on studying the language I would leave all my school work for last, then I would have to catch up and sadly put aside German for awhile. Now a days I have learn to be more disciplined with my time.

Just felt like throwing this out there..

[slothofastudent]

You sound just like me, I avoid my studies for languages. If only schools didn't have stupid graduation requirements that have nothing to do with my area of studies!

[BMTH0084]

Will you be polishing up your French anytime soon and eventually making a French video compadre?

[laoshu505000]

Yes. I will very soon.

[zocurtis]

So you do know french. How come you didn't add it to your list of languages? I guess it is because of the speaking bit. I have noticed that is the western world, when a language is taught in a class, what is often taught in how the language work rather than how to use the language. I met a girl in canada who learnt french and spanish in france. She was fluent in both.

[laoshu505000]

Yea, I didn't add to my list because it was one of the languages I haven't really studied on my own seriously. But I'm about to start on it very soon.

[zocurtis]

That would be a treat to watch... I'm sort of learning it off and on but have alot of trouble with pronunciation. I will overcome though.

[snovymgodom]

Great informative video! You remind me a lot of myself, really. I'm obsessed with languages and in almost every conversation, I find some way to talk about languages. I'm in college too and my languages distract me to the point that I do much better in language classes than any of my others. I haven't failed/dropped out of any classes but you still can see the difference. You're a real inspiration, I'd really like to delve into trying to speak more languages.

[williyf2]

Another great video Laoshu! If I may respectfully add something though?

I think that it just comes down to semantics concerning "Mastering a Language." Some people may use it the way Malcolm Gladwell uses it in "Outliers" namely that they have invested over 10,000 hours into a certain task. But the way you use it - (with my limited experience) I heartily agree with you, it is impossible to "Perfect" a language - heck, I haven't even perfected my native language!

[laoshu505000]

I have that book too! The outliers.

[poetswolf1985]

Hear hear. Languages are all-consuming for me too. I personally can't stand learning languages (or anything for that matter) from anyone but myself.