Hiperpoligloci – czyli jak się nauczyć 68 języków


W dzisiejszych czasach nikogo nie dziwią już poligloci, niemniej jednak hiperpoligloci stanowią osobną ligę  – są to bowiem osoby znające od 11 języków wzwyż. O tym kim są hiperpoligloci, co ich charakteryzuje, kto ma predyspozycje, by stać się jednym z nich i po co właściwie komuś znajomość 68 (Emil Krebs), 50 (Elihu Burritt) czy 39 (Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti) języków, przeczytać możecie w artykule Adventures in Hyperpolyglottery: Inside the Mind of Extreme Language Learners.

NK: What do hyperpolyglots intend to do with all these languages?
ME: It varies. Sometimes it’s about travel, sometimes it’s about work, sometimes it’s about consuming media, sometimes it’s about an eagerness to interact with people. Interestingly, their goals were very functional in nature. They wanted to be able to do things successfully and feel comfortable doing them. They were not obsessed with becoming natives, sounding native-like, or blending in. They are professional linguistic outsiders.

This from the outset makes them very different from what I think most foreign language education — wrongly — attempts to achieve, which is native-likeness. If you start from the premise that bilinguals don’t know the same as two monolinguals, then trying to achieve a monolingual’s level of knowledge and performance in your new language is going to frustrate you.