Multilingual People - Are you a polyglot? - Language Learning

Are you bilingual monolingual trilingual multilingual, or polyglot? After reading this article, we would appreciate sharing your experience with us, ... SidebarMenu AllLanguages Multilingual StudyTips LanguageCareer MultilingualPeopleHowmanylanguagesdoyouspeak?Areyoumonolingual,bilingual,trilingual,multilingual,orpolyglot?Afterreadingthisarticle,wewouldappreciatesharingyourexperiencewithus,bycommentingbelow,especiallyifyouspeakmorethanonelanguage.Let’sstartbylookingatthedefinitionfirst: Monolingual:Apersonknowingonlyonelanguage(40%ofworldpopulation) Bilingual:Apersonusingorabletousetwolanguagesespeciallywithequalfluency(43%ofworldpopulation) Trilingual:Apersonspeakingthreelanguagesfluently(13%ofworldpopulation) Multilingual:Apersonwhospeaksmorethantwolanguages,butusedoftenforfourlanguagesormore(3%ofworldpopulationspeakmorethan4languages) Polyglot:Someonewithahighdegreeofproficiencyinseverallanguages(lessthan1‰ofworldpopulationspeak5languagesfluently) Amonolingualissomeonewhoknowsonlyonelanguage.Statistically,thatfactisusuallyobservedinEnglishspeakingcountriessuchastheUnitedStates,UnitedKingdom,Australia,andNewZealand,basedontheperceptionthatlearningasecondlanguageisoflittlerelevanceorimportance,sincethemajorityoftheworldalreadyspeakEnglishasatheirfirstorsecondlanguage. Abilingualisapersonwhoacquiredtwolanguages,usuallyasafirstlanguage(mothertongue)andasecondlanguage,acquiredeithersimultaneouslyorlaterinlife.Eveninthecaseofsimultaneousbilingualsonelanguageusuallydominatesovertheother.Thiscategoryofpeopleisactuallythemostprevalentintheworld(43%).ItismorenoticeablewithintheHispaniccommunityintheU.S(English+Spanish),FrenchspeakingcountriesinAfrica(French+nativelanguage),andimmigrantsingeneralwhomigratefromtheirnativecountriestoEnglishspeakingcountries. Atrilingualisthesameasabilingualbutspeaksalsoathirdlanguage.YouwillfindmoretrilingualsinHongKong(Mandarin,Cantonese,andEnglish),Norway(Norwegian,Swedish,English),thePhilippines(Tagalog,Spanish,English)andmanyothercountrieswherethereismorethanoneforeigninfluence. Multilingualsandpolyglotsarethosewhospeakmorethan4languages,theyareobviouslylesscommon,infactonlyaround3%for4languagespeakersandlessthanoneperthousandforthosewhospeakmorethan5languages.Therearecountriesknowntohavemoremultilingualsandpolyglotsinhigherpercentages,suchasinSwitzerland(German,Italian,French,Romansh,andEnglish),Morocco(Arabic,French,Spanish,MoroccanandEnglish).Inthiscategory,factorssuchasforeigninfluence,diversityinthevocabularyofthenativelanguageareleadingfactors.ForexampletheMoroccandialectisrichwithforeignwords;itcontainsamixtureofArabic,French,andSpanishwords.Thatfactalonealreadygivesthespeakeranadvantageandaheadstarttowardsmultilingualism. Herearefactorsthatcontributetospeakingmorethanonelanguage: Ifyouspeakonelanguageathomeandanotheroutsidewithfriends,atschooloratwork. Ifyournativelanguageisfullofforeignwords. Ifyouliveinacountryinfluencedbyotherculturesandeventuallyotherlanguages. Ifyouliveinacountrywithopenborderswithothernationsspeakingdifferentlanguages. Ifyoulovelanguagesandwillingtodedicatetimelearningthem. Abilitytolearnandmemorizeagoodnumberofnewwords. Interestingrammarandattentiontodetail. Themainfactortolanguagelearningisthedesiretolearn.Youcanbecomeapolyglotevenifyouonlyspeakonelanguage.Justtakeonestepatatimeandonelanguageatatime.Goodluck! Ifyou'rereadytolearnanewlanguagevisitourHOMEPAGEandlearnmorethan106languageswithaudio. Didyouknow?Anaveragenativepersonofmanylanguagesusesonlyaverysmallnumberofvocabularyonadailybasis.Thismeansthatyoucanactuallyspeakthelanguagetoacertainacceptablelevelsimplybyvisitingtheabovepages. Copyright©2018ILANGUAGES.ORG.Allrightsreserved.