I agree.Muhamed mesic may even fail the TOEFL.I read his writing on the other site and it was not good.If even his English was bad,imagine how his other 50+ languages would be.
8 year-old Wendy Vo speaks 11 languages fluently
Just knowing a bunch of phrases in several languages and answering "what's you nome", "how old are you" and "how many brothers you have" or reading some books ( I wonder if she understands what she is reading) won't make you a a polyglot. One can see clearly that she has a face like I don't understand a word or I don't give a rat's butt when spoken in languages other than English and Vietnamese, which she really gives the impression that she understands and replies accordingly. In Japanese she replied "11 rokugo hanasemaru" when the reply should be "11 ka kokugo hanasemasu" (１１カ国語話せます）and her pronunciation is so bad that I could barely understand (It was also quoted above that she was reading in Hiragana , which ANYBODY can master in a couple of hours...). In Chinese she kept on saying "Shenme" (What) all the time and says "I can't dance (我不会跳舞）out of the blue. In Arabic and Hindi she basically was saying "NO" and I think she wasn't understanding a single word. Rather than language she should learn some manners because she was behaving horribly, specially when she seemed not to understand what was being said. If that made up video means to be polyglot I prefer to keep on saying that I speak GERMAN, JAPANESE and ENGLISH(Apart from my native Portuguese) well, which are languages I feel comfortable talking about almost anything...
There's a lot of people who say they SPEAK many languages when in fact they KNOW SOME WORDS or SENTENCES...
There's a lot of people who say they SPEAK many languages when in fact they KNOW SOME WORDS or SENTENCES...
Yeah right.Can you speak the "bunch of phrases"?Make a video for us to see how good you are.How about that?
J.C clearly stated he/she spoke only German,Portuguese,Japanese and English,yet he/she strongly crtiticized the little girl's Hindi,Arabic,Chinese.This person obviously had no clue what he/she was talking about.There is a name for this.It is called jealousy.Hahaha.Don't be mad just yet.You are only human.I am jealous too.
for this Muhamed Mesic person, http://muhamedmesic.com/english/faq.htm
he never said he can speak more than 50 languages.... and the guy's not fake, I know him.
he never said he can speak more than 50 languages.... and the guy's not fake, I know him.
He claimed he could speak 8 languages at his Bosnian level.That is extraordinary if it is true.However,all we haven't seen his performance yet,just a lot of smoke and mirror so far.
Hey guys!!
Thanks for the comments. Well, jealously in my opinion is used to describe something which can't be done by the person making the comment. (She basically says the same in all languages and DOESN'T understand Portuguese, Spanish and Japanese!!!I'll check on her French again)
I just stated that I master Japanese, English and German because these are languages in which I feel fully confident when speaking or writing whereas I can communicate in Spanish without any problems.(That means I speak 5 languages and I can show that at any time!!) I also read in French and Italian. Besides that I studied Chinese and Korean to the point of being able to travel in China, Taiwan and Korea without getting lost or having to depend on English to get by.
The languages in which I have no idea what she is saying are Arabic and Hindi, even though I know when she is saying "Yes" or "no" (she says "la" (no) when speaking in arabic and kind of "ney" when "speaking" in Hindi), which might mean she either doesn't understand what has been said or is trying to deceive the listener. Apart from the aforesaid languages I have also studied Swedish (Easier to learn because I speak German), Polish (I almost completely forgot) and Hebrew (Just to read some parts of the bible) and have enough knowledge to know if a person is speaking in a certain language or not.Oh yeah, when I came to Japan in 1998 I also started studying Russian before I started my master's degree in Japanese and sociolinguistics, which means I have a better knowledge about languages than the average person.
As for the comment about me making a video speaking in other languages, I don't think that's necessary because:
1) I have been living in Japan for 10 years and speak like a native and have no problem communicating (have a master's in Japanese)
2) When I went to Australia people thought I was American even though I've never lived in the US or any English speaking country. (Most Americans who meet me say I have an American accent).
3) I have already worked as a a Japanese/English/German/Portuguese translator (I'm still a translator)and am fully fluent in all these languages either speaking or writing. It's not just memorizing a "bunch of phrases" and making isolated videos. I want to see this girl in a live program to see how much she REALLY speaks and understands. I would be glad to interview her.
4) I have an almost PERFECT score on TOEIC; have a Japanese Language Proficiency Test 2 and a "ZMP" (Zentrale Mittelstufenprüfung) German certifcate, which shows the candidate can read and write fluently in German.
5) I'm usually praised by the people who are native in the languages I speak and don't need more recognition than that. What I feel good about is not being picked by my accent when I speak in a foreign language.
Well, now that I started studying Chinese and Russian again I'm gonna check on that video to be able to analyze it better. But from all languages she claims to speak "Portuguese, Spanish and Japanese" are not on the list.
до свидониа 再见 앙년히 להיתרות Dowidzenia 左様なら Au revoir Arrivederci Tchau Tschüß Heydå Näkemiin
p.s For those that think this girl is a polyglot I'd like to see some theoretical explanation and examples.
Thanks for the comments. Well, jealously in my opinion is used to describe something which can't be done by the person making the comment. (She basically says the same in all languages and DOESN'T understand Portuguese, Spanish and Japanese!!!I'll check on her French again)
I just stated that I master Japanese, English and German because these are languages in which I feel fully confident when speaking or writing whereas I can communicate in Spanish without any problems.(That means I speak 5 languages and I can show that at any time!!) I also read in French and Italian. Besides that I studied Chinese and Korean to the point of being able to travel in China, Taiwan and Korea without getting lost or having to depend on English to get by.
The languages in which I have no idea what she is saying are Arabic and Hindi, even though I know when she is saying "Yes" or "no" (she says "la" (no) when speaking in arabic and kind of "ney" when "speaking" in Hindi), which might mean she either doesn't understand what has been said or is trying to deceive the listener. Apart from the aforesaid languages I have also studied Swedish (Easier to learn because I speak German), Polish (I almost completely forgot) and Hebrew (Just to read some parts of the bible) and have enough knowledge to know if a person is speaking in a certain language or not.Oh yeah, when I came to Japan in 1998 I also started studying Russian before I started my master's degree in Japanese and sociolinguistics, which means I have a better knowledge about languages than the average person.
As for the comment about me making a video speaking in other languages, I don't think that's necessary because:
1) I have been living in Japan for 10 years and speak like a native and have no problem communicating (have a master's in Japanese)
2) When I went to Australia people thought I was American even though I've never lived in the US or any English speaking country. (Most Americans who meet me say I have an American accent).
3) I have already worked as a a Japanese/English/German/Portuguese translator (I'm still a translator)and am fully fluent in all these languages either speaking or writing. It's not just memorizing a "bunch of phrases" and making isolated videos. I want to see this girl in a live program to see how much she REALLY speaks and understands. I would be glad to interview her.
4) I have an almost PERFECT score on TOEIC; have a Japanese Language Proficiency Test 2 and a "ZMP" (Zentrale Mittelstufenprüfung) German certifcate, which shows the candidate can read and write fluently in German.
5) I'm usually praised by the people who are native in the languages I speak and don't need more recognition than that. What I feel good about is not being picked by my accent when I speak in a foreign language.
Well, now that I started studying Chinese and Russian again I'm gonna check on that video to be able to analyze it better. But from all languages she claims to speak "Portuguese, Spanish and Japanese" are not on the list.
до свидониа 再见 앙년히 להיתרות Dowidzenia 左様なら Au revoir Arrivederci Tchau Tschüß Heydå Näkemiin
p.s For those that think this girl is a polyglot I'd like to see some theoretical explanation and examples.
J. C.
I don't think you are jealous. I also speak several of the languages Wendy demonstrates. There are several issues here. One, she is a little girl and we can't really hold her to the same standards as an adult. Two, the second largest group who visits Antimoon (according to Alexa) is from Vietnam and I imagine that they are proud of this little girl.
I think some adults can learn hiragana in a couple of hours, but I wouldn't expect that of a child. I understand fully what you wrote about her level. I lived in Japan for several years and I know how many Kanji a kid in first grade should know. Let's just say that according to the video she is a STUDENT of Japanese. Right now, she just answers easy questions, but those are the same ol' questions adults ask kids ad infinitum.
She is fluent in English and quite charming and natural. Because this charm is so evident in English and to a lesser degree when she speaks Spanish, it's easy to feel that she is not so at ease with other languages.
She is better in Spanish than Japanese, imo. She is thinking in Spanish. I remember how she reworded what she said about her brother. Her Spanish teacher has a very pleasant voice.
French: She is a student of French. If she were my daughter I would enroll her in a class at an Alliance F.-maybe a class with children who had studied the language for a year or more. This could be valuable to Wendy on a couple of levels if she were carefully monitored.
In Portuguese, it seemed like the same type of questions. I listened to a bit of the Russian too.
If the claim is that she "speaks" eleven languages, then it's probably true-(I didn't check her Arabic, Cantonese, etc.), but if the claim is that she is equally as fluent as a child who speaks the language natively, then no, that's not accurate based only on the videos of course.
Still, I have to say that she is remarkable in many ways and I'd be very proud of her if I were her parents (but I'd have different home rules) and uh, I would be leery about putting videos on the internet. Maybe I'm too conservative, but I wouldn't do that.
I feel that you seek truth and I admire that, but I also recognize that we can't hold her to the standard of adults like Ziad F.
I don't think you are jealous. I also speak several of the languages Wendy demonstrates. There are several issues here. One, she is a little girl and we can't really hold her to the same standards as an adult. Two, the second largest group who visits Antimoon (according to Alexa) is from Vietnam and I imagine that they are proud of this little girl.
I think some adults can learn hiragana in a couple of hours, but I wouldn't expect that of a child. I understand fully what you wrote about her level. I lived in Japan for several years and I know how many Kanji a kid in first grade should know. Let's just say that according to the video she is a STUDENT of Japanese. Right now, she just answers easy questions, but those are the same ol' questions adults ask kids ad infinitum.
She is fluent in English and quite charming and natural. Because this charm is so evident in English and to a lesser degree when she speaks Spanish, it's easy to feel that she is not so at ease with other languages.
She is better in Spanish than Japanese, imo. She is thinking in Spanish. I remember how she reworded what she said about her brother. Her Spanish teacher has a very pleasant voice.
French: She is a student of French. If she were my daughter I would enroll her in a class at an Alliance F.-maybe a class with children who had studied the language for a year or more. This could be valuable to Wendy on a couple of levels if she were carefully monitored.
In Portuguese, it seemed like the same type of questions. I listened to a bit of the Russian too.
If the claim is that she "speaks" eleven languages, then it's probably true-(I didn't check her Arabic, Cantonese, etc.), but if the claim is that she is equally as fluent as a child who speaks the language natively, then no, that's not accurate based only on the videos of course.
Still, I have to say that she is remarkable in many ways and I'd be very proud of her if I were her parents (but I'd have different home rules) and uh, I would be leery about putting videos on the internet. Maybe I'm too conservative, but I wouldn't do that.
I feel that you seek truth and I admire that, but I also recognize that we can't hold her to the standard of adults like Ziad F.
<<I just stated that I master Japanese, English and German >>
<<(That means I speak 5 languages and I can show that at any time!!) >>
If that is true, then please "show us" by correcting all the mistakes you made in your post in English.
<<(That means I speak 5 languages and I can show that at any time!!) >>
If that is true, then please "show us" by correcting all the mistakes you made in your post in English.
K.T.
Thanks for your nice comments and observation. It seems that I'm not the only one observing the videos (From a linguistic point of view of course).
Based only on these videos I don't think it's possible to assess if she can REALLY speak 11 languages (In my opinion mastering one language means to be able to acquire the four functions of the language: speak, listen, read and write).
Guest: I'm glad you picked many English mistakes in my reply and that doesn't bother me because I NEVER had English formal lessons and NEVER lived in an English speaking country. I guess that shows how difficult it can be studying a language alone.
However, I believe I can express myself reasonably in English, have experience as a translator and had no difficulty whatsoever in communicating when I visited Australia and the U.S.
If my mistakes cause any estrangement I apologize but I'm more interested in conveying my ideas than writing perfectly at this time since this is neither a translation nor a dissertation. If you really want to criticize me you should be able to write in Portuguese (My native language) in the same level I write in English. If you only speak English I guess your assessment isn't very relevant.
Just for your reference I scored 890(Out of 990 or about 99%) on TOEIC about 7 years ago on a day I was sick (had fever). On top of that, almost all of my material for learning foreign languages is in English, I watch the news (I watch ABC news almost everyday) and movies with perfect understanding and work in an office in Japan using English on a daily basis.
p.s Sorry for misspelling "certificate", using "which" instead of "that" as a relative pronoun in "used to describe something which “, misspelling "Arabic", having used "a" two times in a row in "I have already worked as a a " and having mixed informal language (Gonna) in a comment that should be more formal in "I'm gonna check on that video ". If you think there's something else that must be rectified, please let me know.
Peace!!!
Thanks for your nice comments and observation. It seems that I'm not the only one observing the videos (From a linguistic point of view of course).
Based only on these videos I don't think it's possible to assess if she can REALLY speak 11 languages (In my opinion mastering one language means to be able to acquire the four functions of the language: speak, listen, read and write).
Guest: I'm glad you picked many English mistakes in my reply and that doesn't bother me because I NEVER had English formal lessons and NEVER lived in an English speaking country. I guess that shows how difficult it can be studying a language alone.
However, I believe I can express myself reasonably in English, have experience as a translator and had no difficulty whatsoever in communicating when I visited Australia and the U.S.
If my mistakes cause any estrangement I apologize but I'm more interested in conveying my ideas than writing perfectly at this time since this is neither a translation nor a dissertation. If you really want to criticize me you should be able to write in Portuguese (My native language) in the same level I write in English. If you only speak English I guess your assessment isn't very relevant.
Just for your reference I scored 890(Out of 990 or about 99%) on TOEIC about 7 years ago on a day I was sick (had fever). On top of that, almost all of my material for learning foreign languages is in English, I watch the news (I watch ABC news almost everyday) and movies with perfect understanding and work in an office in Japan using English on a daily basis.
p.s Sorry for misspelling "certificate", using "which" instead of "that" as a relative pronoun in "used to describe something which “, misspelling "Arabic", having used "a" two times in a row in "I have already worked as a a " and having mixed informal language (Gonna) in a comment that should be more formal in "I'm gonna check on that video ". If you think there's something else that must be rectified, please let me know.
Peace!!!
Come on guys.In order to prove the little girl can "speak" the 11 languages at your strict standards,it would be unrealistically time-consuming.You would need an hour per language for the girl to speak,read and write.That means 11 agonizing hours!!!Besides,this little girl doesn't need to prove anything to anybody.She seems to love the languages she has and uses them to communicate with her friends from different parts of the world and has a lot of fun.She clearly hasn't reached sophisticated levels for the languages she speaks( to be fair,go back in time and check how good you were at 8 years of age),but she has done something no kids and very few adults have done before.I can understand the jealousy some people feel.We are all language learners.We know how hard it is to learn a language and all of a sudden a little girl makes language learning a piece of cake and raises the bar for all of us.The bad news is she makes us study harder, and the good news is the bad news itself because in studying harder,we will become better.This little girl is good material for serious studies by linguists and educators alike.Maybe there is a Wendy Vo switch in all of us.Just find it and switch it on.
Just out of pure curiosity J.C. , would you have a German father and a Japanese mother and were you born in Brazil or Portugal? If not what is the story? By the way I quite agree with your reasoning in what makes some one a polyglot.
"The languages in which I have no idea what she is saying are Arabic and Hindi, even though I know when she is saying "Yes" or "no" (she says "la" (no) when speaking in arabic and kind of "ney" when "speaking" in Hindi), which might mean she either doesn't understand what has been said or is trying to deceive the listener. Apart from the aforesaid languages I have also studied Swedish "
J.C 's reasoning is so funny.Let me ask him a few questions to see if he is good at English as he claimed he was.
Q:J.C. Are you not your mother's son?
J.C:Yes
Q:Have you committed any crime?
J.C:No
As you see,J.C either didn't understand English or tried to deceive us because he only answered yes and no.Hehehe.
J.C 's reasoning is so funny.Let me ask him a few questions to see if he is good at English as he claimed he was.
Q:J.C. Are you not your mother's son?
J.C:Yes
Q:Have you committed any crime?
J.C:No
As you see,J.C either didn't understand English or tried to deceive us because he only answered yes and no.Hehehe.
Guest:
Thanks for your comment again.
But I don't think I needed to speak any foreign languages when I was 8 because I was born and raised in Brazil, didn't know any foreigners and had NO NEED to communicate in other language other than Portuguese.
I don't feel jealous AT ALL because I can greet people and survive in all the languages she spoke (with the exception of Cantonese, Vietnamese and Hindi, which I believe I'll NEVER NEED to speak because I don't have interest in Vietnam, Hong Kong (Or other place where Cantonese is spoken) or India (English is pretty much widespread).
Oh, there is one thing I envy this cute girl about: She has TIME to study all these languages. If I only study languages I won't be able to pay my bills and take care of my family in Japan. Things here are WAY TOO expensive!!! hehehe
About your last questions you're right, I might just say "yes" or "no" without understanding completely what has been asked. It's just like a multiple choice test, you can answer correctly from among the given options but that doesn't mean you understand what has been asked.
Jo: Thanks for the question. As far as I know there are NO FOREIGNERS(At least up to my great-grandparents everyone is Brazilian and speaks NO foreign language) in my family or among my acquaintances. I was totally MONOLINGUAL (Brazilian Portuguese) until I was 16, when I started learning English (I was tired of learning the "verb to be" every year) then due to the influence of a friend's grandmother I got interested in German and then in Japanese, which I decided to study in college as my major in addition to German as my minor.
Still in college (1993) I took 6 months of intensive Polish course with a teacher from the University of Warsaw and started learning Hebrew (But barely learned the alphabet).
After that the "language addiction" got worse and I started learning Korean, Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Italian and French (Studied all of them for 1 year) when I came to Japan with a scholarship for my master's degree in Japanese in 1998. In 1999 I took Dutch lessons (But my teacher was from Belgium so I still have difficulty understanding people from Holland) for 2 years in order to read "Het Achterhuis" (The Diary of Anne Frank) and learned the basics, which still allow me to read in Dutch, which is easier for someone who speaks German. In 2003 I learned some Finnish to hang out with Finnish friends I met in Japan and in the following year I learned some Swedish because the pastor at my church was from Sweden. In my language collection I still have Turkish, Modern Greek, Polish and Hebrew books in addition to dozens of dictionaries. Thank you Japan!!!
I never went to any language school neither traveled abroad in my youth because my parents couldn't afford to pay me any course and I really started learning languages at 17 at the university, where I had access to good books and started doing what I love most: Study languages, communicate and do things that my knowledge of Portuguese alone wouldn't allow: Read books (I started reading "Le miserábles" in French, have read several books in German including "Faust", want to read "Cien años de soledad" from Gabriel Garcia Marquez and intend to read Dostoyevsky in the original...)
Anyway, I just love languages and the possibility to communicate with people I would never meet if I had decided to stay in Brazil speaking only Portuguese.
Cheers!!
Thanks for your comment again.
But I don't think I needed to speak any foreign languages when I was 8 because I was born and raised in Brazil, didn't know any foreigners and had NO NEED to communicate in other language other than Portuguese.
I don't feel jealous AT ALL because I can greet people and survive in all the languages she spoke (with the exception of Cantonese, Vietnamese and Hindi, which I believe I'll NEVER NEED to speak because I don't have interest in Vietnam, Hong Kong (Or other place where Cantonese is spoken) or India (English is pretty much widespread).
Oh, there is one thing I envy this cute girl about: She has TIME to study all these languages. If I only study languages I won't be able to pay my bills and take care of my family in Japan. Things here are WAY TOO expensive!!! hehehe
About your last questions you're right, I might just say "yes" or "no" without understanding completely what has been asked. It's just like a multiple choice test, you can answer correctly from among the given options but that doesn't mean you understand what has been asked.
Jo: Thanks for the question. As far as I know there are NO FOREIGNERS(At least up to my great-grandparents everyone is Brazilian and speaks NO foreign language) in my family or among my acquaintances. I was totally MONOLINGUAL (Brazilian Portuguese) until I was 16, when I started learning English (I was tired of learning the "verb to be" every year) then due to the influence of a friend's grandmother I got interested in German and then in Japanese, which I decided to study in college as my major in addition to German as my minor.
Still in college (1993) I took 6 months of intensive Polish course with a teacher from the University of Warsaw and started learning Hebrew (But barely learned the alphabet).
After that the "language addiction" got worse and I started learning Korean, Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Italian and French (Studied all of them for 1 year) when I came to Japan with a scholarship for my master's degree in Japanese in 1998. In 1999 I took Dutch lessons (But my teacher was from Belgium so I still have difficulty understanding people from Holland) for 2 years in order to read "Het Achterhuis" (The Diary of Anne Frank) and learned the basics, which still allow me to read in Dutch, which is easier for someone who speaks German. In 2003 I learned some Finnish to hang out with Finnish friends I met in Japan and in the following year I learned some Swedish because the pastor at my church was from Sweden. In my language collection I still have Turkish, Modern Greek, Polish and Hebrew books in addition to dozens of dictionaries. Thank you Japan!!!
I never went to any language school neither traveled abroad in my youth because my parents couldn't afford to pay me any course and I really started learning languages at 17 at the university, where I had access to good books and started doing what I love most: Study languages, communicate and do things that my knowledge of Portuguese alone wouldn't allow: Read books (I started reading "Le miserábles" in French, have read several books in German including "Faust", want to read "Cien años de soledad" from Gabriel Garcia Marquez and intend to read Dostoyevsky in the original...)
Anyway, I just love languages and the possibility to communicate with people I would never meet if I had decided to stay in Brazil speaking only Portuguese.
Cheers!!
Very interesting history. I always enjoy reading about the languages people study, why they study them and where they picked up the "language" bug.
It comes down to definitions. I just started Vietnamese, so I can't judge Wendy in Vietnamese, but I'll just have faith and say that it is likely that she is bilingual, a good bilingual in Vietnamese and English.
She seems to be familiar with the other languages at different levels.
Because Wendy's school is at home, she has more flexibility and less distraction than other children, I imagine. I wonder what her homeschool schedule looks like.
If we honestly say, well, she isn't where a Japanese child would be at age eight, is someone going to make her study an extra hour at home? I don't want that to happen. It would be better for her to meet Japanese children and play with them.
In general, I would tell parents to find good native speakers with standard accents (if possible) if they are going to try this or use recordings and playdates with native-speaking children.
__________________________________________________________
It comes down to definitions. I just started Vietnamese, so I can't judge Wendy in Vietnamese, but I'll just have faith and say that it is likely that she is bilingual, a good bilingual in Vietnamese and English.
She seems to be familiar with the other languages at different levels.
Because Wendy's school is at home, she has more flexibility and less distraction than other children, I imagine. I wonder what her homeschool schedule looks like.
If we honestly say, well, she isn't where a Japanese child would be at age eight, is someone going to make her study an extra hour at home? I don't want that to happen. It would be better for her to meet Japanese children and play with them.
In general, I would tell parents to find good native speakers with standard accents (if possible) if they are going to try this or use recordings and playdates with native-speaking children.
__________________________________________________________