Author Topic: 10-Year-Old Boy Speaks 11 Languages!  (Read 1518 times)

hazel

  • Guest
10-Year-Old Boy Speaks 11 Languages!
« on: November 07, 2007, 05:56:16 AM »

Most people babble a few words and imagine that a grammatically incorrect and wrongly pronounced enumeration of words means they ‘can speak a foreign language’ such as Spanish or French.

And here comes this primary school boy speaking 10 languages besides English. Arpan Sharma, 10, from The Blue Coat School, Edgbaston, Birmingham, is (for the second year) finalist amongst other 30 children in a UK language
contest.

At home, he speaks Hindi as a mother tongue, he learned four languages at a fee-paying school (French, Spanish, German and Italian) and the others through interactive, multimedia CD-ROMs: Thai, Swahili, Polish and Chinese Mandarin and is now studying the Lugandan language of Uganda. "I like learning them. I think they're enjoyable. You have to have a desire to learn languages otherwise you'll never get anywhere, because if you don't have a desire, then you'll never want to learn them.", said Arpan.

Naturally, the boy's favorite language is Hindi, which is "very, very different to English. You don't say my name is. You say my name Arpan is."

This, linguistically speaking, is extremely minor, and Hindi is much closer to English (as Indo-European language), than to Thai, Swahili, Chinese and Ugandan, fact that makes me personally wonder how much the boy really knows about these languages.

The boy wants to be a doctor and work around the world, but said that he is also interested in becoming a musician or journalist. "Arpan has a "natural gift" for languages. He's also a very talented musician, so I think the ear that he has for music also helps him with his languages. He is without doubt the most talented pupil linguistically we've ever had. Arpan is reasonably fluent in Hindi and the four languages he has studied at school, but the others "learnt at speed" are "more sketchily known. The boy has added Polish, Chinese Mandarin and the Lugandan language of Uganda within the last year as he prepares for Friday's final.", said school's deputy head, Richard Lynn.

"He was very young last year - it was a case of throwing him in at the deep end and seeing what happens and it was amazing. Obviously he's older this year and he's had more opportunity to work on his languages. One starts to learn English pretty much as soon as one hops out of the womb, so the earlier one learns it the better. It certainly makes children able to appreciate language more and makes them realize that it's not something that's simply spoken by 'funny foreigners'.", Lynn added.

softpedia.com

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=6112.0

unionbank online loan application low interest, credit card, easy and fast approval

lumine

  • EXPERT
  • ***
  • Posts: 3781
    • View Profile
Re: 10-Year-Old Boy Speaks 11 Languages!
« Reply #1 on: November 07, 2007, 09:30:15 PM »
maau pa sya! ako ani galisod ko sa dutch.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=6112.0

grazie7y

  • EXECUTIVE
  • GURU
  • *****
  • Posts: 19772
  • Aya san, rest in peace. I will always miss you...
    • View Profile
Re: 10-Year-Old Boy Speaks 11 Languages!
« Reply #2 on: November 08, 2007, 12:33:44 AM »
Kujawa oi!  I wish I can speak fluently at least these languages - German, French, Dutch, Swahili, Japanse, Chinese and Spanish.  I know I won't go hungry if I am in the midst of German, Swahili and Spanish speaking people but the rest, tsk tsk tsk no chance except to use sign language.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=6112.0
Book your tickets and anywhere by planes, trains, boats, or bus at www.12go.co

unionbank online loan application low interest, credit card, easy and fast approval

Happy

  • the beauty of nature
  • GURU
  • ****
  • Posts: 9579
  • Ang "Bugon" ni ate Bambi
    • View Profile
Re: 10-Year-Old Boy Speaks 11 Languages!
« Reply #3 on: November 08, 2007, 05:34:49 AM »
Nindota pud niya oi, galiusd man gani ko aning akong gi estudyohan nga usa ra ni kabuok akong gi concentrate haha

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=6112.0
"There's no perfect life, but we can let God fill it with perfect moments"

willmerit

  • EXPERT
  • ***
  • Posts: 3621
  • smile!
    • View Profile
Re: 10-Year-Old Boy Speaks 11 Languages!
« Reply #4 on: November 08, 2007, 05:37:22 AM »
bitaw no?  swerteha pod ning bataa oi.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=6112.0

Moyhua

  • EXPERT
  • ***
  • Posts: 3809
    • View Profile
Re: 10-Year-Old Boy Speaks 11 Languages!
« Reply #5 on: March 08, 2009, 02:39:10 AM »
"Asset Developer, Household Manager and Relationship Builder"

insurectus

  • EXPERT
  • ***
  • Posts: 1141
    • View Profile
Re: 10-Year-Old Boy Speaks 11 Languages!
« Reply #6 on: March 08, 2009, 09:26:19 AM »
Daghan pod diay extra ordinary linguist sa UK.

kita ko ani nga article:

Daniel Paul Tammet is a British high-functioning autistic savant gifted with a facility for mathematical calculations, sequence memory, and natural language learning. He was born with congenital childhood epilepsy. Experiencing numbers as colors or sensations is a well-documented form of synesthesia, but the detail and specificity of Tammet's mental imagery of numbers is unique. In his mind, he says, each number up to 10,000 has its own unique shape and feel, that he can "see" results of calculations as landscapes, and that he can "sense" whether a number is prime or composite. He has described his visual image of 289 as particularly ugly, 333 as particularly attractive, and pi as beautiful. Tammet not only verbally describes these visions, but also creates artwork, particularly watercolor paintings, such as his painting of Pi.

Tammet holds the European record for memorising and recounting pi to 22,514 digits in just over five hours. He also speaks a variety of languages including English, French, Finnish, German, Spanish, Lithuanian, Romanian, Estonian, Icelandic, Welsh and Esperanto. He particularly likes Estonian, because it is rich in vowels. Tammet is creating a new language called Mänti. Tammet is capable of learning new languages very quickly. To prove this for the Channel Five documentary, Tammet was challenged to learn Icelandic in one week. Seven days later he appeared on Icelandic television conversing in Icelandic, with his Icelandic language instructor saying it was "not human."

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=6112.0

unionbank online loan application low interest, credit card, easy and fast approval

grazie7y

  • EXECUTIVE
  • GURU
  • *****
  • Posts: 19772
  • Aya san, rest in peace. I will always miss you...
    • View Profile
Re: 10-Year-Old Boy Speaks 11 Languages!
« Reply #7 on: March 08, 2009, 11:51:17 AM »
Wow, amazing story, insurectus! 

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=6112.0
Book your tickets and anywhere by planes, trains, boats, or bus at www.12go.co

benelynne

  • EXECUTIVE
  • EXPERT
  • *****
  • Posts: 2586
  • The good is the enemy of the best. John C. Maxwell
    • View Profile
Re: 10-Year-Old Boy Speaks 11 Languages!
« Reply #8 on: March 08, 2009, 12:05:45 PM »
While I really wish for this child to just add one more language--Japanese--to his verbal stock, whizz kids should just be allowed to live normal lives.

I've heard of child under-achievers like Albert Einstein or dropouts like Bill Gates make it big later in their lives, but I've yet to hear of a wonder kid make a climactic big bang in his career as an adult.

I guess kids like these are weighed down by heavy expectations as they grow up, and so few end up with much success.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=6112.0
Live out of your imagination, not your history.
 -- STEPHEN COVEY
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4508115&id=710401074#/profile.php?ref=name&id=710401074

unionbank online loan application low interest, credit card, easy and fast approval

Tags: