Polyglot Alex Rawlings on BBC Breakfast
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 พ.ย. 2013
- Alex Rawlings flies the language learning flag on BBC Breakfast (20/11/2013). No copyright infringement intended by posting this (not monetised for that reason). It is purely for information to promote language learning and highlight the language learning agenda in the UK. Please post your thoughts on the subject. Proud of you, Alex! :)
Alex's book "How To Learn Any Language" is available here: amzn.to/2QaL2Gy
Alex's book "From Amourette to Żal: Bizarre and Beautiful Words from Europe: (For When English Just Won’t Do)" is available here:
amzn.to/2oHVitE
Piece to accompany this article: www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-2...
Get in touch with Alex on:
T: @RawLangs_Blog
F: RawLangsBlog
Blog: www.RawLangs.com
Join me on / speakingfluently
Help us caption & translate this video!
amara.org/v/DMKr/
It is so important to dispel the myth the learning foreign languages is something for geniuses.
There's no such thing as a genius. It takes hard work to learn a language. There are no shortcuts. The term "genius" is just an excuse lazy mofos invented...
rasraziel exactemonte!!^^
@@rasraziel wrong.
@Xalpha23 exactly. People seem to forget that more than half of the world is bilingual. It doesn't not take a genius to learn another language which is normal in other countries. Anyone (with the right willpower and hard work) can learn a language but not everyone can be an Albert Einstein.
exactly what Tim Doner describes in his talk..."now say this in this language. now that one."
+Israel Lai I was literally thinking about him at the exact moment I saw this comment.
Exactly what I was thinking
they just want you to mess up on live television seeing as they can't accomplish what the other person has
I literally was so mad when I saw them doing that like bruh dance dance fr
They talk to alex as though he were an animal that make magic tricks. "Alex, say this and that in that language!, and now this thing!" And then they laugh all the time as if learning languages were something for nerds, and also giving the impression that Alex is kind of a magic human or god descended from heaven. I don't like how media treat this subject and I think it will still take a lot of years till they change this perception about it.
He knows Greek? I have massive respect for you man. Not just because it's my native language, but because of the difficulty of learning Greek. My hat goes off to you, sir!
+Emilios Gregoriou I live in Cyprus and i must say the rules are quite a bit different from the other European languages.
He is from Greece
Shweta Chavan Is he? He doesn't look Greek. Huh, maybe he was born and raised outside of Greece.
+Shweta Chavan he is HALF Greece from his mother side, but he's British
Poutanas Malakopoulos he does look greek..
what a superficial interview...
Wow she sounded so condescending when she asked him why he wanted to learn Afrikaans. They could have come up with better questions. Alex handled himself well
I find Suzanna Read (or whatever her name is) utterly irritating, especially when she asked the question "what can you do with so many languages?". It's sounds as though she's implying that learning languages is pointless unless there is financial or work gain from it. Great upload though, anyway
MusicMan I agree, because cultural background is very important to get into a culture.
She’s even worse now alongside the vile and narcissistic Piers Morgan!
I can't deal with people like that. People who are dismissive or feel challenged because someone has a different interest to their own. Notice she crosses her arms after patronising him with the question about why he would learn Afrikaans or Catalan.
Nice interview! I had a chance to meet Alex in person in Budapest and as a native speaker I can say that his Russian is excellent :-) Amir
Very interesting. The male presenter kind of sums up the reason why people don't try. He thinks Mandarin is 'impenetrable', so doesn't try. It's a real shame, and I am a bit ashamed of my country. However it's great to have quite a few polyglots here. (:
This 'interview' makes me so angry! Why don't they ask Alex on how he acquired all those languages, what he thinks what the best ways are to keep them and what he learned about different cultures? No wonder, the statistics show that people have a lack of languages, if instead of showing an interview with a very smart and really friendly guy with a lot of interesting language stories (I saw Alex in Berlin this year), just wanting him to say some shallow sentences in this or that language or just single words, as if he was a walking dictionary. That's exactly what Tim Doner also said, and it really annoys me. And the questions those interviewers are asking are so dumb, I can't believe it. Like: 'Oh why the hell do you learn Afrikaans, learn something useful, you fool'. She could have just asked: 'Oh cool, I heard you learn Afrikaans. What aspect is it that made you learn it, and what did it provide to your life?'
But still, thanks for uploading it Richard! And thank you, Alex and all the other amazing polyglots for inspiring me everyday on my language journey!
Could not agree more it's very frustrating.They go on there to tell stories and talk about culture but instead "How do you say...." It's just so typical!
What a badass! he speaks Russian and Catalan. Love it! Moscow and Barcelona forever.
When people see a language as a business made me sad. A language should be more that business.
He has left England now, he didn't like the brexit vote, super intelligent.
wow that was great, speaking 11 language..well done alex, you've shown us that nothing is impossible..wish i can do that
Thanks for capturing this Richard
Like most interviews done about languages in the UK, the presenters are useless, and ask ignorant questions. It's also irritating when they ask Alex to say various things in some of the languages he knows, like it's some sort of trick.
This is something which is really irritated me about the he education of languages in the U.K (especially england where I'm from) and generally. A lot of people think learning a language is just another skill for getting a job and that is is very hard.
As some other commenters have said, the presenter shows the general view that it's too hard so why start (specifically Manadrin.) The female presenter also almost laughs at the fact the Alex would want to learn Afrikaans, which is so ignorant, Alex brillliantly responds with the fact that language and culture go hand in hand.
A lot of people in England believe that there's no need to learn any other language, english is all you need, but there's a whole frickin world out there and not everyone can speak english!
The education of languages the the U.K is quite poor as well, in my school I wasn't required to take a language (a choice of only French or German) as a GCSE! (past age 14/15.) I don't see how students are expected to enjoy languages when there is so little choice, we need to open kids' minds up to the huge diversity in language and culture.
I agree, but that is also the case in most countries.
*****
I only mentioned england because that's the only place I've been educated, so I can't speak for any other countries. It would be interesting to find out more about language education across europe and the world!
bexyrose0x Kind of the same shit, at least in Spain, where I live.
The economist put together a fairly excellent interview called "teenage hyperpolyglot" if you would like to restore your faith in journalism.
I would like to restore my faith in humanity, cause it is not only journalism or education, normal people out there usually think that learning languages is something useless.
Excellent job Alex, and thanks for sharing the video Richard!
You're wrong Madam, the French are hearing you... il est largement temps pour vous de réaliser qu'internet est un moyen de communication international, et que le monde entier vous écoute.
Pity to see Polish pooh-poohed that way. It is such a rich language with a deep grammar, huge vocabulary and so many ways of expressing thoughts.
David what was the best book for you from polish writer?
jacobbbish I enjoy Chrzanowski's Histories of the Early Slavs, Sienkiewicz obviously, and the Sapkowski Wiedzmin series. I can't get on with the poetry so much. I can't understand why so much fuss is made of Milosz and Szymborska, but there are dozens of novel writers who are underappreciated.
Did you have a chance to read Głowacki?
jacobbbish
Him being the guy who described old Warsaw a lot in his novels? He's on my list for later.
It is funny you replied to my comment just few minutes ago, I just brought back "Z Głowy" Głowacki's book from London, it was given to me a long time ago and it is again with me here is Warsaw!
It often comes across as being Anglophone by birth is like a handicap when learning foreign languages. It isn´t actually (except slightly in the way that it´s grammar is simple), but effectively Anglos are often very unmotivated to learn and/or convinced they can´t. People living in smaller countries, surrounded by other languages usually have more of a positive attitude, knowing they often have no choice but to learn another language or two.
5:00 LOL clearly he DOESN'T speak Chinese
knee how say say
These presenters have difficulty even speaking feckin' English!
this woman is so rude and uneducated..."things like afrikáans? what lead you to learn Afrikáans and Catalán? *laugh*" ...maybe not everyone moves in life with money goals in their minds? maybe minority languages are also culture, deserve to be learned, protected and used?! ... on the other hand, he is amazing, I´m learning German and he´s a true inspiration for me! and have checked his Spanish as well and as a Spanish I must say he´s also really good ...basicly he makes a perfect or almost perfect accent in every language which really amazes me
Pablo González Buelga English is easy. The easier the better. Everyone can speak only 1 language. It would be convenient.
саша кинни English is not easy. Maybe to a guy from Norway, but not for a guy from Vietnam
dragan176 a guy from Vietnam must use English instead of Vietnamese. For the Russians for example English is easy because it has no cases, genders and is an analitical language. It's so convenient. One can relax and speak English!!!
саша кинни But do you realise how irregular English is? Also, I assume you're from Russia. How would you explain the word "the" to a guy from Russia?
dragan176 I can say that the word "the" means "that" when we speak about exact words, the words we say the second time, I have a cat/ The cat is red. In English there are 2 articles only but in German there 6 ones in 4 cases and 3 genders e.g. der die das dem den des ein eine einer einem einen eines! Yes, I'm Russian and I believe English is so relative to Russian. We have much in common.
theres this little russian that can speak all the major languages in the world including english,spanish,french,german,arabic,chinese and shes only four years old
Interesting accent in russian language. Really very good! I advise Alex to learn kazakh language too;-)
Interesting video. I'm learning Japanese for fun and as well gonna make my life easier when I live in Japan next year. Not, gonna lie, it's freaking hard to learn a second language hopefully I can. If so, I'd like to learn a third. =)
Inspiring!
I speak French, English, German and Latvian :-D
+Lucy Avarda comment & pourquoi?
Mystical Catnip parce que j'adore les langues. Le français c'est ma langue préférée et comme j'habite en France, ben c'est comme ça
Lucy Avarda Ahhh génial! j'adore le français ! Je veux parle ça parfaitement
+Mystical Catnip ah chouette. le français, c'est facile quand tu le parles tous les jours. tu vas arriver à le faire! t'inquiètes pas :-)
Problem is, learning a language takes a LOT of time, it can take over your life, and if you want to learn it to a high level it takes years! People like Alex have probably spent most of their life learning languages but I imagine he's missed out on a lot of other things, he's made a huge sacrifice and not a lot of people have the desire to do that. Even to learn one new language is a huge sacrifice. I agree with what was said, the actually learning isn't difficult, what's difficult is the amount of time it takes, it requires a massive desire, huge patience, and daily consistency. I think most people would like to do it, but they weigh up the ROI and realise their time would be better spent on other things. Great if you have the passion for it though!
+futurez12 Absolute nonsense! People in North Africa speak, on average, five languages to a high degree. If learning languages is hard, then how do you explain this?
+Allister Graham I meant as an adult. You won't be able to find many (if any) adults who have learnt a language to a high level (C1+) in less than a year (probably even 2 years or more). If someone tells you otherwise, they're straight up lying or else they've grossly overestimated their level.
I repeat, it's not intrinsically difficult, it just requires a massive time investment, and there lies the difficultly.
futurez12 Immigrants learn English all of the time, but no-one seems to care or take any notice whatsoever. Yet, for an anglophone, it's a *huge sacrifice*!
+futurez12
What a strange way of thinking. Someone who works as a concert violinist has had to make huge 'sacrifices', has 'missed out' on lots of things. What does it mean to 'miss out' on things? Why assume one is even interested in those things? Is there anything to be *gained* from this effort put in?
If you enjoy doing something, the time put into it is not even of concern.
+futurez12 It does not take long. But it does take a lot of effort and motivation.
Amazing talent
I love that he speaks Afrikaans!
Good job for the student, but I didn't like the interviewers
And he speaks Greek like a Greek. Better than most Greeks, if I may add! Because some English speakers may doubt his ability, I guarantee you at least for Greek he's impeccable!!! Good job and great guy!!!😉🥇👍👏🤗❤️🇬🇷
he speaks very good russian!
Why not learn afrikaans and catalan when you already know dutch and spanish, and the must important thing you enjoy it !!
Ирфан Манџука dutch is not an important language.
Ce but était hors-jeu - I think that's how you say 'That goal was offside' in French. I could be wrong though, lol.
C'est correct ;-) Bravo!
It's unsurprising that the interviewers displayed such ignorance, they do this throughout most of the the show they present. The show has a culture of mainstream stupidity dressed up in suits; It regularly displays a narrow minded attitude and a belief that life revolves around employment and the economy.
+retrospect77 I was shocked they didn't know that was Russian in the beginning.
In their defense (even though I hate defending twits like them), it could have sounded like any slavic language to them, considering that they probably didn't have any prior experience listening to slavic languages.
Why are native English speakers so amazed when someone learns languages while it's no big deal to the rest of the world? I would be embarrassed to go on TV and say, I speak XXX languages because I studied them.. so what?
I am not a native English speaker and I find his ability to speak such a great number of languages impressive; I haven't yet come across a native German/French/Afrikaans speaker that wasn't impressed by someone who had learnt multiple languages. But that's just my opinion, and I am most likely wrong! :P
I'm not a native English speaker either and I am impressed as well. Alex knows more languages then most people will in their entire lives and he's still quite young. On top of that he's modest and doesn't oversell his skills.
I think we all know the answer...White people can live without any foreign languages because English is spoken everywhere,so what the point of learning a polish for example? Whereas other people have to do it because is just an obligation for them. In my country you must know at least 2 languages: Russian and Kyrgyz but nevertheless it's not enough.Most of young people also learn Chinese, English and Turkish.
Actually it's a big deal in MANY countries.
@@user-wp6vx6pi3o White people don't speak English. Half of Europe doesn't.
Bon, le français était un peu approximatif mais bravo quand même! En France on dit les informations pas les nouvelles et météo pour le temps.
This is so hard to watch
YEA CATALAN!!!
Volia vore com parla català el tio xDDDD
“If you know many languages then you have many keys for a castle.” ― François-Marie Arouet
Anyone in need of more keys? Anyone?
Φίλε μου μιλάς τόσες γλώσσες ακριβώς γιατί ξέρεις να μιλάς Ελληνικά!!!Γι' αυτό έχεις αυτή την ικανότητα!!Μην το πολυκουράζετε εσείς οι δημοσιογράφοι του BBC!!
evi zacharia - Συμφωνώ! Growing up bilingual English & Greek has got to be a really good foundation for a polyglot. It is also true & a bit sad that a lot of the other polyglots don't bother much with Greek (Steve Kaufmann had a reasonable go at it a few months back, but not really for long enough).
That was actually kind of embarrassing the way they just kept poking at Alex "Say this!" "Say that!" like being a polyglot is his party trick.
I just want to say say say for this interview.
This might be the worst interview I've ever seen
Mostly because the two anchors couldn't be more disinterested and they don't even try hiding it well.
Oh well
yessss
Gianluca D'Antonio That's british morning television for ya
This interview could've been much more interesting/entertaining
Host: perrfeij eh?
Alex: Eh...
OMG he speaks Russian very well!
YOU SHOULD BE BILINGUAL, OR LEARNING A SECOND LANGUAGE. I posted a video in response to this video which Richard uploaded, so I am posting it here, because the video response system is now not available. I hope this doesn't seem like spam.
I would say "Welkom BY die BBC ontbyt"... I won't use "na"
As n Afrikaanssprekende persoon kan ek vir Alex komplimenteer hoe goed hy homself van sy taak gekwyt het. Sy Afrikaans klink mooi en ek is baie trots op hom.
He speaks Russian.Respect.
Alex did a great job in Afrikaans!
he doesn't need to speak catalan if he speaks spanish, such a nice surprise to see that he speaks the same languages than me without being necessary to learn them
that's not true there are many things you can do with catalan that can't be done with spanish. You don't need to...
Joan Sard If you want to comunicate with catalan people you can do it speaking sppanish. Its true that you need catalan to find some jobs in catalonia, but there are more things that you can do with spanish than with catalan, so come on...
That's not true, since there are a lot of things that do only exist in catalan, films, literature... and more over, moltly everybody speak spanish and will be able to answer you, but it is not nice not understanding what others say, and finally if you want to work for the administration you NEED it.
***** did I say that spanish and catalan are the same thing?? it's a different language, what i said is that if you are visitting catalonia you don't need to speak catalan, 'cause all the catalan speakers speak spanish too and if you deny that you have a problem. Unless you are looking for a job in catalonia or you are going to study here, it's not necessary to speak catalan.
Ok I understand your point, but I am affraid you ar wrong. Even if there are very few people who do only speak Catalan there are a lot of Catalans who do not speak c catalan but french. I am talking about the commonly known as Catalunya Nord which belongs to France. If you go there and you ara a catalan speaker, you can communicate with them in their mother tongue, but guess what? You won't be understood speaking spanish.
Sehr gute...
Ich mag sein Still
It's a shame they had to m ale Alex perform like that but that is how it is in the Uk when a native speaks a foreign tongue. What is alarming is that the two presenters went to the best schools and universities ( they must have had Latin and French)and still asked somewhat ignorant and dumb-downed questions, a bit ironic and shows the lack of vision about this in the UK
Pas tout compris
French awesome
Muchas gracias amigos, Merci beaucoup, Vielen Dank an alle, Diolch gymaint i bawb, Grazie mille, Ďakujem mnohokrát, Dziękuję Ci bardzo, Muito obrigado, Děkuji mnohokrát, Gratias tibi valde, Villmools Merci, arigato, Köp sagbol, Go raibh míle maith agat, Tänan teid väga, Kiitos paljon, Tack, Hartelijk dank, Mange tak, Tusen takk, Grazzi ħafna, toda raba
polyglot of google translate
There's an alarming number of people in the UK who can't even speak English, let alone a foreign one.
Hahaha 😂
He speaks Russian.Respekt.
He answered in Dutch when they asked for Africans..
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Afrikaans_and_Dutch#Mutual_intelligibility
1 minute ago
انا اتكلام عشرة وحدة لغت 我说十一语 i speak eleven languages Je me parle once langue я разгадыванию одиозность языков Yo puedo a hablar once lenguas Eu falo onze languas Ek kan praatr elfde taal Ndiayakhulum,a olwimi olushimi olukhulu olunye ndiakhuluma olwimi olushimi olunye Ndiayankhulo chiyankhulo chikumi chimodzi
*je parles onze langues
I don't agree, learning languages is a skill you are born with. There are people from foreign countries in my place and they never get to loose their maternal accent no matter what...and many of them learn to speak basic Spanish so there ya go. Maybe many of these people who I'm referring to are great engineers, great pilots, who knows!
There was this Chilean friend who got a scholarship to study in Germany, Physics specifically. He is so good in Physics that the Germans wanted him to stay and research in the University, BUT here is the catch he needed an interpreter!
He is gifted in Physics but he can not no matter what learn German!
Wouldn-t it be easier if we (the human citizenship) agree to learn only one worldlanguage. Like Ido, Esperanto, Interlingua, Elefen, Lojban, (and there are others). Discuss that on the UNO, take a decision, and solve the problem.
Shah A That's actually the opposite of the truth. An international language isn't supposed to replace a country's native language, but rather allow the citizens of one country to communicate with citizens of another without one having to learn the other's language. Languages carry culture, and learning a language also involves adapting to the culture. By using a language without culture, you eliminate the cultural appropriation that occurs when learning natural languages. An international auxiliary language would allow people to communicate without losing any of their culture in the process, which means that it would actually maintain diversity.
The world without diversity is the most boring thing imaginable.
01:40
Well, that's the point. His vocabulary must not then be large in foreign languages. Dunno, really, but at C2 students know like 5000 word families. If he's not able to say that thing of goal offside which is like C1, I'd say that maybe, just a guesstimation, his vocabulary might average out at 2500-3000 family words per language at the time of this interview. Not bad considering he speaks 11 languages. Yet the educated English speaker knows like 16000 word families. This is why I think it's better to be 100% bilingual or trilingual than to speak many languages at a lower-intermediate level. My respects though. Although if I were him, I'd just focus on 3 foreign languages and master them at a very advanced level (like 14000 word families per language or something). My respects though. His skills are awesome. Bravo
ratio veritas Actually, it's only partially true. Depends on what you're aiming at. Some employers prefer those who speak 5-6 languages at the upper-intermediate level to those who speak 2 languages perfectly. There's really no telling what you may need in the future. This guy is pretty much bilingual in English/Greek, and he speaks lots of different languages, which makes finding a well-paid job cake. Some people simply have what it takes to become polyglots, whereas some others do not. Same goes to driving, practising karate and a number of different activities. You'll be either good at them or not, that's a no-brainer. :)
He knew how to say it tho ("Abseits")
We need to change the mentality that people have about Chinese being impossible, because it is actually far from that. Also, that presenter with his very off Chinese would probably offend more Chinese people than than anything :P lol. Alex did great. En baie goeie Afrikaans ook! Must be horrid being put on the spot like that !
What are are the best way to learn a language (book, site, way)
It all depends. There isn't one best way to learn a language because everyone learns things in a different way. I'm a language teacher so I always have to alter the way I teach things for different students.
5:01 ni hao say say
Knee how
the moderators are just jealous! So poor!!!
After German and Spanish, I hope to learn Dutch, Afrikaans and Portuguese then French 😁
Awesome! Do you use Duolingo and other resources?
+Mystical Catnip I am studying German and Spanish for my degree, I am going to Spain for a year to study there this September :) I use online resources, I find youtube videos really helpful :) I also like to watch tv shows in my target languages with subtitles, you learn loads of vocab!😊
Leanne do you use TH-cam for the tv shows? Because for me, Things like Netflix only have one option for subtitles 😞
lorena vodniza I haven't used it for tv shows but there could be some on here! I recommend looking up youtubers who speak in the language you are learning, it is very helpful! For example, if you are interested in make up, maybe there is someone who makes those videos, or about stuff you are interested in :) also maybe try your local library, they should have a foreign language section :)
Oni bezonas nur unu lingvon kiel mondlingvo!
Yeah these interviewers aren't great!
Wow his pronunciation of nihao and xie xie is atrocious... arigatou (Japanese) as well. Alex is brilliant though!
Maybe its because English and French are too proud.
普通话 中文
Have you seen John's socks?
Afrikaans is one of the easiest languages to learn for English speakers.
And your point is?
That is my point: Afrikaans is one of the easiest languages for English speakers to learn.
MRKN Fry Okay then...
?? Thanks for stopping by ??
My Mandarin is extremely basic and superficial, but I cringed so much when that guy said ‘ni hao’ and ‘xie xie’... he could at least have looked up the pronunciation
this interview is terrible. the questions should have been thought out better.
This woman is so arrogant, superfluous, uninformed and ridiculous about her way to make an interview. Such a shame for the program.
Dieser Tor war abseits.
***** No he doesn't - he turned up for the interview, didn't he?
le borgne au pays des aveugle est rois ;)
ro ben roi
barzinio92 oui, l'on écrit un roi sans S,
mais ce n'est pas la faute
handsome
The majority of people who "know English" only learn the basic, rubbish American standard English. As Rammstein said in their song: We are living in Amerika!
As an American, I approve of this message. And I love that song.
Spench????! 🤣
How ignorant. Both breakfast TV presenters behaved so badly. Demonstrates the scale of problem in the UK. It is even worse in the USA. English speakers expect that others should learn their language but flatly refuse to try to learn themselves.
DEMONSTRATE
八百十万说普童话中文
English isn't the international language? Ok then.
@VanReiley then what language is the International language?
His Afrikaans (and likely Dutch) sounds bad.
Funny how he learn only European Languages (Except for hebrew but spoken by majority white people), kinda racist and sad.
Most people in the world who speak French aren't French but African hence black.
He speaks Afrikaans, Zulu, French, Spanish, etc, which are all spoken in Africa. You are the racist here, trying to sort out languages by colors. As if all the speakers of every language were exclusively black or white. So narrow minded...