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In an article from New Scientist, a man claims that his grandfather could speak 70 languages, and write in 56. And he’s never even attended school. This man also explained that while they were traveling to Thailand, his grandfather admitted that he couldn’t speak Thai. However, in less than 2 weeks, he was able to argue with vendors for discounts - like a native! Years later, the writer was sent to Thailand for a job, and returned to converse with his grandfather in Thai. Even after spending months in Thailand, his command of Thai is still far below his grandfather’s.

As ridiculous as this story might be, it is a true one. And according to many experts, the existence of of hyperpolyglots are not uncommon throughout history. Why hyperpolyglots have sprung up throughout history, no one knows. Some experts claim that it’s intelligence. Others say that it’s a talent. Some others say it’s a side effect of a medical condition. And a few reckon that it’s pure hard work and interest.

For me? I would have to agree with the latter. Learning a language is not a talent and has absolutely nothing to do with your IQ. It’s a process, and with time and effort, normal people like you and me can do the same.

I’m not incredibly smart. I suck at math. I suck at art. I don’t particularly like science. I don’t particularly like school. But one thing’s for sure: I never ever stopped learning languages. When I was a child, I started speaking so late in my life that my parents thought that I was mute. It probably had something to do with the way I was raised. My father spoke to me in English. My mother spoke to me in Mandarin. My grandmother spoke to me in Hokkien. Once I started speaking, I always spoke in three languages, often repeating myself. If I wanted apple, for example, I’d always say “apple, ping guo, peng gor.” I’m not sure why I did that, and why I’d know that apple stood for ping guo and ping guo stood for peng gor. But it happened.

Currently, I understand 8 languages and 2 dialects. In terms of proficiency, I’m bilingual in Hokken and English; almost bilingual with Mandarin, and passively bilingual to French. (Passive here means that I can understand and read French fluently, but I still struggle with speaking and writing.) I’ve had formal education in Spanish, Malay, Indonesian and Korean. I’ve also picked up Cantonese colloquially to survive in a cantonese-dominant city. And recently, I’m also able to understand intermediate colloquial Japanese and basic Kansai dialect as an unintended side effect from watching too many animes. My Japanese understanding is at the point, where I don’t need sub-titles for certain genres of anime anymore.

(To the ignorant South East Asians, Malay and Indonesian are very different languages, despite sharing some similar vocabulary. The difference between Malay and Indonesian is like the difference between Portuguese and Spanish. You can’t count them as the same language just because they share a common pool of words. The grammatical structure between Malay and Indonesia are so different that misunderstandings can occur in a 5 minute conversation between a Malay and an Indonesian.)

My point here? A superior brain is not needed in learning multiple languages; it’s passion. For me, learning a language is the only way to completely understand another’s culture from their perspective so I always try to learn new ones. And as the number of languages I know increases, the easier it becomes to learn a new language, since most languages share similar roots. For example, since I read French and Spanish, I can understand some basic Italian.

But of course, learning a language and mastering one is completely different. Mastering a language requires a lot of painful effort and time, if you’re not a language genius. I needed 7 years of school, starting from 5th grade to 12th grade to be passively bilingual in French. I needed 4 years at university to be almost bilingual in Chinese. And even then, both are still lacking compared to my English.

But then, I was inspired. I stumbled upon many blogs, where Japanese people blog in English so that they could improve their English. The amount of effort, the amount of pain, the amount of time they put in so incredibly admirable. All this make me wonder, if I had put in that much effort into learning French and Chinese, I’d be fully bilingual by now. But I’m only 22; I have a lifetime left to master all these languages. So, I decided to have my very own second-language blog, where I will predominantly blog in Chinese, and occasionally in one of the 6 other languages. I’ll start with one entry per week, and slowly build up from there. I now present to you:

LANGUAGEDIARY.COM

So ありがとうございます Kirin, PONTA, Weber, Little_sun and Natsuwo-beer for being wonderful inspirations. I hope that as you all improve your English as I’ll improve my French, Chinese, and Japanese (once I find myself a teacher) too!

So do you speak a second language? How long have you learned it for? If you don’t, do you want to learn a new language? Which ones? Why?

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I’m sorry if this entry is lackluster. Call it writer’s block if you will, I’m just not feeling the passion to write recently.

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I wrote two blog entries today! My recommendations: for geekery, see the other entry; for gossip, read current one; for lurkers and stalkers, read both.

I’ve been tagged by tagged by Tosha and Lissy to do this random facts meme. It’s a lot less evil than the vices meme Teddy tagged me for, the last time.

Here’s how to play:

Once you’ve been tagged you have to write a blog with 10 weird, random facts, habits, or goals about yourself — at the end choose 5 people to be tagged. Don’t forget to leave them a comment saying “You’re It!” and to go read your blog. You cannot tag the person that tagged you.

10 Random Facts About Ivy

• I am afraid of fish: They are freaking scary. Every time I see them at the market, they look like they are still alive and if I were to chop off something, they’ll wake up to bite me with those horribly sharp teeth.
• I am afraid of dentists: Owners of the blogs I frequent will know that I never ever comment on posts where they write about a trip to the dentist. And if I do comment, it’s to apologize for not reading it. My fear goes back to my first grade. I absolutely abhor the school dentist. She’s mean and cranky and evil. And she pokes around my mouth with tools, without ever thinking about my pain. Argh, just the word ‘dentist’ gives me the goosebumps.
• I am 157cm or 5′2″ short.: Because of my outgoing and dominant personality, most people who’ve met me in person perceive me to be taller than I actually am. Considering that I played 10 years of basketball, 157cm is just…pathetic. But thanks to all those who perceive my height to be taller than 160cm. You all make me feel better about myself. LOL!
• I am a tomboy.: With the amount of makeup and skirts I wear, most people perceive me to be a girly-girl. WRONG! I was a tomboy in my teenaged years, and I still carry a lot of masculine personality traits. I also check out girls when I go out; not because I’m interested in them, but just out of habit, since I spent most of my life hanging out with boys.
• I speak with an American accent: Yes, I was born and raised in Asia. But I also went to a school taught by British teachers from 2nd grade and continued in schools taught by American teachers since 8th grade. Most of my classmates were American too. So I inadvertently speak like them. I can speak with a Singapore and Canadian accent as well. But when I’m angry, I will revert back to my American accent - that’s how I know that it’s my original accent.
• I watched 3,000 episodes of anime in the last two years: I kid you not. Check out my complete anime list at myanimelist.com. So, all you anime fans and anime curious, you know who’s the definitive source for anime recommendations now. As an unintended side-effect, I can now understand conversational Japanese without trying.
• However, I am not an otaku オタク.: I don’t own any anime memorabilia, I don’t play games adapted from anime and I don’t think I will ever engage in cosplaying. Although… I admit that I like checking out cosplayers. I have also never been an anime festival nor do I intend to. I also have a life aside from watching anime. LOL!
• My favorite color is turquoise…which explains why my last two layouts had different variations of turquoise on them.
• I have a broken ankle and a broken arm: Long story short, the broken ankle was caused in a street basketball incident and the broken arm was caused by a sailing certification incident.
• I can’t draw on pencil and paper… even if my life depended on it. I call myself a design enthusiast and I even have a deviantart account to show off all my vexels. I also drew the freaking flower in this layout, but the fact is, I can’t draw with pencil on paper - even my stick figures look horrible.

And that brings my long-list of random facts to a close. I will bring upon the horrible fate of internet meme-ing to the following people:

• Teddy - for my sweet revenge
• Tammy - to encourage more frequent blog posts
• Terin Selena - for kindly writing an entry about my entry
• Melle - for making a cute new layout for her blog
• Katy - because she’s hot

To the tagged people, let me know if you don’t do tags, I’ll add someone else in your place. To everyone else…

What are some random facts about you? Do we share any similarities?

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