Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
H O W I L E A R N L A N G U A G E S
KAT LOMB
P OLYGL OT
How I Learn Languages
KAT LOMB
TRANSLATED FROM THE HUNGARIAN BY
DM SZEGI
KORNELIA DEKORNE
EDITED BY SCOTT ALKIRE
TESL-EJ
http://tesl-ej.org
Berkeley Kyoto
Tank you to
Elizabeth Collison
Elena Smolinsk
Sylvia Rucker
Professor Tom Huebner
for their help with this project.
Te review comments of Dr. Larissa Chiriaeva,
Maria omsa, MA, and Dr. Stefan Frazier were
invaluable in the preparation of the manuscript.
Scott Alkire
Translated by dm Szegi
Te frst two Forewords, Introduction, and
Chapter 20 were translated by Kornelia DeKorne.
Publishers Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lomb, Kat, 19092003.
Polyglot : how I learn languages / Kat Lomb. 1st English ed.
p. cm.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008907032
ISBN 978-1-60643-706-3
Copyright 2008 by Scott Alkire. All rights reserved.
1. Language learning. I. Title
Cover: Te Tower of Babel
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1563)
TESL-EJ
http://tesl-ej.org
Berkeley Kyoto
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Contents
Preface vii
Foreword to the First Edition xvii
Foreword to the Second Edition xix
Foreword to the Fourth Edition xxi
Introduction 23
What Is Language? 35
Why Do We and Why Should We Study Languages? 37
Te Type of Language to Study 39
Easy and Difcult Languages 41
How to Study Languages 49
Who Tis Book Is and Isnt For 51
Lets Read! 67
Why and What We Should Read 73
How We Should Read 85
Reading and Pronunciation 89
What Sort of Languages Do People Study? 97
Language and Vocabulary 103
Vocabulary and Context 107
How to Learn Words 113
Age and Language Learning 121
Dictionaries: Crutches or Helpful Tools? 127
Textbooks 131
How We Converse in a Foreign Language 133
How We Should Converse in a Foreign Language 139
How I Learn Languages 147
Grading Our Linguistic Mastery 165
Te Linguistic Gift 173
Language Careers 183
Te Interpreting Career 187
Reminiscences from My Travels 199
Whats Around the Linguistic Corner? 209
Epilogue 215
v i i
Preface
YOU OFTEN hear that there are poor and rich lan-
guages. One language may indeed ofer more synonyms for
a concept than another; I dont know of any exact survey in
the feld. However, while a language may be rich in words to
express a certain concept, it can be surprisingly defcient in
words expressing another. Hungarian is no exception.
Our translators like to sigh that they cant render all
the shades of meaning within foreign literary works into
Hungarian. I admit that we are poor here and there. For
example, we have only the word hang for the German
words Stimme, Ton, and Laut.
68
Te English words seed,
nucleus, pip, core, and semen can always be rendered
with one Hungarian word, mag ; the words grain, ker-
nel, and stone can mostly be rendered with it. But what
other language can pride itself on the ability to diferentiate
between felszabaduls and felszabadts, and felhalmozs and
felhalmozds?
69
68. German: voice, tone/note, sound.
69. Felszabaduls and felszabadts mean liberation; felhalmozs and
felhalmozds mean accumulation. Tey derive from transitive and in-
transitive verbs, which are distinguished in Hungarian but which often
coincide in English. Hence, their literal meaning is approximately be-
coming free vs. setting sb/sth free, and becoming accumulated vs.
accumulating sth.
104 / POLYGLOT: HOW I LEARN LANGUAGES
German is usually considered the richest language. Yet
it doesnt have separate words to express a) a skill that can be
acquired and b) an ability that depends on circumstances,
unlike French, Russian, and Polish. In those languages Je sais
crire, (umeyu pisat ), and umiem pisa mean
that I can write because I have learned it; je peux crire,
(mogu pisat ), and mog pisa mean that there is no
external obstacle to my writing (e.g., I have a pen and it is
not forbidden, either). Te translators sigh was caused by
the diference between the French pouvoir and savoir: Si jeu-
nesse savait, si vieillesse pouvaitIf the young only knew,
if the old only could.
English has a separate auxiliary verb to express possibil-
ity depending on permission: may. Tis was what provided
the answer for G. B. Shaw when a mediocre translator asked
him if he could translate one of his works. You may, but
you cant, he replied. Without these auxiliaries, it could
only be rendered awkwardly as You are allowed, but you
are not able.
Te above lines about the auxiliary may have led me
to a topic that often comes up nowadays: the special vo-
cabulary of the young. It is criticized by many and praised
by many others; I belong to the latter group. Rarely docu-
mented, it often proves indispensable. A teacher explained
to a German class that the auxiliary mgen
70
has no equiva-
lent in Hungarian. And what about cspem
71
? the students
retorted. Indeed, it would have been a pity for such a short,
concise, almost imitative word like cucc
72
not to have been
born.
Te unforgettable Klra Szllsy once noted what
70. Mgen: to like. Its traditional Hungarian equivalents are szeret,
which implies a stronger feeling as it can also mean to love, and kedvel
(to cherish, to like) (dated)
71. Csp, originally to pinch, is now a slang term that means a positive
opinion or a moderate degree of liking.
72. Hungarian: stuf, things, belongings.
Language and Vocabulary / 105
a headache it had been for her to translate the following
sentence from Te Magic Mountain: It is a shame that the
most pious attraction to the most intense physical desire is
expressed with a single word (die Liebe).
Te richness of our Hungarian languagethe words
szerelem and szeretet
73
made the excellent translators job
rather difcult.
73. Both mean love in English, the frst referring to romantic love and
the second implying afection.
107
13
_______________________________
Vocabulary and Context