Polyglot.

بِسْـــــــــمِ ﷲِالرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيم

Yup I know I should been studying right now. Have to sit for hours tried to cramp in 14 weeks worth of lectures into my brain. Well that's pretty amazing when you just have less than 24 hours to sit for your first paper. Hiks.Anyway, as I 've many free time that I supposedly used to study but end up watching youtubes for hours which the sad reality of a loner like me (haha) well guessed what? I stumbled across this awesome video of a teen in New York who has the ability to speak 20 languages. 

This is the first time I heard the terms 'polyglot'. I have came across words like bilingualism and monoligualism but this is the first time I've heard polyglot and someone who labelled as hyper-polyglot. So the differences between this three terms?

• monolingualism (unilingualism) : condition of being able to speak only a single language
• Bilingualism:Using or able to use two languages, especially with equal or nearly equal fluency
• Polyglot (multilingualism):use of two or more languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers. It's also refers to ability to master multiple languages.

Sometimes, it doesn't limit to only speaking or communication skills but it covers from reading to writing as well. 

So about this bloke I were talking about, just imagine he can speaks up to 20 languages (even though he's not fluent in a few) but hey he's just awesome.

Despite there are certain people commenting that he's just a born-polyglot speakers, well I beg to differ. Throughout this video, you can see how hard he tried to master each languages. He attend classes, he listens to videos and audios to fix his pronunciations. All his hard work repays him as he is recognized as one of the youngest polyglot.

One of the reasons he learnt to master the languages is to understand the culture from where the languages come from.
His first foreign languages is Hebrew as he tried to understand the conflicts of Palestine-Israel and later he learnt Arabic just to understand another half of the story. 

Quoting a famous saying "To understand the cultures and peoples, first you have to understand the languages", he knows what he's doing and he's doing it the right ways. Kudos for you.

Something to be learned from him?

1. He have a very supportive parents. Even they are also aware the benefits of mastering few languages and he makes them aware the importance of it.

2. He practices all the tips and tricks of mastering the languages. He met the natives speakers and tried to have a conversation with them, he paid for classes, he spend most of his waking times studying and perfecting what he have learnt.

3. He has the passion. He knows what he's doing and he loves it. This is not just some free time hobby for him. Learning new languages have become a part of his lifestyle. He breath and lived within it.

4. He is ambitious. He sets a goal and he worked to achieve it ; and he did it.

It has been my lifelong dreams to be more that just monolingual or bilingual speakers. Alhamdullilah, as in my school years, I had the opportunities to learn Japanese as my third languages. Sadly, due to lack of practices, I started to forgot and have to retake it again during my University years. That's one of the problems learning foreign languages. You have to find someone who you can have conversation with (especially the natives speakers) in order to test your capability. 

As I grew up, I aimed to be able to speak at least 5 languages. I'm now in my way to learn Mandarin and Arabic. But yeah, age is one of the limiting factors. Learning new languages is hard as you grew older but it is far beyond impossible. Some extra efforts will help you to achieved your goals. 

So I strongly suggest to those youngsters and especially to young parents out there, please don't underestimate the benefits of becoming a polyglot. I also have a dream that in the future if I have my own children, I will send them to classes and make them learn lots of foreign languages. 

Children is one of the ways of how parents can redeem their mistakes in the past. It is parents ultimate hope that their children will grow up becoming a better person than what they've become.

So yeah, wish me luck. So below I've listed out the languages that I wanted to learn and master. (if you think you can help me in learning any of these languages, do let me know.) My goal is to learn one new language every year. So, for the year of 2015, let me start with Arabic.

Polyglot Wannabe list

1. Malay (I was born Malay, so I've no problem with this)
2. English (getting better by year)
3. Japanese (Learnt last year and for 4 years during my school years)
4. Arabic (Last learnt when I was 12, when I entered the Islamic schools)
5. Mandarin (I just know how to pronounce based on the pinyin. Far from able to construct one complete sentences)
6. Cantonese (If the subtitle for the Hong Kong movie that I watched gone missing, I still have no problems understanding what the actors said)
7. French (learn few basic greetings from my friends who learnt French during my school years).
8. Spanish (It would be great to be able to learn this languages. I sound so sexy speaking Spanish)
9. German (I was told this is one of the toughest languages to be learnt. Don't know why.)
10. Thai (It would be easier for me to bargain if I go shopping at Sg.Golok near Kelantan)
11. Bahasa Indonesia (It is the best to learnt the language of your neighbors)
12. Tamil (So maybe I can get a free side dishes or extra portion whenever I eat at Mamak stalls)
13. Korean (So I can get married to any of the hot Korean actors such as Lee Dong Wook hahaha)

Plus can I be greedy and said that I want to learn the various dialects that exist in Malaysia. That is the best things living in multiracial country like Malaysia. You can speak many different languages and dialects but at hearts you're still Malaysian. So hoping for your prayer and supports and insya Allah, I'll be among the multilingual speakers exist in the worlds.

Oh,yup. Before I forget, here's is the link for the Youtube video. Please please please I beg you to watch this video. It is inspiring and totally amazing. Enjoy :) Btw, his name is Tim Doner.

just click the above pic ;)

Arigatou gozaimasu, Xie Xie, Thank You, Kamsahamnida and Terima Kasih for reading this :)