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Kató Lomb - Polyglot How I Learn Languages PDF
Kató Lomb - Polyglot How I Learn Languages PDF
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
Acknowledgments
Tank you to
Elizabeth Collison
Elena Smolinska
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 rst two Forewords, Introduction, and
Chapter 20 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: [forthcoming]
ISBN 978-1-60643-706-3
1. Language learning. I. Title
Copyright 2008 by Scott Alkire. All rights reserved.
Cover: Te Tower of Babel
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1563)
TESL-EJ
http://tesl-ej.org
Berkeley Kyoto
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 Dicult 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
vi i
Preface
YOU OFTEN hear that there are poor and rich lan-
guages. One language may indeed oer more synonyms for
a concept than another; I dont know of any exact survey in
the eld. However, while a language may be rich in words to
express a certain concept, it can be surprisingly decient in
words expressing another. Hungarian is no exception.
Our translators like to sigh that they cant render all
the shades of meanings 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.
70
Te English words seed,
nucleus, pip, core, and semen can always be rendered
with one Hungarian word, mag; the words grain, kernel,
and stone can mostly be rendered with it. But what other
language can pride itself on the ability to dierentiate be-
tween felszabaduls and felszabadts, and felhalmozs and
felhalmozds?
71
70. German: voice, tone/note, sound.
71. 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 has no separate word for a skill that can be acquired and an
ability that depends on circumstances, like French, Russian,
and Polish have. Je sais crire, (umeyu pisat),
and umiem pisa mean in these languages 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: I have a pen and it is not forbidden, either.
Te sigh was born by the dierence between the French pou-
voir and savoir: Si jeunesse 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 have led me to a top-
ic that often comes up nowadays: the special vocabulary of
the young. It is criticized by many and praised by many oth-
ers; I belong to the latter group. Rarely documented, it often
proves indispensable. A teacher explained to a German class
that the auxiliary mgen
72
has no equivalent in Hungarian.
And what about cspem
73
? the students retorted. It would
have been a pity indeed for such a short, concise, almost
imitative word like cucc
74
not to be born.
Te unforgettable Klra Szllsy once noted what
a headache it had been for her to translate the following
72. Mgen: to like. Its traditional Hungarian equivalents are szeret,
which is more intensive as it can also mean to love, and kedvel (to
cherish, to like) (dated)
73. Csp, which originally means to pinch, is one of the Hungarian
slang terms that assumed the meaning of a positive opinion or a moderate
degree of liking.
74. Hungarian: stu, things, belongings.
Language and Vocabulary / 105
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 language (the words
szerelem and szeretet
75
) made the excellent translators job
rather dicult.
75. Both mean love in English, the rst referring to romantic love and
the second implying aection.
107
13
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Vocabulary and Context