Lady Polyglots/The Polyglot Project Guy's Question

Open Forum
1

I noticed that Claude commented on his youtube channel that there were no female polyglots doing what Glossika and Laoshu are doing and that he found no female polyglots except Fasulye on youtube.

I was talking to someone about this and he reckoned that there are perhaps two female polyglots like that in the US. I think the reason female polyglots are not advertising themselves is because it’s not a good idea.

It’s not seen as feminine to brag or boast and there is the controversial and wrong idea in some minds that female polyglots must be something like prostitutes in order to rack up the number of languages that they’ve learned.

I think this comes from the idea that a good and inexpensive way to learn a language is to get a girlfriend and learn the language that way. Some men readily confess that they have learned multiple languages by dating women who spoke these languages. Of course, sometimes the language lessons lead to marriage and nobody really cares, but then there are the old spice men who have a girl in every port and leave a trail of broken hearts.

Just because men learn languages this way, doesn’t mean that women do the same thing in a serial way. It’s true that some women are looking for a guy who speaks English, but I don’t think they are usually looking for multiple guys in multiple languages unless they are gold diggers.

I’m sure that some people will say I’m wrong, but I’m defending the modesty of intelligent women who like languages here. I want to say that some women also find languages fascinating.

Glossika shares a lot of interesting information with youtube viewers, but could a woman travel as easily as he can? Just because of the nature of the world, women cannot travel freely and safely in every country. In some countries a woman travelling alone is suspect and a target for men who think that she must be a prostitute or destitute.

Laoshu is interesting, but women would probably be roundly criticized for doing what he does-sampling languages and teaching them.

Can you imagine the comments a woman would get?

-Why are you doing this?
-Why don’t you settle down with one or two languages and get married?
-Are you looking for a boyfriend? My name is xsweiouoie, and I can teach you my language lllouiuoein.
-You must have had a lot of boyfriends to learn so many languages?

I’d like to say that I’m married and that there are many ways for women to learn languages (TV shows/work/family/internet), and that some women are polyglots without being prostitutes. Some of them are academics, some are missionaries, some come from multilingual families, some are immigrants, and some have stories the world has not heard yet.

There are female polyglots, Claude.

2

“I’m sure that some people will say I’m wrong, but I’m defending the modesty of intelligent women who like languages here.”
Please don’t defend us any more :). Don’t take this as an offence, but I see your post as highly chauvinistic and enhancing classic stereotypes about man/women roles in a society. I don’t care about marriage, I don’t care about how many relationships someone had in their life, I don’t care what is seen as feminine and what is not… But I do consider myself an intelligent women who likes languages and finds them fascinating. Hopefully, one day I will also be a polyglot :). The question why are there less female polyglots (or why are they not seen) is quite an interesting question, but you are stretching this modesty argument too far. I do see two valid points in your post: it is more dangerous for a woman to travel alone in some countries than it is for a man, and second, yes, woman on internet usually attracts all sorts of losers.

3

I know a female polyglott in Germany: Judith Meyer (Website: http://www.learnlangs.com/ ) aka “Sprachprofi” @ http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/

She speaks German, English, French, Latin, Esperanto, Italian. Plus intermediate Mandarin Chinese and Modern Greek. She has started studying Arabic, Dutch, Indonesian, Swahili and Thai… – see http://www.learnlangs.com/me.htm

4

I appreciate that you recognize the existence of female polyglots, and there certainly are places where it’s safer and more culturally acceptable for men to travel alone than it is for women. Like Aineko said, though, your post comes off as patronizing - it attempting to “defend women’s modesty”, you’re basically saying we can’t do it ourselves (assuming modesty is even something we’d all want to defend these days), that we need a man to give us voice. A bit offensive that, though I’m sure you didn’t mean it to be.

And does romance really play such a significant role in learning languages? I doubt most male polyglots acquire a girlfriend to go with every language they master, and I don’t really follow the connection you draw between promiscuity and the speaking of many languages. Prostitute is a pretty loaded word to be throwing around in this sort of context.

I’m a woman and I like learning languages, but I don’t know why my language learning has to be considered a specifically female endeavor. Since I’m gay and, you know, date other women, it would be kind of difficult to fit me into your categories anyway.

5

I expected that there would be some dissenting voices, and people who would think me not progressive enough. I also thought that my scope might be too narrow for people who like to discuss sexuality in broader and more modern terms, but my idea was to address Claude’s youtube wondering where all the “girl” polyglots are. I even considered that the word “lady” was too dainty, but I didn’t feel like using “female” today.

Of course, there are women who are polyglots, but Claude’s post was about female polyglots on youtube-the female equivalent of Glossika and Laoshu. I could have said. “Yeah, cause women don’t want to read sexist comments and read comments based on their looks, not their minds”, but I’m not here to bash men. I like men. I’m married to one.

Am I Chauvinistic? I don’t know. I know that where I live, women are still regarded with a touch of suspicion if they learn languages. I know that women here have received cloaked messages regarding the languages that they study and why, and frankly, if I had a hotter temper, I would be furious with people who ask, “Why do you study so many languages?” or “Is your brain okay?” You don’t have to look very far at LingQ before you see messages addressed to women like that and some that are worse. I’m not the problem. You need to address those barbarians-they don’t even know that they live in caves!

I live in one of the best nations in the world for women and I have the freedom to see that the whole world does not think in the kindest terms toward women and female polyglots and in fact, many people don’t even have a clue that their attitudes are backward.

6

@hape,

Thanks for the link. I’m looking forward to learning more about her.

7

Ah, Sprachprofi. I read about her some time ago, but I didn’t realize that she had added more languages.

8

Ah bon? Cela veut dire quoi exactement??

9

“. “Yeah, cause women don’t want to read sexist comments and read comments based on their looks, not their minds”, but I’m not here to bash men.”
stating the truth is not bashing and the truth is, unfortunately, that woman on internet receives such comments all he time (no mater are they talking about language learning or not).

" I would be furious with people who ask, “Why do you study so many languages?” or “Is your brain okay?” "
these are the comments that both male and female language enthusiasts face from time to time.

as klc said, the link you made between language learning and sexual relationships is quite unrealistic (at least I’ve never heard such insinuations, neither for men nor women).

10

Le Kâmasûtra n’est pas Krashen…

11

Aineko,

If you read extensively about polyglots, you will come across this bias. You will find the “get a girlfriend in order to learn a language” advice not so infrequent.

12

“stating the truth is not bashing and the truth is, unfortunately, that woman on internet receives such comments all he time (no mater are they talking about language learning or not).”

And why do you think that is? It’s because people think that way and there is some carryover into views on language learning.

13

Donc, pour être sage…je dois me taire.

14

“If you read extensively about polyglots, you will come across this bias. You will find the “get a girlfriend in order to learn a language” advice not so infrequent.”
well, I wouldn’t say that I have read a little about polyglots :). That is why I am surprised with what you are saying. “Get a girlfriend” ‘advice’ can sometimes be read on some language learning topics but it is never a serious advice (like for example “get and Assimil course”) or a learning technique so widespread that people should start wondering about polyglots promiscuity. :smiley:

“And why do you think that is?”
if I say why I think that is, you gonna call it ‘men bashing’ :D. But presence of such comments on a language related post made by a good looking woman is not by any means greater than if the same good looking woman talks about genetic engineering. Unfortunately, that’s how it is - there are miserable people out there who think that leaving such comment makes their life more meaningful. sad, but true. and totally unrelated to language learning.

15

never…serious advice (like for example “get and Assimil course”).

I think that depends on the person receiving the advice. You can find this kind of “get a girlfriend” advice all over the internet. In fact, I just read why this was “bad” advice recently on the tofugu site.

As for the Assimil course advice, I couldn’t say for sure whether that is great advice or not. Is Assimil equally good in all languages? Is the method consistent? Colloquial and Teach Yourself courses vary a lot, in my opinion. Maybe Steve could suggest specific basic courses he has used. It seems that he did a video on that topic, but I digress.

“or a learning technique so widespread that people should start wondering about polyglots promiscuity. :D”

I think that depends on the polyglot. If I were single and I met an intelligent polyglot who told me that he learned French from his French girlfriend, Japanese from his Japanese girlfriend, and so on, I probably wouldn’t date him, because Bond girls often…die.

That’s a joke.

16

I hesitate to interject some seriousness in this discussion but
I doubt that any polyglots have relied on the "learn the language in bed " approach, and in any case this as available to men as women.
I have seen videos of women speaking several exotic (to them) languages on the web and suspect that amongst multilingual interpreters women outnumber men.
So why no woman Laoshu, Steve or Benny?
Interesting question.
I don’t know.

17

Maybe men like to show what they are doing and women like to stay private?
Maybe women are too busy with job, family etc to create videos?
There could be several reasons :slight_smile:

18

Although I married my Berlitz teacher, he preferred speaking German to me and so I had to learn English independently. I only started speaking English to him once I had worn him down and was really, really fluent.

Since joining LingQ I have discovered the joys and uses of social contact with ‘real’ foreigners, of whatever persuasion. So, whether you are a budding polyglot or not, friendships with (or, if you are the more serious kind, marriage to) speakers of other languages comes highly recommended by me!

If I were a polyglot, I would only go on YouTube if I had a professional reason for doing so and/or a very strong ego.

19

It’s interesting for me to see an over 8 month old video of mine “come back to life” in this way. Although I can understand and fully appreciate a woman’s reluctance to make YouTube videos, I was also profoundly disappointed to see so few women contribute to The Polyglot Project. Do women polyglots also have an aversion to writing about their experiences?

20

Claude, I’m not a Polyglot and I participated, but it took me a while to make this decision. It’s a huge step going public. Jolanda convinced me to give it a try. By the way, I ordered the book, and Amazon.com told me that it will be delivered at the beginning of February. Can’t wait!