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.