He had lived for some years in China as a businessman.
These numbers again… I don’t know which texts Steve has had a look at, nor do I know any Romanian at all. However, since it’s a Romance language, it could very well be that the texts contain a lot of international words which one might not have to save (even look up).
Making polyglots look freaky or genius is in the same line with programs about astrology, UFOs and conspiracy theories.
@IT-
I don’t care if Obama is a Christian or not. I would care, though, if his faith, whatever it might be (apparently christianity), got in the way of his leadership.
I’m still new here, but I think this is probably the wrong forum to discuss religion’s effect on politics. I’ll keep reading my Hitchens and you can go read whatever you want.
Of course, I suppose we would be on topic if we were to discuss using literature like Hitchens (or that of a Christian writer) as input for learning languages. 
@IT
I see your new question about lumping together people since your edit (or I might have just missed it on my first reading of the post)
Indonesia is a primarily muslim nation. Most people who claim he is not christian claim he is a muslim. Therefore, speaking indonesian might be seen as a muslim thing for him to do.
“President Obama’s father from Kenya was a Muslim at one time. I was told by a Muslim (and I have read) that the children of a Muslim father are considered to be Muslim as well. Later, Barack Obama’s father became an atheist. Whether that negates whether a child is Muslim or not for Muslims, I don’t know.”
Since I don’t personally subscribe to islamic law, I’ll take Obamas claim that he is Christian to be true.
“If you were to substitute ARABIC for Indonesian, then I think your point would be easier to argue.”
It is an 87% Muslim nation with public calls to prayer and with a history of cases of imprisonment of those who denegrate Muhammad.
“I did edit my post. I try to be brief and to the point, plus I don’t like to make mistakes in punctuation and spelling.”
Adding points to a post after it has been replied to does not make it any more brief or to the point.
“This doesn’t help your argument that speaking INDONESIAN would mean that people would consider Barack Obama to be a Muslim. There are a lot of people who speak URDU, and President Obama mentioned that he liked Urdu poetry (Is he a gasp secret polyglot?), but that wouldn’t indicate that he is a Muslim because many Pakistanis are Muslim.”
I never said it would mean he was a muslim. The point I meant to express was that the fact that he speaks Bahasa-Indonesian could be a means for people to claim that he is of the muslim faith based on the vast majority of the language’s speakers being muslim. Yes a lot of people speak Urdu, I don’t know where you’re going with that. I think Muslims who speak a Hindustani dialect identify themselves as Urdu speakers, and Hindus identify as Hindi speaks.
As far as Christian books for English input, the Left Behind series might work. I enjoyed them when I was around 10-11 without even realizing they were about Christianity. My pre-teen self just thought they were the book form of some apocolyptic movie.
Ok. This thread wins the award for going the most off-topic.
To bring it back, I suggest that what several video polyglots do is that they approach people on the street (at a hotdog stand, in the mall, in a Chinese take away). When you do this, the questions you will be asked (and therefore the responses you will give) will be within a limited range of expectations.
“Wow, you speak Arabic. Are you Arab?” “Where did you learn Arabic?”, “How old are you?”, “Are you Muslim?”, etc.
“No, I’m American. I learned Arabic in college. I am 17 years old…”
Such that one could predict a reasonable set of possible questions/statements and the corresponding responses as well as a few “fits all scenarios” responses, a few nods of the head, and to the monolingual person watching the video or the other people at the party, it appears as though you are having an extended conversation.
In this brief, friendly exchange, the hotdog vendor is unlikely to suddenly inquire “can you explain the American tax system to me?”, “I need a cell phone while working out here, which one would you recommend and why?” or “Do you happen to know where I can get some shoelaces?”
I am not saying they are doing this intentionally, just unwittingly.
@djvlbass
You like reading Hitchens? Me too - but on some issues I prefer his brother! 
@ J4J - I love reading Hitchens. Do you comment there by any chance?
The comments under his blog posts is the only other online forum that I have ever commented on on a regular basis. I have lost interest in his blog recently, but I still follow it. I can’t believe that he can still defend Andrew Wakefield, but I can’t be bothered arguing with him.
I also prefer his brother on some issues, though both of them I don’t like in certain ways.
Best thread derail ever, 5/5. Would read again.
The Daily Mail. What a newspaper. Can illegal immigrants cause cancer? Find out, p.4.
It’s the Mail on Sunday.
@Colin
I’ve followed P H’s blog for a long time but, no, I don’t believe I’ve ever commented there. I like his style - I don’t agree with him on everything, but he’s a clever guy and a good writer.
His late brother Christopher was also a very gifted writer, of course. But on some issues he was pretty dogmatic and extreme, in my humble opinion.
Two vastly different organisations.
@omad84: “…The Daily Mail. What a newspaper. Can illegal immigrants cause cancer? Find out, p.4…”
Really? They published an article saying that?
Er, perhaps you could post a link to it?
It’s a joke based on their two favourite subjects. Indiscriminate ranting and cancer causes/cures. Can beans cause cancer?
There was a Private Eye headline a few years back joking on it, “Cancer causes Cancer”.
I’ll see myself out…
@J 4 J Don’t worry, I wasn’t trying to diminish the fact that Tim has really good language ability, especially for a 17 year old, but reality is that our brains are not as limited as most other people think.
I don’t think that the Daily Mail made that claim, but they certainly are well known for making wild claims about what causes and prevents cancer. Here are a few examples
Flip-flops: Wearing FLIP-FLOPS can give you skin cancer, doctors warn | Daily Mail Online
Bras: Is your bra bad for you? | Daily Mail Online
Facebook: How using Facebook could raise your risk of cancer | Daily Mail Online
Having a large head as a baby: Big headed babies 'more prone to cancer' | Daily Mail Online
@Polyglot2 “To bring it back, I suggest that what several video polyglots do is that they approach people on the street (at a hotdog stand, in the mall, in a Chinese take away). When you do this, the questions you will be asked (and therefore the responses you will give) will be within a limited range of expectations.”
This is a great idea, the problem is only to do with the motivation and interest on the part of the video makers. Most youtube polyglots seem to hold language learning as their chief interest, so that is what they talk about basically exclusively. What attracted me to Steve’s videos in the beginning was his interest in other things (particularly politics) and their relation to languages.
Moses, of course, does a lot of this recording himself in public you alluded to, in his level-up videos. I think the reactions of the people he talks to are, in general, a little perplexing. The videos tend to bore me though as the discussions are never very content rich.
In the end, I’m not learning languages to speak with people who I live near who can speak English anyways, I’m learning so I have more media available to me, and for when I can eventually travel abroad; so that I can meet people there, then. I think guys like Tim Doner, Moses, among others on youtube are, for the most part, learning languages to learn languages.
Here is what Mr. Doner personally wrote (not a journalist) in another thread (last year) - (his skills have undoubtedly doubled since then):
“*For “high level” languages --meaning ones I can converse, read, write in, etc without many problems – I would
say French, Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew, German and Latin (though obviously the last one is no longer spoken).
*After that, the next gradation would be Mandarin, Italian, Indonesian, Dutch, Yiddish, Hindi, Swahili, Russian and
Pashto (meaning I’m at least intermediate or higher and I can carry on a conversation/translate in both
directions).
*I would say I’m at a more basic level with languages like Croatian, Turkish, Wolof, Hausa and Xhosa, though I
have
dedicated a fair bit of time to studying each of them.
*I have a few “outlier” languages after that such as Ojibwe and Kurdish which I have never learned with the goal
of speaking in mind.”