Hello. This is 6 Minute English from
BBC Learning English. I m Neil.
And I'm Rob.
Bonjour, Rob! Kon nichi wa!
Excuse me?
Hola! Como estas?
Oh, OK, I think Neil's saying 'hello'
in different languages - French, was it?
And then.. Japanese? And
Spanish? Is that right?
Si, muy bien!
The English are famously slow to learn
other languages. But it seems that
Rob and I - and of course you - our
global audience here at 6 Minute
English - are good examples of
polyglots people who speak
more than one language,
sometimes known as
'superlinguists'. People who speak
multiple languages benefit from
many advantages, as we'll be
hearing in this programme.
That word polyglot sounds familiar,
Neil. Doesn't the prefix 'poly' mean,
many ?
That's right, like polygon - a shape
with many sides.
Or polymath - someone who
knows many things.
And speaking of knowing things,
it s time for my quiz question.
The word polyglot comes from
Greek and is made up of two parts:
poly, which as Rob says, means
many, and glot . But what does
glot mean? What is the meaning
of the word polyglot? Is it:
a) many words?, b) many sounds?
or c) many tongues?
Well, there's three syllables in polyglot,
Neil, so I reckon it s b), many sounds.
OK, Rob, we ll find out if that's right
at the end of the programme.
But leaving aside the origins of the
word, what exactly does being
a polyglot involve? British-born
polyglot, Richard Simcot speaks
eleven languages. Listen to his
definition as he speaks to BBC
World Service programme,
The Documentary:
A polyglot for me can be anyone
who identifies with that term - it's
somebody who learns languages
that they don't necessarily need for
their lives, but just out of sheer
enjoyment, pleasure or fascination
with another language or culture.
For Richard, being a polyglot simply
means identifying with the idea -
feeling that you are similar or
closely connected to it.
He says polyglots learn languages
not because they have to, but for
the sheer enjoyment, which means,
nothing except enjoyment. Richard
uses the word sheer to emphasise
how strong and pure this enjoyment is.
As well as the pleasure of speaking
other languages, polyglots are also
better at communicating with others.
My favourite quote by South Africa's
first black president, Nelson Mandela, is:
"If you talk to a man in a language he
understands, that goes to his head.
If you talk to him in his language, that
goes to his heart."
How inspiring, Rob - I'm lost for words!
Here's another: "To have another language
is to possess a second soul".
So language learning is good for
the head, heart and soul - a person's
spirit or the part of them which is
believed to continue existing after death.
Yes - and what's more, language learning
is good for the brain too. That's
according to Harvard neuroscientist,
Eve Fedorenko. She's researched the
effects of speaking multiple languages
on the brains of growing children.
Eve predicted that multilingual
children would have hyperactive
language brains. But what she actually
found surprised her, as she explains
here to BBC World Service's
The Documentary:
What we found - this is now people who
already have proficiency in multiple
languages - what we found is that their
language regions appear to be smaller,
and that was surprising - and as people
get better and better, more automatic
at performing the task, the activations
shrink, so to speak, over time, it becomes
so that you don't have to use as much brain
tissue to do the task as well, so you
become more efficient.
Eve was testing children who already
have language proficiency - the skill and
ability to do something, such as
speak a language.
Her surprising discovery was that the
language regions of these children's
brains were shrinking - not because
their speaking skills were getting worse,
but the opposite; as they learned and
repeated language patterns, their brain
tissue became more efficient - worked
quicker and more effectively.
It's suggested that this increased efficiency
is a result of exposure to different languages.
So that proves it, Neil: speaking many languages
is good for the head, heart, mind and soul!
You took the words right out of my mouth!
And speaking of words, what does the
glot in polyglot actually mean?
Was my answer correct?
Ah, that's right. In my quiz question
I asked you for the meaning of
the word polyglot.
And I said, b) many sounds.
But in fact the correct answer was
c) many tongues. You may be a polyglot,
Rob, but you're not quite a polymath yet!
OK, well, let me get my brain tissues
working by recapping the vocabulary,
starting with polyglot - someone who
speaks many languages.
The language centres in a polyglot's
brain are efficient - they work quickly
and effectively in an organised way.
Proficiency means the skill and ability
to do something well. And if you identify
with something, you feel you are similar
or closely connected to it.
Polyglots learn languages for the sheer
enjoyment of it - a word meaning 'nothing except'
which is used to emphasise
the strength of feeling. So speaking
many languages is good for
mind and soul - a person's
non-physical spirit which some
believe to continue after death.
That's it for this programme, but
to discover more about language
learning, including some useful
practical tips, check out
The Superlinguists series from
BBC World Service's The Documentary!
Bye for now!
Bye!