All of these personal experiences don't involve you speaking, don't involve you
in any way having to be an extrovert.
Hi there, Steve Kaufmann here again to talk about language learning.
And today I want to talk about language learning and the introvert
or people who are introverted.
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So my last or one of my most recent interviews was a discussion
with Gabriel from Brazil.
I have spoken to other people about language learning in different languages.
And I would think that many of the people who show up on YouTube as polyglots or
talk about language learning, including myself, are probably extroverts.
In other words, I'm not shy.
If I go to a party and I see people I want to talk and interact with people
and I'm not shy sbout sharing my views on different subjects and so forth.
So I am an extrovert.
I think Gabriel is an extrovert.
Someone commented that, you know, it seems, saying to me, you
always have extroverts on there talking about language learning.
What about introverts who want to learn languages?
So I thought I would talk a bit about that.
I don't think being an extrovert is a condition for being
a polyglot or a linguist.
Remember that if you look up the word "linguist" in an English language
dictionary, the first meaning is someone who speaks several languages.
The second meaning one that has developed much later in history is this idea
of someone who studies linguistics.
The word "polyglot" just means many tongues or many languages.
So, if you are a person who is interested in languages, because you like to
read in different languages, which is my case, and you like to discover
different languages and you enjoy this very personal experience of let's say,
reading in different languages or even listening in different languages on
subjects of interest to you, listening to voices that you're like enjoying
the sound of different language....
all of these personal experiences don't involve you speaking, don't
involve you in any way having to be an extrovert, being outgoing and "hail
fellow well met" or any of these things.
So you can be a wonderful polyglot, linguist language learner and decide
to totally focus on input only.
Now I think the majority of people who focus on input
at some stage want to speak.
It's normal for people to want to speak, but even the desire to speak doesn't
mean that you're always looking for an opportunity to speak, that you're sort
of naturally bursting to say things which is sort of the, uh, characteristics
that we associate with an extrovert.
You can be somewhat introverted.
That doesn't mean you're not a deep thinker, but you don't necessarily
want to share those thoughts with other people all the time.
That's more in, it's sort of along the lines of an introvert.
You don't have to speak to demonstrate that you are learning the language.
You don't have to demonstrate your prowess or your, your level of
fluency in speaking in order to qualify as a polyglot in my mind.
Now, if you want to say I speak a language fluently, then you have to demonstrate
that you speak that language fluently if you're claiming to speak it fluently.
And remember, I feel you can be fluent and still make mistakes, but
at least you can express your opinions comfortably in a way that makes
the other person feel comfortable.
But a big part, obviously, of being fluent is that you understand
what the other person is saying.
So even there, it does start with this basically inward oriented
process of learning languages, but you don't have to speak.
And I've mentioned before, uh, maybe 50 years ago, I was in Europe, in a, in a bar
somewhere and there was, uh, a person, a student from Japan who could communicate
in 13 languages, but he was deaf mute.
I don't know what the politically correct term is today, but
he couldn't make sounds.
But we would write questions to him in 13 languages and he would answer
those questions in those 13 languages.
He wasn't an introvert because he, he was quite comfortable, uh, you know, fielding
these questions and answering them.
But he wasn't speaking.
So he was communicating and writing.
So I just want to make the point that, uh, and, and it's by no means certain, you
know, I think we've all seen that say in a class, the person who is sort of bubbling
and, and, uh, willing to try things and it's, it's a good thing actually,
to not be afraid of making mistakes.
And so that person seems to speak better earlier.
Again, that doesn't mean that in the long run that person will have a better
understanding of the language, be able to read better in the language
than someone who doesn't speak very much but is more focused on input,
but more focused on discovering the language reading in the language.
So I guess the only part I want to make, and this is an answer to the question that
I received, you know, why don't you ever talk about introverts who learn languages?
Yes, by all means language learning is a personal experience activity.
We do it for ourselves.
We do it in the way that, that makes us happy, that satisfies us, that satisfies
our curiosity, our interests, our personality and whatever degree of...
and I'm, and because it's not black and white, people are all
introverts or all extroverts.
There's a degree.
And given certain situations, some people are more inclined to be bubbling,
outgoing personalities and others less.
So wherever you are on the spectrum, it has nothing to do with a person's
ability to be a polyglot or a language learner or a linguist, in my opinion.
And so I'm going to leave a couple of video suggestions here.
If you want to pursue this subject in some of the videos that I've already made.
Thank you for listening.
Bye for now.