How To Become a Polyglot?

Are you motivated to learn new languages? Did you know that there are more than 6,500 languages globally, but learning even three-four languages is an accomplishment? While a large population is bilingual, trilingual, and in many cases even multi-lingual, there is always scope to keep learning. Knowing many languages helps in personality development tremendously.  Obviously, there are so many different languages that it’s practically impossible to cover them in one lifetime! By knowing more than one language, you can even pursue a career in a foreign language.  If you are thinking about how to become a polyglot, this blog is just for you!

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Who is a Polyglot?

Before we dwell on how to become a polyglot, we must know who exactly is a polyglot. A polyglot does not have specific criteria, but they are people who can speak multiple languages. To become a polyglot, you must know how to speak and write multiple languages. Usually, knowing different dialects does not qualify as being a polyglot.

How to Become a Polyglot?

The first and obvious step towards how to become a polyglot is by starting to learn a new language. While we cannot teach you a new language from scratch, we can help you make this process a lot easier. Here are some of the tips that you can follow to become a polyglot. 

Learn One Language at a Time

Learning a new language can be a lot of fun. It might seem interesting to learn multiple languages, but it is not a piece of cake. Especially when trying to learn more than one language, it can cause confusion and you will not be able to hold much information for long, and hence you will fail at both.

So, it is better to learn one language at a time.

Take Language Classes

An important tip for the question of how to become a polyglot is by taking classes. Be it online, via an application, or through a dedicated tutor, invest your time and possibly money to get yourself the best resources for learning the new language. Nowadays, taking online classes is the new normal, and you can explore it. 

Read Content in Multiple Languages

First, read any book, article, or newspaper in the language you understand well. Then read it in the language you are learning. This will help you understand words and their meanings in the language you are learning. 

Keep Practicing

Whether you want to practice by yourself or with some fluent speaker of the language, keep practising the language you are learning. You will realize that ample practice is the key to the hounding question of how to become a polyglot. In case you cut the practice, your learning ability will also reduce, or you might start to forget the words and their meaning. 

Do Read: Branches of Linguistics

Surround yourself with Fluent Speakers

When you live, study or spend time in conversation with people who know the language you are preparing, you will be able to catch up to new words and milestones in learning the language. 

Create a Schedule for Each Language

If you have been wondering about how to become a polyglot, then you must, in the beginning, create a schedule for each language. You should create a proper schedule for the language you are planning to learn and follow it religiously. Even make a target on when you will complete that, take a significant amount of break in between, and then look to start another language.

Choose Languages that are Similar

When choosing the next language, unless you have already planned the language you want to learn, try to look for the ones that are similar to the ones you know. For example, English is similar to Frisian, a Germanic language spoken by a small population of 480,000 people. Hindi is similar to Sanskrit, and Sanskrit is similar to Greek and Latin. This way you can plan a chain for learning new languages.

Use the ‘Laddering’ Technique

This technique works when you are learning multiple languages and already know a few. It is a pivotal answer to the question of how to become a polyglot.  In this, you keep your languages in the form of a virtual ladder, where you keep your most fluent language at the top and the least fluent at last. Now, when you are learning a new word in the least fluent language, you can take the a’ ladder’ instead of going from your native language to it. E.g., if your actively used language is Hindi, your second language is English, and the language you are learning is Spanish, instead of learning to translate from Hindi to Spanish, learn to translate from Hindi to English to Spanish. This way, you will be able to improve two of your languages.  

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Watch Movies

If you are planning to learn Spanish, watch Spanish series like Money Heist. If you are thinking of learning Japanese, watch Japanese anime but all these with subtitles that you understand. Start picking words that are frequently used and understand the accent and pronunciation of different words. 

Study Every Language Correctly

Most importantly, if you are planning to learn a new language, do it in a respectful manner for the culture and do not try to change pronunciation according to your comfort. 

Famous Polyglots

Inspiration is often the key to learning, if you want to know about how to become a polyglot, you must enlighten yourselves with some of the famous polyglots the world has seen. There have been several polyglots in the world. All of them know more than 5 languages and have been famous in their fields. However, there are many polyglots around the world who know many languages due to their geography, culture, and interests. Here are some of the famous ones:

• Elizabeth I: The queen of England was fluent in speaking seven languages.
• Sir. Richard Burton: He is believed to have a gift for linguistics. He knew approximately 29 languages and based his career on knowing languages only.
• Friedrich Engels: The co-author of the famous communist manifesto, Friedrich Engels could speak in nine different languages. 
• Lokesh Chandra: He was an Indian Scholar who is known to speak approximately 12 languages, including several ancient languages like Sanskrit, Pali, Old Persian.
• Ziad Fazah: He is the most famous polyglot who was born in Liberia and lives in Brazil. He claims to speak 59 languages. He has the record for speaking most languages in the world.

FAQs

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So, here are some of the ways you can learn multiple languages and become a polyglot yourself. Knowing different languages helps you understand different cultures around the world and communicate with different people. By knowing many languages, you can even become a language translator.  We hope this blog on  How to become a Polyglot helps you and motivates you to learn new languages. For any study abroad-related queries, you can contact our experts at Leverage Edu who will help you in the entire journey of studying in a different country. Sign up for a free session today!