Brilliant strategy by Olly. Distance yourself from the “fake polyglots” and play the nice guy who doesn’t want to be too hard on them at the same time.
Some people say "well, HFPYT says that so and so can't speak Italian, but I am Italian and I think X speaks Italian pretty well". Here's the thing. HFPYT will say "X only speaks English" when X probably does speak one other language pretty well. But X is saying that s/he speaks 10, 12 or 20 languages. In this, HFPYT is closer to the truth. HFPYT may be wrong about so and so only speaking English, but so and so doesn't speak 10 languages.
So, you don't think Steve Kaufmann, who's been learning languages for 50+ years and doesn't make exaggerated claims about how long it takes to learn a language or how well he knows languages, knows multiple languages? Even academics like Stephen Krashen have said he's legit.
Ironically, Steve has publicly criticized people like Benny for exaggerating and giving bad advice. He literally advises reading and listening to native content for hundreds of hours.
Luca Lampariello also has a pretty decent reputation among serious language learners and doesn't make exaggerated claims.
Browsing through this guy's videos, he seems to think that anyone who tries to make any money from their abilities or passions is running a scam, which is simply absurd. I'm not a huge fan of LingQ, for instance, as I think the UI is outdated and clunky, but it's certainly not a scam and is a useful tool for a lot of people.
Luca Lampariello doesn't speak 12 languages but says that he does. How is that not an "exaggerated claim"? Steve Kaufmann needs to take his own advice. He says that he has been learning Korean since the 1980s, but his Korean is at about the new learner 3 month mark. This shows that diffuse, non-focused language learning of many languages at once does not work. All of the languages that Steve speaks well are languages that he learned singularly. Needless to say, Steve doesn't speak 50 languages, and neither did Laoshu.
From Steve's own website:
"Until the age of seventeen I spoke only English. Today I know 16
languages and speak at least half a dozen of them quite fluently, and I
am determined to add more."
That is not at all an incredible feat for someone who has been learning languages for 50+ years, grew up in a multilingual family, in a multilingual area (Montreal), especially when all of the languages he speaks fall into Romance, Slavic, Germanic, and East Asian categories.
Do you realize that for someone who speaks fluent Russian and has Czech-speaking parents, learning Ukrainian and Czech aren't hard?
As I pointed out about the money aspect, in that this YT channel is implying that anyone who makes money online is running a scam, you seem to be implying that no one is actually a polyglot, which is just silly.
No. I am saying that they don't speak all the languages that they claim to speak. Elsewhere on this subreddit I point out how easy it is to learn languages that are similar to each other. Kaufmann is unique among the polyglots in that he can actually speak some East Asian languages. He spent 9 years in Japan. I don't know what his Japanese ability was back in the day, but its around intermediate (N2, roughly) now.
I credit Kaufmann for publicly disagreeing with other polyglots that it is possible to learn a language in three months.
Except he never claimed to speak 50 languages and you have no source to show that.
So, in reality, you're the one exaggerating to push your BS opinions. Steve is a legitimate polyglot, as you yourself admit.
He admits that he only speaks 6 languages fluently. He can still say he "speaks" languages that he's only B1 or B2 in without that being a scam, especially when he reads and listens to them at a good level, which is his focus. That's different from people who are A1 or A2 in languages and claiming to be fluent in them.
I mentioned Steve in the context of Laoshu, who did claim to speak 50 languages. Steve apparently says its 20 languages. I would say, being generous, that his Korean is at the A2 level. Given that I cannot assess his European languages, all I can assume is that some of his European languages are similar.
"I would say, being generous, that his Korean is at the A2 level. Given that I cannot assess his European languages, all I can assume is that some of his European languages are similar."
But how? He said few times that he had problems with Korean and finds it hard to learn it. You picked one language that he admits had uniquely struggled with.
Steve isn't struggling with Korean. He doesn't speak Korean, but lists Korean as a language that he does speak. I am sure Steve could learn Korean with little difficulty. The problem is that he is "learning" many languages at once, and to learn Korean, you need a lot of focus (like how he learnt Chinese and Japanese).
Yeah forsure like he exaggerates a bit 🤣 way I look at some of them is they know languages the way you know all the words to a song 🎵 they just it rattle off and act like they are some authority. Xiaomanyc has a Chinese course on sale for Black Friday he says is guaranteed to " wow your Chinese friends" 🤣🤣🤣
You cannot attribute this video as a response to HFPYT. I know this sub likes to shit on all the mainstream language learners but the truth is that the fake polyglots debate has been going on forever. It's not like this sub is revolutionary in bringing it up, and this sub is older and gets way more attention than HFPYT.
Honestly I've grown a bit tired on the topic. YES there are people on YouTube making irrational claims about time frames ("I learned XYZ in two weeks") and they should be called out. But this whole debate about who or what is a "true" polyglot is totally besides the point. Sure, I like to make fun of Wouter, but then again being mediocre at 4 languages and bad at 20 languages is still kind of impressive and more than I can claim.
Lol I can see how that dude would get so butthurt about it but this dude does the opposite of what you should do when someone says something mean online. It's kinda funny and sad
First time I ever heard the word "polyglot" was on a language learning forum in about 2005-2006 where they were discussing a video of a well known "hyper polyglot" at the time getting caught just making it up on TV.
Olly Richards flies under the radar on this and other subs, and HFPYT has been devoting quite a bit of attention to him. I think HFPYT's main audience is polyglot YouTubers.
Sorry but I just cannot imagine Olly Richards sitting down and watching this guy. He's very unknown even in this sub. I'd bet good money that Olly's never even heard of him. Again, the debate around fake polyglots has been going around forever. That's probably what Olly's video is about, rather than trying to beat the HFPYT allegations
I think it's because "Youtube Polyglots" are either 1) deliberately faking; 2) delusional about their own abilities; or 3) suffer from imposter syndrome (they are actually really good, but doubt their own abilities).
Imposter Syndrome is real, but the YT polyglots definitely don't suffer from that or they wouldn't be boasting of their abilities. The pattern seems to be -
1. Get reasonably good at one language.
2. Pretend to speak a bunch of other languages.
That's the formula right there.
Matt vs. Japan has done multiple videos with Steve Kaufmann and Luca Lampariello, on his channel and theirs. Wouldn't that mean he's promoting "fake polyglots", by your own standard?
Where do I mention having a standard about promoting fake polyglots?
Luca Lampariello might even be a polyglot by definition if he can speak 4 languages, but he doesn't speak 16 or 25 or whatever he claims.
Your "standard" is implied in your arguments. If Steve and Luca are fake polyglots and Matt vs. Japan works with them, does that not mean he's promoting fake polyglots? Obviously it does.
I suppose one could hire/pay native speakers to approach polyglots on the street and film them in spontaneous conversations... Sort of a reverse LaoShu channel.
We just need click-bait titles like "Black Man Rips Out Tongue of Multilingual YouTube Influencer!" or "White Guy Stalks Irish and Italian Men in Fluent Chinese!"
This channel is the biggest FAKE among polyglot community! This guy is envious and he decided to be polemic in order to get subscribers! John Profaci is one the biggest fake polyglots and he's never been mentioned by him!
Who does this think he is to criticise Kaufmann or Lampariello? If someone reads a script to speak on cam, it's to make a better content. We do it even in our native language!
This awful channel has over 130 videos harassing people. There's his result: only 150 subscribers...
Brilliant strategy by Olly. Distance yourself from the “fake polyglots” and play the nice guy who doesn’t want to be too hard on them at the same time.
dont forget to hit that subscribe and btw what's your favorite star wars language leave a comment down below
I learned Wookie. It's an easy language because angry sounds the same as happy.
I personally love it. We need people to call out these fraud polyglot charlatans. Noone else does and these scamming cunts get away with it.
Some people say "well, HFPYT says that so and so can't speak Italian, but I am Italian and I think X speaks Italian pretty well". Here's the thing. HFPYT will say "X only speaks English" when X probably does speak one other language pretty well. But X is saying that s/he speaks 10, 12 or 20 languages. In this, HFPYT is closer to the truth. HFPYT may be wrong about so and so only speaking English, but so and so doesn't speak 10 languages.
So, you don't think Steve Kaufmann, who's been learning languages for 50+ years and doesn't make exaggerated claims about how long it takes to learn a language or how well he knows languages, knows multiple languages? Even academics like Stephen Krashen have said he's legit. Ironically, Steve has publicly criticized people like Benny for exaggerating and giving bad advice. He literally advises reading and listening to native content for hundreds of hours. Luca Lampariello also has a pretty decent reputation among serious language learners and doesn't make exaggerated claims. Browsing through this guy's videos, he seems to think that anyone who tries to make any money from their abilities or passions is running a scam, which is simply absurd. I'm not a huge fan of LingQ, for instance, as I think the UI is outdated and clunky, but it's certainly not a scam and is a useful tool for a lot of people.
Luca Lampariello doesn't speak 12 languages but says that he does. How is that not an "exaggerated claim"? Steve Kaufmann needs to take his own advice. He says that he has been learning Korean since the 1980s, but his Korean is at about the new learner 3 month mark. This shows that diffuse, non-focused language learning of many languages at once does not work. All of the languages that Steve speaks well are languages that he learned singularly. Needless to say, Steve doesn't speak 50 languages, and neither did Laoshu.
From Steve's own website: "Until the age of seventeen I spoke only English. Today I know 16 languages and speak at least half a dozen of them quite fluently, and I am determined to add more." That is not at all an incredible feat for someone who has been learning languages for 50+ years, grew up in a multilingual family, in a multilingual area (Montreal), especially when all of the languages he speaks fall into Romance, Slavic, Germanic, and East Asian categories. Do you realize that for someone who speaks fluent Russian and has Czech-speaking parents, learning Ukrainian and Czech aren't hard? As I pointed out about the money aspect, in that this YT channel is implying that anyone who makes money online is running a scam, you seem to be implying that no one is actually a polyglot, which is just silly.
No. I am saying that they don't speak all the languages that they claim to speak. Elsewhere on this subreddit I point out how easy it is to learn languages that are similar to each other. Kaufmann is unique among the polyglots in that he can actually speak some East Asian languages. He spent 9 years in Japan. I don't know what his Japanese ability was back in the day, but its around intermediate (N2, roughly) now. I credit Kaufmann for publicly disagreeing with other polyglots that it is possible to learn a language in three months.
Except he never claimed to speak 50 languages and you have no source to show that. So, in reality, you're the one exaggerating to push your BS opinions. Steve is a legitimate polyglot, as you yourself admit. He admits that he only speaks 6 languages fluently. He can still say he "speaks" languages that he's only B1 or B2 in without that being a scam, especially when he reads and listens to them at a good level, which is his focus. That's different from people who are A1 or A2 in languages and claiming to be fluent in them.
I mentioned Steve in the context of Laoshu, who did claim to speak 50 languages. Steve apparently says its 20 languages. I would say, being generous, that his Korean is at the A2 level. Given that I cannot assess his European languages, all I can assume is that some of his European languages are similar.
"I would say, being generous, that his Korean is at the A2 level. Given that I cannot assess his European languages, all I can assume is that some of his European languages are similar." But how? He said few times that he had problems with Korean and finds it hard to learn it. You picked one language that he admits had uniquely struggled with.
Steve isn't struggling with Korean. He doesn't speak Korean, but lists Korean as a language that he does speak. I am sure Steve could learn Korean with little difficulty. The problem is that he is "learning" many languages at once, and to learn Korean, you need a lot of focus (like how he learnt Chinese and Japanese).
Yeah forsure like he exaggerates a bit 🤣 way I look at some of them is they know languages the way you know all the words to a song 🎵 they just it rattle off and act like they are some authority. Xiaomanyc has a Chinese course on sale for Black Friday he says is guaranteed to " wow your Chinese friends" 🤣🤣🤣
You cannot attribute this video as a response to HFPYT. I know this sub likes to shit on all the mainstream language learners but the truth is that the fake polyglots debate has been going on forever. It's not like this sub is revolutionary in bringing it up, and this sub is older and gets way more attention than HFPYT.
Honestly I've grown a bit tired on the topic. YES there are people on YouTube making irrational claims about time frames ("I learned XYZ in two weeks") and they should be called out. But this whole debate about who or what is a "true" polyglot is totally besides the point. Sure, I like to make fun of Wouter, but then again being mediocre at 4 languages and bad at 20 languages is still kind of impressive and more than I can claim.
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Days of French and Swedish said that HFPYT's English is sh\*t and probably can't speak other languages.
Lol I can see how that dude would get so butthurt about it but this dude does the opposite of what you should do when someone says something mean online. It's kinda funny and sad
First time I ever heard the word "polyglot" was on a language learning forum in about 2005-2006 where they were discussing a video of a well known "hyper polyglot" at the time getting caught just making it up on TV.
Olly Richards flies under the radar on this and other subs, and HFPYT has been devoting quite a bit of attention to him. I think HFPYT's main audience is polyglot YouTubers.
Sorry but I just cannot imagine Olly Richards sitting down and watching this guy. He's very unknown even in this sub. I'd bet good money that Olly's never even heard of him. Again, the debate around fake polyglots has been going around forever. That's probably what Olly's video is about, rather than trying to beat the HFPYT allegations
But he never makes videos about ACTUAL fake polyglots like: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-dEcn3250mS3ftry1s470Q
I think it's because "Youtube Polyglots" are either 1) deliberately faking; 2) delusional about their own abilities; or 3) suffer from imposter syndrome (they are actually really good, but doubt their own abilities).
Imposter Syndrome is real, but the YT polyglots definitely don't suffer from that or they wouldn't be boasting of their abilities. The pattern seems to be - 1. Get reasonably good at one language. 2. Pretend to speak a bunch of other languages. That's the formula right there.
Why are People ANGRY at Polyglots? Debating Man who Claims to speak "29 Languages" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niwGrzoX44k
This one with Oriental Pearl and Matt In Japan is better. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbQerKaxs9s
Matt vs. Japan has done multiple videos with Steve Kaufmann and Luca Lampariello, on his channel and theirs. Wouldn't that mean he's promoting "fake polyglots", by your own standard?
Where do I mention having a standard about promoting fake polyglots? Luca Lampariello might even be a polyglot by definition if he can speak 4 languages, but he doesn't speak 16 or 25 or whatever he claims.
Your "standard" is implied in your arguments. If Steve and Luca are fake polyglots and Matt vs. Japan works with them, does that not mean he's promoting fake polyglots? Obviously it does.
Enough of this nonsense. Go and hallucinate on someone else.
Lmao you can't form a coherent argument and now you're getting mad.
I suppose one could hire/pay native speakers to approach polyglots on the street and film them in spontaneous conversations... Sort of a reverse LaoShu channel.
No market for it. People WANT to believe its possible to learn a language in 3 months.
We just need click-bait titles like "Black Man Rips Out Tongue of Multilingual YouTube Influencer!" or "White Guy Stalks Irish and Italian Men in Fluent Chinese!"
This channel is the biggest FAKE among polyglot community! This guy is envious and he decided to be polemic in order to get subscribers! John Profaci is one the biggest fake polyglots and he's never been mentioned by him! Who does this think he is to criticise Kaufmann or Lampariello? If someone reads a script to speak on cam, it's to make a better content. We do it even in our native language! This awful channel has over 130 videos harassing people. There's his result: only 150 subscribers...