Sprachprofi

It's a tough question. It seems that every polyglot has their own criteria. Due to the possibility of promising too much, some people, like Richard Simcott, generally refuse to count their languages at all. But I think it's better to give a number that not everyone will agree on rather than not giving a number at all. Richard recently revealed he studied more than 30 languages.

I'm most excited to use my languages for reading - I love to get a detailed insider's perspective about problems others haven't even heard of, such as reading the Dutch book "Witboi" about the current attitude to colonialism in the Dutch islands in South America. So for me, I will say "I know this language" if I can read this kind of book without the need to consult a dictionary on every page, or alternatively (since some languages are much harder to read than speak, and vice versa) if I have used a language for a conversation of at least 30 minutes without switching languages.

This means I'm beyond the need to translate in my head (that's why I don't count Portuguese, Catalan, Occitan etc.), beyond textbooks, beyond the need for native speakers to simplify what they say/write for me. This is the point I usually try to reach through intensive study and below which I don't let them drop, but further improvement depends on how often I can / want to use the language and what for.

My favorite word across all languages is "homarano". This is Esperanto and it's a compound word: the root "homo" means "human" (as in Latin "homo sapiens"). The suffix -ar is for a group, so mankind. The suffix -ano is for a member of a group, so the nearest translation would be "a member of mankind". I think it's a neat way to see humans.

My favorite French word is "soleil" (sun), just for the sound of it.

My favorite English word is "defenestrate" (to throw someone out the window) - it's amazing that there's a word for this!

It's true that maintaining so many languages is a challenge, and I don't succeed particularly well. The easiest is to maintain reading ability: as a freelancer, whenever there's a lull in my day, I can pick up a book in whatever language or surf to a foreign news website, and voilà that's valuable language practice time. It's much harder to do that with speaking practice, unless you have the money to have a native speaker at your beck and call whenever you have some minutes...

Basically, you have to find ways to integrate languages in your days. It's easiest when living abroad, but I found that I could manage by reading, taking online university classes in foreign languages (thanks Coursera!), watching TEDx or TV series in foreign languages (thanks Youtube!), and generally relying on the internet a lot.

Do you have any tips you could offer for learning a new language?

European languages will be conquered if you just spend enough time on them. You cannot go very wrong. So the best method is the one that you will gladly do every day and the best materials are the ones that you look forward to using.

If you have a lot of problems with discipline, like me, I advocate a specialized blitz:

1. Have a very limited goal, e. g. just being able to understand foreign news sites.

2. Work only on things that will help with that. If the goal is reading foreign news, that means that you should NOT work on self introductions or any kind of speaking, you should not learn the words e. g. for animals or personal grooming, only learn words that you could see coming up in news articles. [Bliubliu](www.bliubliu.com) or dictionary browser plugins can help you.

3. Spend as much time as possible on this until you have reached your specialized goal. Relax afterwards and enjoy your new knowledge. If you study intensely enough, you don't have to keep up motivation for long.

I have an abstract-thinking brain. I don't see pictures and I don't think in words either, so no language, just concepts. I only notice that I was in a certain language mode by the mistakes that I make when I try to speak another language.

I have had a handful of dreams that I recall involving language. Usually the language I had studied the most that day.

There's a vibrant Esperanto community online. If you indicate Esperanto as a language you speak/like in your Facebook profile and join the Esperanto groups, you'll get hundreds of new friends within days. There are also groups dedicated to helping newbies or organize Skype language practice. Youtube is pretty good for finding Esperanto music and videos. Here's a playlist I made with comparatively easy Esperanto talk videos. Also check out the master list of Esperanto resources.

I am lucky in that I can speak Esperanto with interesting people locally - Berlin has 6 Esperanto clubs and even more people who are not organized in clubs - and I regularly travel to Esperanto events. Any 7-day Esperanto event with "Junulara" in its title is a transformative experience; I heard them compared to Burning Man.