POLYGLOT H O W I L E A R N L A N G U A G E S KATÓ LOMB POLYGLOT How I Learn Languages KATÓ LOMB TRANSLATED FROM THE HUNGARIAN BY ÁDÁM SZEGI KORNELIA DEKORNE EDITED BY SCOTT ALKIRE TESL-EJ http://tesl-ej.org Berkeley Kyoto Thank you to Elizabeth Collison Elena Smolinská Sylvia Rucker Professor Thom Huebner for their help with this project. The review comments of Dr. Larissa Chiriaeva, Maria Çomsa, MA, and Dr. Stefan Frazier were invaluable in the preparation of the manuscript. —Scott Alkire Translated by Ádám Szegi The first two Forewords, Introduction, and Chapter 20 were translated by Kornelia DeKorne. Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lomb, Kató, 1909–2003. Polyglot : how I learn languages / Kató Lomb. — 1st English ed. p. cm. Library of Congress Control Number: 2008907032 ISBN 978-1-60643-706-3 Copyright © 2008 by Scott Alkire. All rights reserved. 1. Language learning. I. Title Cover: The Tower of Babel Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1563) TESL-EJ http://tesl-ej.org Berkeley Kyoto 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Contents ≈ Preface vii Foreword to the First Edition xvii Foreword to the Second Edition xix Foreword to the Fourth Edition xxi Introduction 23 What Is Language? 35 Why Do We and Why Should We Study Languages? 37 The Type of Language to Study 39 “Easy” and “Difficult” Languages 41 How to Study Languages 49 Who This Book Is and Isn’t For 51 Let’s Read! 67 Why and What We Should Read 73 How We Should Read 85 Reading and Pronunciation 89 What Sort of Languages Do People Study? 97 Language and Vocabulary 103 Vocabulary and Context 107 How to Learn Words 113 Age and Language Learning 121 Dictionaries: Crutches or Helpful Tools? 127 Textbooks 131 How We Converse in a Foreign Language 133 How We Should Converse in a Foreign Language 139 How I Learn Languages 147 Grading Our Linguistic Mastery 165 The Linguistic Gift 173 Language Careers 183 The Interpreting Career 187 Reminiscences from My Travels 199 What’s Around the Linguistic Corner? 209 Epilogue 215 Preface ≈ IF multilingualism is indeed one of the “great achieve- ments of the human mind,” as Vildomec (1963, p. 240) claims, it is regrettable that few linguists have studied poly- glots and what it is they know about language learning.1 For their part, polyglots have not provided us with much information either; in the 20th century, texts by polyglots on language learning, in particular texts that relate how they actually learned their languages, are rare. One text that relates personal language-learning experi- ence is Dr. Kató Lomb’s Polyglot: How I Learn Languages (2008; Hungarian: Így tanulok nyelveket [1995, 4th ed.]). A collection of anecdotes and reflections on language and lan- guage learning, it frequently recalls the pragmatism of similar texts by polyglot linguists such as Bloomfield (Outline Guide for the Practical Study of Foreign Languages, 1942), Pei (How to Learn Languages and What Languages to Learn, 1973), and Pimsleur (How to Learn a Foreign Language, 1980). The text is further distinguished by the fact that it is the docu- ment of a learner who acquired most of her languages as an adult. But the most remarkable aspect of Polyglot: How I Learn Languages may be its rich, wide-ranging meditations on ideas about and related to language learning, in writing ranging from the warmly personal to the high-culture style of a Central European polymath. 1. Linguistic definitions of multilingualism/polyglot vary. Nation, in a study of “good” language learners, defines a multilingual person as being fluent in four or more languages (1983, p. 1). vii viii / POLYGLOT: HOW I LEARN LANGUAGES “The most multilingual woman” Dr. Kató Lomb (1909–2003) has been called “possibly the most accomplished polyglot in the world” (Krashen, 1997, p. 15) and “the most multilingual woman” (Parkvall, 2006, p. 119). Unlike most polyglots, Lomb came to lan- guage learning relatively late. Indifferent to foreign lan- guages in secondary school and university (her PhD was in chemistry), she began to acquire English on her own in 1933 to find work as a teacher. She began learning Russian in 1941, and by the end of World War II was interpreting and translating for the Budapest City Hall. She continued to learn languages, and at her peak was interpreting and/or translating 16 for state and business concerns. In the 1950s she became one of the first simultaneous interpreters in the world, and by the 1960s her reputation was such that, ac- cording to an interview in Hetek newspaper (14 November 1998), she and her colleagues in the Hungarian interpreting delegation were known as “the Lomb team” (p. 16). Her accomplishments did not alter her essential mod- esty: “It is not possible [to know 16 languages]—at least not at the same level of ability,” she wrote in the foreword to the first edition ofÍgy tanulok nyelveket (1970). “I only have one mother tongue: Hungarian. Russian, English, French, and German live inside me simultaneously with Hungarian. I can switch between any of these languages with great ease, from one word to the next. “Translating texts in Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, and Polish generally requires me to spend about half a day brushing up on my language skills and perusing the material to be translated. “The other six languages [Bulgarian, Danish, Latin, Romanian, Czech, Ukrainian] I know only through trans- lating literature and technical material.” Interest in Lomb’s book remained steady in Hungary for several years; subsequent editions were published in 1972, 1990, and 1995. In addition, translations were published Preface / ix in Japan, Latvia, and Russia. Lomb wrote other books on languages, interpreting, and polyglots, and continued learn- ing languages into her eighties. In 1995 she was interviewed by Stephen Krashen, who brought her achievements to the attention of the West. Form and content of Így tanulok nyelveket Perhaps because Lomb believes that language and lan- guage learning are phenomena that can be understood in dif- ferent ways, she employs different writing styles—memoir/ narrative, functional/expository, and figurative/literary—to convey different aspects of language and language learning. She uses memoir/narrative to relate most of her language- learning experiences, functional/expository prose to outline her language-learning strategies, and figurative/literary pas- sages to conceptualize language and language acquisition. Lomb’s functional/expository sections feature many strategies that correlate to the strategies of successful learn- ers documented in major second language acquisition (SLA) studies (see Alkire, 2005); a few others do not, or have not yet been studied. One of her unique language-learning strat- egies is the reading of books at the beginning of language study. In Chapter 7 she writes, “Dare to include [extensive] reading in your learning program from the very beginning,” and in Chapter 8 she asserts that the bulk of a learner’s knowledge will come not from dictionaries, course books, or teachers, but from books. In autobiographical passages, Lomb relates her experiences learning English, Russian, and Spanish through novels. All of this is noteworthy because the reading of full-length texts (e.g., novels) to acquire lan- guages has seldom been studied by SLA researchers. Lomb is also singular in not endorsing grammar study. She writes, “The traditional way of learning a language (cramming 20–30 words a day and digesting the grammar supplied by a teacher or course book) may satisfy at most one’s sense of duty, but it can hardly serve as a source of x / POLYGLOT: HOW I LEARN LANGUAGES joy. Nor will it likely be successful.” For emphasis Lomb paraphrases Toussaint and Langenscheidt, the 19th-century publishers: “Man lernt Grammatik aus der Sprache, nicht Sprache aus der Grammatik.” (One learns grammar from language, not language from grammar.) About textbooks Lomb takes an original and provoca- tive stance: “A student whose native language is Hungarian should study from a book prepared by a Hungarian. This is not owing to chauvinism but because every nation has to cope with its own specific difficulties when learning a for- eign language. Jespersen, the eminent Danish philologist, knew this: he classified the errors committed in English by nationality.” Although many of Lomb’s principles have been corrob- orated by SLA research, the preceding points—the value of extensive reading at nascent learning stages, the backward- ness of emphasizing grammar, and the benefits of learning from a textbook written by a compatriot—remain relatively unexplored, and offer new directions for SLA research. How Lomb conceptualizes language learning is com- pelling and suggests that the imagination plays a greater role in successful language acquisition than is commonly understood. Lomb writes, “To use a metaphor, the Russian language is a complicated, massive cathedral harmoniously fashioned in every arch and corner. The learner must accept this in order to have sufficient motivation to ‘build’ it.” Also: “Knowledge—like a nail—is made load-bearing by being driven in. If it’s not driven deep enough, it will break when any weight is put upon it.” Elsewhere Lomb opines, “A for- eign language is a castle. It is advisable to besiege it from all directions: newspapers, radio, motion pictures which are not dubbed, technical or scientific papers, textbooks, and the visitor at your neighbor’s.” Lomb employs other metaphors as well. To illustrate teacher-guided learning, she presents a wry Hungarian joke and then kindly explains the symbolism: Preface / xi Coffees in Budapest have an advantage— they have no coffee substitute They have a disadvantage— they have no coffee bean And they have a mystery— what makes them black? As Lomb explains it, “You can discover these elements in teacher-guided learning as well.