San Jose State University SJSU ScholarWorks Books by SJSU Authors 1-1-2018 Harmony of Babel: Profiles of amousF Polyglots, Second Edition Kató Lomb Ádám Szegi Scott Alkire San Jose State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_books Part of the First and Second Language Acquisition Commons Recommended Citation Lomb, Kató; Szegi, Ádám; and Alkire, Scott, "Harmony of Babel: Profiles of amousF Polyglots, Second Edition" (2018). Books by SJSU Authors. 2nd. Book 213. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_books/213 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by SJSU ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Books by SJSU Authors by an authorized administrator of SJSU ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. LOMB KATÓ LOMB HARMONY OF BABEL KATÓ LOMB In the late 1980s, Kató Lomb — “quite possibly the most accom- HARMONY OF BABEL plished polyglot in the world” (Stephen Krashen) — interviewed 21 of her peers on the nature of language learning. She asked: “When can we say we know a language?” HARMONY OF BABEL HARMONY OF BABEL “Which is the most important language skill: grammar, vocabulary, or good pronunciation?” “What method did you use to learn languages?” “Has it ever happened to you that you started learning a language but could not cope with it?” “What connection do you see between age and language learning? Is your knowledge decreasing with age?” “Are there ‘easy’ and ‘difficult,’ ‘rich’ and ‘poor,’ ‘beautiful’ and ‘less beautiful’ languages?” “What is multilingualism good for?” The master language learners’ responses are noteworthy for their depth, candor, and clarity. Combined with Dr. Lomb’s own thoughts on polyglots, language learning, and foreign language education, this volume offers rare, experiential data to supplement our theoretical knowledge of successful language learning. This special second edition ofHarmony of Babel includes a 1974 interview with Dr. Lomb. ISBN 978-1-5323-6611-6 90000> . http://tesl-ej.org PROFILES OF FAMOUS POLYGLOTS 9 781532 366116 berkeley · kyoto HARMONY OF BABEL HARMONY OF BABEL profiles of famous polyglots of europe K ATÓ LOMB Translated from the Hungarian by Ádám Szegi Edited by Scott Alkire tesl-ej Publications Berkeley, California & Kyoto, Japan Originally published in Hungary as Bábeli harmónia (Interjúk Európa híres soknyelvű embereivel) by Gondolat, Budapest, in 1988. Copyright © 1988 Gondolat. All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in an internet, newspaper, magazine, radio, or television review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing. All footnotes are by the translator and editor except where noted. The translator and editor thank Dr. Maggie Sokolik and Dr. Karin Kitzing for their support and contributions. Copyediting: Hunter Greer and Brian Taylor Production editing: Mark Handy Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lomb, Kató, 1909–2003 Harmony of Babel : profiles of famous polyglots of Europe / Lomb Kató; translated from the Hungarian by Ádám Szegi 2nd English edition, 2018 English edition copyright © 2013, 2018 Scott Alkire Library of Congress Control Number: [forthcoming] ISBN 978-1-5323-6611-6 I. Szegi, Ádám. II. Title. Cover: El Jaleo, John Singer Sargent, 1882 tesl-ej Publications Berkeley, California & Kyoto, Japan 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents ≈ Editor’s Preface 7 Introduction: The Sun Is Shining 19 Polyglots: Old and New 23 Cardinal Giuseppe Mezzofanti (1774 –1849) 31 Sándor Kőrösi Csoma (1784 –1842) 58 Rasmus Christian Rask (1787–1832) 62 Heinrich Schliemann (1822–1890) 63 Ármin Vámbéry (1832–1913) 68 Alexander Lenard (1910 –1972) 74 What Is the Good Language Learner Like? 81 A Report on an Imaginary Round Table of Polyglots 93 Introducing the participants 95 Q: When can we say we know a language? 150 Q: Which is the most important language skill: grammar, vocabulary, or good pronunciation? 160 Q: What method did you use to learn languages? 164 Q: Has it ever happened to you that you started learning a language but could not cope with it? 173 Q: What connection do you see between age and language learning? Is your knowledge decreasing with age? 175 Q: Does Latin have a present? Will Esperanto have a future? 179 Q: Are there “easy” and “difficult,” “rich” and “poor,” “beautiful” and “less beautiful” languages? 190 Q: What is multilingualism good for? 198 Q: Don’t the languages get mixed up in your head? 202 Why Is Language Instruction Ailing in Hungary? 207 Selected References 222 Appendix: An Interview with Dr. Kató Lomb (1974) 225 Editor's Preface ≈ in 1957 the linguist, translator, and polyglot Eugene Nida wrote, “Some people do learn a great deal about foreign languages in classrooms, but they rarely learn the languages” (p. 43). The multilingual interpreter Kató Lomb and most of the 21 polyglots1 she surveyed for Harmony of Babel: Profiles of Famous Polyglots of Europe would agree. One of the questions she asked her peers (and herself) was, “What method did you use to learn languages?” Fifteen credited extensive reading, extensive conver- sation, immersion in the target language community, keeping a language-learning notebook, and dialogues—but not participa- tion in language classes. Otto von Habsburg simply replied, “Not in the classroom.” Only five polyglots endorsed language classes, and then only in conjunction with other methods.2 Studies of successful learners by Kitzing (1981), Stevick (1989), Krashen and Kiss (1996), Erard (2012), Sykes (2015), 1. No fixed definition of polyglot exists, but many researchers agree that a per- son fluent in three languages (including his or her mother tongue) can be consi- dered a polyglot. 2. The original Hungarian edition of this book does not include answers to this question from two of the polyglots Lomb surveyed. 7 8 / harmony of babel and Hyltenstam (2016) largely support Lomb’s findings; such proficient learners tend to become good at their languages out- side the classroom. Lomb notes, “Institutions and schools gener- ally cannot provide the concentrated instruction required for the well-paced acquisition of a language.” Today the internet, with its many websites, apps, and YouTube channels dedicated to lan- guage learning, can give even more of the “concentrated educa- tion” that ordinary institutions and schools cannot. Lomb’s query about a language-learning method is but one of nine broad questions she asked her fellow polyglots about lan- guage and language learning. In response to her other eight ques- tions, her peers reveal many common language-learning strate- gies, attitudes, and traits. These qualities appear as well in studies of other multilinguals. It is thus proposed that these commonali- ties should be allowed to augment, qualify, or challenge current second language acquisition (SLA) attitudes and theories about language learning. Do “good language learners” exist? Although it would appear that “good language learners” ex- ist by virtue of the fact that polyglots exist, Naiman, Fröhlich, Stern, and Todesco, in their classic monograph The Good Lan- guage Learner (1978), write “The study as a whole suggests thatthe successful or good language learner, with predetermined overall characteristics, does not exist” (p. 224). Unfortunately Naiman and his team did not study polyglots. In 1981 Professor Karin Kitzing of Lund University in Sweden, perhaps recognizing this omission, surveyed 76 highly proficient learners from 22 coun- tries and 18 native languages to “confirm or reject some existing hypotheses about language learning.” On average the participants Editor's Preface / 9 were highly advanced in two languages beyond their native lan- guages. Kitzing’s highly proficient learners show common charac- teristics, language-learning strategies, and attitudes, for example: - The belief in the greater importance of motivation over ap- titude and general intelligence in language learning. (In Kitzing’s group, 75% considered motivation very important compared to 37% for language aptitude and 15% for general intelligence.) - The belief in the greater importance of exposure over in- struction. (Sixty-five percent of Kitzing’s respondents considered exposure to the target language very important in learning the language, but only 37% learned “their best non-native language in a formal setting, at school or university.”) - The ability to monitor performance in the new language - Field independence: the ability to perceive the structure (pattern) of the new language. (Forty-one percent of Kitzing’s subjects said they perceive structure very easily.) - Extroversion (The majority of Kitzing’s subjects considered themselves extroverts.) - Empathy (Only one person of the 76 surveyed reported hav- ing no empathy at all.) [Lomb] - Self-esteem (None reported having low self-esteem.) - Tolerance for ambiguity (pp. 104–6, 108) Kitzing’s study of polyglots was one of the first of its kind. Significantly, many of the beliefs, strategies, and characteristics she identified in her subjects appear in the 22 polyglots Lomb surveyed (including herself) for this volume. These similarities also appear in studies and case histories by Stevick (1989), Chang (1990), Erard (2012), Krashen (2014), Sykes (2015), and Hylten- 10 / harmony of babel stam (2016). Does this fact make the term “the good language learner” valid,