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linguoboy · Joined:Sun 19 Apr 2009 9:02 am Posts:1001

Talib wrote:

He seemed to be okay with reading the Persian

Yes, but he didn't speak any of it, though. After he reads it aloud and is told he's gotten it "100% correct", the man says something in Persian and he responds with some excuse about how reading it is one thing and speaking it another. Lame!

Talib · Joined:Sun 19 Apr 2009 8:22 am Posts:768 Location: Canada

Well, it's true that passive and active understanding are different, but he shouldn't claim to be fluent if he doesn't have both.

rickardspaghetti · Joined:Fri 17 Apr 2009 2:28 pm Posts:204 Location: Sweden

mike92s8 wrote:

Wow, now that guy is pretty amazing. Where did you hear about him?

I followed the Wikipedia link and read it. One word caught my eye, "hyperpolyglot". It sounded so funny I had to check it out. I read through it and came over Ziad Fazah. "59 languages!? OMFG!"
So, yeah. That's it.

Aeetlrcreejl · Joined:Sat 18 Apr 2009 7:56 am Posts:72

I do wonder, now, how true the claims of Uku Masing were.

linguoboy · Joined:Sun 19 Apr 2009 9:02 am Posts:1001

Aeetlrcreejl wrote:

I do wonder, now, how true the claims of Uku Masing were.

At least he left a paper trail. Experts could review his translations and pronounce on how accurate they were.