Also, is it possible to anyone to become a polyglot?
In: Culture
Potentially. Some research suggests that children might acquire languages more easily in part because they’re not concerned about grammar (they aren’t even concerned about the grammar of their native language – thats why small kids will say things like “him get him shoes” when they really mean “you get your shoes” and they’re talking to a female. They get the point across just fine – get and shoes and a person. Communication success) so they just focus on vocabulary. They learn vocabulary very, very quickly and then work on putting it in order. Then on putting it in order correctly. The other part of child language acquisition is thay their brains are little language sponges.
In comparison, a normal adult learns a language by memorizing vocabulary *and* grammar (and spelling and accents and maybe even a new alphabet). If you’ve ever taken foreign language class, you probably memorized long lists of articles, verb tenses, etc, while you’re trying to learn basic vocabulary. Adults sort of try to acquire an adult-level of proficiency from day one.
In the same amount of time learning a new language, an adult might be able to introduce themselves formally and ask about the other person’s day with perfect grammar and nothing else, while a kid can communicate quite well, even if what they’re saying is kind of a mess.
Assuming a polyglot didn’t learn the languages as a child, then its possible they learned then in the same order as a child. Think of an immersive situation – where you move to a new country and dont speak the local language. How do you order food? You might start by pointing at menu pictures or pointing at items along with a “please”. Then you might progress to just being able to say those things. Then you might progress to being able to ask for those things in a proper sentence. And so on and so on. But the primary focus is always to communicate first and foremost, even if it isn’t totally “right”, and then refine. Just like kids.
Worth noting, some languages might always be out of reach. For example, tonal languages (where the vocal tone might completely change the meaning of an otherwise identical-sounding word), like Cantonese, might not be reasonable for you to learn if you’re very tone deaf.
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