For the love of foreign languages - 6 Minute English

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from

BBC Learning English. I m Neil.

And I'm Rob.

Bonjour, Rob! Kon nichi wa!

Excuse me?

Hola! Como estas?

Oh, OK, I think Neil's saying 'hello'

in different languages - French, was it?

And then.. Japanese? And

Spanish? Is that right?

Si, muy bien!

The English are famously slow to learn

other languages. But it seems that

Rob and I - and of course you - our

global audience here at 6 Minute

English - are good examples of

polyglots people who speak

more than one language,

sometimes known as

'superlinguists'. People who speak

multiple languages benefit from

many advantages, as we'll be

hearing in this programme.

That word polyglot sounds familiar,

Neil. Doesn't the prefix 'poly' mean,

many ?

That's right, like polygon - a shape

with many sides.

Or polymath - someone who

knows many things.

And speaking of knowing things,

it s time for my quiz question.

The word polyglot comes from

Greek and is made up of two parts:

poly, which as Rob says, means

many, and glot . But what does

glot mean? What is the meaning

of the word polyglot? Is it:

a) many words?, b) many sounds?

or c) many tongues?

Well, there's three syllables in polyglot,

Neil, so I reckon it s b), many sounds.

OK, Rob, we ll find out if that's right

at the end of the programme.

But leaving aside the origins of the

word, what exactly does being

a polyglot involve? British-born

polyglot, Richard Simcot speaks

eleven languages. Listen to his

definition as he speaks to BBC

World Service programme,

The Documentary:

A polyglot for me can be anyone

who identifies with that term - it's

somebody who learns languages

that they don't necessarily need for

their lives, but just out of sheer

enjoyment, pleasure or fascination

with another language or culture.

For Richard, being a polyglot simply

means identifying with the idea -

feeling that you are similar or

closely connected to it.

He says polyglots learn languages

not because they have to, but for

the sheer enjoyment, which means,

nothing except enjoyment. Richard

uses the word sheer to emphasise

how strong and pure this enjoyment is.

As well as the pleasure of speaking

other languages, polyglots are also

better at communicating with others.

My favourite quote by South Africa's

first black president, Nelson Mandela, is:

"If you talk to a man in a language he

understands, that goes to his head.

If you talk to him in his language, that

goes to his heart."

How inspiring, Rob - I'm lost for words!

Here's another: "To have another language

is to possess a second soul".

So language learning is good for

the head, heart and soul - a person's

spirit or the part of them which is

believed to continue existing after death.

Yes - and what's more, language learning

is good for the brain too. That's

according to Harvard neuroscientist,

Eve Fedorenko. She's researched the

effects of speaking multiple languages

on the brains of growing children.

Eve predicted that multilingual

children would have hyperactive

language brains. But what she actually

found surprised her, as she explains

here to BBC World Service's

The Documentary:

What we found - this is now people who

already have proficiency in multiple

languages - what we found is that their

language regions appear to be smaller,

and that was surprising - and as people

get better and better, more automatic

at performing the task, the activations

shrink, so to speak, over time, it becomes

so that you don't have to use as much brain

tissue to do the task as well, so you

become more efficient.

Eve was testing children who already

have language proficiency - the skill and

ability to do something, such as

speak a language.

Her surprising discovery was that the

language regions of these children's

brains were shrinking - not because

their speaking skills were getting worse,

but the opposite; as they learned and

repeated language patterns, their brain

tissue became more efficient - worked

quicker and more effectively.

It's suggested that this increased efficiency

is a result of exposure to different languages.

So that proves it, Neil: speaking many languages

is good for the head, heart, mind and soul!

You took the words right out of my mouth!

And speaking of words, what does the

glot in polyglot actually mean?

Was my answer correct?

Ah, that's right. In my quiz question

I asked you for the meaning of

the word polyglot.

And I said, b) many sounds.

But in fact the correct answer was

c) many tongues. You may be a polyglot,

Rob, but you're not quite a polymath yet!

OK, well, let me get my brain tissues

working by recapping the vocabulary,

starting with polyglot - someone who

speaks many languages.

The language centres in a polyglot's

brain are efficient - they work quickly

and effectively in an organised way.

Proficiency means the skill and ability

to do something well. And if you identify

with something, you feel you are similar

or closely connected to it.

Polyglots learn languages for the sheer

enjoyment of it - a word meaning 'nothing except'

which is used to emphasise

the strength of feeling. So speaking

many languages is good for

mind and soul - a person's

non-physical spirit which some

believe to continue after death.

That's it for this programme, but

to discover more about language

learning, including some useful

practical tips, check out

The Superlinguists series from

BBC World Service's The Documentary!

Bye for now!

Bye!