다중 언어 학습의 현실: 수학적 연구

### 언어 학습의 현실: 폴리글롯의 주장에 대한 수학적 탐구: 수학적 탐구
* 📚 많은 사람들이 엄청난 수의 언어를 구사한다는 주장에 매료되며, 때로는 **200개에 이르는 수치**를 기록하기도 합니다.
* 🤔 화자는 한 가지 언어를 배우는 데도 복잡성이 수반된다는 사실을 깨닫고 **이러한 주장에 대한 자신의 회의적인 태도**를 반성합니다.
* 그들은 이상적인 조건에서 재능이 뛰어난 사람이 **100개의 언어를 C1 수준까지 학습**하는 데 걸리는 시간을 계산해보기로 했습니다.
* 📊 이 연구에 따르면 '경계선 유토피아' 조건에서도 **100개의 언어를 배우려면 최소 91.7년**이 필요하므로 일부 다국어 구사자들의 주장은 수학적으로 불가능하다고 합니다.
* 🗣 연사는 언어를 '아는 것' 또는 '말하는 것'에 대한 폭넓은 해석을 강조하며 **C1 숙련도가 보다 현실적인 숙달의 기준**이라고 제안합니다.
* 💡 또한 언어의 난이도는 매우 다양해서 **쉬운 언어는 약 3개월, 어려운 언어는 약 3년**이 걸린다고 합니다.
* 🕰 계산 결과, 메조판티 추기경과 같이 가장 유명한 다중언어 구사자라 할지라도 **그들이 주장하는 숙련도 수준에 도달하려면 평생보다 수십 년이 더 걸렸을 것**이라는 사실이 밝혀졌습니다.
* 🔍 궁극적으로 연사는 현실적인 조건에서 헌신적인 학습자가 평생 동안 습득할 수 있는 현실적인 언어의 수는 **25~30개 사이**가 될 것이라고 결론지었습니다.

이 연구에 따르면 아무리 재능이 뛰어난 사람이라도 현실적으로 100개 이상의 언어를 고도로 능숙하게 학습하기는 어렵다고 합니다.

hello everyone and welcome to another video. So, I'm sure some of you, maybe a lot of you, have previously seen or heard or read about someone who says or about whom it has been said that that person speaks a ridiculous amount of languages. Let's say 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 100, even 200. And I did that too. I mean, I've seen articles about Cardinal Mezzofanti. I've seen lists of historically most successful polyglots and the number of languages that were in those articles is just staggering. 70, 80, even really 200 plus languages. And when I was younger, I was like, Wow, you know, these people must have been extremely talented. I mean, to learn 200 languages is just something really incredible. And then I was learning all growing older and I learned more and more languages and I saw how difficult it was just to learn one, not to mention to sort of keep up with the language that we spoke, how time-consuming it was, how many just factors influenced your learning process.

and I was like, how in the world can these people learn, could have learned so many languages? And of course, I grew more and more skeptical. Not until maybe three or four days ago, I was just skeptical and did nothing about it. But three days ago, I had the idea to actually try to calculate how long it would take a super talented individual in the world today, with everything at their disposal, internet, the best of conditions you can think of, to learn 100 languages at the best possible, at the best conditions possible. And then compare it to a list that I found online of the historically most successful polyglots. So, people who speak, I think the lowest number of languages was 38, and the highest was 100 or 200, I think. So, yeah, I would like to show you the results of my study today. Very mine of my math is terrible, and I might not be the best language learner in the world, but I've distance, oh, what I'm about to show you with my friends from study mathematics and with a lot of very times.

the language learners and so hopefully this is going to be at least some sort of basic point of reference for you to see which claims are at least slightly realistically possible and which are straight-out just ridiculous. So let me just share my computer screen with you real quick, and I said I was trying to calculate how long it would take a super talented individual in the world today, under the most ideal of conditions, borderline utopian, with unlimited resources, to learn 100 languages. Now, I did this because from having this data, having that piece of information, would help us realize that that is the absolute mathematical minimum. Faster than that, it's just absolutely impossible. This is very important because you will see that if someone has claimed to have spoken 200 languages, it was just mathematically impossible to have learned them in their lifetime. But that person should have learned them in that lifetime because a super talented individual in the world today, with ideal conditions in the world today, would not be able to learn them today. So, 200, 300 years ago, it would have

been even more impossible than it is today. But let me just tell you what I plugged into my little formula, and again, I'm not the world's best mathematician, so if you see any problems, please let me know. There are several problems here that I wanted to address. The first one is that in these articles that I've read, it was almost always said that these people have known or spoke this and that number of languages, and the term to know or to speak is quite broad, and we don't really know what that means. However, in many of these articles, we said that these people have excelled in these languages, or they dominated these languages, or that they had an excellent knowledge, unparalleled in these languages. And therefore, I decided, after consulting this with my friends, and I'm going to use at a standard, the C1 level, and the international language proficiency scale. Maybe a lot of you are familiar with this scale. It's a scale which goes from A1 to C2, A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2, with C2 being the highest.

one and a one being the lowest one doesn't might not say too much to you if I tell you if I say it like that, but a C1 level of proficiency in the language is about 80 percent or 75 percent of the level of my English now. So, it's a pretty high level. And again, you might say, Well, you're being too strict. Listen, it's impossible to speak 100 languages at a senior level, but that's exactly my point. It's not possible. And plus, in the articles that I've read, like I said, the word dominated these languages, mastered these languages, were fluent in these languages was used prolifically. So, for me, C1 is actually lower than the expression to master or to dominate a language because I don't think I'd dominate or master English. So, these people wouldn't need to speak better their languages at a level that is higher than the level of my English right now. The second problem that I had was that they said that they speak languages, but as we know, languages come

in different shapes and sizes. There are easy languages, there are difficult languages, so I couldn't just, you know, I couldn't decide on how long on average would take or this or that person to learn the language because they are very, very different. It is an American learning Chinese, and an American learning German would reach their C1 level at a completely different time. Chinese is much more difficult, German is much, much easier. So without going into too much detail, I just decided we'll have two languages, two language types. We'll have a simple one, and it would take a super talented person, and this after consulting this with a few friends of mine who are extremely talented language learners. We decided that in word for a super talented person in the world today with unlimited resources and the best conditions, it would take 3/4 a person three months to learn a simple language. That means if you are, for instance, German and you want to learn Dutch, it would take you three months to learn Dutch into a C1 level if you'd be a super talented language learner with the

best possible condition, and then on the other end of the spectrum, would have a difficult language. And again, to be a super talented person learning a difficult language, it would take you three years, and this is really borderline utopian, to get that language to a C1 level. Now we have a formula because this relates to language, the drug relativity of language learning, of the difficulty of learning a foreign language. Because yes, if you are learning Mandarin Chinese, there's going to be a difficult language for you. But as soon as you know it, every language in the Chinese language family, every next language, is going to be very easy for you, or relatively easy for you. So if you just look at, for instance, Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese Chinese, and you pick either one, and you don't know any other language from that language family, these two languages are going to be roughly equally difficult. But if you learn Mandarin Chinese and after that start learning Cantonese, Cantonese is going to be much, much, much, much, much

easier. So, what I did, I made this little formula, which is that that person, our hypothetical person, would learn one difficult language and then followed by four languages from the same language family. So, that would be one difficult language, three years, and then for simple languages, three months each. Now, again, to cut even more slack to this person, I decided that that person would be a born trilingual, a fully functional trilingual person. It is very, very rare in the world, very rare. It is rare in the world today to have someone who grew up as a fully functional trilingual. Again, I said fully functional trilingual, which means that all three languages that this person speaks, all three languages equally well as a native language by the age of, I don't know, six. And then, again, to cut a lot of slack for this person, I decided that the next language after these three native languages that that person will start learning, that person will start learning at the age of six. Now, this is just learning these languages, and I hope it's

not too confusing, but I just want to lay down the simple rules and conditions that I set out for the study. Besides learning the foreign language, the person also would need to practice all languages that that person already knows. So again, cutting that person an enormous amount of flack, I decided that the bare, absolute bare minimum would be to practice one for each language that that person knows, one hour every two weeks. So for instance, that person would grow up as a trilingual and by the age of six would start to learn its fourth language. But apart from just learning this language, he would also need to practice the three languages that that person already speaks, and that would be at least one hour every two weeks. Clogging all of this into my super complicated calculations, which you can see over here, I came up with this list. Let me start from the last person on the list, so Cardinal Mezzofanti. A lot of people mentioned this person, saying that he is one of the most talented polyglots in history, and he was said to speak 39

languages. This is what Wikipedia says. Mehta Fonti was well known for being a hyperpolyglot who, according to Russell 1858, spoke at least 30 languages with rare excellence. But that said, that is at least he won. He was reported to have spoken nine other languages fluently. All right, so according to my study, right, he died at the age of 75. He spoke 39 languages according to Wikipedia and Russell in the 1858. According to my study, it would take him 28.75 years to learn these 39 languages and 2.2 years to practice. So if you add this up, and again I didn't know too well what to do with these two numbers, so I just added them up to have at least something. It would take him 30.9 years just to learn 39 languages under borderline utopian conditions in the world today. All right, we continue. Francis Burden. By the end of his life, Burton had mastered at least 25 languages or 40 if distinct dialects are

counted, so let's say he spoke 40 languages. It would take him, according to my study, 29 years to learn these languages and 2.32 practice. So, in total, 31.3 years. Now, you have to realize that this is he would go, he would be like a machine. He would be born a trilingual guy, started studying at six, and learn a language, a difficult one, in three years, and then every three months learn a new simple one. And he would go like this for 31.3 years. It's just, it's just, this is the absolute bare theoretical mathematical minimum, no job, nothing, just learning languages. All right, we continue. There's this sir gentleman, he was called WJ Situs, and it was said he entered Harvard at the age of eleven and as an adult was claimed to be conversant in over 40 languages and dialects. All right, so again 40, as we calculated, it would take him thirty one point three years or in other words he would be thirty one point three years old when he would learn or

when he would know 40 languages. The problem is he died at 46, so even this mathematical theoretical super improbable number is getting a little bit shady because you know he was 46 when he died. We can move on. Kenneth Hale, 50 languages. Hale didn't just study these languages, however, you all. He also learned them himself, becoming fluent in Tohono O'odham, I'm sorry, I'm round to read that, Comanche, Hopi, Navajo, or PV, and about 45 other languages. And one more thing I wanted to read about him. What's most amazing about Hale, however, is the rapidity with which he could learn a new language, often being able to have basic conversation after just 10 or 15 minutes of listening to a native speaker. It's absolute nonsense, of course, but you can see Wikipedia is just full of stuff like this. Anyway, to learn 40 languages, according to my calculations and the most utopian theoretical mathematical way in the world today, it would take him 40.6 years. We continue Xia huzzah.

probably a lot of you know who this person is. The Guinness Book of World Records up to the 1998 edition listed Fazekas being able to speak and read 58 languages. Cycling alive interview in Athens Greece and 19 and July 1991 probably maybe a lot of you have seen also his appearance in the Chilean TV show. I'm not going to comment on that. I'm just going to tell you how long they were taken to learn the 50 languages that he claims to speak really well. It would take him forty-nine point four years again theoretical utopian minimum. He is 62 now so very very very improbable ml clips. He mastered 68 languages in speech and writing and studied 120 other languages again the word mastered very important. This is why I chose those a c1 level and this is this is where it's really started getting really really interesting. So according to my study it would take this person fifty-nine point three years theoretical minimum to learn 68 languages. This person passed away when he was 62 so as you can see it

starts to get even with this absolute theoretical minimum. Just not realistic. And now we get to these people who were really good. The theoretical minimum is more than half the actual age of the person in question. So this person from the Gallants, the number of languages with which governments more or less thoroughly research, and which he was the first to have scientifically worked on, numbers over eighty [citation needed]. So eighty languages that this person claims to speak. It would take that person 70.5 years, according to my study, to learn all those languages. The person passed away in 67. So Sir John Bowring ranked with Josette Mezzofanti and Hans Kono Fandango balance among the world's greatest hyperpolyglots. His talent enabling him at least to say that he knew 200 languages. Let me continue. And could speak 100. All right. It would take this person 91.7 years, or I should say it would take a super talented individual in the world to date 91.7 years.

seven years under utopian conditions to learn 100 languages to AC one level and speak all of them at a c1 level. So clearly, this person passed away in 80. Just doesn't add up nearly Melanie cook. I don't want to. I didn't want to actually put this gentleman on this list because really Melanie cups. Some of you might know him. He is a Russian, I think, TV personality, I guess. And he had a head injury after which he started to say that he speaks a lot of languages and said that he speaks more than 100. But it's just not true because, yeah, it's just first of all, we've seen from the calculations that it's impossible. And second of all, I've seen the video where he said a sentence in 100 languages and 99 of them or 98 of them were invented sounds. So but anyway, I just want to show you how long it would take that person to learn 100 languages. Well, not that person, but how long it would take a super talented

person in the world today to learn 100 languages. It would be ninety-one point seven years. Really passed away when he was 54, unfortunately. And then we have the sort of the greatest number of languages claimed by one person, and that is this gentleman over here. He has claimed to speak 200 languages, and this is what Wikipedia says. By his death, he was set to speak or read more than 200 languages with varying degrees of fluency. Let's just for the—we don't know whether that was C1—but just for the sake of this whole thank you. See how ridiculous it would be if he would have said that he spoke these languages at a similar level. To learn 200 languages to a C1 level by a super talented individual in the world today, it would take that person two hundred and sixteen point one years. Clearly just impossible by any standard. Now, if you would cut this person some slack and say that only half of these languages that person knew to a C1 level, we can just go here and we

would see that that would take a ninety-one point seven years, and that person passed away when he was 88. So, as you can see, the numbers in my study, at least, speak for themselves. These are the numbers that I came up with; they are just for your reference. Again, my aim was to calculate how long it would take a super talented individual, under utopian conditions in the world today, to learn the number of languages deemed gentlemen have claimed to speak to a C1 level and speak all of them at the C, give the at the C1 level at the same time. Yeah, just just to have a sort of basic point of reference. Of course, there are many, many things in this study that you could argue are incorrect. You could say that that person could study languages in parallel. I argue at that point that speech that it would take them twice, twice as long. So, what happened is basically the same thing if you learn two languages consecutively or in parallel; the time would be the same. But there are mother many her mother but

There are many other things in the study that could be improved. However, it is at least the basic point of reference to show you that if you want to learn 200 languages, it might take you 216 years, right? Because a lot of people, they sort of, they don't say, they don't talk about how technically impossible it would be at times to learn 200 languages. You just do not have the time, clearly. Two hundred fifteen years. This person passed away in '88. All right, so as you can see from this little math experiment alone, it is quite evident that most of these people just could have not spoken these languages at a C1 level at the same time. The last question that I asked myself is, what do I think, how many, what is the limit in the world today with all the was just a real realistic life? What would having a job, having a family, having commitments, or just, you know, life going its life going into an own way? What would be the limits? How many languages a very time that person, let's say the

number one best language learner in the world with all the resources and respectively everything that is a really good language learner would need, including a very well-wired brain for language learning. How many languages could that Christian learn in their lifetime? And I think, and again, like I said, it depends on what kind of languages they are. So, we can, we can, we have to have a really healthy mix of difficult and simple languages and so on. So, all of this is factored in. I would say no more than twenty-five, thirty would be the maximum, again, she one level at the same time, and that person would have to be dedicated to language studies their entire life, doing nothing else or very little, having very good support, financial-wise, and so on. So, tell me what you think, tell me what you think about the little study that I did. If you see any mistakes or blind spots in it, please do tell me. Like I said, I'm not the greatest mathematician in the world. And please do tell me what do you think, how many languages would a super-talented

language learner under ideal conditions be able to learn during their lifetime. Let's say by the time they're 80 or 90. So that's it. Thanks for watching. I'll see you in the next video. Bye.

Is it possible to speak 100 languages?

Vladimir Skultety

연사는 40개에서 200개에 이르는 엄청난 수의 언어를 구사하는 사람들의 공통된 주장에 대해 생각해봅니다.

그들은 그러한 주장의 실현 가능성에 대해 회의적인 입장을 표명하고 이상적인 조건에서 매우 재능 있는 사람이 100개의 언어를 배우는 데 걸리는 시간을 계산하기로 결정합니다.

발표자는 이 데이터를 사용하여 이러한 언어 학습 주장의 현실적 가능성을 판단하고 언어 우위를 평가하기 위한 C1 수준의 숙련도 기준을 설정하고자 합니다.

한 언어의 C1 레벨을 달성하는 것은 여전히 높은 수준으로 간주되며, 시니어 레벨에서 여러 언어를 마스터하는 것은 비현실적인 목표입니다.

언어의 난이도는 다양하기 때문에 숙달에 도달하는 데 걸리는 시간을 결정하기 어렵습니다.

매우 재능 있는 학습자는 쉬운 언어의 경우 3개월, 어려운 언어의 경우 3년이 걸릴 수 있으며, 이후 같은 계열의 언어는 더 배우기 쉬워집니다.

이 연구는 새로운 언어를 배우는 것 외에도 한 사람이 알고 있는 각 언어에 대해 2주마다 한 시간씩 연습해야 한다는 최소 요건을 설정했습니다.

메조판티 추기경은 39개 언어를 구사하는 것으로 유명한데, 이 연구에 따르면 이상적인 조건에서 언어를 배우고 연습하는 데 30.

9년이 걸릴 것으로 예상됩니다.

프란시스 버든과 WJ 시투스도 40개 언어를 습득하는 데 약 31.

3년이 걸리는 것으로 나타나 언어 구사 능력이 뛰어나다는 평가를 받고 있습니다.

언어 슈퍼폴리글롯의 가능성 없는 삶

케네스 헤일은 50개 언어를 배우고 여러 아메리카 원주민 언어에 능통하며 원어민과 단 10~15분 만에 기본적인 대화를 나눌 수 있는 것으로 유명합니다.

파제카스는 68개 언어를 말하고 읽는 데 이론적으로 최소 59.

3년이 걸렸다고 주장했고, 또 다른 사람은 200개 언어를 알고 있다고 주장했으며, 그 지식을 습득하는 데 이론적으로 최소 91.

100개 이상의 언어 학습의 불가능성

100개 언어를 C1 수준까지 배우려면 매우 재능 있는 개인이 91.

7년이 걸리는 반면, 200개 언어를 구사하려면 216.

이 계산은 특히 다양한 유창성 정도를 고려할 때 이러한 주장이 터무니없다는 것을 강조합니다.

이 연구는 여러 언어를 습득하는 데 걸리는 비현실적인 기간에 대한 참고 자료를 제공하기 위한 것이었습니다.

200개 언어를 배우려면 216년이 걸리기 때문에 대부분의 사람들이 동시에 모든 언어를 유창하게 구사하는 것은 기술적으로 불가능합니다.

완벽한 조건과 자원을 갖춘 이상적인 언어 학습자는 현실적으로 평생 동안 25~30개 언어를 C1 수준으로 학습할 수 있습니다.

이 연구는 언어 학습의 어려움과 한계를 강조하며 어려운 언어와 쉬운 언어의 혼합이 필요하다는 점을 강조합니다.