Polyglot, How I Learn Languages by Kató Lomb
Has anyone else read this book? It was written by a Hungarian lady of staggering intelligence called Kató Lomb. According to Wikipedia she was able to interpret fluently in nine or ten languages. This is a great read for lovers of language - fascinating insights, instructive and educational and ... really funny (some of her anecdotes are hilarious). And of course - it's exceptionally well written and translated (not really surprising for such a master word-smith). At 217 pages, I read it inside a day but I can see myself returning several more times - there's so much to digest!
Below is a link to the book. You can also save a copy of it to your desktop and read it off-line.
I could talk for ages about how good I think this book is but I'd rather hear your observations. What did you think of it?
11 Answers
I'm still amazed at her abilities. I came away with the idea that she thought just about anyone could learn other languages as 'easily' as her. Even though she didn't start learning other languages until university, her accomplishments are truly amazing. She made me pay more attention to reading books. She said that one could learn the mechanics of a language just by reading a book. I guess I agree with her, but the 'mechanics' of the language don't come to me as easily as it did to her (or so it seems).
Wow, never saw that before! Cool! Yet another source that "Irish Polyglot" guy has completely ripped off, possibly intentionally, possibly not. The difference is she can actually speak all the languages ha ha!
She really uses the inductive reasoning, wow, even using a dictionary to find out how to pronounce the words instead of finding one of those phonetic lists. "c = ts in cats"
It's a really good idea that when she figures out a word from the context she then writes out that whole sentence to go back and look at. I used to do something like that with Czech but I got a lot lazier with Spanish because it wasn't as necessary to go all out in order to learn it.
It is a fact that generally women everywhere speak faster than men do. (According to Mario Pei, the average American male utters 150 syllables per minute, while the average American female utters 175 syllables in the same time interval.)
That's interesting.
The right brain left brain stuff she goes on to talk about is all contested by lots of brain scientists (what on earth do you call a brain scientist?) An considering a person born without the hemisphere supposedly responsible for speaking and creativity was still capable of speaking and being creative (though it was a bit more difficult for her, she was missing an entire half of her brain, it's not just that it was "a bit smaller") I think it's safe to dismiss some of those ideas!
I'm just going to skip all this bit about women being better than men at learning languages because while it's generally true she's not really approaching it scientifically, using any old coincidence as if it were fact. I don't know why she goes on on this rant about women really, the chapter was called "how I learn languages." I don't think "Well, after all, I'm a woman, and woman are awesome." is really necessary? It was such a rant!
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to work with some very cordial and cultivated interpreter colleagues in England. Right at the introductions, I asked them to cor- rect my mistakes. Three weeks later, at our parting, I had to reproach them for not having corrected a single error. Had I not made any mistakes? “Oh, indeed, you have,” came the reply with a shrug. “But you see, we are so used to it that our ears have developed an automatic error-repairing mech- anism. Only corrected forms reach our brains.”
That is such a problem! There are certain things that I always notice like "people is" but that's a mistake not an error, for the most part i have to concentrate really really hard to spot student's mistakes, If I just listen they won't come to me.
http://It is a grave delusion that a stay in the country of the language one is >studying functions as a funnel through which knowledge just pours into one’s >head. I think people have been misled by the Latin proverb Saxa loquuntur, or >“Stones talk.”
Tell me about it!
I haven't studied Catalan here, have I learned any Catalan? Please = siuspllau, thank you = merci. I can't even say "my name is" I can say it, because I read it written down somewhere, but I don't know how to pronounce it. Study is everything!
II. If your enthusiasm for studying flags too quickly, don’t force the issue but don’t stop altogether either. Move to some other form of studying, e.g., instead of reading, listen to the radio; instead of assignment writing, poke about in the dictionary, etc
Yay! I always remind myself "It doesn't matter how slow you go, as long as you don't stop." and "A change is as good as a rest."
III. Never learn isolated units of speech, but rather learn words and grammatical elements in context.
I always tell my students this. Do they listen?
X. Be firmly convinced that you are a linguistic genius. If the facts demonstrate otherwise, heap blame on the pesky language you aim to master, on the dictionaries, or on this book, not on yourself.
Hee hee hee!
Tis good!
There is a free ebook available which you can download called " The Polyglot Project" on the link below, its also sold through Amazon, which may have a method best suited to individual learners?
http://syzygyonlanguages.wordpress.com/the-polyglot-project/
I am about halfway through the book, and it has confirmed that my "lazy" method of learning Spanish has real value! By "lazy" I mean that I read every day - Spanish language newspapers or websites, novels, the Bible. I try to figure out the meaning from context and jot down any words or phrases that I can't figure out to look up later. I keep these in little notebooks. Unlike the author, I seldom make a mark in my books because I like to re-read them and see how much I have retained.
I am posting this comment now to boost this entire thread. I think lots of people will be interested in this very readable and interesting little book. Thank you so much for bringing it to our attention, Patch!
I've been recommending this book to people for a long time, and I have a question to those who haven't found anything useful out of it, or think that her methods only work for her: have you actually tried her method? I mean, really tried hard and for months? If not, how do you know it doesn't work?
Thoroughly captivating, from my perspective! Thanks.
Being fluent Hungarian, it's particularly interesting because many examples she cites are steeped in Hungarian linguistic tradition, and I don't need to read the footnotes to understand it! 
I have written on 18th August about Kató Lomb without her name, because I had never dreamed , that anybody knows anything about her.
"In our country we had a lady , who used to be an interpreter of 16 languages. She wrote a very interesting and witty book. In this book I read the sentence , which guide me in the learning of the different languages: The language is the only knowledge , which worth having even badly."
She is insisting on the importance of the reading but I suppose in our era the watching of the films is equally important and helpful .
I read it ages ago. To be honest it didn't help much or give many pointers (that I can recall) She is just a natural, presumable because Hungarian is such a beast of a language.
I've started reading it, and I'm loving it! Thank you!
He empezado leyéndolo, y me está encantando! Gracias!
Thank you so much for posting this. I can't wait to read it.
Jack said..
I came away with the idea that she thought just about anyone could learn other languages as 'easily' as her.
Yes! It must seem so easy to someone like her. Why can't everyone do this?
jeezzle said..
She is just a natural, presumable because Hungarian is such a beast of a language.
I must admit that this is exactly what I thought. Hungarian does have a reputation as being rather..hmm..complex. Surely everything else is easy compared to Hungarian, right?
Pesta said..
...but it sure doesn't seem to make learning Italian, German, or Spanish any easier!
...or maybe not, then 
Porcupine said..
The hungarian literature is wonderful and our poets were fantastic interpreters so we have a relatively wide knowledge about the literature of the world
Yes indeed! Greetings to all the good people of Hungary
