Ridiculous language learning genius stories

Language learning stories are just stories

I know this Polish girl personally. Let’s call her Pani “A”. She use to brag that she learned Polish (a very hard language to learn) when she moved to Poland. She speaks Polish like a native Polish speaker. Many people were impressed and she just ate it all up. She said she had a gift for languages. And would tell people she has a gift to learn languages, and again people were impressed and told others. And so another ridiculous language story was circulated.

I dug into the story of this language learning genius

Like so many language learning stories there is more to the story. Pani “A” story was born in Poland and lived here until she was eight years old. She was a native Polish language speaker. She moved to Australia where she spoke English then as a teenager returned to Poland and this is where she claimed she learned Polish. When I found out about this fact she said, but oh I forgot Polish in the seven years in Australia and had to relearn it. That being so, by age eight you are a native speaker and it is more just refreshing the grammar, not learning a language like an American who never herd the language.

The Scottish language learning genius

I meet an Irish guy who claimed he picked up Polish because he was a language genius. Girls where so impressed. I was not. I looked into the story. This language genius neglected to say he has a Phd in Russian,a Slavic language scholar for twelve years and lived in Poland for six years. To me that is not just picking up Polish because it was in the air. His Polish was ok not perfect mind you.

French Polish actress telling language stories?

No confirmation on this language learning story but I was watching Polish TV this weekend and I saw the actress Elisabeth Duda (from France), she claimed she learned Polish in Poland as a foreigner. Well her mother was Polish and she speaks such a perfect Polish I find it hard to believe she did not have reasonable exposure to Polish before she came to Poland.

African language genuis story

I meet an African guy who spoke Polish claiming his only exposure was a Polish girl friend for 3 months while living in France. I do not believe it. That means he would have to had learned about 300 words a day, locked in his brain,with grammar and pronunciation in 90 days based his level of Polish. No way. It was another ridiculous language learning story. His Polish was good but he did not seem like ‘the sharpest tool in the shed’ and to learn that much Polish so fast and so well, I think it was more of a story.

Boston language genius story

Meet a ‘girl genius‘ in Boston who said she picked up English but her friend who liked me confessed the girl in question studied English for 10 years to the University level, she did not just pick it up. The girl in question said that does not count as her teachers were just ok. But still 10 years of study must count towards something. What a ridiculous language story.

Before you believe a story about a lagnauge genius

Remember extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof

So before you believe that people can just pick up a language because it is ‘in the air’ or they are a genius, do not. Its just a story. I have taught and learned languages for years, thousands of students and never meet a language genius, only people who study with passion and those who complain. So consider these language learning stories and know learning a language is blood sweat and tears.