Top 10 FAKE Polyglot Tricks EXPOSED!!! You won't believe number 3 

“You might as well speak Portuguese, which is Spanish spoken in French.” I completely lost it.

Thanks man! Gonna use these tips!

Number 4, I studied Russian and accidentally learned 6 other Slavic language without Realizing I was side questing

Number 9, I spent a summer in US in a Russian immigrant bungalow colony. My spouse is a native Russian speaker. Any attempt of mine to speak Russian in the colony, was always answered in English, by the colony members. If I tried it in our bungalow , I was told (most likely correctly) that my Russian was terrible. If I tried speaking Russian to our 18 month old child, the child would burst out laughing. I think the child gave me the most accurate review.

The only language I have studied quite a lot and read a lot is Spanish. When I check these ''polyglot speaks 15 languages'' I normally go to the part where they speak Spanish and find that not only is it very basic, but they make a lot of mistakes that people generally stop once they leave absolute beginner level. The trick is simply that when you meet a new person the conversation is almost always exactly the same, so if you just learn how to follow those rails in that initial-type conversation, you could easily pretend to speak ten languages.

I didn't have a French person tell me I was speaking horribly, but they did switch to English right after I said bonjour. Then again, I can't blame them. Working at a gas station in Quebec, on the border of Ontario, I'm sure they hear all sorts of anglophones butchering their language. It still made me appreciate the folks in Mexico who appreciate you trying to speak Spanish and will even help you out.

I've been learning a new language intensively for a year and a half, practising every day, and I honestly feel like those videos where people "sneezed and suddenly became fluent in a new language" are making light of the time and effort it actually takes.

As someone who was born and raised in Portugal, "You might as well speak Portuguese, which is Spanish spoken in French" made me laugh. What a simple and effective way to describe it. 😂

The hyperpolyglot interactions always remind me of the Kids in the Hall sketch "I Speak No English," where the clerk speaks to the customer in perfect English: "I've learned this sentence phonetically, but I know nothing of its syntax or grammar. I assure you, I speak no English."

I will respect the channel’s desire not to name and shame RU-vidrs who at best exaggerate their polyglot capabilities. But I can say that he’s spot on about what they do. I frequent an Indian restaurant that a well known Polyglot RU-vidr visited after claiming to learn the regional Indian language in a few hours. The owner was surprised and happy to see a white American speaking our language. However the RU-vidr made a lot of mistakes and asked the staff to translate when he couldn’t understand, and asked them how to say things. The video clip apparently edited all that out and just made it look like he was much more proficient in the language then he really was.

I could not t agree more on your comment of "do not pick Hungarian with all the cases". A bilingual (English - German) guest specialist at my work place once proudly announced that he cracked the code of Hungarian language by studying the menu in the cafeteria and catefully analyzing the elevator security tab for 2 weeks. He explained us what he made of the endings and the sentence structure. None of them were correct or even slightly close to what was really happening. He then made up his mind to impress the cafeteria lady by asking for milk for his coffee in Hungarian. He said it was a great thing thst cow and milk starts with the same two letters in Hungarian so it would be easy to remember. Well, it was easy to mix up so he asked for a coffee with a cow (sometimes with THE cow when he accidentally used a definitive article). The cafeteria lady acted like nothing happened, did not bat an eyelid and gave him milk and he was so happy.

#11 Be very generous with the level of linguistic complexity, nuance and detail you put into subtitles

Brilliant! Finally someone talked about these things! I see “polyglots” speaking Spanish TERRIBLY with so much confidence. It’s insane. And my own audience is often really good at English, but they just don’t have the confidence when they speak. Confidence is so powerful.

Very interesting because I follow a European polyglot here who claims to speak a lot of languages and he IS good at identifying them. I've watched dozens of his videos and it struck me that he always uses the same phrases with people in their language. "I like [country] very much, I like the food especially. I like to make new friends. It's fun to meet new people." And when they invariably ask him how he can speak [language], he says, "I speak [language] because I have a friend here who speaks it." It's always the same phrases. But he never gets into a real discussion with them (unlike a couple of others I follow here, who can tackle any subject and respond intelligently). You've given me a lot to think about.

Richard Fenyman told a story in his autobiography about a time he went to Brazil as ... I think it was basically a guest lecturer for a semester? So he spent some time trying to learn to speak (Brazilian) Portuguese even though he was told he could lecture in English because he figured the students would learn better if they weren't trying to learn and translate at the same time. He was later on an airplane with a Portuguese couple and was talking to them and they were amazed that he spoke even a little bit of Portuguese, so he started to explain how/why he knew it, and realized partway into a sentence that he'd forgotten how to say "so" in Portuguese. However, he also realized that, when there's an English word derived from Latin, the Romance languages will quite frequently have a close cognate, so he thought "consequently = consequentemente" and used that. Which impressed them even more that he knew such long words.

My cousin is a polyglot, although I'm not sure if she would fit the definition of a hyperpolyglot. She speaks, reads and writes German, Polish, Russian, Greek, and Khmer fluently. She also has a basic reading and conversational level of Hebrew, Spanish, Portugese and Italian. The thing is though you wouldn't know she was a polyglot unless you asked, or unless you were a family member who knew her well enough to know how many languages she spoke. She doesn't go around waving her language proficiency in people's faces, she's not on RU-vid trying to sell courses, she just happens to a) be able to learn new languages fairly easily and b) loves to travel and engage with different cultures. I am always highly suspicious of people making claims like being a hyperglot when they are either doing it to make money off people, or doing it for views and attention. This was good information you presented here.

My husband trained as an interpreter nearly fifty years ago although he ended up in a completely different profession. His French, although without a trace of an English accent, is now quite ropey because he rarely gets a chance to speak it. The language he knew least well (Latin American Spanish) is now exceptional because there's a Latino community in London and he uses it often. Immersion in a language is the best way and use it or lose it is totally true.

I've noticed this many years ago, when polyglot videos started coming up. I'm fluent in 4 languages, and it really bothered/frustrated me that some "polyglots" who obviously do not know how to speak the language pretends to speak it. I wrote a comment on one of those videos and was downvoted into oblivion for calling them out. So, thank you very much for making this video and exposing the truth of these languages grifters.

I’m so glad someone made this video. Thank you. I’ve been studying mandarin for over 10 years and I’ve been doing it without any formal classes. It’s been a slog. And you are right, my family is Dutch and that language is technically much easier to speak but the Dutch are a lot harder to please than the Chinese. And so thanks to the wonderful kindness of all the poor people who have suffered through conversations with me, I have persisted. For better or worse. But it’s really something else to see how many RU-vidrs have mastered mandarin in 6 months. And I’m still over here trying to ask the shop keeper where they keep the honey but I keep asking her where they keep their bees. And you’re telling me you learned to read in 6 months? Really? Reaaaallly? Those people definitely exist because I’ve met them, but those people are beautiful freaks of nature but they know they are special. They aren’t out their telling everyone “you can achieve the same thing my elite athlete brain can do… if you just study more and do some productivity hacks”

It's actually very easy to catch a fake polyglot when they started to speak Chinese languages like Cantonese, Hokkien, Mandarin etc. Because we have different speech patterns like in English, whether it's news report speech, formal cooperate speech or imperial speech. They might catching bits and pieces but can't fully grasps the entire sentences. Plus, Chinese and Japanese have a lots of daily idioms and proverbs we'll be using in a casual conversation, if a real polyglot sure learned a few of them prior.

As a blunt and rude Russian I will say it bluntly and rudely: your Russian is very good! The American accent is very strong of course, but there are no mistakes. The switch from the formal "you" to the informal "you" is a little surprising but I can assume that you have created a strong bond with the other person during the short dialogue. 🤣

Dad would try to learn "please" "thank you" and 1-10 in as many languages as possible. It really doesn't take a huge vocabulary to impress people that you're trying to relate to them and that their English is better than your second language. Dad's favorite trick was "do you mind if I listen?". Made people unsure if they could get away with saying things in front of him.

Thank you - I love that RU-vid has brought out a new issue that didn't exist prior to the monetisation of a video. My Grandfather probably qualified as a hyper polyglot. he was born in Paris with a Norman (not French) Mother and British Father, oh and a German nanny/governess so tri-lingual from birth. In the 1939 British army list he was listed as a class 1 interpreter in 12 languages and a class 2 in 11 further languages. The funny side is that when he was talking to someone in any language other than English and they had some kind of speech impediment - he would acquire it ... very embarrassing.

Yeah I've seen some patterns in the phrases they use, but your thorough explanation really shed more light on the situation. Great video!

Your French person saying it is terrible was funny to me. French is my first language from my mother and father. I went and lived in Japan for four years to translate Japanese and English for the military. When I came home, I answered my mother in French... with a Japanese accent. 😆🤦 She smacked me. In public. Yelled at me in French to just speak my horrible English and not butcher her language. I was careful for the rest of my 2 weeks visit at home before returning to Japan. 🤣

Finally someone says this. I lived in Shanghai for 7 years, so whenever I see RU-vidrs speak Chinese and get a typical “wow you speak so well” responses, it’s underwhelming to me. And listening further, the accent sounds exactly like a typical American speaking Chinese with a heavy accent. And you hit it on the head, a lot of the phrases I hear are the exact same. It’s doing the most basic things for a shock.

I just found you and loved this. I have been watching a couple of RU-vidrs who seem to speak nearly every language. I find it so interesting. Thanks for sharing.

I love this video! my friend was really into polyglot videos and I was very impressed, until I heard them speak a language I knew. once you hear that the tricks they are pulling become very clear.

I speak native Russian, C2 (native-like proficiency) English, C1 (advanced) Spanish and Turkish, B1 Portuguese and Learning Japanese and Ukrainian. And it took me 15 years to be able to switch between 4 languages in a natural way and hold a profound conversation. Like when you can talk to natives for hours. I know the eye are people out there who are better and faster learners and speakers than me but I still think 4 languages at that level is a great achievement :)

THIS, YES! I've studied Chinese as a hobby for years and I was very aware that I never got much more than getting by, but never fully able to hold a very consistent conversation. Strangers and friends would say "Oh wow, you were speaking Mandarin, you sounded so proficient", but once you always use the same conversation patterns, it'll get very easy to repeat the same "mind script". So I never dared to say that I could really speak a language if I couldn't hold a fluid conversation in it.

Great video! Thanks for raising awareness on this. It's become so prevalent especially in my line of work (language teaching). There are so many grifters in the space that learn the basics, then convince would be students that they can achieve fluency in a matter of weeks "too", all to sell them an overpriced course, of course, that uses a "unique methodology" they invented. In some of the language courses the "polyglot teacher" never uses the target language save for a phrase or two. It's really causing issues for genuine teachers as students are finding it hard to trust them.

Fun fact: I learned Dutch as a kid when I lived in the Netherlands. I never took classes, but it was around me and they didn’t dub English TV. I learned by reading the subtitles and my best friend is half Dutch. It made so much sense then. Now, 30 years later, other languages have taken over and Dutch feels odd now. I’ve known around 6 polyglots in my life. But I love it when people learn other languages. But you don’t need to have a ton of languages under their belt. It’s so difficult to keep a language up organically if you live outside of that country or community. My parents used to have to study up on Japanese before we would go there, despite all my grandparents being able to speak Japanese.

Real polyglots can be easily identified by how much depth they go into. For example, a fake polyglot in Chinese would probably only do videos where they go to a supermarket in Flushing and talk with strangers. A real polyglot in Chinese does comedy skits, talk about some specialty subject... basically the same stuff you'd expect a RU-vidr to do if everything was in English.

I refuse to claim that I really speak Spanish, but I'm also the only person at work who speaks ANY Spanish so... catch me asking the patient if she needs a refill on her "medicine for the sads" because I don't know how to say "antidepressants" 😂 I'm genuinely not even close to fluent but I speak well enough to get by in a casual conversation or short interaction and my accent is so on point that I definitely COULD trick people into thinking I'm fluent.

As someone who has been studying Chinese for like a year and a half and still struggling, it's a bit relieving to hear that some of the people who claim to be fluent in a couple of months aren't always legitimate, or at least that our definition of "fluency" differ

This is so on point. I studied Thai language at the School of Oriental and African Studies and subsequently worked as a interpreter for the International Red Cross about a decade ago. Thai is one of those languages that is often used by "Polyglots" to illustrate their fluency and they are without fail going for the first trick whilst butchering the pronounciation. I just know that all the other interpreters that I have got to know that speak these more obscure languages such as Pashtun, Farsi or Thai like I did, have been embedded ( and I am using the term embedded loosly when speaking about Thailand 😂 ) for many years ( 4-6 years ) and put in countless hours and lifetime. The effort it takes is truely mindboggling. There is just no way one can be "fluent" in one year in anything other than Portuguese, Italian or Spanish and even that demands every fiber of your being. I think there are so many points worth mentioning when it comes to fluency as well which would deserve their own video.

Pretty good video, you're spot on. Also, the more languages a faker pretends to speak, the less likely a single person will expose all of them. For example, if I claim to speak only a handful of languages, I might meet someone who can properly assess my level of fluency in all of them, and expose me. If, however, I claim to speak like two dozen languages, not a single person in the world can assess my level in all of them. I've seen some of Wouter Corduwener's videos, who pretends to speak 29 languages, and people regularly comment: "Being an X-speaker I can tell his X is very bad, but it's still impressive he speaks so many other languages."

I can relate with point 9. I speak both Dutch and Japanese, and the response to non-native speakers is very different in both cultures. Dutch people will often switch to English on the first hint of you making a mistake, whilst most Japanese people will almost always respond with "日本語上手" (your Japanese is great) even if the only thing you did was say one Japanese word really badly.

Actually, using fillers to stall while you try to figure out how to phrase your response is super useful when you learn a language. For example, I really used a lot of "it's like... you know", "you know what I mean", and "you know what I'm saying" as I was learning English. It made me feel more confident when having conversations.

You just accurately articulated what I’ve been trying to explain to my friends for months! I loved this video!

Certified professional medical interpreter here! 👋 I have a degree in Chinese language, and lived in China for 12 years. You just ruined my whole world because my patients _always_ tell me my Mandarin is better than theirs. 😞

#9 is so true. I was told multiple times in Moscow to speak English when I mispronounced Russian words. I learned a rather old form of Russian with a weird accent from my great-grandparents who immigrated from western Russia but were born in Belarus, and then tried to learn both Belarusian and Russian at various times, mainly from watching RU-vid videos. Russians were not impressed and let me know very quickly. I've been trying to do genealogical research in Russia and Belarus (probably won't be able to continue that for a very long time now) so reading old records including some written in cursive has been my main goal. So, I couldn't care less about being conversational, but in small towns where few speak English, having some ability to communicate is important.

This is so good! Instant subscribed!

I'm so glad you pointed out that Chinese people do not often directly criticize bad mandarin - in fact they will often give compliments and register surprise when you can say ANYTHING in Chinese, and it is actually a very real impediment to improving if you aren't getting the feedback you need because people are culturally inclined NOT to say anything they feel might be insulting or make you lose face, which is a big thing in Chinese culture. I have learned and spoken Mandarin for now 13 to 15 years depending on when I consider my true start to be (was extremely casual from 2008-2010, barely learned a thing in that time frame) - my wife is a native speaker of Mandarin, I have lived and worked and gone to university in China at this point and do you know what has changed in how people respond to my Chinese over the years DESPITE that my vocabulary is exponentially greater than 10 years ago, my pronunciation is better, my grasp of grammar structure is better, and I am FAR more comfortable communicating in Chinese now than 10 or 11 years ago when I could barely stutter "could you get my a pair of chopsticks" at restaurant in Chinese because it felt so unnatural and it was terrifying to say it to a native speaker and have them look confused as they tried to figure out what I was saying - because uncertainty and hesitation changes your TONE - and mandarin is a tonal language - so being nervous has an impact on how well you speak it early on. ANYWAY, in all of that time, the reaction is this: "Wow! You can speak Chinese!?" or "Wa! Your Chinese is so good! Where did you learn it?" or something along very similar lines almost every SINGLE time someone DOES show surprise or comment on it it is one of those - and it was exactly the same back when I had a vocabulary of less than 100 words and could barely ask where the bathroom was (and couldn't understand the response if in Chinese and longer than a word or two) - now I have a vocabulary of thousands of words, and still the exact same reaction if I get one. The ONLY exception to this is my wife and mother in law, who have said at times that my Chinese keeps getting better and better, which, combined with the marked decrease in puzzled looks by Chinese people I used to get when they couldn't understand my shaky Chinese, are the ONLY indicators beyond my own improved knowledge of pronunciation, tone and grammar that I am, in fact, far beyond where I used to be. So yeah, when you see that famous video of Mark Zuckerberg "speaking fluent Mandarin" or you see XiaomaNYC as "white guy speaks PERFECT Chinese, stuns locals" - for those who don't know because the Chinese people in the comment section are often extremely forgiving for accents or tonal mistakes...Zuckerberg's Mandarin in that video is EMBARRASSINGLY bad - really painful to hear honestly as someone with many years of experience with the language including in China - and XiaomaNYC has a very obvious American way of pronouncing everything - I'd immediately be able to tell if I only heard him without seeing him that this was not a native speaker and very likely could tell he's American in all probability (believe it or not, French people for instance speak Chinese very often with French inflections - and to me it sounds hilarious - Italians with an Italian inflection and so on- it's very hard for a lot of people to lose their accent when speaking Chinese even if they speak fluently and structure the sentences well, just as it's almost impossible for someone born and raised in Germany to go to the U.S. at age 25 and completely lose their accent - they'll most likely always HAVE an accent, and that's OK but it's ALSO why it irritates me when guys like XiaomaNYC go around calling it "perfect Chinese" - that and I REALLY can't stand the "white guy shocks locals" headline first of all because I loath colour-coding instead of simply saying you are Europan-American, Italian-American, or even with less focus on ethnic heritage, JUST American - "American guy shocks locals by speaking passable but DEFINITELY not perfect Chinese" simply doesn't have the same ring to it, so you know WHY he does it. He's relying on the 90% of the audience who doesn't fluently speak Chinese but aspires to learn to one day - the people who don't KNOW any better because they literally cannot hear the difference between real Mandarin and his proto-American version - in other words the same people who can't identify what tones were off in THIS video when languagejones gives the Chinese example (no offence - some tones aren't spot on and that's ok because you never claimed they were unlike XiaomaNYC). Same goes for Orientalpearl - who does WELL but has a distinct American accent in Chinese as well. Da Shan they are not (he MIGHT fool a native speaker over the phone into thinking he's from China). And don't get me started on John Cena's pronunciation BUT the thing is John Cena never CLAIMED to speak it fluently or perfectly - unlike some on youtube. And yeah, all because the Chinese people in the audience avoid saying "actually it's not that great - it's like if a guy with a pretty thick Russian accent said 'Russian guy speaks PERFECT English, shocks Americans" - except that Americans WOULD tear that claim to pieces and laugh at his thick accent. Anyway there's ONE way to tell if your Chinese is improving when talking to native speakers: When you start using Chinese with them early on, pay attention to how often they switch to English to respond, and compare that to years later down the road. Many Chinese will always default to English when they see a non-asian face - if they speak English - but you should still notice whether there's an increase in the number of responses in Chinese - are they speaking back to you in Chinese? Do they look confused? Did they simply say "Shenme?" (what?) - or are they casually speaking quickly in Chinese to you without seeming like they are dumbing it down or slowing it down for your benefit? If so you probably have improved or else they would speak English which most younger people under 50 or so CAN speak some of. NEVER rely on "Woah, your Chinese is so good!" comments - even if your Chinese sounds like someone is gargling pigeons, they'd still say that. Pay attention to the switches to english or lack thereof (though do it somewhere like Shanghai where many more people speak some English than out in the villages in the west of the country where they may not respond in English because they don't know any - my mother in law for instance cannot speak any English so our conversations are always fully in Chinese).

This whole genre of videos probably stems from the fact that people think speaking a foreign language is hard. In reality it's usually the learning part that's hard, not the making of mouth sounds. I can probably learn to speak a single phrase in German almost perfectly within an hour, but it would take me years to get fully conversational that way.

Love your reference to Albert Camus. "The literal meaning of life is whatever you're doing that prevents you from killing yourself."

I am glad you articulated how easy it is to get the basics down. The only real way to become fluent is to make a fool of yourself 1000 times in front of native speakers. Important to point out the differences in levels and how much more effort it takes to become an advanced speaker. I got conversational in Ukrainian within 6 months and could go to a store and a bar and impress people with conversations based mostly around the fact I was a foreigner studying the language. Then I cracked open a book, started translating song lyrics, and was put into University classes with other Ukrainians in Ukrainian and then it turned into Hard Mode.

Hilarious. Nice pipe collection! Love your channel, man.

I love your sense of humour and your dry delivery… hilarious! #9 Social Engineering was my favourite. In bilingual Canada, I just can’t even forcibly make myself study French. It is so discouraging to get the negative feedback at the outset when I attempt French and then be ignored out of disgust. I am learning Spanish because love, kindness, and friendship is what they show me. They encourage me to continue speaking their language.

2:28 Number 1 - Memorize the basics 3:53 Number 2 - Railroad 4:47 Number 3 - Learn to stall 5:52 Number 4 - Sister languages 7:20 Number 5 - Go easy or go home 7:52 Number 6 - Obscure through obscurity 8:28 Number 7 - Edit deceptively 8:40 Number 8 - Use stereotypes! 9:16 Number 9 - Social engineering 10:00 Number 10 - Shadowing gone wrong

Dude you're so hilarious, I love this!😂😂😂

Very entertaining and insightful video. I've always had a feeling some of the "polyglots" fake some of the languages they claim to know.

So glad you're back. You gave me the idea of calling myself a 'linguaphile' for which I am very grateful. So much less pressure!!

Lately I watched a video of a "polyglot" who was "speaking" italian (my language) following many of your rules. He was "talking" to a cook in a restaurant in Italy, yelling much of the time, saying basic phrases most of all. He was talking for the 90% of the conversation. A guy like this could seem fluent to foreigners who don't know the language, but globally he said almost nothing.

This was an entertaining video, Dr Jones

OMG! I love the slight at the Dutch "cuisine" !! Sooo accurate... when the work canteen sells food, it's just Broodje Kroket!

Well said! I'm an Indonesian with Chinese decent. It's always been painful to see RU-vid "polyglots" claiming to speak Indonesian harshly or barely understand how our spoken languages are drastically different than the written one. Nice content! Edited: thank you for 150 likes

I remember watching a video from Benny the Irish "polyglot". He was learning Japanese and decided to have a conversation with a native after studying it for one day! Well, he starts by speaking and it all goes well, then the Japanese asks a few basic questions and he keeps repeating the same thing until he decides to say he doesn't understand and the conversation stoped there.... he wasn't able to speak and understand a normal conversation, but only to repeat what he wrote down to say during the video. Of course it is normal since it was his first day, but he is the one claiming you should speak from day one..... no one should speak from day one, not even babies do that.

Your reasons for being drawn to linguistics sound just like me! Might be my new favorite channel!

Didn't take time to look into your vid (or at it, sadly), but its a good topic and I dropped a like. You're very clear and the intro was compelling enough (imo). I'll sub, actually. Have a good day!

I really appreciate this video. Over the past few months I have been desperate to learn Polish in time to visit my family in a year. It’s my mother’s native language which most of my family speaks exclusively, and it is HARD. In searching for tips I found myself on the “polyglot” side of RU-vid being bedazzled by their performances. They always felt off and it is refreshing and comforting to see an actual expert speak on the topic. I was starting to feel so inadequate for not being able to learn languages to fluency in a matter of months.

Enjoyed the video. I was in the US Army many years ago and studied Spanish then Russian at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. At the end of the course, you took the standard proficiency test which was two parts - aural and reading comprehension. So you got two scores. The rating was from 1 to 5, and no one who had simply studied the language could get more than a 3-3. In order to score a "4," you had to have a certain amount of experience (years!) in the language. A "5" required that you either be a native speaker or that you had spent years in the country. The government recognized that it was not possible to learn a language quickly. It takes years of constant work and practice. When I got out of the Army, I got a degree in linguistics rather than a language. When you major in a language in the US, it's usually about the literature, not the language. Not that I don't care for literature, but there is a lack of emphasis on practical language use. Linguistics gave me a look at the structure of language, which helped in the languages I studied later. (FYI: your Russian is very good except that you got some stresses wrong...and, yes, I did recognize that you were not speaking Klingon.)

Great tips. I usually pay attention to how the person holds the dialogue. A fluent person normally acquires the ability to expand on a subject or conversation simply because they have more vocabulary and resources. Usually, a scammer will try to stay away from longer and deeper conversations. Their conversations are usually scripted, which means that if you ask very specific questions, they will have to cheat, change the subject, or end the conversation. To summarize: 1 - Fluent people usually stretch the subject or conversation. 2 - They are comfortable having longer and deeper conversations. 3 - They figure out ways to answer specific questions.

Enjoyed this video! Not good at languages but they have always fascinated me. Languages, accents, people's names from all over the world......heaven!

This is the best exposed video I've ever watched! 🤣 Thank you for sharing these important info! It really annoys me people faking being a polyglot, because they don't really know it takes litters of blood, sweat and tears, plus money and unslept nights to become a real polyglot (actually, they know, that's why they go for the easy route 👀 lol). Some people might get encouraged to study languages by watching their content, but it seems most people feel frustrated and discouraged, because they weren't able to "learn as fast as them". To all language lovers that make real efforts to get there, don't give up, you can do it! 💪🏼

This reminds me of the guy who always orders food in Chinese to the amazement of Chinese people but he never seems to have a conversation with them

Great video! Those videos of person X going into Chinatown and speaking “Chinese” to people always rubbed me the wrong way!

Excellent stuff! Loved it.

I always look forward to a new video of yours. I’m finishing up my BA in Spanish, of which has of course involved taking several linguistics classes, and I feel like your videos make the study of linguistics much more interesting, engaging, and applicable to the real world. I will say, when I started learning Spanish on my own several years ago, it was the polyglot videos on RU-vid that inspired me to believe that learning a second language as an adult was actually possible, and led me to purchase a subscription to Babbel and Pimsleur, which brought me to the B1/B2 level before I enrolled in school to pursue a degree in the language.

My son read Mandarin at uni and is very fluent now. However, he had been learning at school for 5 years previous. Some people just take to languages and his teacher was astonished at his pronounciation. She asked him and us whether he had spent any time in China...no. He travelled over the country and loved chatting to everyone. He had a massive go at a taxi driver in Shanghai, who was trying to scam a white tourist (i don't think he expected a tongue lashing) when my wife visited him there...my wife's jaw dropped at his outpouring ! That said, my wife is fluent in two other languages apart from her native tongue.

I have seen a few of those hyperpolyglots videos. I already suspected this kind of scam. As a native French i always realised theirs is almost always abysmal and covers only the basic stereotypical conversation sentences. Thanks for the detailed review on this subjetc, quite interesting.

super glad your back. 100% on rosseta stone stories

Love the channel, great work! Tip 3 got me a 25/25 in oral part of the DELF B2 back in school (I would have barely passed without making a list of random intellectual quotes the evening before, which I threw in the conversation very casually, without even acknowledging they weren't shit I was saying on the spot). The most hilarious was on the subject of texting with mobile phones, "ecrire, c'est une facon de parler sans etre interrompu".

Great video, I subscribed to your channel!

Nice video!! Thanks!

Just a tip to improve your Dutch: “Omdat” en “want” are synonymous as conjunctions that denote “because”, but the ensuing word order will be different based on which of the two you use, which is where you erred. “Ik studeer Nederlands *omdat* ik de cultuur leuk vind” “Ik studeer Nederlands, *want* ik vind de cultuur leuk” Dutch definitely isn’t that difficult of a language to learn the basics of, but It does have a lot of these little vagaries you’re gonna have to get used to. Veel plezier met het oefenen

Interesting. There is definitely a difference between "knowing a language" and "performing in a language". The latter would be something actors are trained to do for movies.

I'm a monoglot ( Well, I've got a enough French and Spanish to get me fed, sheltered and pointed in the right direction when traveling) who has often been greatly entertained by Xiaoma's and the other's videos. I haven't, for a moment, believed that they achieved fluency in a day, or week, or month. What I most enjoy is the reactions of the native speakers they communicate with and can see the delight on those people's faces regardless of what they really thought of the RU-vidrs' fluency. (and sometimes embarrassment if they've been saying unkind things) In general, it's always a good idea to take with a grain of salt anything one sees and hears on RU-vid. And although YT polyglots may exaggerate their proficiency, it wouldn't surprise me to learn that many, many young people have been encouraged to go ahead and try to learn a foreign language -- an extremely valuable skill in an ever-shrinking world.

You had me at ILLUSIONS, Michael!

Been studying Japanese fairly seriously for about four years, still suck at it. I actually realized that when I first started going online to practice with native Japanese that I was railroading them, I was making sure to talk as much as possible and control the conversation. It probably took me over a week or maybe even a month before I realized I was doing it and it was hindering me. Now I try to be a much better listener and conversation partner not just for my own improvement, but to be kind.

Thanks so much for telling the truth!! When I see some you. tubers who claim to be able to speak more than seven languages, I really wonder how they define "speaking one language". Coz to say a few sentences of a small talk is to speak, to be able to read a novel and talk about it fluently with other native speakers is also to speak. I doubt what they mean with their being able to speak so many languages, means only small talks. Nobody can get it checked anyway.

Greetings to the algorithm ✌️ And, great channel 👍

I‘ve seen a couple of those videos and was always sceptical. I never understood why native speaker’s didn’t ask more complicated questions. I‘ve experienced losing languages, I know speak three languages daily and would love to be able to speak French and Czech again. I achieved B2 in both languages once. But that was more than 30/20 years ago.

Great summary of how anyone can make one of these "polyglot" videos. Also using "filler words" and not saying anything really of value is extremely telling, there were many students I met who had a habit of doing this. Unfortunately, these kinds of videos are always what grab audiences attention the most often. It is hard to not fall into the trap of wanting to "keep" up with others and how many languages they claim to speak when in reality we all cannot truly see all of the layers people have or have not truly dedicated to language learning

This video was so great! The part about learning how to sound like you're thinking was hilarious. And please tell us about the story of how you worked for Rosetta Stone!

Interesting video. Would love to hear your Rosetta Stone story. Some of the polyglot videos I feel do show that they are surface level and admit they are learning key phrases. Also, since I've studied Hebrew recognized it wasn't Klingon.

Great stuff -efharisto poli, Kyrie!

What great content. My language learning has been dormant for years. Discovering your channel is getting me motivated to work on my Dutch and Italian. I've always gotten by in Spanish knowing only the present tense, but I'm considering expanding my knowledge. Just subbed to your channel because I love exploring language and language acquisition.

I was so happy understanding it immediately in French when I realised you had warned those were basic phrases 🤣 no wonder those channels fool us into thinking learning is easy

You have to do a whole video on (non) learning Dutch, that was too funny 🤣

This was great stuff

That filler trick is solid. In fact, the French are famous for using it just in their own regular speech. Once at a dinner party a native French person was telling a story. Instead of saying “Um”, he literally said this: “Et en plus? Et puis alors donc....” meant nothing & contributed to the story. 😂

What really puzzles me when I watch polyglot channels, is kids in their early 20s saying they are fluent in 5-6 languages - how the heck is that even possible unless you've grown up around those languages? It's not just about the basics of grammar, prononciation and basic vocabulary - there are so many life situations and so much phraseology in every language that take years of exposure and active use to absorb. I have pretty good aptitude with languages and am near-native level in one more language in addition to my native tongue (excepting the accent :) ). Even so, I've been studying Italian (not the hardest of languages) on and off for years now and am comfortable in most social situations and even some political discourse (am probably a high B2). That said, if you asked me how to say that there is a gap between the skirting board and the floorboards, I'd be lost. And there are hundreds and thousands of everyday situations like this.

Love your use of the term polyglottery! I always say I speak a little over 2 languages --English, Spanish, & 1118 straight days of French on Duolingo. Plus I just checked out your store & the "this is not* a wug" & "ceci n'est pas un wug" products really had me laughing! (Just finished a Master's Degree in the Teaching of Languages May of '23 & watched that wug video a few times!) Sorry I didn't purchase anything... My whole family lives on my H.S. Spanish teacher's salary & I don't have too much to spare at the moment. If I ever see "esto no es un wug" I might be more tempted to scrounge up the money. Lol. I did however "like" the 3 videos I've watched so far & subscribe to your channel. I think I'll also share it with my students. Keep up the good work! I really enjoy your videos.

Loved your segment about the French fillers😂 trop marrant

This was hilarious! Also, yes to the rosetta stone video(s)

As someone who has been learning Chinese since i was a kid, the idea that duolingo is going to teach you fluent Chinese is hilarious. It'll teach you to appear to have proficiency in basic conversations, but never an actual mastery of the language. I've been learning Chinese for 11 years in school and I still have so much to learn. I still feel like my vocabulary consists of 100 words, even though I know that's not true. Learning one language takes true dedication.

This is genius genius genius. I've always tried explaining how most polyglots are frauds 😂 these are ironically the best language learning tips. Bravo sir!

Awesome vid. I've always loved languages. Studied French, German, Cantonese, Māori, Welsh and Mandarin to varying degrees of success and picked up phrases - such as greetings, please/thank you, occasionally how to order my coffee - in numerous other languages as opportunity permitted. My preferred conlang is Lang Belta (from the series, not the books) - Lang Belta da Kelingong da nuva!

I speak some Hebrew and noticed you said "ani lilmod ivrit" but it means "I to learn Hebrew". What you wanted to say is "ani lomed ivrit". And, by the way, yeah, I knew it wasn't Klingon but it really made me laugh 😂