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-christopheclugston: "Who is the best Polyglot? I bet you don't know. Christophe Clugston tells you, based on scientific criteria."-

hahahahaha "SCIENTIFIC"

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What strikes you as whacked out about Stu Jay's ideas? I'm not like a devotee of him, just interested to know what you think

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ah, I'd only seen a few of Stu Jays videos, and read a few of his blogs. Indeed he seems very accomplished with languages, but I agree, from what I know of NLP is hazy pseudo-science. I understand that Stu Jay is very much a motivational coach, working with companies, I imagine the NLP stuff goes down well with business managers :)

Stu-Jay's level in Thai is pretty mind-blowing.

(But then, he's lived there for quite a long time and he is married to a native speaker, I believe...)

@Imyirtseshem "You'd think that Clugston with his demand that every opinion be cited (except his own, for some reason), would be more weary of such 'shady characters'."

that's not very likely:

-http://speakingadventure.com/what-makes-a-polyglot-and-what-do-polyglots-think-about-language-learning-part-1:

Linguist, language teacher, pro fighter, developed what has been called the Worlde’s strongest self defense. Accelerated learning, Neuro Linguistic Programming, Athletic enhancement (mental and physical)-

"NLP is always something which I've taken to be pseudo-nonsense."

yep and nope..

yep: NLP seminars, workshops, books, audio programs.. = pseudo-nonsense ($$$)

nope: NLP basic principles = pretty normal hypnosis

now, is hypnosis kinda pseudo-nonsense? yep.. then why did I write "nope"? cause even pseudo-nonsense seems to work (somehow) in real-life scenarios.. why? I have no clue

Interestingly no women on that list.

Ranking the YouTube polyglots seems quite foolish to me. Language learning is not a competition, I don't get why everybody wants to know who's "the best polyglot". Even if someone knows just one foreign language, he might communicate better in that language than someone who knows a dozen of languages. And after all, language is all about communication.

Some of you may find this poll fun/interesting

http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=32508&PN=1

I would also vote for Luca. But then language learning is not a competition.

In reconsidering, I would vote for Richard for the range and and number of his languages, and Luca for the smoothness of his pronunciation. But then Stu Jay Ray is quite amazing as well. So maybe I would not vote at all.

These guys are all amazing and worthy models.

As for Clugston... I watched one of his videos. It was so full of nonsense, I couldn't help leave a comment midway through -- which I regretted writing after hearing more of the video. In any case, he refused my comment because I wasn't using my real name (there are videos of me on my channel and they mention my name!) and ridiculed my post in the most cavalier manner while misspelling every second word. Anyway, I'm done with that clown.

I did not even know I was in that kind of "competition". It is nice to see that people find some of my videos useful but that's about it for me. I enjoy studying languages and exchanging ideas and experiences. I have a lot to learn from others and I hope I'll have even more opportunities to do so in future.

Clugston posted a video with some parts I enjoyed recently, called "The biggest tool you have for learning foreign languages." After his usual boilerplate of denigrating YouTube polyglots, he talks a bit about real-time interpretation as a powerful exercise for improving skill (and locating gaps in vocabulary / expressive ability) in your languages.

The biggest tool in the language learning community is Clugston himself.

He evidently has far too high an opinion of himself...

Having read a lot about NLP, a lot of it is not well founded scientifically but they can provide some useful practical techniques.

There are assumptions made about our psychology and use of language which don't stand up well to scrutiny. For example it is claimed that people favour a way of thinking about the world that is linked to a certain sense and that a persons use of language identifies which "modality" the person favours. So if a person generally thinks visually then they will likely use words and phrases relating to sight. Someone with a visual modality would likely say "I see what you mean." a lot, instead of "I hear where you're coming from" , which would indicate they favour an auditory modality.

As soon as I read that I thought this was bunk. My mother and father are both blind with my mother having been blind since birth, and my father lost any useable sight over a decade ago. Both of them use lots of visual expressions like "I see" or even things like "I went to see a film". Saying things like that are merely habits of speech that we pick up.

It's also discredited by the academic community for lack of empirical evidence and putting forth factual errors. That said, some of the mental techniques taught can be beneficial for certain things, so it is not all complete nonsense. Just... Mostly.

After a little research, it even seems that much of the online martial arts community consider him an absolute joke. He even claims to have re-discovered the fighting style of the gladiators from the time of Julius Caesar...

He seems like a troll after cash.

The prerequisite for the title "best polyglot" should be that the person first BE a polyglot. Clugston shows no evidence that he speaks any language beyond English, which, in any event, he mangles with stilted syntax. I certainly have seen no videos of him speaking foreign languages. He shouldn't even be mentioned in the same breath as Steve, Luca, Richard, et. al. I know his type well, being a student of the history of radical groups: He reminds me of conspiracy theorists like Lyndon LaRouche. They ramble on and on and on but don't actually say anything. They make video upon video saying the exact same thing. They create an image of themselves as a "guru," based on nothing but hot air, and they build up a fan base of true believers who think that the guru has "exposed" the "mainstream" and, through brave "dissidence," has shown "the truth" and "the secrets" of (fill in the blank). He's a fraud.

I absolutely agree 1000000% with rwargas22.

Thank you ;)

I love them all. But I have a preference for the easy ones,the happier ones. The ones who uses the realistic,natural method Like Steve,Luca,Moses,Richard etc. But I like also Pr. Arguelles.

I like all the youtube polyglots. They've all got something a little different to throw into the mix. Some of them are trying to sell products/services, and some of them aren't, but they all seem to be basically motivated to help others.

As for who is the best? That's so hard to say. There's the question of how many languages a person speaks, and then there is the question of how well the person speaks those languages. And there's also the question of how much time they've spent learning their languages.

Stu Jay is extremely impressive. It's really mind-blowing to hear somebody speaking a language like Thai the way he does. And he speaks these relatively unknown Indonesian languages. Richard is mind-blowing but his language are mostly European, IIRC. In the end, as with many things, I don't think there is a clear best. It depends on what criteria you consider important.

As for Clugston, I don't know him so I don't want to speculate about him having less-than-praiseworthy motivations. But I find his evident strong dislike for youtube polyglots strange. His videos are somewhat incoherent, and I find them a little bit disconcerting.

I'll dig this one from the past. I tried to interact with Clugston and talk about some of his ideas but he labeled me a troll because I don't use my real picture online -- as if anyone really cares what I look like... I don't understand Clugston's obsession with titles. As someone with multiple academic degrees... my employer only cares about my work and my results, not the degrees I hold. By his definition of a "master" BB King, Eric Clapton, or Mark Knopfler wouldn't be considered exceptional musicians because they don't hold degrees in music.

http://xkcd.com/386/

Wait, you mean that's not you in your avatar picture? ;)

I watch Clugston's videos on YouTube. I watch many linguists and language-learners online. You know, the guy is right about *one* thing: the left/right brain modes of learning. What he doesn't realize, though, (since I doubt he's ever used it), is that LingQ allows the user to learn in both ways. I just posted in another thread about how I began "processing" more Russian as meaningful content simply by *listening* to LingQ lessons; by "forgetting" the English definitions I learned and just listened. Of course I wouldn't have understood them at all without a left-brain approach in the beginning; but effective, meaningful listening (at least for me) is largely a right-brain activity. (From what I understand about the different hemispheres of the brain, anyway.) You know, the thing Steve said that finally convinced me into using LingQ was the line, to paraphrase: "No one can teach you a language". That doesn't seem it's coming from a left-brain-centric philosophy at all, which Clugston often accuses LingQ of being. The beauty of LingQ, unlike Rosetta Stone (right-brain-centric) and, I suspect, academic study (left-brain-centric), is that it's well-balanced in this regard. That doesn't make me a "sycophant" to anyone. That's just my opinion. And academia is full of opinions, which I know Christophe would mockingly disagree with.

Thanks Russophile, the problem we have at LIngQ is persuading people who are used to being taught by someone else, that they really have to just learn by themselves, and that LingQ provides a wide range of resources and functions , and a community, that make it easier to do that.

I sometimes have a hard time believing Clugston isn't just an elaborate troll when I watch his videos. His pretentious behavior regularly reaches a cartoonish level of ridiculousness that is usually reserved for satirical comedy.

Stujay's talents are practically otherworldly. His mandarin isn't mind-blowing to me since I lived in Taiwan for a long time, but neither is anybody else's on this list. (Mike Campbell and Brendan O'kane's are, though). But Stujay speaks a ton of SE Asian languages and has basically gotten Mandarin from its regional importance as a 2nd or 3rd language in Thailand, Indonesia, etc. His Thai is basically native from what everyone has told me.

I would bump Stujay up all the way to the top. I haven't really heard much of Richard Simcott but Luca thoroughly impressed me and obviously Steve did too or I probably wouldn't be posting on this site.

I just came across Mr. Clugston today and was more than a little taken aback by his presentation and attitude. The fellow has some issues, I fear. His approach reminds me very much of some 'fake' martial arts instructors I've encountered over the years. Bluster, aggression, claiming 'authority' and denigrating others in the same field is not the way to go. Happily the Net allows you to choose who you interact with or view ... so I can simply steer a path away from him and continue to enjoy Steve's far more amiable and inclusive style.

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(Maybe Mr C deserves a break)

Vladimir is a lot higher on that list. He may be #1.

Clugston is a tool. Everyone here knows it already. I'm sorry you discovered him. Consider yourself lucky.

As to your list of the greatest, I would probably say I agree with your Top 3 of Richard, Luca, and Steve. However, I think it's important to point out that Richard has totally devoted his life to this and Luca is not far behind in that regard. Steve has been involved in so much over his life that is non-language related and he gets extra props in my book for having co-created a method for actual learning that can actually make people fluent. A true method for anyone to become a polyglot.

His French is D.R.E.A.D.F.U.L. Properly bad.

Bru where is my 你个 Tim Doner?

What do you guys think about the guy calling himself "the Metatron" on youtube? Apparently fluent in seven languages. The video below is in English (native language Italian) with links for Greek, French, Mandarin and Japanese in the description.

https://youtu.be/-PyuLpZ37-M