I have always been fascinated, since a very young age, by all those who had the capacity to speak fluently not just the own native language - I was considering this as a gift given to quiet a few people. But since then I've changed my mind completely.
What means in fact to be a Polyglot? To give you a simple answer and definition, by this term we describe someone who was in time able to master multiple languages (and no, knowing just a few words doesn't mean to master them)
The majority of people is able to speak just the native one, or at least this was the standard before globalization penetrated every sector of our societies along with English as the universal language.
Since then everything changed and many of us who were not used to it, started to learn it (by the way, Hollywood and Music did a great job).
Everyone understood the power and opportunities that came with English and we ceased to be simple monoglotes
As today most of us lives in multicultural and multilingual societies, to be defined a Polyglot knowing just two languages was not enough anymore, and nowadays we tend to consider this ability when someone is able to speak at least 4/5 of them correctly. Does this sound hard? It is! But out there someone did way better: enough to take a tour on YouTube to find out an army of people speaking even 20-30 languages.
And the best thing is that they were able to speak really hard ones or not well known, as well as regional dialects. How crazy and how awesome
Everyone can do it. It requires a hell of hard work, dedication and practice because we all know it: a grammar book is never enough! Recent studies state that being bilingual since a young age helps as well because by this you predispose and develop the brain area that is interested in the acquisition of other languages.
Personal Experience
My native language is Romanian. One of the languages that together with Italian, Spanish, French and Portuguese, derives directly from Latin
When I was a little kid I moved to Italy and finally had the opportunity to learn Italian. I felt so proud - and it became in time my second native language.
In my head and memories, I have always been able to speak it
Everything in this messy brain speaks Italian! Cool uh? But don't worry, I train my Romanian too.
After that, English fever hit me and internet represented a huge treasure in order to learn it. I took all I could from everywhere: movies, music, books, people, chats and so on. And even if I'm not that good, here I am, writing an article on Steemit!
The fourth language I learned is Spanish because somehow I had to. I'm ending my one year abroad, so you understand why, especially when the locals are not able to use English.
Now I feel that soon I'll start with my fifth one. What do you guys think this should be and why?
What about you? Let me know what are you able to speak and how many languages you mastered already