Panglot

Living Growth of Translingualism and Panglotism:

2011-12-09T14:47:00.000-08:00

2011.12.10

Even as one who has gained a working level in German would then want to tackle on Spanish or French, given right stimulation and opportunity, one who has acquired confidence in one or more language(s) from an entirely different group and has experienced first hand how it has helped one to experience and understand totally different culture in a profound and self-expanding way that could not have been possible without gaining a working ability in their language, would be more likely tackling on learning languages from some other groups, should the opportunity and stimulation be given.

This is how translingualism grows, as it is not just an abstract conception, even though it might seem and be interpreted to be so by some, but something that grows out of one's life experiences.

The depth, strength and vitality of the motivation of a bi- or tri-translingual would be different than that of someone who has not yet had intensive transcultural and translingual experiences, but was stimulted enough to learn multiple languages whether from the same group or different groups. There is quite a difference in subjective motivation that has just begun to have a life of its own and that which has already grown through a longtime living experiences and achievements in different languages.

As one grows older in age and languages, one finds oneself with a clearer sense of the limitedness of one's lifespan and a much more realistic idea of what it is to acquire languages from other groups and what it takes for one to do so. Now, if your language learning goals have become much broader and include many more languages than ever before, and you really want to pursue them, but find that you are not as free with your time as before and that life had put many heavier responsibilities upon you, you would be forced to become more systematic in choosing and studying your languages.

This is exactly what has happened with me. Through a serious struggle between my expanded motivation and hard realities of life, I had to rethink about many issues involved with learning languages and drastically restructure my choice of languages and my approach to foreign language learning.

It is just that I happen to be much more seriously interested in understanding different cultures and global civilization than languages, and in my attempt to subsume my language interests under the structure of my greater passion, which gave them birth in the first place, I had to develop my language goals in line with my overarching passion .

I spent most of my adult life dealing with the issues of globalization and rise of planetary civilization. It was only belatedly when I was finally given opportunities and stimuli of actually spending significant amount of time in quite a number of different cultural regions, that I began to appreciate the key value of learning languages for better understanding different cultures and our world in general.

Before this, I was just simply way too busy to even consider the idea of learning any foreign language at all. I could have thought that, except for those who made a living out of foreign languages, students or retired people, anybody who would spend time doing so would be someone who did not have much better things to do with life. Thus, I can understand why many people might think it strange or even misinterpret my motivation for pursuing panglottic goals.

I had moved from one extreme to another.

Panglotism is not a notion that I just had abstractedly concocted up because I had limitless time in my hand and was bored to death with life or to compete with anybody else. It is a fusion of my lifelong passion for global civilization with language learning, with much thoughts given to the practicability and actual attainability of it, even as I value my time very much and abhor using my time for impractical or useless objectives.

Concentrating on Panglotism:

2011-12-09T14:45:00.000-08:00

2011.12.10

Now, I am concentrating my posts on Panglotism, the most extreme expression of translingualism, because my heart is in it and because I am somewhat under pressure of time and do not want to spend too much time discussing the basic issues of general translingualism, in the fear that I might not be able to discuss panglotism in full for quite a long time at this pace.

Once, however, I do finish explicating my version of Panglotism, much of the concepts of translingualism would become evident as a by-product and I might also try to discuss more on general translingualism, for which topic many people who are learning or have mastered languages from other groups would find a cord that strikes them and feel more comfortable participating in the discussion.

Two Different Approaches of Translingualism:

2011-12-09T14:25:00.000-08:00

2011.12.10

There can be two different approaches in translingualism:
1) translingualism
2) panglotism

1) Translingualism: Even though translingualism includes panglotism, it is a much wider concept that can embrace much broader spectrum of language and culture learners. It is an approach that is actively appreciating and pursuing a more global language learning objectives.
2) Panglotism: Panglotism belongs to translingualism, but is an extreme expression of translingualism. It is specifically targetting the mastery of the most of the major and secondary global languages, with the total number of languages being 20 or above. It is also the most mature and complete form of translingualism. If minimal translingualism or globalglotism is the skeletal structure with sinews and basic organs, panglotism will further add muscles, flesh and skins over it and perfect the functions of some organs such as eyes, ears, nerve system, etc.

Many people might think that the goal of panglotism is such a titanic task that cannot be realized within their lifetime and that I am just babbling away my own crazy unrealistic wishes with some sophistication. I do believe, however, that it is a very realizable goal, only requiring an equal amount of time and effort to become a polyglot or a superpolyglot, with a proviso that one chooses right approaches and methodologies.

But then even what that 'goal' is must first be more finely defined and needs more explications.

In lieu with my last point, let me point out another aspect of panglotism, which might be misunderstood or difficult to understand: requirement for a more systematic and strategic approach to translingualism, especially in the seemingly unnatural and artificial selection of languages.

Let me mention that I have dabbled in most of the major and secondary languages of the world in real life situations with the native speakers and been exposed to their cultures first hand. I am not like what some people might imagine of a sedantic professional linguist who treat languages as if they were inanimate objects(no offense intended to linguists), but someone who had to struggle between his globally expanded language interests via his various cross-cultural experiences and the limiting realities of life, and had tried to organize his life experiences and language encounters in a way that would maximize his effort in pursuing his expanded language interests.

On the Individual Nature of Panglotism as Discussed Here:

2011-12-09T14:22:00.000-08:00

2011.12.10

Sometimes it takes much time and effort to communicate when there is a great distance in the way people think and a great gap exists between the experiences they had in life. I might have oversped with some ideas expressed here. Due to my time constraints which makes it difficult for me to spend much time to write posts here, I might have wanted to say too much without considering how the readers might think, turning my posts into my monologues rather than an effective communication.

I am expressing my own brand of translingualism and panglotism and I am taking some liberty in doing so, as it seems to me that others have not expounded on the idea of panglotism with a system and logic in the way I am doing now, and I feel that I should express even my own individual views and motivations, even as my own individuality and peculiarities are inseparably tied to the origination, motivation and main concepts of the 'panglotism' as being expounded here. Should panglotism become more widely accepted, discussed and practised, my own personal peculiarities would naturally become superfluous and peripheral and more well rounded panglotism that can embrace broader range of people would arise.

A Pause for Self-reflection:

2011-12-09T14:20:00.000-08:00

2011.12.10

I admit that some of my expressions and thoughts are weird and mumbo-jumbo sounding.

As for the formal and technical linguitic aspects(just in case you find it uninteresting and unhelpful), my heart is not in it, but it must also be respected and be incorporated into the whole system of panglotism. As I see it, there can be cultural or anthropological panglotters and linguistic panglotters. I belong to the former, but the world also needs professional linguistists with more academic and technical approaches and I hope that some of them will also become panglotters. It has been my motto to follow the principle of mutual respect and cooperation with the experts and authorities in other fields, all the more so in our day of explosion of knowledge and specialization.

Some of my following posts might address some of these issues further.

Panglottic Chat(2011.12.09):

2011-12-09T01:18:00.001-08:00

2011.12.09

"Why?"--->"Why not?"--------------------------------------------------------------------------->"Why not!"

Crucial Corollary Concept in Panglotism #2: Vocabulary Transference

2011-12-09T01:16:00.000-08:00

2011.12.09

At this time, let me mention another very important aspect that has a great significance for panglotism and prepare further for narrating the third phase of alien's language acquisition: vocabulary transference.

As Panglotism is an approach that is looking at major languages of the world as just some aspects of one super-language system, one gigantic language of humanity, it is especially sensitive to and seeks to understand the interrelationship among different branches of it.

One important link among the blocks of regional or related languages is vocabulary transference. Unlike the concept of mutual intelligibilty, this concept has not been receiving as much attention. Nevertheless this is what is at the core of different groupings of languages for the purpose of translingualism. It is a little different approach to grouping languages than traditional classifications, but has better practical utility for panglotism and language acquisition.

A great percentage of the vocabulary makeup of a language 'F'(V-F) might be composed of local vacabulary(v-F) plus imported vocabularies from different languages 'A', 'B', and 'C', which are respectively v-A, v-B and v-C.
Thus,
V-F = v-F + v-A + v-B + v-C

Now it might be that the percentage breakup of the amount of them might be as belows:
V-F(100%) = v-F(20%) + v-A(50%) + v-B(20%) + v-C(10%)

Thus if one has a good grasp of languages A, B and C, one might easily acquire a working ability in language F in a reasonably short time during which he learns the structures and local vocabularies of F.

Now the concept of vocabulary transference is crucial for translingualism , because about 90% of learning a language is that of learning the vocabulary of that language and because it allows the panglotter to plan a systematic strategy in mastering Planetarianese.

After laying the basis in a new language, the hard work that is awaiting for one to advance to the intermediate level and then on to the advanced level is mostly that of increasing one's vocabulary of that language. Thus, it is often impossible to advance to a higher level in a new language, unless one spends much time 'reading' in visual and audio formats in that language to expose oneself to and become familiarized with many of its words and expressions.

This is a very simple concept, but an extremely powerful concept that has much ramifications and significances for globalized and panglottic approach to languages.

Superlanguage of Earthman, PLANETARIANESE

2011-12-09T01:07:00.000-08:00

2011.12.09

The panglotter has come to realize through his exposures to and experiences with varieties of human languages and people groups that it is possible to approach all languages as different aspects of one gigantic human language system and to set a goal to learn that one super-human language as just one language.

Thus, he is trying to learn just one virtual language in actuality, Planetarianese or the Superlanguage of Earthman, even though this will take the form of learning seemingly independent and different individual languages.

A planetarian's dream to grow up in Planetarianese for our future destiny.

Definitions of Terminologies Related to Panglotism: Addition

2011-12-08T00:57:00.000-08:00

2012.12.08

Globalglotter: One who is treading the path of globalglotism. One may or may not be a globalglot.

Panglotter: One who is treading the path of panglotism. One may or may not be a panglot.

-------
"He is a serious panglotter who wants to become a panglot."

"She is a great panglot. As an advanced panglotter, she has been quite fascinated with and learning Uzebek and Russian for the last five months."

"As a panglotter of many years, he has finally become a globalglot and is now seriously considering to keep on progressing further to become a panglot."

Wendy Vo as a representative of "panglot and panglotism: new type of polyglotism"

2011-12-07T19:12:00.000-08:00

2011.12.08

There is so much lack of information about her for after 2008. It is as if her parents want to protect her from the overexposure and some of the overly critical responses.

----------

I have mentioned Wendy Vo as a representative of a new generation of young polyglots, who will rise up in our ever acceleratingly globalizing and networked planet, in my thread on "panglot and panglotism: new type of polyglotism".

She is the most appropriate and unique representative, not so much because she has acquired many languages, but more so 1) because of the global spectrum of her languages and
2) because of the degree of native-like assimilation of those languages due to her having acquired them at such a young age.

There were some matters I wanted to discuss about Wendy and I have laid some foundation for doing so in my thread on 'panglotism'. I think that the true significance of her within the wider context of our time and coming new world can be discussed more fully within the framework of 'globalglotism' and 'panglotism'.

There are so many important significant matters that should be discussed about her.

I find it difficult to make time to write here, but I would like to take this opportunity to leave some statements.

Wendy's parents have raised such a lovely child in a way that has shaped her to become one of the great models and prototypes of the future generations, that will inspire and encourage countless children and adults to learn other languages and some even to pursue polyglotism and translingualism.

I greatly value the precious gift within her, which partakes of the nature of the power of futurity, which is bringing our fragmented humanity into an organically interconnected whole.

With great admiration and benedictions....

THE LAMENT OF A PANGLOTTER

2011-12-07T16:40:00.000-08:00

2011.12.08

One day, an aspiring panglot lamented: "The main languages to learn have decreased much over my long journey of panglotism. How sad would it be when there will not be more significant main languages I would feel challenged to learn!"
"When I started this journey, the world seemed so infinitely vast and fearfully unfamiliar and strange. Now it has become so small and familiar, and I am feeling much more at home on our planet. The more I saw, the more fulfilled and enlightened I became, but at the same time, as days go by, I find myself realizing how that exciting sense of adventure and discovery is slipping away."

His mentor then told him: "Do not feel a sense of loss over that. When you complete one task of life, you will find yourself at a place in life, in which you will begin to see many things that you could not see before and also see those things which you must do."

Panglotter revealed one big concern he had:
"I have one fear. When I finally begin to understand what life and this world is all about, I may be just at an age to pass away from this world."

His mentor replied: "That is exactly why you need to systematically organize your life and develop time deadlines for your life, including your time and effort spent with acquiring languages. You have other more important goals in life and you should make sure that your time and effort spent for learning languages must serve your primary objectives, in addition, of course, to the intrinsic joys and values within that journey itself. Though your owl will begin to fly at the dusk, you must always try to plan and revise your plans carefully, from the viewpoint of the omega point of your life."
"As with any other things in life, be prepared to stop and leave everything, should the life call you to allot those times you have reserved for language learning to other important duties or even to leave this world itself."

The panglotter nodded his head: "Yes, indeed, I will utilize my time to learn languages as much as possible at this particular juncture in my life, but I do understand that I should not be obsessed with it or its end results. I take it as a great previledge to be given this opportunity and stimulus to learn languages in lieu with understanding our plantary civilization and phenomenon of humanity and, at the same time, as a great responsibility for which I must give a serious account of."

The mentor then told him to be earnest in his pursuit, but advised him to relax and enjoy the process:
" 知之者不如好之者，好之者不如乐之者(One who studies is not as good as the one who likes studying. The one who likes studying is not as good as the one who enjoys learning.)"
"You have an idea of approximately how much time you have and thus you should not be too lax with learning languages. However, enjoy your journey. Regardless of the breadth and level you attain within that time, you would be glad to have walked this path and find yourself better prepared for what you must do after that journey."

After finishing his conversation with his mentor, the panglotter finally took some time to leave some more thoughts to his colleagues, feeling a sense of obligation to do so, taking an opportunity of his free time, and returned back to his other duties that demanded his attention.

Panglottic Chat(2011.12.08):

2011-12-07T16:28:00.000-08:00

2011.12.08

--My owl of Ninerva started to flatter its wings, seemingly too late, even as it always does so necessarily.

--Names are important in public realm for transmission of our heritage to those who come after. For me, however, names related to 'panglotism' are not as important as the 'life' and the 'spirit' within it. It is the spirit of tremendous respect for different cultures irregardless of how little respected they are by the world, the spirit of insatiable curiosity about our world and different people groups within it, the spirit of futurity that seeks to overcome the limitations of our present times and chart new realities for the future generations.

--My life goals are not languages, but I have incorporated experiencing and growing in them into my life goals.

Three Aspects of the Presentation of Panglotism

2011-12-07T16:26:00.000-08:00

2011.12.08

Panglotism(Globalglotism, Translingualism) as presented here has three aspects and objectives:
1) prognosticate certain changing trends within polyglottism in the context of our acceleratingly globalizing and networked world and the rise of a planetary civilization,
2) set forth its principles and approaches for those who have or will develop serious globalized language learning goals and carry out the implications of the concept of foreign language learning to its complete and most mature form, and find a systematic and effective approach to it, avoiding hit-and-miss and time and effort wasting methods[need qualifications and explications], and
3) present its dream and vision to inspire serious language learners and polyglots for more globalized language learning.

Crucial Corollary Concept in Panglotism: Mutual Intelligibility

2011-12-07T16:24:00.000-08:00

2011.12.08

Let me just quickly mention one of the crucial concepts related to Panglotism in preparation for a possible later post: linguistic distance or mutual intelligibility between languages.

If you find yourself getting interested in the goals and approaches of globalglotism and panglotism, please try to get some informations on the above idea.

I was quite fascinated with this phenomenon among different languages and had frequently asked about it to the speakers of different languages. This was one of the key insights that had influenced me to organize my experiences with different languages and cultures in a way that infused some reflective thinking and systemic principle to my panglotic objectives.

Some Observations and Thoughts #2: Appellations and 'Foreign Language Learning'

2011-10-30T15:48:00.000-07:00

2011.10.31, Monday

Some Observations and Thoughts #2: Appellations and 'Foreign Language Learning'

I believe many of us do share common passion or need to learn other languages, and most of those who have become language enthusiasts do harbor a desire and a dream of learning languages from different groupings. I have felt for quite sometime that the terminologies of polyglot, hyperglot and super hyperglot, though useful and correct appellations, need to be further finely defined and supplemented in a way that will help the language learners to have a better and wider understanding of this whole enterprise called 'foreign language learning'.

monotranslingual hyperglot
tritranslingual polyglot
bitranslingual hyperglot
globalglot
panglot
...
...

I am not crusading to change the mindset and culture of people--I simply do not have the time and energy or much motivation to do so, and I also think that they are quite great even as they are. I, however, feel that it is high time to use some other terminologies to emphatically highlight and clarify the issues.

Clarification: Unity of European Languages in Common Greco-Latin Vocabulary Base

2011-10-30T14:36:00.000-07:00

2011.10.31, Monday

Clarification: Unity of European Languages in Common Greco-Latin Vocabulary Base

Premise: Romance, Germanic and Slavic languages are all Greco-Latin vocabulary based and belong to one European Language group despite their grammatical differences.

Comment 1: I am aware of the differences among them, even as I myself have studied languages belonging to each of those three groups. I have a great respect for those who overcame those differences and have mastered languages in other groups, as it requires tremendous amount of effort and perseverance to do so. For the purpose of translingualism, however, we will treat all three of them as belonging to just one larger group, mainly due to the transferability of significant amount of vocabularies among them.

Comment 2: Just in case someone who is a biginner in Russian argues otherwise, I would advice one to keep on studying till one gets to the intermediate level or take a time to read through a news article in Russian. At beginning level, this does not show much and one may feel that Russian is entirely different from other European languages even in vocabulary, but as one learns the expressions for more complicated thoughts and concepts, one will find a great amount of Greco-Latin based vocabularies.

Comment 3: 'Latin based' means 'Greco-Latin vocabulary based' in my writings.

Some Observations and Thoughts #1: Trend towards Bi-translingualim among Hyperglots

2011-10-30T12:03:00.000-07:00

2011.10.31, Monday

Some Observations and Thoughts #1: Trend towards Bi-translingualim among Hyperglots
　

I think that most of the language enthusiasts would like to learn languages in other language families and those who had already experienced attaining a working level of ability in another language group would more likely to go on learning languages from some other language groups successfully, should the opportunities and inspirations be given.

It seems that the trend nowadays is on learning the Far Eastern languages: Mandarin, Japanese and Korean. Mandarin, especially, seems to be getting a tremendous attention and its popularity seems ever increasing nowadays. Arabic, Hindic, Turkic languages do not seem to receive as much attention, despite the great value and significance that they have within our world.

Among the students of the Far Eastern languages, I see two types:
type 1. those who have spent many years in the Far East, studying or working,
type 2. those who did not have an opportunity to live in the Far East for at least a year, but who are studying those languages back home.
　
It is usually the type 1 who have succeeded in acquiring fluency in one or more Far Eastern languages, while about 93% of the type 2 could not achieve fluency even after many years of effort.
--Type 1, due to having invested enormous time and energy for entirely different Far Eastern language(s), usually have not acquired fluency in more than 4 European languages and thus majority of them do not have the status of 'hyperglot'.
--Among Type 2 are those who have acquired fluency in more than 4 European languages and the majority of 'hyperglots' belongs here. They also have tried hard to learn languages outside of Europe, but about 93% have not achieved fluency in them thus far.
--One can postulated a trade-off of a Far Eastern language with several Europeen languages, especially for the Western learners. There is a need for new terminologies descriptive of new criteria for evaluating the linguistic abilities of language learners in a more balanced way in our ever growing polyglot communities.
　

I prognosticate that some of the European languages oriented hyperglots will sooner or later have their breakthroughs and finally become bitranslinguals. I see those breakthroughs mainly in the Far Eastern languages and Turkic language groups. One of the most difficult hurdle to overcome in other language groups mentioned above is their writing system which is very different from the European ones. Many of Turkic languages have adopted a romanized or Cyrillic writing system, making them much more accessible and easier to learn, though vocabulary acquisition will have to start from a scratch and will take much time and effort to build up. Mandarin, of course, has quickly become the dream language of the world, although it is also quickly becoming the fearful gigantic rock that is shipwrecking the confidence of thousands of polyglots, hypergkots and super hyperglots. When some of the super hyperglots finally get over the difficult process and learn a language from the other language groups, there will be more polyglots trying to follow suit. Through these breakthroughs, the hyperglots would begin to enter into bi-translingualism and inspire many other polyglots to do the same.
　

　

Definitions of Terminologies Related to Panglotism

2011-10-30T11:16:00.000-07:00

2011.10.31, Monday

Definitions of Terminologies Related to Panglotism

Translingual: One who has acquired fluency in two or more language groups.
Monotranslingual, Mono-translingual, Unitranslingual, Uni-translingual: One who has acquired fluency in one language groups.
Bitranslingual, Bi-translingual: One who has acquired fluency in two language groups.
Tritranslingual, Tri-translingual: One who has acquired fluency in three language groups.
Tetratranslingual, Tetra-translingual: One who has acquired fluency in four language groups.
Pentatranslingual, Penta-translingual: One who has acquired fluency in five language groups.
Polytranslingual, Poly-translingual: One who has acquired fluency in four or more language groups.
Globalglot: a polytranslingual who has acquired fluency in five or more language groups, at least one each from European, Far Eastern, Indic, Arabic and Turkic(or any one from other groupings in Southeast Asia, Africa, Near East, etc) groups.
Panglot: a globalglot who has acquired working abilities in one or more languages within each of the language groupings, with the total number of languages being at least 20 or above.[more explanation needed]

The Return of the Alien and the Second Phase in his Acquisition of Human Languages

2011-10-28T00:13:00.000-07:00

2011.10.28, Friday

The Return of the Alien and the Second Phase in his Acquisition of Human Languages

After the long and arduous six years of language acquisition, the alien was quite exhausted but was extremely happy to have acquired a working ability in those six languages of his choice and to have laid the foundation for understanding human language.

He then travelled back to his home planet to get some rest and take on his other assignments.
After about a year, however, he got quite restless back home as he felt that his mission was not fully accomplished.

He originally had three phases in his plan, each carefully planned with a view of possible termination of his endeavors at the end of each phase due to the limitations of time and other responsibilities.
Now with the hardest phase behind him, he wanted to tackle on the second phase which would not be as difficult as the first, but would still pose a formidable challenge and require much effort.
If the first phase was a heavy weight match, the second phase would be a middle weight match.
The third phase would not even be a match. It would be just a very light recreational activity, but through which he would easily gather up several dozens of cognate and associate languages and finally seriously begin to work on understanding the natures and properties of Earthman's language system in lieu of Earthman's civilization and its destiny.

Something in him was relentlessly driving him to go back to the Earth.
Was it his destiny working in his life?
He made a good presentation to his headquarters for the value of his second phase, and to his great joy, he was granted three years of precious time to carry out his plan further.

Back on Earth, he carried out his second phase, targeting on learning eight languages which show after the arrow marks(----->), building on his first six languages:

-Spanish and English(Latin base) ----->French, German, Russian
-Mandarin ----->Japanese, Cantonese
-Hindi ----->Tamil
-Arabic(Egyptian)
----->Persian
-Turkish
----->Malay

In his first phase, he had noticed that he could listen and understand some other cognate languages which he did not even study. He was tempted to fiddle with some of them, but due to time constraint and serious nature and scope of his endeavor, he had decided to not get sidetracked, but keep on treading the original path he had chosen.

He felt that he could manage eight languages, two more than the first phase, within three years, which is half the time he took for the first phase, even as he had a good foundation in six basic languages, had already developed a huge reservoir of transferrable vocabularies and familiarity with different grammatical structures, and more importantly had developed a far greater capacity to grapple with any languages.

The alien began to work deligently on adding eight more threads to his net.
The Leviathan in the sea instinctively sensed something was going on and began to wriggle its fins involuntarily as if it was getting ready for the encounter of his lifetime.
　

An Alien Panglot/Globalglot and His Six Languages

2011-10-27T08:28:00.000-07:00

2011.10.27, Thur

An Alien Panglot/Globalglot and His Six Languages

There is an alien from outerspace, from a star system called Lingomedra, who had come to our planet with a mission to understand human language in its entirety within six years of time.

After a preliminary survey of a variety of different languages and some attempts at learning different languages, he quickly realizes that he is limited by time and ability to learn all of those languages through simple mathematical calculations.

He then comes to a conclusion that he could learn by himself only 6 languages during his given time on Earth.

Now he has an anthropological motivation, rather than economical or political one, to understand as much of the significant human languages, that is, to understand languages in order to understand humanity as a whole. He also want to lay a good foundation upon which he could learn other languages, should he be sent back to the Earth later for further investigation and research.

After much further research and toying with different languages, he finds that there are some basic types of languages, with each type having a number of cognate languages, that there are specially shaped language groups with similar shapes--a circular language group with circular languages, a triangular language group with triangular languages, a square language group with square languages, etc. It does not take long for him to figure out that if he were to learn one triangular language, it would become easier to learn another triangular language, even as there are many similarities in their structures and properties.

He also finds out that the experience of learning totally differently shaped languages rather than a number of similarly shaped languages somehow gave him a much better ability to learn totally newly shaped languages, and even other similarly shaped languages.

After much consideration in the light of his mission, he comes to a conclusion that it is best to choose one of each differently shaped languages, rather than six similarly shaped languages or three similarly shaped languages each from two different shape groups.

Through this, he is aware that he will gain a much stronger ability, an almost instinctive capacity to digest new languages, whether their shapes be similar or be entirely different, and that he will have a very solid foundation from which he could digest many other languages, even as most of other languages will share some similarities with those six different types of languages which he would have mastered.

He then chooses the following six languages with the ones in the bracket as his optional choices:
-English
-Spanish(French)
-Mandarin(Japanese)
-Hindi(Tamil)
-Arabic
-Turkish(Uzebek)

He then makes a one hundred page report to his comrades back at the headquarters as to why he chose those languages, and recommends his comrades to take a survey of and toy with human languages themselves and choose their own particular languages and their numbers according to their own judgements, with the only proviso that they try to understand human language in its total beauty and richness as it is only by putting different pieces of the puzzle together that a clear and total picture of what human language is will emerge, when they are also sent to the Earth with the same mission.

After taking some time to explain his own particular approach to human language system, he returns back to his task of making a gigantic net composed of six different threads to catch the most slippery and evasive Leviathan, lock, stock and barrel, the Language of Earthman.

Concrete Definition of Panglotism in Lieu with its Strategies

2011-10-26T22:23:00.000-07:00

2011.10.27, Thur

To become a panglot will not need more amount of time invested than to become a traditional polyglot.

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A clarification:

The concept of panglotism or globalglotism should be discussed in lieu with its methodolgies or strategies, which would need to be discussed in another topic.

At this place, however, let me just say that my approach to it is that of more balanced apportionment of time and energy towards learning human languages in its various branches. It is an approach which focuses on learning few selected languages from major language families, rather than 10 or 20 languages within a language family or two, especially at the stage of laying foundation.

Thus a more fully defined concept of panglotism should be necessarily entwined with its strategies and methodologies to give it a more concrete and identifiable historical definition.

It is not so much a question of number of languages, but of the breadth and scope of languages one studies.
Time spent on becoming a panglot will be same as that on becoming any traditional polyglot. The difference will be the focus, way of looking at languages, approach and resulting linguistic capacity.

It is an approache that will fill the serious gap in traditional approaches which are too regionalized, though have met and is meeting the various needs and motivations of traditional language learners. As our world changes, what we used to think of as very important independent languages would be more and more perceived as only a regional dialect of or a variety within a language family group and we will begin to attach more significance to other language groups to the same level that we used to give to our regional independent languages. This will bring about a shift in our views and approaches to the so-called foreign language learning, first among language and cultural enthusiasts, and later even in our educational institutions.

To simply put, an aspiring panglot would be deliberately and strategically focusing on learning just one or two language(s) from an entirely different language group, rather than trying to learn 7 or 8 different subcatagory languages from a same language group, and replicating this approach a number of times in different language families, at the stage of laying foundation in panglotism.

Once this foundation is firmly laid down and one becomes a glabalglot or a foundational panglot, one could easily progress to become, should one choose to do so, a fully developed master panglot, and assimilate quite a number of languages quickly and become a super 'hyperglot', at a much faster speed and greater magnitude than the traditional hyperglots.
　
　
　
　

Belated Vision of Panglotism:

2011-10-26T11:17:00.000-07:00

2011.10.27 Thur

Belated Vision of Panglotism:

For me, Wendy Vo, a Vietnamese girl who could speak 11 languages from various different language families at the age of 8, is a great representative of those emerging young panglots, and I think we should pay more attention and consideration to her phenomenon within the context of accelerating pace of globalization and emergence of a planetary civilization. (Let me add Cesare M, a 19 year old serious language learner from Canada, as belonging to this group)

I began a very late start with the languages and got my eyes open somewhat belatedly to the importance of learning languages for acquiring deeper understanding of our planetary civilization. Though a very late starter(after formal education), problably later in life than most polyglots, I have become a polyglot, for which I am very grateful and satisfied. I finally connected the dots, saw the light and caught belatedly the vision of Panglotism. I am just hoping that I will be granted enough time and calmness in life to become a panglot myself.

The strategies or methodologies for panglotism should be different than those of traditional polyglotism and should lead to the explosion of those so called 'hyperglots'.(another topic)

I know that polyglot communities and many Western polyglots are heavily centered around Latin based languages(Romantic, Germanic and Slavic), with a few who have acquired skills in and with many increasingly interested in learning the Far Eastern language(s).

I, nevertheless, present this idea and vision in preparation for the emergence of a more fully mature and truly globalized panglot community.

Towards a New Linguistic Phenomenon in Planetary Civilization

2011-10-14T08:22:00.001-07:00

2011.10.14, Friday

I am trying to become one of those new types of polyglots who have risen beyond the limitations of being proficient only within their own language groups or within only two different language families.

In my mind a truly globalized plantary polyglot is someone which has become comfortable and fluent in 5 or 6 different major language groups.

Such a polyglot might be called a panglot, omniglot, globalglot, planetaryglot, panlingual, omnilingual, globallingual, planetarylingual or any other names descriptive of the linguistic competance within a wider scope of language families than traditional polyglots.

I will try to put up more of my thoughts on this topic.