POLYGLOTTERY

 

In my last post, I told you about Dr. Alexander Argüelles and his championship of polyglottery which is the art of collecting languages. In another interview he disclaims -contrary to evidence- he ever said he speaks or knows 100 languages. Furthermore, he states that he would never pass off as a native speaker in any of them. Yet he champions polyglottery as an end in itself: the accumulation of languages with no purpose in mind as if I learnt all possible chess openings by heart but would never play a game. The idea, in this case, would be to "collect" openings but never play ("jam tomorrow and jam yesterday, but never jam today.") 

I will define "polyglottery" as the silly pursuit of language learning for no visible purpose. 

The brain of humans being the way it is, precludes the effective mastery of more than four languages. Jack of all trades, master of none comes to mind. I am a champion and advocate of language learning, and I am against the dilettante accumulation of an endless number of languages, with limited proficiency in them. To what purpose? Our brain, time, and the so-called "life" all work against us in the reckless pursuit of collecting. Circuses are on the wane.

More about this in the near future.