Tesla-tested, Hepburn-approved 8 Springboards to Learning Languages Used by Famous Polyglots

Tesla-tested, Hepburn-approved 8 Springboards to Learning Languages Used by Famous Polyglots Tesla-tested, Hepburn-approved: 8 Springboards to Learning Languages Used by Famous Polyglots Ever wonder why so many people in the U.S. never manage to learn a foreign language?You might say the state of foreign language teaching  has something to do with it.You might also consider aspects of geography, politics and social issues.These are all connected and related to the problem, but theyre not the real root reason.We learn languages when we  need them to get by.This is why people in non-English-speaking countries actually have an advantage  when it comes to language learning.At some point, theres a good chance theyre going to want to speak English, whether for travel or business or school. When youre traveling in some foreign land and you give someone that I have no idea what you just said face, whats the  second language  they try? English.That leaves some English speakers asking, Why bother to learn a new language when everyone already speaks mine?Even if you have a real desire to learn languages, your lack of a practical, everyday reason to learn one might make progress ing difficult.But there are some  inherently good reasons for anyone to learn a foreign language. These are reasons that many famous people have grasped and used to their advantage to become figures of historical importance.Lets take a look at the lives of some influential  polyglots and their life projects that led them to learn languages.Youve probably heard of most of these people, but likely didnt know some of them were polyglots. Thats because being polyglots wasnt how they got famous. For them, language learning was a means to an end. And that was very likely part of the reason for their success.If we take a cue from their lives, we might just be able to find those motivating factors that can raise people to such language learning heights that they achieve that seemingly unattainable status of polyglot. Tesla-tested, Hepburn-approved: 8 Springboards to Learning Languages Used by Famous Polyglots1. Electrify Your Career Like TeslaFamous for his work with electromagnetic field s, Nikola Tesla was also a well-developed polyglot,  speaking a total of 8 languages.  His language learning wasnt just an idle pastime, however. Tesla was born in modern Croatia and studied science in what is now Austria and the Czech Republic before moving to the United States to work for Thomas Edison.Think about that. A guy from a place thats still little-known, at least by Americans, was hired by one of the foremost inventors in America at the time.So take a page from Tesla and tie your career ambitions to learning a new language. With todays job market being as unpredictable as it is, following his example couldnt be a better idea.2. Start a Language-based Project Like WebsterYou probably know his name from the Merriam-Webster dictionary, but Noah Websters ambitions were much grander than many people now realize. At a time when everything from spelling to pronunciation varied wildly across America, Webster wanted to standardize the language and give people a common language.In his drive to assess the etymology of the words he was selecting for his dictionary, Webster managed to learn more than  20 languages. Wow! What was his secret? Besides possibly some flashcards, maybe not much more than the desire to complete his project.In short, to really get yourself motivated you should invest in a project involving language.  Pick something related to what youre already learning. If you study religion, try to translate a text relevant to your research. If youre into film, try to subtitle some little-known foreign film that you think deserves more publicity.If youre not sure what might interest you, consider  FluentU, an online immersion platform that takes real-world foreign language videosâ€"like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talksâ€"and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.With material that suits a wide range of interests and tastes, FluentU  lets you discover whats meaningful to you about the language youre learning whil e also providing daily motivation to practice it.3. Get Political Like Ho Chi MinhWhatever political reservations those in the West might have about him, Ho Chi Minh was to many Vietnamese their George Washington. He fought decade after decade for his countrys liberation from colonialism and in the process  he learned at least 5 languages, including English, French, Chinese and Russian.Theres nothing like political fervor to spur language development.What lesson can we take from Ho Chi Minh then? Go out there and organize! Try to find a political cause that you have strong feelings about and is intrinsically connected to a second language. For example, in the U.S., an obvious issue would be immigration and organizing recent Hispanic immigrants for voting.4. Do Good Like HepburnYou may know her as one of the most famous actresses of all time, appearing in such films as Breakfast at Tiffanys and My Fair Lady, but Audrey Hepburn was also an ardent humanitarian. In fact, she was present ed with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George H.W. Bush for her work.What made her such a great aid worker? By now Im sure you see it coming. She spoke at least 5 different languages in addition to English.To follow in her footsteps, then, try reading up a little on humanitarian organizations, like NGOs or the Peace Corps. See what kind of work they do and get inspired. Once youve dedicated yourself to a worthy cause, learning a language will seem much more necessary, and necessity means quick learning.5. Buff Up Your Language Like MiltonIf theres a specific area of literature people dislike, its usually poetry. Hopefully you were never forced to read John Miltons infamously lengthy Paradise Lost against your will.But no matter what your views on Literature-with-a-capital-L are, Milton is someone to respect. He created 630 new words for the English language, all with the help of his knowledge of 8 different languages.Aspiring writers today are all over the place, and if you ar e one, you know its as hard as ever to stand out. Why not learn from Miltons success and use language learning as a tool to create inventive prose? At the very least, youll be unique.6. Deliver a Message Like Pope John Paul IIAn extremely popular Pope and one just as well-traveled, Pope John Paul II visited 129 countries  during his tenure. But he didnt simply visit these countries. From his desire to spread his ideal of an alliance between the major religions sprang a secondary desire to learn to speak the tongues of these countries. In total, he learned to speak 8 languages.Like Pope John Paul II, perhaps you already have a message that you hold dear to your heart and think the people of the world should hear. How better to spread a message than saying it in words people can understand?And while it may seem to be a bit presumptuous that you could be as influential as the Pope, no one says you have to be him. Change can be effected by everyday people, each one doing their part. Aft er all, if it wasnt for the ordinary missionary, the one who tramps out into the places that most civilized people would never dare go,  it seems unlikely that Christianity would have spread to such far flung corners of the world.7. Get on the Cutting Edge Like EngelsAre you an engineer? Or perhaps a researcher in a science field? Whatever you may be, theres undoubtedly an international intellectual community waiting for you just beyond the reach of the English language.To see how well learning new languages can connect you to an international community of fellow thinkers, we might look to Friedrich Engels. Yes, that Friedrich Engels. The one who co-wrote The Communist Manifesto with Karl Marx.Ideology aside, Engels was an extremely effective communicator of his ideas. He reportedly spoke many languages and wrote his correspondence to co-conspirators in the language of their origin. Its hard to doubt that this international communication helped him to develop into the influential th inker that we know today.If you aspire to be a great originator in your field of choice, learning some extra languages could go a long way.For example, if we look at the field of medicine, it is clear that what gets studied is directed by our cultural biases. In much of the Western world, for example, there is a disdain for folk medicine.A country like Japan, on the other hand, has maintained a deeper respect for its traditional medicine and as a result has conducted more scientific studies on the viability of such medicine in the present day. Thus, by learning another languageâ€"like Japaneseâ€"you could tap into an area of research that remains constricted in the English-speaking world.8. Go All-out for World Peace Like ZamenhofOkay, okay. So you probably dont know this guy. But you should! Ludwig Zamenhof was the inventor of Esperanto, now the most widely spoken artificial language. Esperanto, for those who dont know, is a sort of simplified and universal European language. If yo u already know a European language, you should be able to read and understand it without much extra knowledge.What gave him the expertise and knowledge to build such a language? Mastery of at least 9 other languages.Zamenhof built Esperanto for one reason. He wanted to make it easier for people to understand each other and thereby foster world peace. After all, think of all the times when a peace process would have been made impossible without a mutual knowledge of foreign languages.Maybe you dont need to make an entirely new language (there are quite a few of those already), but why not set out to foster world peace?Anything from teaching English for a couple of years to underprivileged kids to becoming a professional diplomat dedicated to mutual understanding could make a significant difference in the lives of many people.  And once youre giving it your all for world peace, learning those nine languages will seem like childs play.If youve been wondering in amazement every time you ve heard the word polyglot, unable to imagine the superior beings who could acquire such skills, think of these people. Sure, theyre famous, but none of them set out specifically to learn new languages. They did so because they had things they wanted to accomplish that necessitated learning new languages.They  needed new languages.Thats the kind of mindset we should all have.