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Babel no more : the search for the world's most extraordinary language learners

In Babel No More, Michael Erard, "a monolingual with benefits," sets out on a quest to meet language superlearners and make sense of their mental powers. On the way he uncovers the secrets of historical figures like the nineteenth-century Italian cardinal Joseph Mezzofanti, who was said to speak seventy-two languages, as well as those of living language-superlearners such as Alexander Arguelles, a modern-day polyglot who knows dozens of languages and shows Erard the tricks of the trade to give him a dark glimpse into the life of obsessive language acquisition. With his ambitious examination of what language is, where it lives in the brain, and the cultural implications of polyglots' pursuits, Erard explores the upper limits of our ability to learn and use languages and illuminates the intellectual potential in everyone. How do some people escape the curse of Babel'and what might the gods have demanded of them in return'

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  • "In Babel No More, Michael Erard, "a monolingual with benefits," sets out on a quest to meet language superlearners and make sense of their mental powers. On the way he uncovers the secrets of historical figures like the nineteenth-century Italian cardinal Joseph Mezzofanti, who was said to speak seventy-two languages, as well as those of living language-superlearners such as Alexander Arguelles, a modern-day polyglot who knows dozens of languages and shows Erard the tricks of the trade to give him a dark glimpse into the life of obsessive language acquisition. With his ambitious examination of what language is, where it lives in the brain, and the cultural implications of polyglots' pursuits, Erard explores the upper limits of our ability to learn and use languages and illuminates the intellectual potential in everyone. How do some people escape the curse of Babel'and what might the gods have demanded of them in return'"@en
  • "Assesses historical "hyperpolyglot" linguistic high achievers who demonstrated an extraordinary capacity for learning and speaking languages, and explains the sources of such abilities and what it reveals about the nature of memory and language."
  • "If you've ever tried to learn another language, you know how much time, energy, and brain power is required. Imagine a person who can pick up languages very easily. Someone who can navigate our world's multilingual hullaballoo. Who can leap language barriers with a single bound. Who can learn without effort and remember indelibly. Such people aren't parrots. They're not computers. They're language superlearners. Michael Erard searched for these people, and when he found them -- in history books and living among us -- he tried to make sense of their linguistic feats and their mental powers. His book answers the age-old question, What are the upper limits of the human ability to learn, remember, and use languages?"

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  • "Electronic books"
  • "Electronic books"@en

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  • "Babel no more : the search for the world's most extraordinary language learners"
  • "Babel no more : the search for the world's most extraordinary language learners"@en
  • "Babel no more the search for the world's most extraordinary language learners"
  • "Babel no more the search for the world's most extraordinary language learners"@en
  • "Babel no more The search for the world's most extraordinary language learners"

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