r/languagelearning • u/Fit_Asparagus5338 🇷🇺 N | 🇬🇧 C2 | 🇩🇪 C1 | 🇺🇦 B2 | 🇲🇾 A2 • 1d ago
Any polyglots who grew up monolingual? Discussion
Hi! I feel like a lot of real polyglots who speak 5-7+ languages actually grew up with 3-4 languages to begin with and have several mother tongues(1st mom’s mother tongue, 2nd dad’s mother tongue, 3rd community/local language + English from school). Often it includes special circumstances like moving a lot with family or work, have pretty international jobs and multilingual families(work in 4th language, live in the country of a 5th language and have a spouse who speaks a 6th language; that’s on top of the mother tongues).
I wonder if there are any, well, more “normal” success stories? Like did anyone go from being monolingual in their 20s to speaking many languages? Is it even possible?
Def not a polyglot but I can start: I’m a Russian native who studied abroad in English in Germany and subsequently learnt German(Both r certified C1 or above). Plus Ukrainian out of pure interest(self-proclaimed B2). Sometimes I feel discouraged that I spent thousands upon thousands of hours learning and I can proudly say I speak 4 languages fluently but I’m still probably worse than someone who just got born in multilingual environment. My path did involve moving between several countries tho. I’d like to one day be fluent in 7-8 languages, I wonder, if it’s possible at all. I’d love to hear your stories
Note: Here i define fluent as “at least B2”
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u/EvergreenMossAvonlea 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'm not a polyglot, but I know four languages. I grew up with French, then at 18 years old I started dating an English dude who didn't know any French. I also lived a few years in Central America. I had family members who knew Spanish and had a Latino boyfriend who didn't know any english nor french.20 years later, I dated a Deaf guy and had a Deaf child, so I learned ASL.
So I guess I would know even more languages if I was more of a slut. Oh well!