Thirteen-year-old who knows 20 languages

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Moderating:

The moderators discussed this post. It is problematic that the 3rd commandment has been broken, though I appreciate your suggestion to mute it at a specific point.

We have decided to leave this post here. But please keep in mind the warning in the Heidelberg Catechism Q and A 99 and 100.
 
Thanks @Stephen L Smith . I decided I would remove the video, and I'll look for a substitute and put it here if I find it. I don't want the moderators to suddenly deal with a flood of check-this-out-but-censor-at-this-part type posts. That'll get wearisome quick. I'm sure you guys have enough to do in the midst of a pandemic and election season.
 
Thanks @Stephen L Smith . I decided I would remove the video, and I'll look for a substitute and put it here if I find it. I don't want the moderators to suddenly deal with a flood of check-this-out-but-censor-at-this-part type posts. That'll get wearisome quick. I'm sure you guys have enough to do in the midst of a pandemic and election season.
Thank you for your gracious comments and consideration for the moderators Jake.

Re election season, I am not impacted by the USA elections :) but I am impacted by the New Zealand elections. We have our national elections in September.

It is Monday here but the Sabbath day in your country. Since we have been talking of the name of the Lord, let us remember Psalm 34:1-3:

I will bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul makes its boast in the Lord;
let the humble hear and be glad.
Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his name together!
 
We sang all of Psalm 34 (RPCNA setting) in the worship service this morning. :)
Thank you for your gracious comments and consideration for the moderators Jake.

Re election season, I am not impacted by the USA elections :) but I am impacted by the New Zealand elections. We have our national elections in September.

It is Monday here but the Sabbath day in your country. Since we have been talking of the name of the Lord, let us remember Psalm 34:1-3:

I will bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul makes its boast in the Lord;
let the humble hear and be glad.
Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his name together!
 
Thank you for your gracious comments and consideration for the moderators Jake.

Re election season, I am not impacted by the USA elections :) but I am impacted by the New Zealand elections. We have our national elections in September.

It is Monday here but the Sabbath day in your country. Since we have been talking of the name of the Lord, let us remember Psalm 34:1-3:

I will bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul makes its boast in the Lord;
let the humble hear and be glad.
Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his name together!

This is America. You cannot escape our election :)

Thanks for the encouragement! Feeling a need to rekindle the truth that worship is our chief activity, and to further discover the exceedingly expansive greatness of our God.
 
May I ask how the video violated the 3rd commandment(I never saw it)? Was the young boy speaking in vain of the Lord?
 
May I ask how the video violated the 3rd commandment(I never saw it)? Was the young boy speaking in vain of the Lord?

The father of the girl taking the Lord's name in vain. There's lots of impressive videos out there where there shouldn't be something like that. I'll find another one to put up.

But if you want to talk polyglottism on the Lord's Day, check out Robert Dick Wilson. His work made my short list of dream jobs.


Excerpt:

For the first fifteen years, he would study every language that had a bearing on the text of the Old Testament. He set himself to the task. During that time he mastered forty-five languages! He not only became an expert in Hebrew and its kindred tongues, but he learned all the languages into which the Scriptures had been translated down to the year A.D. 600.
 

Same man, when he fell sick at age 13 he studied French, Greek, German, Spanish, and Italian.

Also from above link, and I'll leave the additional wonders for you to read.

By the time he entered seminary, he was able to read the NT in nine languages. Prior to entering seminary, an old gentleman gave him a Hebrew-Latin dictionary, a Hebrew grammar, and an old Hebrew Bible. He learned Hebrew on his own and, going into seminary, took all the prizes in Hebrew. When asked how he did it, he replied, “I used my spare time.”5 He would take a Hebrew grammar with him when he went for walks and would read for about 15 minutes, or until he completely understood everything taught on that page. He described the process as being “unconscious of the labor, as a man is interested in his roses, and doesn’t think of the thorns.”6 He utilized this method to master Latin, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, biblical Aramaic, Syriac, Arabic, and others, twenty-six languages and dialects in all.

What godly diligence!
 
Feeling a need to rekindle the truth that worship is our chief activity, and to further discover the exceedingly expansive greatness of our God.
Just something that has helped me rekindle true worship (we have been talking of the moral law and the Heidelberg Catechism). I am reading the Heidelberg Catechism for my spiritual devotions along with VanderGroe's delightful commentary "The Christian’s Only Comfort in Life and Death". As well as being a great commentary on the HC, it also has 7 extra introductory chapters on the moral law of God. Very helpful. If you want an edifying read I highly recommend it :)
 
This is America. You cannot escape our election :)
Funny that you should compare our nations in this way. Some time ago I saw a video clip of President George W Bush welcoming the New Zealand head of State, her majesty Queen Elizabeth II, to the USA. He had a slight slip of the tongue and said the Queen visited the USA in 1776. After a chuckle in the audience he said the Queen gave him a look only a mother could give a child :)

My kiwi interpretation of Bush's comments is this. I think he was saying we should 'make America great again' by reversing 1776 and making the Queen mother of the USA. :stirpot:

"And all the peoples of the commonwealth said Amen" :stirpot:

 
Funny that you should compare our nations in this way. Some time ago I saw a video clip of President George W Bush welcoming the New Zealand head of State, her majesty Queen Elizabeth II, to the USA. He had a slight slip of the tongue and said the Queen visited the USA in 1776. After a chuckle in the audience he said the Queen gave him a look only a mother could give a child :)

My kiwi interpretation of Bush's comments is this. I think he was saying we should 'make America great again' by reversing 1776 and making the Queen mother of the USA. :stirpot:

"And all the peoples of the commonwealth said Amen" :stirpot:

Another reason to distrust Bush. As if I needed another one. Darn Yankee.
 
I did see the video before it was taken down. The important and noted exception aside, she was fantastic. I aiming to have my daughters conversational, if not fluent by 13, in Spanish. 20 languages...is astonishing beyond belief.
 
Of course, with Robert Dick Wilson and others of his ilk, you have to have a knack for languages in the first place. Elsewise, it ain't gonna happen.
 
I did see the video before it was taken down. The important and noted exception aside, she was fantastic. I aiming to have my daughters conversational, if not fluent by 13, in Spanish. 20 languages...is astonishing beyond belief.

I had read some comments by amateur polyglots on the video. There's a little bit of marketing in the presentation. It's not that the girl was fluent in all 20, but she could speak in those languages. Her actual skill quite varies from language to language, sometimes very good, sometimes in a broken fashion as one picking up the language.

Still, it's a complicated task. New sounds, new grammar rules, new nuances on the same concepts, cultural nuances...

"To have another language is to possess a second soul." - Attributed to Charlemagne

Of course, with Robert Dick Wilson and others of his ilk, you have to have a knack for languages in the first place. Elsewise, it ain't gonna happen.

I think I mean, that academia would be my excuse to learn more languages, and not languages to get into academia. But that short list I mentioned has other, more pressing items on it.
 
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