Vaughn Smith: evaluation

Transcript context

…Last question. In young people — if they show some inclination, do you think you can spot polyglot talent? And if so, what is it you look for that a person might become someone like you, or they might stop at a mere seven languages and just call it a day? Children that I’ve met that have special abilities — some of them being autistic — I would spend a few minutes each meeting, showing them something, quizzing them. Some of these kids were very inclined to . . . they were a math genius or they were good at science or good at physics. I’d ask them, “Okay, why is tungsten used as a filament in a bulb?” for example. Most of the time, it was scientific quizzing. Then after that, I would test them with language. “Can you memorize this word? What’s this called?” I’d start with English, of course. I’d point out 10 different things. “What are these called?” Then I’ll say, “Do you know any Spanish?” I’ll test them in Spanish, or I’ll test them in something else. A lot of these are children of my friends, and my friends, knowing me, would like their children to learn Spanish, Portuguese, whatever it is that they think is useful for their child to learn, so I would go in and test them. Some of them — actually, they pick up very quickly on the words. I think that part of it is the fact that they’re young. They’re still at this age where they can absorb language very quickly. After that, I would speak to my friends, the kids’ parents, and say, “Hey, this is a good way to go about it. Do this.” I’ve met customers that speak German, but they only speak English to their kid. I’d say, “Hey, teach your child your language.” They’ll say “Oh, really?” It’s like, why is this carpet cleaner telling them? I would tell them, “Look, it’s important. Teach your child your language. Speak to her in only German. Don’t worry, she will learn. There’s plenty of English all around. There will be no problem with her learning English.” Some older people worry that if they teach their own language to their kids, it’ll somehow replace English. They won’t learn English at all. That’s simply not realistic because we live in a country where English is spoken. Vaughn Smith, a real pleasure. Thank you very much.…

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