Maksim Kondrashov
Chelyabinsk Law Institute
My name is Maxim Kondrashov. I am 18, and I was born in Chelyabinsk in 1991. My birthday is on 21th of January. I live in Chelyabinsk with my family. There are 3 of us: my dad, my mom and me. We are friendly and love dearly each other. In the evening we are used to get together speaking about different events and news. But now I don’t see much of my family, because I am a second-year student of Chelyabinsk Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation and I am very busy with my study. As for my personality I think I am kind, sociable, generous, but sometimes a bit strict. I have got many friends. We have much in common, and most of us love football. In summer we like playing football outdoors and having picnics, and in winter we prefer to ski and skate.
I want to be a lawyer like my friends, because I think, that a lawyer is one of the most popular and perspective professions nowadays. In the institute I study different special and general education subjects which help me to broaden my horizon and to master my future profession. I am sure that I have made the right choice and in future I'll become a highly-qualified specialist. I want to learn English because it’s interesting for me to know foreign cultures and tradition. It will be of great value for my future profession too, because English is needed as the main and the most efficient means of information exchange.
Greatest Polyglots of the Past
Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti
(1774-1849)
“I will be the last polyglot in this world,
who studied languages for me ...”
G.C. Mezzofanti
It has often been a question to many of us how polyglots of the past could learn so many languages. In fact they did not have special textbooks, the Internet and tutors, but nevertheless they found other ways of studying languages, a part from which till now has been remaining a riddle. The language was necessary to understand different people, with whom to come into contact to promote and conduct trade with different countries. So, I think that the development of trade and exchange of ideas and techniques made people learn foreign languages. That’s why we can say that the traders were the earliest polyglots of the past. I know many famous people of the past whom we can name the polyglots: Cato Lomb, Ishtvan Dabi, Zayd Favzi, Garrard Williams, Leo Tolstoy, Alexander Griboedov, Ivan Krylov, Nickolai Chernyshevsky, Lope de Vega and others.
But among of them, I have chosen one who studied languages for himself. His professional work has been connected with theology and languages which gave him new sources of knowledge. So, I decided to get to know this person - Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti - better.
Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti was born on 19 September, 1774 in Bologna, Italy. He was known as an Italian cardinal and a famed linguist and hyper polyglot. Educated in his native city, he completed his theological studies before he had reached the minimum age for ordination as a priest; he was ordained in 1797. In the same year, he became a professor of Arabic at the University of Bologna. Later he lost the position for refusing to take the oath of allegiance required by the Cisalpine Republic, which being governed Bologna at that time.
In 1803 he was appointed as an assistant librarian at the Institute of Bologna, and soon afterwards was reinstated as a professor of oriental languages and Greek. The chair was suppressed by the viceroy in 1808, but again rehabilitated on the restoration of Pope Pius VII in 1814. Mezzofanti held this post until he left Bologna to go to Rome in 1831 as a member of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Congregatio de Propaganda Fide), the Catholic Church's governing body for missionary activities. In 1833, he succeeded Angelo Mai as Custodian-in-Chief of the Vatican Library, and in 1838 was made as a cardinal of the title of St. Onofrio al Gianicolo and a director of studies in the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.
Mezzofanti was well-known for being a hyper polyglot who knew more than seventy languages and could speak thirty-eight without ever having left his homeland. Unbelievable, but he studied languages all his life and knew most of them fluently. It is an amazing fact, because there were no language tapes at that time and he did not attend any language classes. How is it possible to have such a high level of fluency in? First of all, as a Catholic Cardinal he had as much access to education as he could. Secondly, I think that linguists like Mezzofanti learn as much as they have time to study and practice. People who were and are polyglots suggest that our abilities are much greater than we think. As it is with so many things in life, we often become our greatest limitation or our greatest asset. We are usually determined by our attitudes, lifestyles, habits, practices, interests, hobbies, etc. that we can achieve much more. Besides the process of learning a foreign language should be enjoyable and essential for us.
It’s amazing for me that Mezzofanti spent all his life studying languages. He never married and had time to study at night. He had ready access to probably the largest number of foreign language speakers in the world at the time. People from all over the world flocked to Rome to study Catholicism and Mezzofanti used that resource to learn and practice a great number of languages. So unless you are in the same position, it is only normal that you can learn less than Mezzofanti. His legend seems too great to be believed and yet there is enough evidence to prove that he was well versed in certain languages, such as Arabic, Greek and Latin, and enough stories to suggest that this lengthy list may indeed be more accurate than not.
One of such stories was told by a popular American writer, Mr. Headley, whom his transatlantic admirers have styled the “Addison of America”: “… that while Mezzofanti was still an obscure priest in the north of Italy. He was called one day to confess two foreigners condemned for piracy, who were to be executed next day. On entering their cell, he found them unable to understand a word he uttered. Overwhelmed with the thought that the criminals should leave the world without the benefits of religion, he returned to his room, resolved to acquire the language before morning. He accomplished his task, and next day confessed them in their own tongue! From that time on, he had no trouble in mastering the most difficult language. The purity of his motive in the first instance, he thought, influenced the Deity to assist him miraculously.” This strange tale Mr. Headley relates, on the authority of a priest, a friend of Mezzofanti; and he goes so far as to say, that “Mezzofanti himself attributed his power of acquiring languages to the divine influence.”
Although some people will find it less challenging if I say that Mezzofanti learned languages from a magic wand or in his sleep. His biography tells us that he had to study new languages like everybody else. He certainly was more gifted than the average learner, but we should remember that this was almost the only pursuit in his life and that he studied language all his life. It seems quite clear that the more languages we already know, the easier it is to learn the next language.
Many travelers, some of them famous writers of that period of time, other Emperors, philologists, priests, and ambassadors came to Rome and met with Mezzofanti. All of them tested Mezzofanti at his skill in their own languages to see if there was any truth in the man's reputation.
Overall, Mezzofanti was an exceptional person and nowadays the average student will not be able to have the same achievements, but in my opinion what Mezzofanti achieved in big, anybody can achieve in small. In his time there was little chance, but Mezzofanti had one great stimulus - it was the cognition of the Supreme Being. Nowadays we have a lot of opportunities to study different languages: schools, audio / video courses, travelling, Internet, books and others. Everybody is able to become a polyglot if he desires so. By learning a new language, you gain new horizons, but at the same time you reinforce your own identity, and therefore also your self-confidence. A foreign language can contribute to a stronger personality. I would like to end up my essay with the statement of this great person.
“My language was helping me to become a person...”
G.C. Mezzofanti
Sources:
- www.wikipedia.com
- www.polyglots.com
- http://en.wikipedia.org
- www.bestofthebest.com
- www.touristitalian.com
- www.1911encyclopedia.org
- how-to-learn-any-language.com