Hi I’m Edmund from Hong Kong. I speak 7 ASEAN languages

Introduce Yourself Here
#1

I joined the PolyCon last year and got so drunk on the first night that I got a serious hangover on the second day TT Probably not going to repeat the same mistake this year!

I did my MA in Linguistics in Japan and worked for a tourism office there for 3 years. Now I’m stuck in Hong Kong teaching Cantonese, Japanese and Thai online. I have learnt many ASEAN languages and am particularly fluent in Thai, Vietnamese and Taglish (not Tagalog haha)

Looking forward to get to know you and exchange ideas and experiences!

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#2

Hi~ That’s impressive. I’d love to know how you started and whether knowlegde of a certain language helped you with another one.
I’m August from Vietnam and I’m staying in the US. I’m learning Mandarin now.

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#3

Hi Aguest!

Knowledge of Cantonese surely helped me learn Vietnamese. The pronunciation of sino-vietnamese words are really similar to their equivalent in Cantonese. Thai and Lao are very similar too.

Also, many ASEAN languages borrowed words from Sanskrit, that you might come across words that you have already learnt in another ASEAN language.

Good luck for your mandarin learning!

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#4

Hi Edmund,

Wow that’s so impressive. I watched some videos on your youtube channel, and I learnt something~ esp from your Anki video.

I’m from Macao and now studying linguistics in UK. Currently learning Japanese, Korean and Spanish.

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#5

Hi Edmund, technically you speak 7.5 ASEAN languages. 0.5 comes from Malay as it’s super close to Indonesian lol

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#6

The relation between Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia is like Spanish and Portuguese. There aren’t dialects, but different languages that are very mutually intelligible…

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#7

Even closer, in fact. A speaker of standard Bahasa Malaysia can understand 75-80% of standard Bahasa Indonesia. Some linguists even consider official languages of Malaysia and Indonesia as two registers of the Malay language.

Just over 200 years ago, inhabitants of Riau Islands and present-day Kuala Lumpur speak the same language.

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#8

你好！我是住在德國的日本人。我很好奇你是在日本哪裡學語言學的呢？

我很喜歡去香港玩～（但係唔識講廣東話 :sweat_smile::sweat_smile:）

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#9

Ni hao Kenseng :smiley:

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#10

Hi Kengseng!

Nice to meet you. Are you particpating in the polyglot conference?
Hope to see you around!

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#11

Hi Amirul,

That’s true haha although everytime I use the word “bisa” people will notice I am learning Indonesian but not Malay XD

#12

哈囉 Takashi，我讀上智大學，有好多外語可以學 XD

#13

Greetings! I am Joshe from the Philippines!

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#14

hello bro kamusta :smiley:

#15

Wow Edmund! That is such an impressive repertoire.

I am Kenneth from Taiwan, and I speak (in the order I acquired them) Taiwanese, Mandarin, English, Japanese, French, German and some Spanish.

Could you share how you picked up your languages, and what you did/how long it took to achieve your current levels? Thanks.

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