I like that. I will use that to refer to myself.
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I didn’t know the term polyglot until I was invited to join a weekly polyglot meetup. I was like soooo what do you do there exactly? 
And then it clicked that people who spoke multiple languages are actually polyglots. This is when I figured out I probably was one, too.
But the mastery of language in its entirety is quite impossible that I am not sure we can even call anyone a polyglot, especially when we are talking about live languages, to which new terms and expressions are added every day.
Zeina
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You are just too modest. If you aren’t a polyglot then we don’t find many polyglots here in this conference. Your list of languages is very impressive. But of course, the label “polyglot” isn’t the most important thing, rather your love of learning languages. And there is always room for improvement, you are right.
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For me a polyglot has to keep his / her language levels active. This is my defenition of a (hyper-) polyglot. See my interview on HYPIA on this topic. I was already in my thirties when I went to university again with the aim to learn new languages and maintaining the levels later on. In Germany when I was younger more the expression “Sprachgenie” was used instead of “Polyglot”. But I cannot remember that anybody referred to my using such expressions, when I was under 30 years old.
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I second the notion! 
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Indeed, us (Hyperpolyglots) we have to do juggling with languages. Imagine to have a dozen of balls, one for each language. You speak a language, you pick a ball. But you have to keep juggling the remaining balls with only one hand. Then, you change languages. You begin again to make juggling the balls with both hands but you have then to pick another different ball with the other hand and keep making juggling with the remaining balls with the other hand… I love it! I love to be a Hyperpolyglot!
And by the way I also obtained my major degree (Journalism) in my thirties! (when I was 38; now I have 42)
This is interesting that you obtained your university diploma of Journalism “late”. I obtained my first professional diploma “Bürokauffrau” at age 39, at that age other office employees already have 20 years of work experience.
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Und ich habe jetzt gerade (mit 55) noch ein Studium abgeschlossen. Ich arbeite als muttersprachliche Lektorin in Ungarn, und dann kam ein Gesetz raus, dass man ein Staatsexamen braucht, wenn man in Ungarn an einer Schule unterrichten will. Aber ich finde es gut, wenn man sein Gehirn auch später noch anstrengt. Das Studium hat richtig Spaß gemacht, auch wenn ich es nicht freiwillig begonnen habe.
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Da spricht auch nichts dagegen im höheren Alter noch Berufsabschlüsse abzulegen. Ich habe mit 46 Jahren noch die IHK - Prüfung zur Fremdsprachenkorrespondentin bestanden. Aber ich hatte auch im fortgeschrittenen Alter kaum Berufserfahrung und wenn die Arbeitgeber jüngere Leute mit 20 oder noch mehr Jahren relevanter Berufserfahrung einstellen können, dann tun sie das. Nach dem Abitur wollte ich studieren, das weiß man ja vorher nicht dass es später Gründe geben wird, diese Studiengänge nicht zu beenden.
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This is interesting. I only know until recently, because in where I am from - Hong Kong, people “usually” “know” three languages - so most people believe anyway, but in truth, the majority of people do two badly and one well depending on one’s educational/academic achievement.
Weirdly, since I became an adult, left Hong Kong, wrote a book in Chinese, and moved around for a few times, I pushed the two Hong Kong’s non-native languages higher than my fellow Hong Kongers. Then I started to learn Japanese to a conversational/able to read a simple friction level. Now I’m living in a Scandinavian country learning a Scandinavian language.
Until then, I started to believe that I could potentially be called a polyglot. I guess the most important defining moment is when I can confidently say that I have three languages super solid as in I can work professionally and write at a very high level.
For the rest, as long as they are at a conversational and able to watch tv level, I would say they count as a language. Then over 4 languages count as polyglot??? Maybe I’m just making it convenient for myself now… sorry everyone… haha
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Love these responses, such an interesting question!
Recently I’ve been thinking and conversing a lot on just this - and I’m with @Savanna - there’s a difference for me between “knowing a bunch of languages well” and “being/self-identifying as a polyglot.”
I am one of those ones who took to traditional grammar-focused ways of learning languages pretty well, so I doubled up (which sadly means ‘more than the norm’ in the US) in languages throughout my schooling, and peers and teachers called me “gifted at languages.” I was passionate about language, but more on the linguistics side - which fits with my heavy focus on math and physics through college.
When my language learning really exploded and when I started self-identifying as a polyglot was when I noticed I was pretty much dedicating all my leisure time to languages in some way. I placed out of language in college and saw classroom instruction in them as a waste of time and course slots, but then I returned to them in a big way with learning and teaching online and intense summer study (I’m a schoolteacher) after graduating.
The identity vs. “language collecting” piece is big for me . I sort of shrugged it off and felt alternately like a circus act or shy when people introduced me as the genius language kid who was “fluent in” X number of languages. Now that I have many friendships with people who don’t share English as a mother tongue, I self-identify as a polyglot. I don’t feel I have different personalities in my different languages - but I do have different lived experiences in each of them. When I really feel like a language is core to me is when I can create and perform in it and when I “feel” in it - for example, if I’m having an anxiety spiral, it’s at least a sign of acquiring the langauge deeply if my beating myself up is in Latin!
This was already a long answer (to a deep question, thank you!) - but I wrote up my “polyglot biography” in detail here:
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When I was travelling through Europe!! I thought ~Hey I don’t need the google translator, I’m speaking and writing all by my own and people understand me!
Sometimes we don’t trust in our knowledge… that’s sad!
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@PinAngel this is exactly how I feel also, both with being a language enthusiast who yearns to be a polyglot, but I haven’t reached a level with my languages where I can claim that title. And also with not being able to drop languages that are presenting opportunities in my life.
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Around age 19 as I was learning new languages at work & spending all day in a multilingual environment.
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I like your analogy with juggling. Juggling (actual juggling with balls) is my other hobby and that’s why I called my Youtube channel Andy Juggles Languages!
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I don’t consider myself a polyglot yet, but I felt pretty cool at work when I thought about how I spent my day editing English texts, talking to coworkers and attending meetings in Chinese, emailing the French branch in French, practicing Turkish during my lunch break and realized none of these are my native language.
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Nora, I consider you to be a polyglot! If you are using all those languages and none of them is your native language, that’s pretty cool.
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I don’t consider myself to be a polyglot yet because I have not had the opportunity to use multiple languages at the same time. Oh well.
There is not a better time than now. You can use as many languages as you want at once here. Go for it 
Zeina
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I consider myself more of a language enthusiast. But I have learned so so much from polyglots in terms of ways to study, resources, and encouragement.
I tend to be a long term ‘serial language learner’. I have a hard time carrying more than 2 languages at once in my head (my own and whatever I am currently studying) I still aspire one day to be able to speak more than 2 at a time without words from one language leaking into the other. But I suspect that is for another topic.
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