@Lemex - lol no need to be jealous of me - my grasp of Chinese is very basic. I can read Chinese probably up to the equivalent of the English in Hunger Games or Harry Potter. I wouldn't understand proper literature unfortunately - but that's why I'm starting to think I should try and pick it up again. I'm also thinking when I finally have kids, I would consider putting them through Chinese school or hiring someone to teach them the writing. It's such a feat to learn once you're an adult! Currently I'm going through a bit of a Chinese craze so I'm now listening to Chinese music lol. Still more interested in Cantonese though, but then again, I'm biased
This reminds me of a polyglot I found online. He got to conversational level with various languages in the space of 3 months - including Mandarin - which is pretty cool! Mind you, if you're learning in order to understand literature, it'll probably take much longer than 3 months! I wonder how that Williams guy managed to learn that many languages in one lifetime??
I always wondered whether there's a degree of synaesthesia, or savant in the extreme polyglot(?ism), especially since the learning continues into adulthood, whereas normally, the older we are the harder it gets to learn a new language. Having said that, if one knows the right basic combination of languages, they could easily master a load more, based on the grammar and vocabulary hey already know.
This is why I'm impressed with the members of the Nobel Prize committee. They each know a few languages at the academic level, which is more impressive than simply being fluent in those languages.
