Experience: I speak more than 50 languages
From an early age, I was fascinated by language. I grew up in Chester, of parents born in Merseyside, with Welsh and English heritage. I absorbed the Welsh words my grandmother taught me and replicated my family's Scouse accents.
I remember vacations in Spain, when I was seven years old when two boys asked me if I spoke Norwegian. Since I couldn't answer, they ran away, leaving me sad. Back home, I searched the stores for ancient language books and loved trying all these different words to express what was on my mind. I thought that was amazing, and I still do.
The first language I learned was French, at school, at the age of five years. I got top marks every year. The teachers didn't want me to study German too, and I was devastated. In high school I went on a geography trip to Germany, just to be around the language.
In sixth grade I finished GCSE Spanish, then the level A. From there it became a way of life. I did a combined languages degree at the University of Hull, studying French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. I attended lessons in Swedish and Old Icelandic, and did language exchanges for Romanian and Catalan. I went to Lyon to play darts with the French gas and electricity trainees who shared my accommodation, then to Malaga. I spent time in Verona, where I read the Bible in Italian (I had never even read it in English).
After university, I worked as an au pair in Germany, and finally studied German. I cycled in the Netherlands, learned Dutch, then took Russian lessons in Spain and a Czech diploma in Prague. I joined a Greek evening school in Rotterdam and took Arabic lessons in Leiden. It turned out that speaking a language abroad with the locals was a perfect way to learn, especially in a time before the internet.
Travel to learn a language has become an adventure; came with huge excitement and of course more lonely and complex moments. I found that the speed of learning depends on the language and the intensity with which I study. If it sounds like a language I already speak, I find I can use it in an understandable, though perhaps unrefined, way within weeks.
Languages have also had a big impact on my personal life. In 2003, during a train trip in the Balkans, I met my future wife, a Macedonian, a graduate in South-East Slavic languages and literatures. I returned to the UK and got a job at the Foreign Office, where I used the languages to liaise with diplomats. I was transferred to Skopje and Sarajevo in the Balkans, and Chișinău, Moldova, and learned the local lingo.
When our daughter was born in Chester in 2007, we spoke to her in English, French and Macedonian. By the age of one, she could speak three-word sentences in three languages. We introduced German and Spanish. We still speak all five at home.
We moved to the Balkans in 2010. I studied Turkish and Albanian and absorbed content - including TV, music, radio, memes and jokes – from Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Bulgaria. Now that I live here, I only speak English for work or with friends online. When I am introduced to someone new, I am often asked to unroll tongues, as a party trick, which I take on the chin. After all, it's unusual.
I've been described as one of the most multilingual people in the UK, which is very nice. I have studied over 50 languages now. I typically use 15 a week and over 30 a year.
During lockdown I took short courses in North Sami, Scottish, Korean and Irish. I joined conversation groups and took exams in Cornish. I also did a month-long intensive study in Estonian and was interviewed about the experience – in the language – on Estonian television. In 2013, I founded the annual Polyglot conference. I also defend vulnerable, indigenous and endangered languages.
Having a world of languages and not learning them is like watching black and white TV without knowing there is color. They will continue to enrich me throughout my life.
The most important thing in language learning is to...
From an early age, I was fascinated by language. I grew up in Chester, of parents born in Merseyside, with Welsh and English heritage. I absorbed the Welsh words my grandmother taught me and replicated my family's Scouse accents.
I remember vacations in Spain, when I was seven years old when two boys asked me if I spoke Norwegian. Since I couldn't answer, they ran away, leaving me sad. Back home, I searched the stores for ancient language books and loved trying all these different words to express what was on my mind. I thought that was amazing, and I still do.
The first language I learned was French, at school, at the age of five years. I got top marks every year. The teachers didn't want me to study German too, and I was devastated. In high school I went on a geography trip to Germany, just to be around the language.
In sixth grade I finished GCSE Spanish, then the level A. From there it became a way of life. I did a combined languages degree at the University of Hull, studying French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. I attended lessons in Swedish and Old Icelandic, and did language exchanges for Romanian and Catalan. I went to Lyon to play darts with the French gas and electricity trainees who shared my accommodation, then to Malaga. I spent time in Verona, where I read the Bible in Italian (I had never even read it in English).
After university, I worked as an au pair in Germany, and finally studied German. I cycled in the Netherlands, learned Dutch, then took Russian lessons in Spain and a Czech diploma in Prague. I joined a Greek evening school in Rotterdam and took Arabic lessons in Leiden. It turned out that speaking a language abroad with the locals was a perfect way to learn, especially in a time before the internet.
Travel to learn a language has become an adventure; came with huge excitement and of course more lonely and complex moments. I found that the speed of learning depends on the language and the intensity with which I study. If it sounds like a language I already speak, I find I can use it in an understandable, though perhaps unrefined, way within weeks.
Languages have also had a big impact on my personal life. In 2003, during a train trip in the Balkans, I met my future wife, a Macedonian, a graduate in South-East Slavic languages and literatures. I returned to the UK and got a job at the Foreign Office, where I used the languages to liaise with diplomats. I was transferred to Skopje and Sarajevo in the Balkans, and Chișinău, Moldova, and learned the local lingo.
When our daughter was born in Chester in 2007, we spoke to her in English, French and Macedonian. By the age of one, she could speak three-word sentences in three languages. We introduced German and Spanish. We still speak all five at home.
We moved to the Balkans in 2010. I studied Turkish and Albanian and absorbed content - including TV, music, radio, memes and jokes – from Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Bulgaria. Now that I live here, I only speak English for work or with friends online. When I am introduced to someone new, I am often asked to unroll tongues, as a party trick, which I take on the chin. After all, it's unusual.
I've been described as one of the most multilingual people in the UK, which is very nice. I have studied over 50 languages now. I typically use 15 a week and over 30 a year.
During lockdown I took short courses in North Sami, Scottish, Korean and Irish. I joined conversation groups and took exams in Cornish. I also did a month-long intensive study in Estonian and was interviewed about the experience – in the language – on Estonian television. In 2013, I founded the annual Polyglot conference. I also defend vulnerable, indigenous and endangered languages.
Having a world of languages and not learning them is like watching black and white TV without knowing there is color. They will continue to enrich me throughout my life.
The most important thing in language learning is to...
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