Alex Rawlings, Oxford University Student, Speaks 11 Languages

Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

I was surprised when I read the news about this polyglot. It was amazing. His name is Alex Rawlings from London. He is 20 years old and he speaks 11 languages — English, Greek, German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Afrikaans, French, Hebrew, Catalan, and Italian. I cannot imagine myself speaking 11 languages, still far away from that. I wonder how he can do that.

"When I was younger I always wanted to speak different languages," Rawlings said in the BBC video.
"We often visited my mum's family in Greece. My dad worked in Japan for four years. I was always frustrated I couldn't talk to other kids in those countries because of the language."
"My favorite language is Greek because I've spoken it since childhood. It has sentimental value for me and I have a strong emotional connection with Greece," he said.

Do you know any polyglot or someone who knows several languages? What have you learned from this incredible story? Thanks for reading. Feel free to share this article if you like. If you have any opinions, please leave a comment. I love reading them.

Photo credit
The Huffington Post

Reactions:

Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

Random posts

Reading Chinese Text

When I was searching about learning Mandarin on the Internet, I found a very brilliant tip in reading Chinese text. This technique can be applied only by those who know Traditional Chinese phonetics (注音 Zhuyin) So, here is the technique:

Indonesian is the first language that I have really tried to learn. I studied French and Italian for limited amounts of time during my schooling, but only because I was forced to learn them. With Indonesian it was different – I study Indonesian because I love the language.

Задумывались ли вы выучить иностранный язык на другом языке. Это то, что я сейчас делаю. Я учусь несколько иностранных языков на английском языке, который для меня является иностранный язык. В вопросе о неудобство и трудности -я не обнаружил никаких трудностей в изучении других языков на английском языке. Возможно, что английский язык стал почти как мой родной язык. Я использую английский язык всегда и везде. Из-за частого использования английского языка, я чувствую себя странно, когда я переключаюсь на индонезийском языке. Кроме того, я чувствую себя странно, когда я использую компьютер своего отца, который запрограммирован на индонезийском языке.

Гадаад хэл сонирхон судалдаг хүмүүст тулгардаг нэгэн түгээмэл асуулт нь яг ямар хэл сурах вэ юм. Надад ч гэсэн ийм асуудал тулгарч байлаа. Би юу хийсэн бэ гэхээр аль хэлээр хамгийн олон хүн ярьж байна, аль хэлийг хүмүүс илүүд үзэж байна, ажилд ороход хамгийн хэрэгтэй хэл ямар хэл байна вэ гэх мэт “хамгийн хамгийн” гэсэн жагсаалт гаргаж бяцхан судалгаа хийлээ.

The Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has held a two-day event promoting the Asia-Pacific culture in the capital city of Taiwan, Taipei City, on September 28-29th. The participants come from the Solomon Islands, the Philippines, the Marshall Islands, Vietnam, Tuvalu, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, New Zealand, Palau, Nauru, Malaysia, Kiribati, Japan, Indonesia, India, Fiji, and Brunei. Apart from performing dances from each of the countries, the participants also displayed a wide variety of handicrafts and artworks as well as authentic cuisine on each country's booth.

The relationship between language and culture is one that cannot be unpicked. Culture and language are so inextricably entwined that in order to fully understand each, one must have a grasp of the other.

How are language and culture related? The language that society speaks is part of its culture. Likewise, its culture is reflected in its language. The two have developed together over hundreds if not thousands of years, meaning that the language and culture relationship runs deep. Without language, human culture would be impossible to fully understand. Everything from individual words to figures of speech showcase the cultural connection between a society and its language.

Many of my foreign students like to translate when speaking Chinese. They tend to think in their own language or English first then translate into Chinese. Of course, we know that we probably shouldn’t do that when learning a foreign language, but sometimes we just can’t help it!

UKRAINIAN GRAMMAR TENSES The Ukrainian language has 3 grammar tenses: present, past, and future. It exists two verb forms of the past and in the future tenses: imperfective and perfective. The imperfective form means that an action is ongoing and repetitive. The perfective form means that the action is completed (or will be completed in the future tense), this is an act of general nature. Here is an example of the verb “писати” /pysaty/ - to write:

In Pingtung, we have Benjamin Irwin, a Canadian who just moved there from Taipei. He has been teaching English at cram school since last summer. He can speak Esperanto and Italian fluently, besides Chinese that he masters quite well.

Search This Blog

Nee's Language Blog