1. What’s your story? How did you get into all these languages?

I started developing my interest in language with the French language. When I was in university, I knew that there were opportunities to go to a foreign country to stay for a few months for exchange programme. I thought I could learn an extra language using the opportunity, so I didn’t want to pick an English-speaking country. I picked French. So, I started learning French before I went there. After I returned from France, I continued learning French.

But my language journey really took off during the COVID-19 pandemic. I was unemployed in the start of the pandemic. There was nothing I can do except for staying at home. My live back than was out of motivation. Then I thought I could go taking online language lessons. I started taking online French lessons. Then I though this mode of language learning was really suitable for me. Afterward, I started taking more online lessons and learning more languages that I have been interested in.

The next language that I started is Taiwanese Hokkien. I started learning unconsciously when I started listening to its songs.   I didn’t even know the language exist until a few years before a started learning it. I knew the language is in a declining state where the local young population stopped speaking the language and their grasp on the language is rapidly declining. And I would like to make a small effort in trying to preserve the language.

I started learning Japanese almost the same time I started taking classes in Taiwanese Hokkien. I have always been fascinated by Japanese Anime. As I was starting taking lessons in Taiwanese Hokkien, it also triggered me start learning Japanese.

A few months later, I was preparing the French exam. I don’t like taking language exams. I only like learning languages. The way I used to handle the stress of preparing the exam was by starting an another language. This time it was Spanish.

This was how I get into all the language that I speak.

2. Which language(s) do you wish you could spend more time practising?

French and Japanese.

3. What are some languages you’d like to learn in the future?

I am currently a beginner in Korean, and I am planning to learn Thai. German, Russian and Arabic are also in my language wishlist.

4. So let’s be honest, what’s the sexiest language?

French.

5. What’s the greatest pleasure you get from speaking so many languages?

The ability to interact with speaker of different language, thus making friends and learning culture of different languages.

6. Some people say the world is really just going to have a few languages left in a 100 years, do you think this is really true?

I don’t think so. There are still a lot of languages around right now. Languages don’t disappear at such a fast rate. And the awareness of language conservation is rising too.

7. What is your message to young (and not so young) people out there who are interested in studying multiple languages?

Talent is often being overemphasised in language learning. But in fact, passion and language learning skill are way more important in determining the success of language learning.