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

During the pandemic ‘lockdown’ of 2020, I had too much free time and very little inspiration. My light at the end of the tunnel was a family holiday to Greece, and so one day I decided to begin learning the Greek language. It was extremely difficult at the beginning however I learnt about the ‘natural method’ promoted by linguists such as Stephen Krashen and put this into practice. Fortunately, the trip was able to go ahead in the summer, and the smiles and kind words of astonishment I received from locals when I conversed with them in Greek (despite having no Greek family connection and having spent only 6 months learning the language) was simply priceless to me. Language learning gives me a duel sense of joy: I am motivated by the prospect of speaking to people in their native language and thus achieving a deeper connection, however I am equally motivated by the satisfaction of the language learning process: of breaking a code and being able to understand new grammatical structures and expressions. I found a job in an Italian restaurant where I learnt Italian, I then learnt Spanish and some German. I went on holiday to Mallorca where I encountered Catalan and vowed to learn this language too. I then became fascinated with Romanian as the ‘missing romance language’, and learnt some Portuguese too. I eventually decided to study languages at university: I am currently midway through a BA in French and Modern Greek at the university of Oxford, and still enjoy learning other languages in my free time.

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

My degree demands me to spend a lot of time learning Greek and French however as soon as I graduate, I have promised a Turkish friend that I will learn Turkish, a Russian friend that I will learn Russian and a friend from the north of India that I will learn Hindi. These three languages fascinate me, Hindi and Russian for their wonderful sonority despite being surprisingly similar to the languages I already know thanks to their Indo-European connection. Turkish fascinates me for its agglutinative grammar which is unlike anything else I have learnt.

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

I am interested by Northern Europe, so naturally Dutch, Norwegian and Swedish. I would also love to learn more Indo-European languages such as Albanian and Persian (Farsi) as well as non-Indo-European languages particularly Turkic languages such as Kazakh.

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

Greek!

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

Every language has a new flavour, a new aroma and a new colour. It also allows a deeper connection with a different sort of person from a different part of the world. This combination is unbeatably rewarding.

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 could imagine a situation where every person on the planet speaks at least one one of a small group of languages, but this will not mean that other languages won’t also exist too. Regardless of whether there is a ‘utility’ to language learning for communication, I will continue into old age to learn languages for the pure thrill of it. I believe language conservation is an extremely worthy cause and would love to dedicate myself to this either professionally or voluntarily.

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

That it will be frustrating to begin with. You will forget words and it will take time. Be patient: nothing compares to the satisfaction and awe that you will experience when the language starts to feel familiar to you.