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

I grew up in a strictly monolingual household but from a young age really wanted to learn other languages. To me, languages were practically magic. Just by using sound I could communicate with someone from a completely different part of the world! I adored learning as much as I could and it was an obsession since childhood, even though I didn’t have a chance to learn early.

I was raised speaking English and began Spanish as my foreign language in 7thgrade. I enjoyed practicing with my brother who also spoke Spanish and really anchored it spending 5 weeks in Spain with a Spanish host family that didn’t speak English. I then went to Thailand for 6 months as an exchange student in Chumphonburi, Surin, Thailand. I was, again, placed with a family who spoke no English. This was also before people had home internet, so it was truly 100% immersion. No one in my school spoke English either aside from the English teachers and about 2 students.

I then did the University of Virginia SLI in Tibetan (2 years of Tibetan in a 2 month intensive) and spoke Tibetan every day since then. During study abroad in India I had a roommate who only spoke Tibetan for 2 months, aside from just being in a Tibetan environment. I have now spent around 8 years living in primarily Tibetan speaking environments.

I began Mandarin Chinese in college and used it frequently, including living in Taiwan for 6 months. French I learned at “French in Normandy” school, an intensive program and then just practicing.

I moved to Mongolia for 3 years and for several months of that lived with families who only spoke Mongolian.

I’ve lived in Nepal for the past few years and while I was only able to formally study Nepali for around 3 months I use it every day.

Finally, I’ve been learning ASL (American Sign Language) from a deaf friend here in Nepal as it is our only medium of communication.

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

All of them, frankly, but primarily Thai, French, and ASL.

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

Turkish, because once you know that you can easily learn Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Uzbek, Uyghur, etc. Hebrew and Arabic. I’m also interested in learning endangered North American Indigenous languages and hopefully helping communities create better language education programs.

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

I’m biased because my boyfriend speaks Tibetan, so of course I’ll say Tibetan! Khampa dialect makes me swoon.

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

I can go anywhere in the world and make friends. People ask me how I travel alone and I say ‘I don’t! I take airplanes alone, but once I arrive I am surrounded by friends.’ It is my greatest joy. I also love the independence it gives me. I don’t rely on interpreters, tour guides, or anything.

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?

We are definitely losing many minority languages, but we are also seeing a lot of people working really hard to revive indigenous languages, so I don’t think we will have few left. I think we will still have diversity.

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

Concentrate on communication. I know your school wants you to concentrate on perfect grammar and this and that. Sure, academically that’s great. But in the real world, no one uses perfect grammar! Concentrate on being able to understand and be understood. It will make language learning enjoyable and you will improve much faster.