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

I started learning by myself and couldn't stop. I've learned all of them through self-study, and have been lucky to find countless opportunities to put them to use, whether via work, living abroad or all kinds of other experiences. 

I’ve been obsessed with language since I can remember having a coherent thought. Growing up bilingual probably helped. 

Let’s get a caveat out of the way: I really hate learning grammar. I found my mum’s attempts to foster an appreciation for French conjugation a real pain. While we waited for my brother to wrap up swimming practice at the leisure centre, she’d try to hold my attention and coach me through verb tables. Try as she might, my mind would mist up whenever it came to memorising rules. To my mum’s shame and my own indifference, not much was retained. 

Sifting through my Gmail inbox, I found some emails in French sent when I was a teenager. They’re absolutely rammed with grammar mistakes. I grew up speaking French at home and, for a few formative years, at school in France. Yet I didn’t get the grammar down until after my studies. The learning curve was steep, but writing reports on Middle Eastern geopolitics in a dingy Paris think tank was good practice. Only then could I be bothered to retain what had always seemed like pointless quibbling.

And yet I’ve always loved vocab. Not just in a nerdy, etymology-obsessed way. From a young age, I’d bring a stack of books for even the shortest car trips. I’d then machine-gun my parents with questions every time I came across an unknown French or English word. My parents obliged, talking through every definition in turn. It must have got old real fast.

The fixation on words never really let up. Seasoned language learners tout the virtues of exposure over bothering to get to the bottom of every last unit of meaning. Resorting to a dictionary can be a distraction, and many words are best understood through context. Sensible stuff. But I always found that advice hard to follow, and will typically look up every last one. They often stick. Even when reading today, I find myself noting the first instance of an unusual term, recalling where I spotted it dozens of pages on. 

Words elbow their way into my mind with a distracting persistence. Rather than soak up lectures at the University of Cape Town, I found myself mentally interpreting them into Japanese. I had to ban myself from flicking between different subtitles when watching Netflix. In a country whose language I’m learning, being ok with not translating every last billboard is a struggle. When running, words will float to the surface and lead me down the most winding of rabbit holes.

This love of “word-treasure” (Germans refer to vocabulary as “Wortschatz") over grammar tracks. I loathe admin, though I spend much of my life applying for visas or on the move. I’ve never learned to code, though it would be useful for my work as an analyst. I’d rather wing it than plan, though that can result in stress. The upshot is elevating the big picture over the nitty-gritty, weaving narratives over combing through details, and a conviction that things will just work out. Helpful as it can be, the downsides of that disposition are legion.

Yet when it comes to languages, I reckon I’m onto something. Though the done thing in classrooms, learning grammar off the bat is fairly useless. What’s the point of learning rules if could have nothing to apply them to? Much better to topple in headfirst and try to swim. The human brain is a petri dish and, given the right saturation, the nodes that make grammar intuitive fuse of their own accord. Find comprehensible input, let it wash over you - sometimes methodically looking things up, sometimes not. Over hundreds of hours, you’ll develop a “feel for the language”, a concept with no satisfactory English term but which the Chinese, Japanese and Germans dignify with yugan, gokan and Sprachgefuehl. This conviction owes much to Steve Kaufmann and Luca Lampariello, the origin internet language gurus and great proponents of immersion over grammar study and vocal lists. 

It’s no surprise I’ve never taken to linguistics. As I got into learning languages at university, forays into Noam Chomsky, Steven Pinker or the many podcasts out never really gripped me. I’d much rather dive into a language and wonder at its idiosyncrasies than learn taxonomies or get all meta about superstructure. With time I’d like to revisit this. Maturity and a bit more knowledge might foster a new appreciation for what is a rich field. (Though I still reckon language learners have little to gain from even the most applied of linguistics.)

Nor can I boast any credentials. No related degree nor much in the way of official stamps of proficiency - my only claim amounts to having got fairly far in a few languages. French is my mother tongue. I’m pretty happy with my ability in Arabic, Mandarin, Japanese, German and Spanish. Getting to use them all for work is a real joy. In the meantime, I’m having a great time brushing up on my Russian, and the year 2024 is my romance period: I’m aiming to chalk up a conversational level in Italian and Portuguese by Christmas. I’ve variously probed and given up on a bunch, too. Turkish, Hindi, Swahili may or may not get a serious revisit. Balancing consolidation with the glimmer of the new is another challenge. Persian, Cantonese and Hebrew look pretty cool.

Another caveat: when it comes to knowing languages, Westerners make much of what, in many cultures and throughout history, has often been par for the course. India is full of people who know a few. Most Lebanese speak several. Nigerians will frequently have a grasp of at least a couple. The list goes on. We like to give themselves a pat on the back for what isn’t really that exceptional. As a white person, people reward me for speaking foreign languages in a way in which doesn’t quite feel deserved. Yet the process is fun and rewarding in a way in which is unlike any other hobby. 

I could wax on about how language learning opens doors, brings us together, yields endless opportunity. I really could. But I reckon it’s best for people to get there by themselves.

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

Having more time would allow me to take on the time-intensive task of tackling an entirely new language family.

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

I'm learning Italian this year and brushing up on my Portuguese and Russian. Turkish, Hindi, Persian and Hebrew are all high up, too.

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

Depends on who is speaking.

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

Solo travelling in countries whose languages I've studied - meeting all kinds of people along the way - is a fantastic experience.

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?

Languages are dying out but there will still be plenty.

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

Do it! There are few hobbies with such a great return on investment. Your life will be all the richer.