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

I was born in a small town in New York state around an hour from New York City and I was always fascinated when I heard people speaking foreign languages around me as I was monolingual until I started to learn Spanish in school at the age of 13. The diversity of NY allowed me to not only learn, but practice Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and other languages often as I studied them increasingly more in my later years of high school. Then in university both in New York City and abroad in Argentina, France and Germany I studied many languages both informally and formally.

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

I suppose French, Portuguese and German as I plan on perfecting them in the coming years. I would also like to learn more Sicilian as it was my grandfather’s native language.

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

I would first like to achieve a C2 level in all of the languages that I currently speak, but I would then like to learn Dutch and Croatian which I already know the basics of. I am also interested in other Romance regional languages such as Lombard, Venetian, Occitan and Galician.

4. So let’s be honest, which language has the most charm for you?

Italian by far, but I am biased as part of my family originates from there. It just sounds so beautiful to me.

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

A certain “high” feeling from the success of speaking a language which I have studied and being able to connect with new people on a different level.

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 do not think so because there are many advocates and avid learners such as us, however it is true that unfortunately an increasing number of minority languages will slowly die out in favor of larger national languages.

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

They should definitely go for it and try their best because it is an incredible journey that truly opens so many doors for you to meet new people and find new opportunities in life.