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

I come from a monolingual Brazilian family in the countryside of the state of Rio de Janeiro. From a very early age, I was an extremely curious child, always trying to understand how things worked and why they were the way they were. According to my parents, I learned how to read and write on my own at the age of four, which, looking back, was probably my first real experience as a self-directed learner.

My first contact with a foreign language came through music. My parents listened to a lot of international music, especially in English, and at some point I started wondering what those words actually meant. I was lucky enough to attend a small English course near my home. I learned a few basics there, but after the course ended, I didn’t really keep studying. Because of that, my English remained very basic for quite a long time.

Things changed when I was around 20 years old. Two close friends of mine were able to communicate naturally in English when we met, and I remember feeling both impressed and frustrated. That feeling stayed with me and eventually pushed me to take language learning seriously. I started spending a lot of time on language exchange platforms such as Sharedtalk and Livemocha, talking to people from different countries and backgrounds.

During that period, I met Swedish and Finnish speakers, and that was a turning point. Their languages felt completely different from anything I had encountered before, and that difference fascinated me. In 2009, I visited Sweden for the first time. I barely spoke the language, but the experience itself was enough to leave a deep impression. Swedish sounded melodic and expressive to me, and I returned home with a strong desire to understand it better.

In 2014, I moved to Ireland as an exchange student. My initial goal was simply to improve my English, but living in such an international environment ended up broadening my linguistic horizons far beyond that. I was constantly surrounded by people speaking different languages, and I picked up bits and pieces of Korean, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, and Dutch along the way. I also decided to enroll in a free Italian course offered by the Dublin City Library. It was a modest course, but it gave me a solid starting point. Later that year, I traveled to Italy and Finland, and those trips ended up reshaping the way I saw my future.

Although I hold a degree in Advertising, it became increasingly clear to me that languages were more than just an interest or a side project. After returning to Brazil in 2015, I actively looked for work connected to languages. I first worked as a hotel receptionist and later started teaching English and Italian privately. In 2016, I was given the opportunity to teach Swedish to beginners at a language school. That moment, in many ways, marked the beginning of my professional life with languages.

Since then, I have continued working as a language teacher and translator. Over the years, I have studied and used several languages at different levels, including French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Russian, and more recently, Japanese. I don’t speak all of them perfectly, and I don’t try to. What matters to me is the possibility of connection — with people, cultures, and ways of thinking that are very different from my own.

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

At the moment, I wish I had more time to practice Finnish and Japanese. These are two languages I feel particularly connected to, both intellectually and emotionally, but I don’t currently have many opportunities to use them in real conversations or to interact regularly with native speakers.

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

My main goal is to keep improving the languages I already study and to reach at least a solid B1 level in those that are currently at A2. When it comes to new languages, the list could easily be much longer, but a few stand out.

Greek attracts me because of its deep historical roots, its literature, and its alphabet. Icelandic interests me for similar reasons, especially because of its close relationship with Old Norse, which makes it particularly relevant from a historical and linguistic perspective. Mandarin represents a very different kind of challenge — a tonal language from a completely different family — and learning it would open the door to communication with a huge number of people.

Croatian came up through my interest in Slavic languages and the Balkan region, especially because of its similarity to Bosnian, Montenegrin, and Serbian. Arabic is also high on my list, mainly because of its historical importance, the number of speakers, and its writing system. I am especially interested in Egyptian Arabic, as I would like to visit the country one day and be able to interact more naturally with locals. Finally, Lithuanian fascinates me because of its archaic features and its value for understanding the history of Indo-European languages.

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

That’s a difficult question, because I genuinely believe that every language has its own kind of beauty. Still, if I had to choose one, it would be Swedish. It was the first non-Romance language, besides English, that I studied in a more serious way. I enjoy its melody, the contrast between long and short vowels, its relatively transparent grammar, and the fact that it does not have grammatical gender. In many ways, Swedish was the language that opened the door to everything that came after.

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

For me, the greatest pleasure comes from being able to communicate more honestly and more deeply. Languages allow me to see the world from different angles and, over time, they have made me a more empathetic person. There is also something very satisfying about accessing literature, music, and other forms of cultural expression in their original language.

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

I don’t think so. This idea usually focuses too much on political and economic power and not enough on cultural identity. While English clearly plays a major global role, local languages carry histories, memories, and ways of seeing the world that cannot simply be replaced. I also believe that languages will continue to change and diversify, rather than disappear altogether.

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

I genuinely believe that learning a new language is one of the most meaningful things a person can do. It is a way of encountering other cultures, forming real connections, and, perhaps most importantly, understanding oneself better. Language learning is not just an academic activity; it is an attitude of openness toward the world, especially in a time of growing polarization. Speaking another language means breaking barriers, building bridges, and being willing to listen. It is never too late to start, and it almost always gives back more than it asks.