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

I am from the province of Quebec in Canada, and I grew up speaking both French and English. I was never particularly interested in languages. To be honest, I disliked both English and French classes in school, and though I have always been innately interested in different cultures, I never imagined I’d learn a foreign language.

In 2013, I moved to Belgium to complete a master’s degree. Over those two years, my French accent changed without me even noticing. I feel as though this was the beginning of my language-learning journey, as it helped me subconsciously understand the malleability and flexibility of language. The real unveiling of what is now a passion for me took place when I lived in Lisbon, Portugal, as part of my studies. During this time, I learned Portuguese almost entirely through immersion — spending time with locals and practicing constantly. It happened so naturally that I thought I might have some kind of hidden talent for language learning. When I returned to Canada, I couldn’t stop studying Portuguese grammar! I became determined to improve my level and was no longer satisfied with simple conversational skills. That drive to improve, and studying in my free time (which was pretty out of character for me), made me realize I had found a genuine passion.

After learning Portuguese, I applied similar methods to other languages, while taking a more formal approach. I would self-study, spend time in the country in question, take intensive classes initially, and then stay to practice for as long as I could. Once back in Canada, I would study extensively on my own and would take online classes with language teachers.

I did this for Spanish and Italian. I learned Spanish while travelling through Latin America with my wife. In 2017, we both quit our jobs and went travelling for about 18 months. The first portion of this trip was in Nicaragua, where we took intensive classes for 3 weeks straight and then spent several months travelling and practicing in both Central and South America.

During that same trip, we went to Italy, essentially for me to learn Italian and go meet my wife’s family as I had asked her to marry me in Nicaragua and needed her family’s approval before we could get married. I started with classes in Orbetello and then we worked on farms across numerous regions of Italy through Woofing (working on organic farms in exchange for food and accommodation). During that time, I learned very quickly, pretty much because I had no choice! It prepared me well to meet her family, which took place about three months into my time in that beautiful country. They approved and we got married the following year in Canada!

Once back in Canada, I constantly worked at improving all three foreign languages I had learned up to that point. I became much more fluent and travelled once again to countries that allowed me to practice these languages (Mexico, Cuba, Portugal, Cabo Verde, Italy). These trips really helped solidify my confidence.

My wife is half Filipina, half Italian and my father is married to a Greek woman, so the languages in our family are: French, English, Italian, Greek and Tagalog. I started feeling bad for having learned Portuguese and Spanish, but not Greek or Tagalog, especially seeing as my Greek stepmother had been part of my life for over 20 years at that point!

That is the reason I decided to dedicate myself to learning Greek. I took online classes for over a year and then spent the summer in Greece to do classes in person and to road trip for a few months around the country in order to practice. Back in Canada, I did the exact same thing as for the other languages; I took classes online and worked on improving both vocabulary and grammar. It is a difficult language but it is supremely interesting in its formulations and grammar in my opinion. I have since returned to Greece a few times to practice but of course, also to enjoy the beauty and food that Greece has to offer!

I am now happy with my level in Greek and have turned my sights fully on Tagalog. I have been taking classes online now for some time which have allowed me to have basic conversations, but I have plans to return to the Philippines in the coming year to apply the same formula as I have with the other languages I speak!

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

I would love to have more time practicing Greek. I practice often with my stepmother and language exchange partners from Greece, but the true difference with the other languages is that my wife does not speak it. At home, we speak Spanish and Italian to each other every day, and we do so during meals for our own practice, but also to get our 3-year-old boy’s ears used to these languages.

All though she does not speak fluent Portuguese either, I am surrounded by Brazilians in my social group. This allows me to practice in person nearly every day.

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

I am working on Tagalog now, and can have basic conversational skills, but I would like to achieve a certain fluency in the coming year or so, as it is the last of my family’s languages that I do not speak fluently.

After which (or maybe even before), I will turn my attention to Arabic as I would love to speak it. To be honest, I wanted to learn Arabic before Greek even, but it was important to me to speak all of my family’s languages first especially seeing as it will require a considerable amount of time and effort. I would like to learn Modern Standard Arabic and likely the Levantine dialect.

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

This is a very difficult question to answer with just one. I would say there are three to me;

• Italian for its beauty in pronunciation and general rhythm.

• Greek for how amazing the language is in itself. Finding this out made it very charming to me.

• Brazilian Portuguese for how cool it sounds to my ears.

That being said, I find the novelty of any language wears off in comparison to others once you spend enough time living in it. That is why I had to mention all three!

I will put it this way, Greek became very charming to me after acquiring a certain level and Brazilian Portuguese sounds very cool to my ears, but Italian has a certain elegance to it that I can’t shake.

To summarize this slightly annoying answer, I would choose Italian, as that would have been my answer if I did not speak any of them, just going by the sound and flow of the language.

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

I think the cultural aspect may give me the greatest pleasure. I feel as though it opens doors and allows you to understand certain parts of culture to a higher degree. It is also wildly rewarding to see people react to you speaking their language and seems to unlock a different compartment of their personality.

That being said, the intellectual stimulation that it offers me needs to be mentioned. Much like maths, looking at something that is initially gibberish to you becoming something that you fully understand is very rewarding and magical in some ways.

Moreover, I am the type of person that seems to always need a big plan or objective in the background of daily life. I feel as though language learning allows constant growth (when you put work into it of course) and makes me feel as though I am not stagnated. That growth gives me the impression that I am constantly improving as a person.

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 suppose it depends on what is meant by a few, but I would say that this is unlikely to happen within 100 years. To me language goes beyond communicating, so it cannot be considered as an optimization problem. Culture and history are intertwined with language. In my opinion just because it would be more efficient to speak a, or a few centralized languages, I think heritage and culture would get in the way of total elimination of all the other languages. I believe that human beings are innately attached to culture and heritage, and thus, to their language and attachment can rightfully get in the way of efficiency.

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

I would tell those that are not interested in learning foreign languages to give it a try, as they may end up discovering a passion that will help shape them as a person, which is what happened with me. For those whom are interested, I would encourage them to persist through the initial pains of learning a language as the reward is more than worth the effort. A key aspect to start learning other languages is not to take yourself too seriously, as it can be a humbling experience to be worse at something than everyone else around you (for example if you’re in a foreign country). That being said it is worth pushing through as it will be advantageous linguistically but also for personal growth. Again, all this happened with me.

To give a more concrete answer, I would recommend following the same steps I have taken thus far:

1. Study the basics for some time on your own, and then get a tutor to improve but also to provide accountability (similar to jogging with someone as opposed to doing it on your own).

2. Be immersed. If possible, go to the country in question, take intensive classes for some time and then spend more time in immersion purely to practice.

3. Upon returning to your home country keep aiming to improve grammar and vocabulary and make it part of your daily routine, whether that be by watching series or listening to podcasts every day. Personally, I read the news every day in different languages, watch YouTube videos and have all my devices programmed in different languages.

4. Once in a while, take a break. I have found that I will sometimes go for a few weeks without speaking a language and for some reason, in my brain, things seem to soak in during that time. When I speak the language again I do so seemingly with more confidence. I don’t quite understand why to be honest.