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

I was always into languages but I didn’t realise it and no one ever told me that I was good at them of that I could study them at university for example, so I studied something completely different. My father had an old German Assimil at home and later also dipped into Italian, Spanish and Portuguese through Assimil. I dabbled a bit in Spanish and Italian during my teenage years but it was only after university that I decided to study Italian through evening classes. When I lost my job during the 2008 financial crisis I had a plan B: voluntary work in Vicenza Italy for SOS Children’s Villages. Many of my colleagues were German, so alongside working on my Italian I took the opportunity to start with that language also. But I also had a colleague from Lisbon and another who had worked in Brazil so Portuguese followed suit; Spanish when I moved to Madrid and during the pandemic as I was out of work like many people, I started something new; well 2 new languages: Catalan and Danish. It was only then that I got into touch with the online language learning community on IG and Twitter; it was also only then at age 35 I realised I was not a (super) freak, geek or nerd; as that was a bit how I had felt in the past. I was not alone! And more importantly I finally came to realise languages were my passion and I have been adding new languages for fun ever since.

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

Portuguese, German and Afrikaans are languages I don’t spend a lot of time with because I know I can easily maintain my level but it would be nice to get them to an advanced level one day. Unfortunately, my newer “babies” need a lot of attention.

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

Frisian and Luxembourgish as I like to discover how they are similar to and different from the other Germanic languages. Malay as I’ve been twice to Malaysia and Singapore and really want to visit again but now being able to speak the language.

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

Italian will always have a special place in my heart as it was the first language I decided to learn after school.

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

I sometimes feel a bit socially awkward as getting to know people and making small talk is very difficult for me and languages have allowed me to leave my cocoon and to meet very interesting people.

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 kind of hope interest for language learning will grow. With all the digital contacts we have, maybe people are going to want more real in-person contacts and the best way to get to know a person is to speak their language and show interest in their culture. I feel also that the same digital (re)evolution provides tools for us to maintain all the languages that are around now.

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

Trial and error. You can try to follow other people’s advice on how to learn a language but in the end, we are all different and we need different tools and strategies to learn a language; having said that, when you feel that one of your resources is not doing the trick, put it aside for a while or forever and look for something else. My cupboard is full of books I started but stopped after a while.