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

I’ve been learning foreign languages ever since my dad (a Wall Street maven) and my family (all born in the New York City area) began exploring Latin America: Cuba before Castro (when I was a baby), Costa Rica when I was 3, central Brazil when I was 6, southern Brazil until high school, and on and on.

I speak three languages as a native or quasi-native. I figure I’m about one step below that in three others, and mostly fluent in a few more. From there on down, my fluency depends on which foreign languages or countries I’ve been involved in most recently, and which ones I’m rustier. But I figure forgetting and refreshing is part of the process. So, most my on-site lessons since the 1960s (converted to mp3) and nearly all of them since online days are recorded and archived. When I need to refresh, I just pop on my iPods, take long walks and listen to myself and teacher speaking fluently years or even decades ago.

Learning languages is fun, of course. But in my view, it’s not a mission statement until we can help others do it too. So, to tell you more about myself, let me start there – about teaching others. It was in Brazil that I began teaching informally – first English, then Portuguese to help my classmates pass their grammar exams, then other languages. But when I went to college in New York, I needed a summer job and pounded the pavement in Manhattan.

I was just 19. So, when I walked through the door of Berlitz School of Languages in Rockefeller Center, I never dreamed I’d actually get a job. It was my lucky day. Six GM executives, getting ready to launch operations in Brazil, had just signed up for Berlitz’s then-new Total Immersion (TI) program. But two out of three of their Portuguese teachers had just quit. So, Berlitz executives were desperate. They hired me on the spot.

Their method was an eye-opener for me. Had I only known about it ten years earlier! Their intensive methodology training program was supposed to be just two weeks. I got special permission to attend for months. I loved the experience so much I decided to skip a year at college just to continue teaching and learning languages at Berlitz. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, my second lucky break came from my draft board. They said either (a) I provide proof that I’m enrolled in full-time classes while at Berlitz for the entire time I was out of college, or (b) I’d lose my student deferment and probably be sent straight to the DMZ in Vietnam. Result: A double career at Berlitz – full time teaching, full time studying. Their typical TI program was two weeks. Even pushing it to one month, Berlitz ran out of languages before I ran out of time.

It took me a while to realize what should have been obvious: The Berlitz method is not just good for teaching. It’s also ideal for learning (with almost any native speaker, whether educated or not). But unfortunately, the Berlitz method of that day is no more. In 1988, Berlitz was acquired by Maxwell, a British publishing conglomerate. From there it went to Fukutake in Japan, later renamed Benesse. What about the method my colleagues and I worked so hard to help develop? Alas, it got lost somewhere along the way.

Therefore, I cannot call it the Berlitz method anymore. Nor do I want to call it “my method” because languages are not my career or my brand. It’s independent ratings, the Weiss Ratings.  Languages are also not my first love academically. It’s cultural anthropology, and my doctorate is from Columbia University with fieldwork for my thesis in Japan and among Japanese immigrants in Brazil.

I would love to have a chance to learn more about everything HYPIA has done, is doing and hopes to achieve. For now, suffice to share these two videos Polyglot Grace and her husband were kind enough to produce with me: The first is “Speaking 12 languages with my 77 year-old polyglot mentor.” (These were the main ones Grace and I had in common at the time. Now I’m 79.)

The second is “Language Masterclass: Polyglots reveal the best way to learn a language – the natural method.” When we recorded these, I figured, “What the heck! Why not?” I knew of no particular reason do it. Now I know. It’s to share with the wonderful hyperpolyglots of HYPIA.

2. Which language(s) do you wish you could spend more time practising? LOL. Any and all languages I can, from the most widely spoken in the world to dying languages spoken by just a few. In practical terms, though, a lot revolves on what countries I’m going to this year where I might be a bit rusty, probably Turkish and Thai. Meanwhile, instead of speak French or English with friends among the South Florida Haitian community, I want to dive more deeply into Haitian Creole. Started doing that on iTalki last week.

3. What are some languages you’d like to learn in the future? South Asian Indo-European languages, starting with Urdu to better help a persecuted Christian Panjabi family I’m helping immigrate to Brazil; Isan Thai and/or Lao; plus upgrading my Russian and Mandarin.

4. So let’s be honest, which language has the most charm for you? Haha. Right now, it’s Swahili and Haitian Creole. Ask me next month (or even tomorrow), and maybe I’ll give you a very different answer.

5. What’s the greatest pleasure you get from speaking so many languages? Making friends with people and families from different cultures, beliefs, religions, philosophies, and yes, even diametrically different politics.

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? We don’t even know with much certainty how many languages have already become extinct in recent years. From UNESCO data, maybe 300 or so since 1969? Nor do we know for sure how many languages are spoken in the world. In 1969, Ethnologue listed about 4,500 from what I recall. Now, I think they list over 7,000 – not because there are more languages, but because more good work has been done to find and document them. Here’s my best answer: The more HYPIA can partner with other like-minded organizations, and the more make language learning/teaching can be made easier for everyone – including speakers of dying languages – the better chance we’ll have to convert this 100-year forecast into what’s called “a self-negating prophecy” – a call to action to reverse the trend.

7. What is your message to young (and not so young) people out there who are interested in studying multiple languages? You probably know about its practical value – for your studies, your career, your general knowledge. But have you fully explored all the other benefits? To list cite just a few: Opening up new opportunities for wonderful cross-cultural experiences. Training your brain or even helping to avoid future dementia. Above all, the personal gratification and pride that comes with making ours a better world.