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

My interest in languages started with English and Spanish, which gave me an early appreciation for the fact that language is much more than vocabulary. It is a way of seeing the world.

As I got older, I became fascinated by other cultures and wanted to experience them directly rather than only reading about them. French came largely through academic study, Portuguese developed naturally from my knowledge of Spanish, and Mandarin became a much bigger part of my life after I spent years studying and living in China.

Living in China for five years was particularly important. Mandarin stopped being an academic subject and became something I had to use to navigate everyday life. That experience also made me much more interested in how languages shape the way people think and interact.

Travel has continued that process. I’ve visited a large number of countries and regions, and every time I encounter another language, I’m reminded that the world is considerably more complicated, interesting, and linguistically creative than it looks from an English-speaking perspective.

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

Mandarin. It is probably the language where I have the most unfinished business.

I spent five years in China, so I have a strong personal connection to the language, but Mandarin requires continual practice if you want to maintain a high level. I would also like to spend more time with Russian because there is still a lot of room for me to grow and develop.

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

There are far too many, which is probably the problem.

I’d particularly like to develop a stronger command of Arabic, because of its enormous historical and cultural importance and because it opens the door to understanding a huge part of the world.

I’m also interested in languages of the Balkans and the former Soviet space, partly because of my interest in the history and politics of those regions. Russian would be particularly useful.

I’m also fascinated by languages that are structurally very different from the ones I already know. Once you start learning languages, you stop thinking of them simply as things to memorize and start seeing them as different systems for organizing human experience.

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

Portuguese. There is something about Brazilian Portuguese in particular that I find exceptionally expressive. It has a rhythm and musicality that make even ordinary conversation sound animated.

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

The greatest pleasure is being able to connect with people without requiring them to enter my linguistic world. 

There is a different kind of intimacy when someone realizes you can speak their language. Even if your grammar isn't perfect, the effort itself changes the interaction.

Languages also let you experience cultures from the inside. Translation can communicate what someone said, but knowing the language gives you access to humor, expressions, historical references, wordplay, and cultural assumptions that don't always survive translation.

And there is an intellectual pleasure in moving between languages. The same idea can feel slightly different depending on which language you use to express it. That makes you more aware of how much of what we consider "normal" is actually shaped by 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 think linguistic consolidation is a real phenomenon, but I don't think the future necessarily means a world with only a handful of languages.

Some languages are clearly under enormous pressure from globalization, urbanization, demographic changes, and the dominance of major languages such as English, Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic, French, and Portuguese.

But humans have an extraordinary tendency to preserve linguistic identity. Language is tied to family, place, history, and community. People don't necessarily abandon a language simply because another language is economically more useful.

I suspect the future will be a combination of both trends: greater use of a relatively small number of global languages alongside continued efforts to preserve regional and minority languages.

And technology may actually help. Translation tools and artificial intelligence could make it easier for people to communicate across languages without requiring everyone to abandon their own.

The tragedy would not simply be losing words or grammar. It would be losing entire ways of describing and understanding the world.

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

Start.

Don't wait until you have the perfect method, the perfect teacher, or enough free time. You will never have enough free time. Humans have been inventing excuses since approximately the invention of agriculture.

Also, don't make the mistake of thinking that you need to become fluent before you are allowed to enjoy a language. Learn enough to order food, ask directions, make a joke, have a basic conversation, or say something to someone in their own language. Those small victories are what keep you going.

And don't be afraid of making mistakes. Making mistakes is not evidence that you're bad at languages. It is evidence that you're actually using one.

Most importantly, learn languages because you want access to people and cultures, not simply because you want another line on your résumé. If you approach languages as a way of understanding the world, the process becomes much more rewarding.

You don't have to become a polyglot. Learning even one additional language seriously can change the way you see the world.