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

My College linguistic professor inspired me to become a polyglot. 

I grew up in Taipei Taiwan with Hakka speaking parents. I wasn’t interested in languages at all so I didn’t even pick up my parents’ language. Today I can only passively understand Hakka.

I spent many years in my babysitter’s home where Taiwanese(hokkien). Unlike Hakka, I somehow picked it up naturally. So Mandarin of Taiwan, semi-native Taiwanese plus passive understanding of Hakka, there were the languages I spoke before 12.

I started to learn English right before entering middle school like most kids in Taiwan. At first I wasn't too enthusiastic about it. I only began to learn serious once I started to play the world first MMO "Ultima Online". In 1997, English was the only language of the game. I had to master it to play it smoothly and interact with other players. Upon entering high school, my gaming focus shifted from English MMO to Japanese games. Thanks to a lot of Japanese Mangas, anime and games, I mastered Japanese, too.

When I got into college, I already spoke 4 and half languages. However, I didn't consider myself someone who loved language. I learned these languages out of necessity. My real linguistic journey began when I met my great polyglot mentors. First, I met Dr. Valentino at his Latin class. This Siena-born Italian professor was a true polyglot speaking over 10 languages fluently from Spanish to Japanese. He also insisted on teaching Latin in Mandarin Chinese. It was the first time I saw someone who could speak multiple languages fluently at the same time. Coincidentally, at about the same time, I met another polyglot professor on campus, Dr. Karen Chung from Minnesota. She also spoke tens of languages fluently and studied over 50 languages in her life. Both Dr. Chung and Dr. Valentino inspired me to become a polyglot.

After these serendipitous encounters, I decided to become a polyglot no matter what. After a lot of sweat and trials and errors, I mastered additional 3 languages by the time I graduated from college. After graduation, I decided to become a professional polyglot and an academic linguist.

I continued to learn and study various languages in my 20s and I got admitted to the University of Kansas at the age of 28. My original plan was to pursue a Ph.D. in linguistics. However, during the 3rd year of my studies, I realized that I wanted to something closer to the general public. I also wanted to make a broader impact and change the inefficient language education system in my home country. Therefore, I aborted my Ph.D. studies and went back to Taiwan to start my own language business "Polyglot.tw".

Currently, while managing my own business and my language communities in Taiwan and Japan, I still learn at least one new language every year. By "learning" I mean that I've to go to the country to live with the native speakers. For example, in 2023 I lived in a rural village called Lichk in Armenia to learn Armenian; in 2024 I was in a K'iche Mayan village in Guatemala. My language of 2025 is Latvian. I am currently staying in a town called Jelgava in Latvia. (June 2025).

This sums up my linguistic journey. I hope this can give you a good picture of how I ended up here as a polyglot. 

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

Russian. I wish I had spent more time learning/practicing Russian when I was a student.

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

Mapudungun, Guarani.

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

Japanese.

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

Communicate and help native speakers who do not speak any other languages.

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?

It’s hard to say. I actually do not think so. Language learning might lose its practical purposes(trade), but it will continue to have aesthetic and emotional values like music. In addition, language is always tied with culture and one’s identity. Speaking a language is almost essential for maintaining one’s identiy.

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

Know thyself, ask yourself why you really want to learn so many languages.