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

My name is Victor, I am from Madrid and my family is from Salamanca. I am an industrial engineer. Among my passions is chess, in which I reached a certain competitive level during my childhood. I am also fascinated by history, and I am currently working on my doctoral thesis.

My grandfather was a diplomat in Geneva and my mother was educated there until she was 18. French is therefore her mother tongue. When I was little, I always saw with healthy envy how my mother and uncles spoke French spontaneously. I think that's when I acquired this fascination for languages.

When I was 14, I spent a year in New Orleans, a vibrant city known for its rich cultural heritage, jazz music, and unique cuisine, where I completed my sophomore year in high school. My host family was wonderful, and I have great memories of them. Forty years later, we still keep in touch, and some years ago, I sent my daughter to stay with them as an exchange student. English has been a constant presence in my life, later becoming a professional lingua franca. My host family had German roots, and my American brothers could speak German fluently.

It was then that I decided to learn the German language. When I returned from the United States, I enrolled in a language school. I think you can say that German was the first language I learned as an adult and it gave me a new perspective on languages and the differences between them. So, during my studies, I decided to go to Germany for a summer to work. There I met a Polish friend who is now my wife. I was lucky enough to do an Erasmus year in Vienna and stayed another year to finish my studies, which is why I am also an Austrian civil engineer.

After graduating, we moved to Spain. Then my wife decided (and I listened) that after the birth of our children (our children, Marta and Daniel, are twins) we moved to Warsaw, where we have lived for 20 years. I started learning Polish mainly at work, because at home we kept Spanish as the family language.

Since childhood, I have felt a special connection with Catalonia. I started visiting her to participate in chess tournaments, one of my great passions. In addition, my family is linked to Catalan culture, as my father's wife is Catalan, and we spent the summers in Tamariu, one of the beaches in Palafrugell that I hold dear. Also, my professional career has led me to be closely linked to Catalonia, where I have worked for more than ten years in Catalan companies, which has allowed me to get to know their culture and language better. Catalan is a musical language and, for Spaniards, very accessible, as it can be learned quickly and understood from the beginning.

I wanted to learn Russian as a kid because of chess and Ukrainian because of the contact with many refugees lately.

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

All of them. If I have to choose only one I would say French.

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

I would like to learn Hebrew and investigate (a Doctor thesis or similar) about ladino. I would like to programm a ladino-Spanish translator.

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

In my case Spanish because my intellectual relation is more intimate than any other. At some times I have felt similar aesthetic pleasure reading French and German.

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

Difficult to say. Maybe it has an internal and external reason. The internal would be that it is a way to develop some kind of ability. The external is the possibility to enjoy in the original form the works of so many additional geniuses than if you speak only your original language.

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?

There are several possible scenarios. Another one could be that everyone speaks a different language and very strong translating tools allow the communication.

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

Speaking languages is more than a technical capacity. Specially in our times, where the use of automatic translators can substitute the knowledge of foreign languages, learning other languages is becoming more of a state of mind than a capacity. Other than the pure pleasure of learning another language, there are things about other cultures that you can only learn by studying and going deeper in the way they communicate.

By studying other languages, you don’t only get the ability to communicate with them. You also learn other ways of thinking. And that you don’t get from an automatic translator.

Besides, I have participated in many technical meetings as a translator. Sometimes the problem to get an agreement does not lay on the writing of the question, but on the intention of it. This can also happen when two people speak the same language but it is very clear in multilingual meetings. In my opinion learning the counterpart’s language helps you to understand his way of thinking.