At the age of 20, the Montreal linguistics student can already speak 19 different languages, most of which he taught himself through a combination of internet videos, music and conversation with friends. He also speaks Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, Russian, Hebrew, Romanian, Swedish, Georgian, Armenian, Cantonese, Korean, Esperanto, and Dutch. “I told my parents I really loved learning with my grandparents and they told me, ‘You know, there are places online if you want to learn more languages,”‘ Awaad said. Babbel, along with the Student Life Network, launched a search earlier this year to find Canada’s most polyglottic, or multilingual, student. Despite his achievement, Awaad doesn’t believe he has any exceptional skills when it comes to learning languages.

Source: National Post May 26, 2019 16:30 UTC