Freelang’s blog

According to this article in German, Ioannis Ikonomou works as an interpreter for the European Union in Brussels and he speaks 32 languages! Or maybe even 42, according to this other article in French. I don’t speak German myself, so if somebody understands the article in German and wishes to translate or sum up a few interesting sentences as comments in this blog, I would be most grateful. And of course, if you personally know this person or you know how to reach him, please tell him that we, at Freelang, would love to interview him! The article in French gives very few details, saying that the man is 44 year-old and he began learning English at the age of 5. He considers Chinese as a simple language (!) and mentions Hungarian as the most difficult language to learn. I had already heard that before, but coming from a guy who knows so many languages, it sounds really true. The one question I really would like to ask him, though, is how does he do in order not to forget a language?

What about you, dear reader, do you speak several languages and can you practice them on a regular basis?

Known as Ireland’s most reckless driver, Prawo Jazdy was wanted by the police after racking up scores of speeding tickets and parking fines. Strangely enough, despite more than 50 offences, the serial offender had always managed to evade the law, by leading to a different address each time he was caught. So the police had a closer look, and they finally discovered that “Prawo Jazdy” was Polish for “Driving License”! Officers taking details of Polish traffic offenders had been mistakenly using “Prawo Jazdy”, printed in the top right corner of the driving licence, as the holder’s name. A memo has been issued, so Polish nationals driving in Ireland won’t be so lucky next time!

It’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow! This is a great occasion to express your feelings in all languages, and thanks to Freelang you will be able to say “I love you” in more than a hundred languages. We wish you love and happiness!

Scott had the correct answer to the question we asked in our previous post. It was indeed the flag of the Ainu people, which is also the latest dictionary added to our collection, thanks to our friend Charles Lippert.

Maybe the question was too easy or too difficult, I don’t know. So here is another one for you: can you give me an example of two countries which have the same flag? I can think of at least two different examples, if we don’t take the proportions of the flags into account.

Let’s play!