Anybody knows Ioannis Ikonomou?
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?
March 5th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Hi. i’m from vietnam. i’ve read an article about him on a magazine in vietnam. he’s so incredible; according to the article, he can speak fluently write correctly 32 languages, it may be 42 if including some ancient languages. He access a new language by a special method. he learns about that country and so that he loves their culture, dishes… For example: pierogi of Poland, Dostoevsky of russia…
He spends 5 years to learn english, 7 years for German… but he has a problem in pronounce Vietnamese, although he finds it easy to learn vietnamese grammar.
he ‘s afraid that someday he will miss some languages he knows. “language, as well as sport, if you don’t practice, tou’ll lose”, he said
March 6th, 2009 at 12:23 am
I don’t know if Hungarian is the most dificult language. I think the most dificult is that one you still didn’t learn. For me thai can be considered dificult, cause I don’t know a single word.
Anyway, when I was at the university, I had a friend whose relatives were from Hungary, and she hated to speak Hungarian, not because was dificult, but cause she had to translated everything Portuguese-Hungarian-Portuguese for her family, and when she went to school she had problems in learning Portuguese.
March 7th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
I lived in Germany,Linguistic happen to be one of my hobby as well. I believe for some is an addiction with a different feeling that you are able do decipher a secret without hindrances.People who long to learn a language see it sometime as a challenge,and if you a gifted as in in the case of loannis Ikonomou? then Heaven could be the limit.
Nonetheless, I would translate what was written so far about our Linguistic guy soon in English, so that those who are interested could have an insight to its interview.
March 8th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Thanks everyone for your comments and thank you Oluwasheyi if you can translate or sum up the article.
March 21st, 2009 at 12:14 am
http://translate.google.com/
Google Translate gives this:
http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=sr&u=http%3A%2F%2Fberufundchance.fazjob.net%2Fs%2FRubC43EEA6BF57E4A09925C1D802785495A%2FDoc%7EEB07CFF5E23A24EF78AB1ADF39D590183%7EATpl%7EEcommon%7EScontent.html&sl=de&tl=en
Also, there is an interesting article here:
Ioannis Ikonomou
Language Learning Forum : Polyglots
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13877&PN=1&get=last
Cheers!
March 26th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Hi everybody! I’m from Vietnam too. That’s incredible for a man to know 32 languages. Fantastic! Does anyone know his email address? if any does, pls advise me through mine n.nail@yahoo.com so that I can write to him asking for some valuable methods, experience for learning a foreign language as one can see understanding the other person from different culture by speaking to him in his mother tongue is a useful way for closely bridging people of various backgrounds.
May 18th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
@Nestor: U can see him more by his facebook
January 16th, 2010 at 2:48 am
Hey! I’m from Greece n’ i know that this is true and he indeed know so many languages (42 actually) sadly i dunno him in person but i really admire him, i also could translae the text if u want
January 16th, 2010 at 2:50 am
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13877&PN=3
this could help too
July 10th, 2010 at 11:43 am
Ioannis said that he is “COMFORTABLE” with speaking/translating 32 languages; there’s the difference between the 32 and 42. Obviously he is most proficient at 32 but speaks/knows 42. Wow.
His “secret,” which is not a secret, is to “totally imerse” himself in the language and its culture, to “fall in love with the language.”
He has studied ancient languages as well. His studies in Indo-European linguistics included courses in Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Avestan, Old Persian, Middle Iranian languages, Classical Armenian, Gothic, Pali, Old Church Slavonic, Hittite, Luwian, Oscan, Umbrian and Irish.
His current love affair is with Amharic, the oldest African language with its own characters, the official (and currently spoken) language of Ethiopia.
Wow.
))