I always felt that growing up in a bilingual environment had its advantages. It not only enabled me to bridge the differences between cultures and countries, but it opened up a world of possibilities that would otherwise probably have been closed to me. I was raised speaking two languages in Latin America because of my American parents and Spanish-speaking environment. As I look back, it seems natural that I provide translation services.

At our home we never thought twice about switching back and forth between languages and we felt that having the ability to speak more than one language was an asset. It was natural to wonder if speaking more than two languages be equally rewarding.  My ability to learn languages has made providing translation services easier. Eventually I learned a third language (Hindi) and discovered that I got much more that just the basic language. A new language exposes us to new ways of thinking, new cultures and a new approach to life. I was hooked on learning languages. I have always been fascinated by people who speak many languages and I wondered if you needed to be a genius to master so many.

To answer this question, it was time to do a little digging. It made sense to start by learning about the boundaries of the possible and figure out what science had to tell us about our ability to speak many languages. I also didn’t recognize that my love of languages would lead me to become one of the leading language translation services in the nation.

People that speak many languages are known as polyglots. It is common to find polyglots in places like Europe, where people have contact with and access to other cultures and nationalities frequently. But there is another category of polyglots often known as hyperpolyglots: people who can speak more than 10 languages.

There are many examples in history of people who claimed to have been hyperpolyglots. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language lists a Sir John Bowring (1792-1872), a British diplomat who could speak 100 languages. Sir Richard Burton, the famous British explorer who discovered the sources of the Nile River, is rumored to have spoken dozens of languages and a handful of dialects. Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti (1774-1849), an Italian priest, is thought to have spoken 88 languages. It is difficult to assess the language abilities of people who lived 200 years ago, so my search necessarily led me to the hyperpolyglots of today’s world.

I found that one of the most famous living hyperpolyglots is Carlos do Amaral Freire, a Brazilian linguist who claims to communicate in, and understand more than 30 languages. Is speaking 30 or even 100 languages the limit of our capacity? Mr. Freire doesn’t think there is a limit; he is still learning languages at a rate of two per year. One thing is certain, Mr. Freirer will not need translation services anytime soon.

What does it take to learn many languages? Is Mr. Freire a genius with special mental abilities? German researchers found that polyglots don’t need high IQ’s or even be mental gymnasts to achieve hyperpolyglotism. German neuroscientists found that even though we don’t need special mental gifts to learn many languages, the morphology of the brain itself significantly changes as it learns more languages. Other studies suggest that although some people are proficient in 10 or more languages, most of these people can only speak seven languages fluently. There is still much research to be done in this area.

If you don’t need to be a genius, are you confident that you too can learn at least a couple more languages? Learning a new language takes three things: 1) determination to do it; 2) access to communicate in the foreign language of your choice; 3) practice. And, if you are shooting to be the next world hyperpolyglot, repeat these steps at least 10 times! If you can do this well, you will not need any translation services. You could then do it yourself.

LanguageTran is a translation service based in Austin TX, that focuses primarily on business translations, certified translations and document translations, working with companies nationwide including many in New York City , NY.

Our translators service the following locations in New York:  New York City (Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens), Syracuse, Rochester NY, Buffalo NY, Binghamton NY, Utica NY, West Seneca NY, Watertown NY, Schenectady NY, Saratoga Springs NY, and Staten Island NY.