Polyglotism is the state of having mastered multiple languages. A polyglot is someone who can speak fluently in a handful of languages. In 2008, linguist Richard Hudson coined the term ‘hyperpolyglot’ to describe an individual who has mastered dozens of languages.
Until I came across this video above I’d assumed hyperpolyglots were people only found in dark NSA offices pouring over potentially valuable audio clips that could be used as intelligence. It never occurred to me that these people are out there in the world, potentially shopping at the same Publix as I am, getting pissed off in traffic and swearing in 21+ languages.
The video above was uploaded to YouTube by Wouter Corduwener, a Dutch polyglot who has mastered 18 languages but speaks much more. Currently, Wouter Corduwener is working on mastering the languages of Asia and during one of his trips, he encountered another polyglot. The two men then proceeded to have a conversation in 21 different languages.
I speak English and Spanish. For some reason, I decided to Minor in it in college and dropped it as a minor when I was one literature course away from completion. But I don’t speak it fluently anymore, I’ve lost most of my Spanish vocabulary over the years, and I can’t fucking fathom being the master of five languages let alone more than 20. These two linguistic geniuses are beyond fascinating, and here’s a list of the languages they speak in this video and the time stamps of when they switch languages:
1) 0:00 English
2) 0:16 Spanish
3) 1:10 Brazilian Portuguese
4) 1:37 Dutch
5) 2:11 French
6) 2:33 Mandarin
7 3:30 Thai
8) 3:42 Russian
9) 4:12 Hebrew
10) 4:22 Arabic
11) 5:01 Tagalog
12) 5:38 Korean
13) 6:04 Danish
14) 7:14 Vietnamese
15) 7:30 German
16) 9:19 Albanian
17) 10:08 Croatian
18) 10:49 Macedonian
19) 11:20 Greek
20) 11:33 Serbian
21) 11:59 Bulgarian
For more videos from Wouter Corduwener you can check out his YouTube channel, or you can keep up with him on Facebook and Instagram.