Vladimir Skultety is best known for his viral YouTube video, where he spoke nineteen languages in fifteen minutes. I caught up with him to talk about becoming a polyglot, his learning methods, and why so many people give up on learning a foreign language.
What motivated you to become a polyglot?
I was fortunate to grow up in a multilingual environment, and I then continued learning languages as I grew older because I enjoyed speaking them. My hometown in Slovakia is only 20 km from the Hungarian border. I learned Slovak/Czech as native languages, and went to a Hungarian kindergarten for 4 years where I learned to speak Hungarian. I later spent a large part of my childhood in the United States and watched a lot of German TV. At that time, I spoke English and German at the same level as Slovak or Hungarian.
How did you learn so many languages?
It’s a difficult question to answer. I learned Slovak, Czech, Hungarian, English, and German to a native level when I was a child, and I can’t remember how I did it (as I imagine is the case with most people). Later, my approach to language learning was ‘all out attack.’ I moved to a country where it was spoken, deliberately engaged in activities involving the language, and just learned by using.
How do you you remember all your languages?
These days I don’t do so much to retain them because languages are less interesting to me than they were before. When I was younger, I listened to foreign news every day (and simultaneously interpreted it into my native Slovak language), or read books in foreign languages. It would have been better to talk with my foreign friends, but that was not always possible.
Which of your languages was the most difficult to learn?
Mandarin Chinese. European languages are all very closely related, even if most people don’t think they are. We have to learn much less when learning these languages compared to ‘real foreign languages,’ such as Mandarin, Japanese, Greenlandic, etc.
What are the best things about being a polyglot?
It’s difficult to say because I’ve been speaking several foreign languages for as long as I can remember, but probably the freedom and having more options in life.
Why do you think so many people give up on learning a language?
Perhaps they do not enjoy the process and cannot see the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’. This leads to a drop in motivation, which is everything when it comes to language learning.
What are some of the biggest mistakes language learners make?
A lot of people think the language will magically appear in their heads if they do enough drills. I try to use the language as much as I can. People who don’t learn effectively forget to concentrate on the essential premise: if you want to be good at something you have to practice it as much as you can.
If you could offer three pieces of language learning advice, what would they be?
Learn by using. Practice, practice, practice. Be curious.
Are you planning to learn any more languages?
I’m not sure. Serious language learning takes a lot of time and effort, and right now I have many other interests. I’ve been learning a little bit of Latin, but I haven’t got past the first ten pages of Caesar’s commentary on the Gallic war. If I ever have the chance to live in Korea, I’d like to learn to speak Korean well.
*To discover more about Vladimir Skultety, visit his language learning blog