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Richard Simcott

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Richard Simcott
Born1976 or 1977 (age 47–48)
NationalityBritish
Known forPolyglottism

Richard Simcott (born 1976/1977)[1] is a British polyglot who lives in Skopje, North Macedonia. He speaks 16 languages fluently. HarperCollins referred to him as "One of the most multilingual people from the United Kingdom".[2] Besides the languages that he exhibits fluency in, he has also actively studied more than 50 languages at some point in his career.[3]

Background

Originally from Chester,[1] Simcott's first language was English. He began learning French at a young age, and since he grew up near the England–Wales border, he learnt Welsh as well. After his father remarried to a Thai woman, he started to learn Thai during his teenage years after visiting Thailand. Since that time he has learned a range of languages including Turkish, Polish, Hebrew, Chinese, Icelandic, Macedonian,[4] Esperanto and Maltese.[5][6] Simcott has worked with languages in the UK diplomatic service, he has been a production manager for Emoderation as well as being the languages director for Polpea. He has also hosted a range of Polyglot conferences internationally, and is the current head of the Polyglot Conference.[7] He was interviewed by 16×9 for a short television programme about polyglots.[8] Simcott runs his own blog Speaking Fluently and has published a book on French Short Stories. In 2015, the Goethe Institut named him Ambassador for Multilingualism.[9][1]

Language abilities

On his profile on Linkedin, he states he has native level command in English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch and Macedonian.[10] He can speak about 30 languages in total to some degree.[11] Simcott continues to study languages in a university environment, which differs from other polyglots.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Williams, Martin (5 September 2013). "Natural born linguists: what drives multi-language speakers?". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 30 December 2013.
  2. ^ Fotheringham, John Jan 16, 2015 http://l2mastery.com "Interview with Hyperpolyglot Richard Simcott of SpeakingFluently.com"
  3. ^ "An extraordinary story: Richard Simcott - The Polyglot Dream". www.thepolyglotdream.com. 13 January 2012. Archived from the original on 1 May 2018. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  4. ^ Gentry, Alex (24 December 2016). "My Favorite Language Learners Series: Richard Simcott". Medium. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
  5. ^ "an-extraordinary-story-richard-simcott" thepolyglotdream Jan 13, 2013 http://www.thepolyglotdream.com/an-extraordinary-story-richard-simcott/ Archived 1 May 2018 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ Fotheringham, John Jan 16, 2015 http://l2mastery.com "Interview with Hyperpolyglot Richard Simcott of SpeakingFluently.com"
  7. ^ Mello, Jimmy "Richard Simcott – A polyglot from Chester and a life-long language learner speaking Portuguese" MyPolyglot http://mypolyglot.com/2015/07/09/richard-simcott-a-polyglot-from-chester-and-a-life-long-language-learner-speaking-portuguese/ Archived 17 January 2019 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ 16x9onglobal (7 May 2012). "Word Play" (Video upload). YouTube. Google, Inc. Retrieved 7 May 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ Polyglotconference 2017 "Organisers Page" http://polyglotconference.com/index.php?/organizers
  10. ^ https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardsimcott/ [self-published source]
  11. ^ Robson, David. "How to learn 30 languages". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
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