Dr. Yiannis Economou, Europe΄s most multilingual person, to speak at Ionian University
Ionian University
25 Feb 2020
/ 09:34
CORFU. The Ionian University Department of Foreign Languages, Translation and Interpreting is organising a talk with Dr. Yiannis Economou.
"Language Professions in the European Union"
Monday 9 March
18:30
Haris Katsoulis Hall
Ionian University
Dr. Economou is considered to be the most multilingual person in Europe. He can speak 32 languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Swedish, Armenian, Hebrew, Polish, Chinese etc. He graduated from Thessaloniki Aristotle University and then did post-graduate studies at Columbia University and the University of La Laguna before completing his doctorate at Harvard University.
He has been an interpreter and translator at the European Commission Directorate-General for Translation and is a member of MENSA.
Dr. Economou will also be giving a public talk at the Solomos Museum on Thursday 12 March - "Multilingualism and Human Rights in the EU".
Biography
Yiannis Economou is from Crete and grew up in Athens. He has travelled to many countries and now lives in Brussels, where he works as a translator for the European Commission.
Amongst the languages he speaks are the following - Greek, English, German, Spanish, French, Swedish, Italian, Polish, Russian, Bulgarian, Turkish, Arabic, Hebrew, Portuguese, Chinese, Kurdish, Armenian, Persian, Serbocroatian, Danish, Hindi, Urdu, Romanian, Czech and Finnish. He also knows ancient languages such as Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, Latin, Avestika (Ancient Iranian), Ancient Persian, Classical Armenian, Gothic, Ancient Bulgarian, Pali, Hittite and Luvic (ancient Asia Minor languages).
His method of learning is different from the normal ones. He doesn't just learn new languages from books but tries to learn something about the country's history, watches TV programmes and listens to music in the language he wants to learn and vists the countries to speak with locals.
His aim is to learn to speak, or at least understand, 6,000 languages.
Monday 9 March
18:30
Haris Katsoulis Hall
Ionian University
Dr. Economou is considered to be the most multilingual person in Europe. He can speak 32 languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Swedish, Armenian, Hebrew, Polish, Chinese etc. He graduated from Thessaloniki Aristotle University and then did post-graduate studies at Columbia University and the University of La Laguna before completing his doctorate at Harvard University.
He has been an interpreter and translator at the European Commission Directorate-General for Translation and is a member of MENSA.
Dr. Economou will also be giving a public talk at the Solomos Museum on Thursday 12 March - "Multilingualism and Human Rights in the EU".
Biography
Yiannis Economou is from Crete and grew up in Athens. He has travelled to many countries and now lives in Brussels, where he works as a translator for the European Commission.
Amongst the languages he speaks are the following - Greek, English, German, Spanish, French, Swedish, Italian, Polish, Russian, Bulgarian, Turkish, Arabic, Hebrew, Portuguese, Chinese, Kurdish, Armenian, Persian, Serbocroatian, Danish, Hindi, Urdu, Romanian, Czech and Finnish. He also knows ancient languages such as Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, Latin, Avestika (Ancient Iranian), Ancient Persian, Classical Armenian, Gothic, Ancient Bulgarian, Pali, Hittite and Luvic (ancient Asia Minor languages).
His method of learning is different from the normal ones. He doesn't just learn new languages from books but tries to learn something about the country's history, watches TV programmes and listens to music in the language he wants to learn and vists the countries to speak with locals.
His aim is to learn to speak, or at least understand, 6,000 languages.
