Richard Simcott
{{Short description|British polyglot}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Richard Simcott
| image = Richard Simcott.png
| birth_date = {{birth based on age as of date|36|2013|09|05}}
| nationality = British
| known_for = Polyglottism
}}
Richard Simcott (born {{birth based on age as of date|36|2013|09|05|noage=1|slash=y}}){{cite web|first=Martin|last=Williams|date=5 September 2013|title=Natural born linguists: what drives multi-language speakers?|url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/sep/05/multilingual-speakers-language-learning|website=The Guardian|archive-url=https://archive.today/20131230010145/http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/sep/05/multilingual-speakers-language-learning|archive-date=30 December 2013|url-status=live}} is a British polyglot who lives in Skopje, North Macedonia.
Described by HarperCollins as "One of the most multilingual people from the United Kingdom",Fotheringham, John Jan 16, 2015 http://l2mastery.com "Interview with Hyperpolyglot Richard Simcott of SpeakingFluently.com"
he speaks at least 30 languages.
Simcott was a production manager for E-moderation and the languages director for Polpeo, a tool that simulates on-line communication crises. He is the current head of the international Polyglot Conference.
Early life and background
Originally from Chester, Simcott's first language was English. He began learning French in school at the age of five, and since he grew up near the England–Wales border in a family of joint English and Welsh heritage, 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.
{{Cite web |last=Gentry |first=Alex |date=2016-12-24 |title=My Favorite Language Learners Series: Richard Simcott |url=https://medium.com/@gentryalex13/my-favorite-language-learners-series-richard-simcott-c2c0ab0b7d8b |access-date=2022-11-11 |website=Medium |language=en}} "an-extraordinary-story-richard-simcott" thepolyglotdream Jan 13, 2013 http://www.thepolyglotdream.com/an-extraordinary-story-richard-simcott/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180501090508/http://www.thepolyglotdream.com/an-extraordinary-story-richard-simcott/ |date=1 May 2018 }}Fotheringham, John Jan 16, 2015 http://l2mastery.com "Interview with Hyperpolyglot Richard Simcott of SpeakingFluently.com"
Simcott expressed the desire to learn German in school but his teachers wouldn't permit him to learn it along with French. In high school he joined a geography trip to Germany, just to be exposed to the language. He obtained a Spanish GCSE and A-level and did a combined course in French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese at the University of Hull. He sat in on lectures in Swedish and Old Icelandic and did language exchanges in Romanian and Catalan. He spent time immersing French, Spanish and Italian in Lyon, Malaga and Verona respectively.
After graduation he worked as an au pair in Germany, and cycled to the Netherlands to learn Dutch. While in the Netherlands he took Greek lessons in Rotterdam and Arabic lessons in Leiden. He later studied Czech in Prague. He states that "it turned out that speaking a language abroad with local people was an ideal way to learn, especially in a time before the internet." In 2003 he met his future wife, a Macedonian native with a south-east Slavic languages and literature degree, while on a train through the Balkans, and subsequently moved to Skopje, where he has since become fluent in Macedonian and numerous other languages of southeastern Europe.
Career
Simcott has worked with languages in the UK diplomatic service, and was 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 annual Polyglot Conference,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/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190117235554/http://mypolyglot.com/2015/07/09/richard-simcott-a-polyglot-from-chester-and-a-life-long-language-learner-speaking-portuguese/ |date=17 January 2019 }} which he established in 2013,{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/aug/12/experience-i-speak-more-than-50-languages|title=Experience: I speak more than 50 languages|publisher=The Guardian|date=12 August 2022|accessdate=12 December 2024}} after meeting another polyglot and YouTuber, Luca Lampariello, in Poznań, Poland."Irish With Molly" Podcast, Spotify, January 2024.
Simcott was interviewed by 16×9 for a short television programme about polyglots.{{cite web|title=Word Play|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bppUq5IKZrM|work=YouTube|publisher=Google, Inc|accessdate=7 May 2012|author=16x9onglobal|format=Video upload|date=7 May 2012}} He 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.Polyglotconference 2017 "Organisers Page" http://polyglotconference.com/index.php?/organizers
Language abilities
Simcott has a knowledge of over 50 languages to various degrees of ability,{{Cite web|url=http://www.thepolyglotdream.com/an-extraordinary-story-richard-simcott/|title=An extraordinary story: Richard Simcott - The Polyglot Dream|website=www.thepolyglotdream.com|date=13 January 2012|access-date=2018-01-28|archive-date=1 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180501090508/http://www.thepolyglotdream.com/an-extraordinary-story-richard-simcott/|url-status=dead}}
though regularly speaks around 30 languages in total.{{Cite web |last=Robson |first=David |title=How to learn 30 languages |url=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20150528-how-to-learn-30-languages |access-date=2022-11-11 |website=www.bbc.com |language=en}} He is fluent in at least 16 of them.{{cite web| url=https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/language-mastery/episodes/British-Hyperpolyglot-Richard-Simcott-on-How-He-Learned-16-Languages-e18i5b2|title=British Hyperpolyglot Richard Simcott on How He Learned 16 Languages|publisher=Spotify|date=16 January 2015|accessdate=12 December 2024}} He speaks English, Macedonian, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Welsh, Italian, Portuguese, Catalan, Swedish, Romanian, Czech, Russian, Serbian, Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian, Albanian, Bosnian, Esperanto, Greek, Turkish, Polish, Hebrew, Chinese, Thai, Icelandic, Arabic, Maltese, and Estonian. He is often mistaken for a native speaker in Macedonian, French, German, Dutch and Spanish.{{cite web|url=https://www.cheshire-live.co.uk/news/chester-cheshire-news/chester-linguist-named-one-most-5192189#google_vignette|title=Chester linguist named one of most multi-lingual people in Britain|publisher=CheshireLive|date=16 June 2011|accessdate=12 December 2024}}
Simcott continues to study languages in a university environment, which differs from other polyglots. In the 2020s he has been learning Korean, Northern Sámi, Scots, Irish, and Cornish.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{Official}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simcott, Richard}}