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Student named UK's most multilingual person

by Hannah Greenfield Friday, 1 March 2013

A student at Oxford University has been named the UK’s most multilingual person.

20-year-old Alex Rawlings (right) won a competition organised by book company Harper Collins. He can speak 11 languages – and is learning a 12th!

“I know English, Greek, German, French, Dutch, Afrikaans, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Russian and Hebrew,” the student told us.

Alex thinks readers of First News are at the perfect age to learn their first language. He explained: “It’s the perfect time to get started – your brain is more flexible to learn languages when you’re at a younger age.”

Are you multilingual? Do you enjoy learning other languages? Let us know in a comment below!


What do you think? Leave a comment below to let us know!

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19 Comments


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  • Zoe W (Age 11) wrote on Friday, 1 March 2013 @ 16:40

    I can speak English, American, Australian, Scottish...... the list goes on! (Some French and German if you want to be serious.)

  • Madeline S (Age 10) wrote on Saturday, 2 March 2013 @ 09:05

    Im learning Latin, German, French and a little welsh and a little spanish and more engish you know the verbs and things.!

  • Da-Hyun H (Age 10) wrote on Saturday, 2 March 2013 @ 15:16

    I can speak English and Korean. I'm learning Spanish at school and I used to learn French in Year 1.

  • Katie C (Age 10) wrote on Saturday, 2 March 2013 @ 16:30

    I can speak french, spanish, english, welsh but not very fluently

  • Bronwen D (Age 12) wrote on Sunday, 3 March 2013 @ 13:58

    I can only speak Emglish, some French and a little Welsh! It takes me ages to learn a language though!

  • Emily Q (Age 11) wrote on Sunday, 3 March 2013 @ 17:19

    Wait... eleven languages? I can only speak English and a bit of French!

  • Jiya S (Age 9) wrote on Sunday, 3 March 2013 @ 18:49

    I can speak English,Spanish,French,Gujrati,Hindi.... and Mandarin.

  • Haanyah C (Age 10) wrote on Sunday, 3 March 2013 @ 19:45

    I can speak french and creole(french dialect)!

  • Haanyah C (Age 10) wrote on Sunday, 3 March 2013 @ 19:45

    I can speak french and creole(french dialect)!

  • Shawana F (Age 10) wrote on Monday, 4 March 2013 @ 10:47

    I know thirteen languages!!pushto,arabic,punjabi,urdu,english,spanish,german so on

  • Orla M (Age 10) wrote on Monday, 4 March 2013 @ 19:10

    Wow! It is such a good skill to have as he can go anywhere and do anything!

  • Saleka N (Age 12) wrote on Monday, 4 March 2013 @ 20:20

    I can speak: English,Urdu,French,Spanish,American and a bit of Irish and Scottish. It is so fun to learn a language because there are so many advanatages.

  • Asha P (Age 10) wrote on Thursday, 7 March 2013 @ 19:16

    I can only speak English so him learning 11 languages is amazing!!!!!

  • Yu-Kiu T (Age 10) wrote on Saturday, 9 March 2013 @ 21:24

    I can speak English,Cantonese,a bit of french and a bit of mandarin!

  • Phoebe M (Age 13) wrote on Sunday, 10 March 2013 @ 11:52

    I know English, French and I am learning Italian. I am also learning sign language but it is very difficult to learn as I am uncertain of anyone else who knows it.

  • Sofia J (Age 12) wrote on Tuesday, 12 March 2013 @ 18:57

    wow!!!!-i can speak spanish and english fluently and am learning german and french and doing spanish lessons

  • Sofia J (Age 12) wrote on Tuesday, 12 March 2013 @ 18:57

    also i used to do mandarin

  • Juliet R (Age 10) wrote on Sunday, 24 March 2013 @ 16:01

    I can speak English flunently and I am quite good at Spanish. I am can speak a little French. Goodbye or Au revoir or Adios !!

  • Lily M (Age 10) wrote on Monday, 6 May 2013 @ 10:37

    I can speak French, German, English, Scottish, Welsh, Australian and a whole lot more! Au Revoir xxxx lilycm