Translator Spotlight: Ziad Fazah for Speaking the Most Languages

By Atlas LS

Speaking more than one language is no easy goal to obtain. So, imagine being a *polyglot that can speak 59 different languages. Liberian-born Lebanese, Ziad Youssef Fazah, claims to be able to do just that.

polyglot - ziad fazah

History of Ziad Fazah

Born: June 10, 1954

Religion: Greek Orthodox

Current Residence: Porto Alegre, Brazil

Awards: The Guinness Book of World Records

 

List of Languages Ziad Fazah Claims to Speak, Read, and Understand:

  1. Albanian
  2. Amharic
  3. Arabic
  4. Armenian
  5. Azerbaijani
  6. Bengali
  7. Bulgarian
  8. Burmese
  9. Cambodian
  10. Cantonese
  11. Cypriot
  12. Czech
  13. Danish
  14. Dutch
  15. Dzongkha
  16. English
  17. Fijian
  18. Finnish
  19. French
  20. German
  21. Greek
  22. Hebrew
  23. Hindi
  24. Hungarian
  25. Icelandic
  26. Indonesian
  27. Italian
  28. Japanese
  29. Khmer
  30. Korean
  31. Kyrgyz
  32. Laotian
  33. Malagasy
  34. Malay
  35. Mandarin
  36. Mongolian
  37. Nepali
  38. Norwegian
  39. Pashto
  40. Papiamento
  41. Persian
  42. Polish
  43. Portuguese
  44. Romanian
  45. Russian
  46. Serbo-Croatian
  47. Shanghainese
  48. Singlish
  49. Sinhala
  50. Spanish
  51. Standard Tibetan
  52. Swahili
  53. Swedish
  54. Tajik
  55. Thai
  56. Turkish
  57. Urdu
  58. Uzbek
  59. Vietnamese

 

Proof of Ziad Fazah Speaking 59 Languages

There has been widespread debate whether or not Ziad Fazah can indeed speak, read, and understand 59 different languages. There have even been surprise tests given to Fazah in order to catch him off guard. However, this particular translator spotlight is not to take a side in the debate, but rather to applaud any polyglot who attempts to increase their amount of spoken languages. In our world of providing professional translation services for conferences, legal interpretation, and more, we know just how big the mountain of translation is!

 

*Word of the Day:

Polyglot – Knowing or using several languages.