【轻松英文阅读】17岁男生讲23种语言

 How do you study English? There are a lot of people who find studying just one language hard , but how about 23?

 

Timothy Donner, a 17-year-old high school student living in New York City has earned a lot of respect these days at his high school and has become quite famous. But he is not a teen idol¹ or even the head of the student council . So why has he become so famous? He can speak French, Dutch, Japanese, Chinese, Swahili…and as many as 23 languages! He is what is called a hyperpolyglot – someone who can speak six or more languages fluently.

 

So how did he go about learning 23 languages ? According to Timothy,, it wasn’t language that interested him at first; he was more interested in the history and the politics of other countries. He says his first language to study was Hebrew. As he listened to songs in that language, memorized their lyrics² , imitated their singing , and some self-study, he could start having conversations with people in Hebrew. He also says using the Internet to communicate by email and chathas been a big help to his language studies. But he says probably a multicultural³ city like New York has helped his language studies the most.

 

But even if you don’t live in New York, there are still many ways to enjoy learning English. So keep on trying!!

1 idol   

n.偶像，红人，宠儿

参考例句：

• As an only child he was the idol of his parents.作为独子，他是父母的宠儿。
• Blind worship of this idol must be ended.对这个偶像的盲目崇拜应该结束了。

2 lyrics   

n.歌词

参考例句：

• music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart 由罗杰斯和哈特作词作曲
• The book contains lyrics and guitar tablatures for over 100 songs. 这本书有100多首歌的歌词和吉他奏法谱。

3 multicultural   

adj.融合多种文化的，多种文化的

参考例句：

• Children growing up in a multicultural society.在多元文化社会中长大的孩子们。
• The school has been attempting to bring a multicultural perspective to its curriculum.这所学校已经在尝试将一种多元文化视角引入其课程。