Polyglot could have been enough, but above 11 languages, linguists speak of hyperpolyglot. This is the case of Vaughn Smith, 46, living in Washington. This carpet cleaner speaks 24 languages and has the basics of 41 languages in total. Something to make you dizzy. He is fully bilingual in English, Spanish, Bulgarian, Romanian, Russian, Czech, Portuguese, and Slovak. For the rest, it can hold sustained conservations in 16 other languages, such as French, Italian, Finnish, Hebrew, Japanese or even Norwegian. And he masters the basics of 17 other languages and dialects. And no, he is not an interpreter at the UN. Simply Vaughn Smith has loved languages since he was little.
Have you ever met someone who makes you question the limits of human potential?
For the past few months, I’ve had the honor of spending time with a carpet cleaner named Vaughn Smith. You’re not going to believe me when I tell you what he can do. https://t.co/ZNc6wYLlN8
— Jessica Contrera (@mjcontrera) April 5, 2022
It was when he met one of his French-speaking Belgian cousins that he decided to learn his first foreign language. “I was frustratedhe said to washington post, frustrated not to understand a word of what he was saying, not to be able to engage in conversation with him, I said to myself ‘I want this power’“. From there, he took out a subscription to the library and grabbed dictionaries and grammar books in French, then Portuguese, German, etc.
But the curiosity is overwhelming. At school, he drops out and will never be able to finish high school. Adult, he multiplies the odd jobs, deliveryman, bouncer, house painter, and continues to learn, over the meetings. By working in a sushi restaurant for example, he learns Japanese, and so on, up to 41 languages today, knowing that he continues and intends to study Scottish.
Forty-six-year-old Vaughn Smith, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, has a skill most people don’t know about – and very few can emulate. Although a carpet cleaner by trade, Smith’s real gift is for words – he’s learned about 40 different languages, so far. https://t.co/44q5M3rVes pic.twitter.com/9I0xB6YITD
— CBS Sunday Morning (@CBSSunday) April 17, 2022
His case could have remained anecdotal, he did not apply for a Guinness World Recordsbut his story has become one of the most read on the site of the washington post, it is repeated everywhere, on TV, on the radio, where many media ask the question of usefulness: why is it useful to speak so many languages? What use can such a gift be? Implied, couldn’t he have made money with it? Except that “it’s off topic”replies Vaughn Smith.
For him, being a polyglot means connecting with others, making this confused Russian tourist smile by asking her if she needs help, or chatting with this group of deaf students in sign language. It’s breaking isolation, building bridges, reaching out. And that’s also what makes Vaughn’s story so successful, his humility, his selfless humanity, perhaps the most useful of all gifts.