Today’s guest is Andrea. He is a super polyglot and speaks more than 10 languages.
・Self-Introduction(自己紹介)
First of all, Hi! everybody. thanks for listening. My name is Andrea Ripamonti. I’m Italian. I’m 27 years old and I love languages. Actually, I speak 12 languages plus my native language is Italian. What do I for living, well actually, I’m a, first of all, German teacher. I work as a German teacher in high school. And, in my free time, I also run Youtube channel, which I started more than 10 years ago. And, I also like writing books. I published criminal stories in Italian. And, occasionally, I work as a translator and interpret with local institutions in Italy.
まず始めに、皆さん聞いてくれてありがとうございます。私はアンドレアです。27才のイタリア人です。私は言語が好きで、実は12の言語を話すことができます。どうやって生計を立てているかと言うと、私は高校でドイツ語の先生をしています。時間がある時はYoutube活動をしています、これは10年以上前に始めました。本を書くのも好きで、イタリア語で犯罪ドキュメンタリーを書きます。時々、イタリアの地元機関で翻訳や通訳もしています。
・About language journey(言語学習の旅)
Yes of course, right, so yeah and I said that I was in love with languages since 1993 because that’s the year I was born in, and this means that I’ve always loved languages since it was a little kid, yeah actually the first language I was exposed to apart from Italian, was the original language spoken in my area which is the Lombard, this is a minority language spoken in Milan, north Italy, and was exposed it, and then when I entered the elementary school or primary school I started to learn English and, that I didn’t like the language, actually, Because my teacher, I think she didn’t, like to be a teacher, so she wasn’t able to transmit the passion for the English language, yeah and this way I didn’t like the language first, but then I started to watch Spanish soap operas on television and in this way I understood, like a possibility of understanding a different language and so I started to learn by myself Spanish, yeah and I was like 10 years old, I guess, and I was quite young, yeah and then after primary school I went to to different school which is Middle School and there I had the chance to learn German, so German was a great love for me, actually because I found this really interesting, really different from Italian and it was a language that I really like, I also had a possibility of going holiday in Switzerland where Germany was spoken, so from the beginning I had a chance to speak their language and it was really cool and I understood that I wanted to learn as many languages as I could, so after middle school I went to high school and here I had the chance to start studied, also Spanish with a teacher as I told you I started alone that was ten years old, but then when I was about fourteen, I started Spanish with teacher so I had the chance to learn the grammar in detail, yeah and after five years of high school I went to the university and there university I started the Russian, actually, yeah I wanted to major in foreign languages and therefore I chose to study Russian because it’s a language that always fascinated me, especially there Russian culture I found it very interesting very intriguing, and so I pick this language and I guess it was a good choice because I’m still in love with Russian actually it’s not that easy to learn Russian, but if you put passion, if you do it constantly, if you learn every day, then you can be successful yeah, and when i was in the university, I also had a possibility of doing ‘semester study’ I don’t know if you know what is in Japan because it’s actually something European that the actually possibility of study semester abroad, so had a opportunity to go to Bulgaria, which is in South Europe, yeah and here I also managed to learn the Bulgarian language, and well I also have learned several languages on my own, for example when I was like 17 years old I started to learn Romanian, yeah, that actually started randomly, because I was, like a, listening to some videos on YouTube, actually watching some videos on YouTube yeah and I found a video in Romanian, and I was curious to listen to it, watched it, I discover the language that sounded very fascinating that sounded very cool and so I wanted to learn it, and that’s how I started Romanian, and also I started to learn that Brazilian Portuguese because, I discovered some music in Portuguese I want to understand the lyrics, so I said to myself, ok let’s learn Portuguese. In order to understand them, other language that I learned by myself for Swedish which is a good language and beautiful, yeah French català which is spoken in Spain, and modern Greek, yeah, yes, and right now, I’m trying to learn Persian, yeah actually I don’t want to stop
もちろん。そうですね。私が言語を愛したのは私が生まれた1993年ということですが。その意味は私は小さい頃から言語を愛していました。イタリア語の他には、私の地域ではマイノリティの言語で地元のロンバルド語が話されていました。ミランや北イタリアで話されている言語ですね。そして、小学校で英語を習い始めますが、実は英語はあまり好きではありませんでした。先生が英語に情熱をかけていないようで、私は英語を好きになることができませんでした。しかし、その後私はテレビでスペインのメロドラマを見て、理解できるようになり「他の言語を理解できる可能性があるぞ」と思うようになり、10才頃だと思うのですがスペイン語を勉強するようになりました。中学校に入学し、ドイツ語を学ぶ機会がありました。ドイツ語はイタリア語と全く異なる言語で面白く、大好きになりました。本当に大好きな言語で、ドイツ語がよく話されるスウェーデンに遊びに行き、話す機会を得ることができました。その時にできるだけたくさんの言語を学びたいと思いました。高校に行ってスペイン語を先生から学びました、その時は14 才ぐらいの時で、文法も詳しく勉強しました。その後大学に行ってロシア語を勉強しました。大学では外国語を選択できるので、文化も魅力的で面白そうだったロシア語を選びました。今もロシア語が好きなのでそれは良い決断だったと思います。ロシア語は簡単な言語ではありませんが、継続して努力すれば上達することができると思います。在学中に短期で、ブルガリアに行く機会がありブルガリア語も勉強しました。後はルーマニア語もyoutubeをいろいろ見ながら勉強しましたし、発音がとても魅力的でかっこよいと思い、もっと勉強したいと思いました。ポルトガル語も音楽が好きで、歌詞を理解したくて勉強を始めました。他にはスウェーデン語、ギリシャ語、フランス語、最近はペルシア語も自分で勉強を始めました。学習をとめたくないですね。
・Benefits of traveling to learning a language(語学学習に対する旅のメリット)
actually I think that learning the language on the spot is actually really important, if you want to acquire a good pronunciation, and if you want to learn languages fast, yeah if you go abroad and countries where languages are spoken, you can exercise constantly and this is really good. Because, yeah, if you learn all day long then, you can reach a higher level in less time. And, so I actually think that every single person wants to learn a language should consider this opportunity of going on this spot. And this is something that I myself, for example, with Russian I spend some times a month in Russia. In order to learn the language and It’s actually really cool, because, like, the things that I have learned in just a single month Russian, are more than the things that I have learned that in a year university. So you really learning a lot, learn more quickly, this is really good thing. There is also possibility of interacting with Native people. So you constantly learned from them, which is really very useful in order to work and stay, in order to develop your weak point.
その現地に行って言語を学ぶことは大切なことだと思います。もし正しい発音を身に付けたり、速く学習するには良いことだと思います。現地に行けばたくさん話す練習ををすることもできますし、長い時間（一日中）勉強すれが今の言語レベルを上げることができます。時間も節約できますね。語学学習をしている全ての人は、現地に行ってを学習することを考えたほうが良いと思います。私の場合はロシア語を学ぶために一ヶ月ロシアに滞在しました。一ヶ月だけでしたが、大学で一年学習した時よりも急速に成長しました。現地の人とも交流することができたり、自分の弱点を改善することもできました。
・What inspired you to become a lover of languages?(言語が好きになった理由)
Yeah actually I think it was boring we did, I think, like a some people love mathematics or I don’t know they love playing music it’s something that you are bone with, but I can recall that, when I was a little child, I like the idea of be able to speak in a way, so that other people around me not understand me, which is actually funny. Yeah, when I was a child, I like to say random things to say, in random language, like a single word and people around me, I don’t know like, they were thinking, what is this child saying, I don’t understand it, it was something funny, but then when I grew older, I understood that languages were good, because not only being understood by people but be able to communicate with people, which is good, actually, so really be able to communicate with people belonging to different culture, this is something that fasinated me, and that’s why I chose to learn as many languages as I could, because I wanted to be able to make friends with people from all over the world, I think it’s really cool that I can talt to Russian people using their language and not English, you know, Because many people always speak English, and I think this is a little bit sad, because ok, it’s okay English is good language and It’s useful. but, when you can use the native language of the other person is better, yeah yeah, this way, you can get to hearted of these people.
言語は人によってはつまらないものかもしれませんね。他の人は音楽などが好きかもしれません。私は小さい頃に色んな言語の言葉をランダムに言って、大人が「この子供は何を言っているの？」と不思議がられるの楽しんでいました。その後、大人になって言語は人と繋がれる素晴らしいものだと気づきました。できるだけ多くの言語を話したいと思うようになったのです。私が感じるのは、例えばロシアの方と英語で話すのではなくロシア語で話すともっと彼らを理解できたり、より良いコミュニケーションができると思います。
・A message to those who study a foreign language （語学学習者へメッセージ）
well yeah of course I think that I would like to say is that you don’t have to be afraid to learn new languages we are learning languages is an original thing I usually it’s a it’s a good chance for you to do because it’s you and speak languages other than that you can understand the world better cultures on a ranch where the words to manatee in Benadryl very good thing especially nowadays are in the car and we are all the languages we know it is because we can leave together peacefully and then we can be all friends and I think that this is a really good point at 3 when comes to learning languages and also I like to say to people who want to learn foreign languages that it’s important to speak from the beginning you were even if you only know a few words it doesn’t matter it doesn’t matter we can make mistakes that doesn’t matter because that they burned finger languages is that a give you the chance to communicate to be able to speak with other people so you need to scream and they should it’s okay because everybody makes mistakes nobody is nobody is perfect actually we all make mistakes because we’re human and for making mistakes is just part of the game and as we as people say you can learn by your mistakes thank you
新しい言語を学ぶことは恐れることではなく、私達にとって自然なことだと思います。新しい言語を話すことができれば、より深く文化も理解することができます。グローバリゼーションが進んでいるこの世の中で、たくさんの言語を学ぶことができれば、彼らと友達になることもできますし、平和的な世の中を作ることができます。世界中の私達は大きな家族です。学習方法に関しては、ほんの少しの言葉しか知らなくてもまずは始めの段階から話すこととが大切で、間違いを恐れる必要はありません。言語にとって大切なのはコミュニケーションなので、まずは他の人に話しかけることが大切です。もし間違えても心配ありません、誰もが間違いをするのですから。誰も完璧ではないのですから、私達は皆同じ人間ですから。間違いからいろんなことを学ぶことができます。
アンドレアさん、全ての質問に答えてくれてありがとうございます。とても言語学習者にとって役に立つコメントをいただきました。インタビューの機会をいただいてありがとうございました。今後の活躍を期待しています。
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