FIRST PERSON: ZIAD FAZAH – "I SPEAK 59 LANGUAGES"
Ed Hammond
FT
June 21 2008 03:00
I had been living in brazil for two years when soldiers came to my
home and ordered me to come with them. It was 1973, and the country was
under a military dictatorship. As the jeep rumbled through the darkness
I felt sick with fear; I thought I was being arrested as a spy.
At a police station in Porto Alegre I learnt that it was the CIA who
had had me picked up. They showed me photographs of me going about
my business and said they had been following me for some time. They
wanted to know why a 20-year-old from Lebanon was fluent in Russian and
Chinese and, more importantly, who was I working for? I wasn’t working
for anyone, not in their sense – I was just really good at languages.
I was 11 years old when I realised I had a gift for languages. It
was 1964, and my parents and I had moved to Beirut from Liberia. I
was starting to learn English in school.
Within three months I had learnt the language completely and was
hungry to learn another. Something in me had been awoken. At home I
would be up before anyone else and at night I would be the one closing
the curtains. Within six months I learnt French, German and Armenian;
before the school year ended I was fluent in all the Scandinavian
languages as well.
At this time there was a bookshop in Beirut where you could buy
language guides and tapes for all the languages of the world. Whenever
I had any money I would buy as many guides as I could, building my
own methodology for learning. It was very simple. First I’d listen
to the tapes, which allowed me to get to grips with the phonetic of
the language. I could master this within a few days. Next I’d study
the grammar, which was more time-consuming – especially if there was
a new alphabet to learn – but would allow me to express myself even
in complicated situations.
Within three months I’d have mastered a new tongue – writing, speaking,
reading and listening. This system for learning meant that I was able
to tackle three languages at a time and master them over a period of
three months.
During my teens word began to get out that I had a special talent. The
Chinese consul challenged me to learn Mandarin, saying it was
impossible for anyone to conquer the language in three months.
Three months later, I telephoned him, in Mandarin of course, and he
could not believe that it was me. He even asked me to visit him so
that he could speak to me in his language – and to his complete shock
I could converse perfectly.
But my language skills have not always brought good things. When I was
16 three men contacted me, saying that they were from the Palestine
Liberation Organisation, that they were planning to hijack Israeli
aircraft – and they wanted me to be their interpreter. When I said
no they gave me 48 hours to change my mind. I was lucky: one of my
brother’s friends knew people in the PLO, and they caught these guys
and punished them.
A few years later a man claiming to be from Mossad, the Israeli
national intelligence agency, asked if I would work for them. I turned
him down and swiftly left Lebanon to start a new life in Brazil.
Now I’m a language teacher and have been settled in Rio de Janeiro
for 30 years – despite earlier hiccups in Brazil like the CIA having
me picked up.
I have slowed down the rate at which I learn new languages. I want
to pick up some dialects of the smaller Pacific islands, but for now
it’s a lot of work just to keep from getting rusty in the 59 languages
I already speak.