First Person: Ziad Fazah “I speak 59 languages”

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.



我能讲59种语言







我曾在巴西住了两年，有一天几个当兵的来到我家，命令我跟他们走。那是1973年，巴西还处于军事独裁统治之下。吉普车在黑暗中隆隆前行，我怕得要死；以为自己被当成间谍抓起来了。

在阿雷格里港市(Porto Alegre)的警察局，我得知是美国中央情报局(CIA)让人把我抓起来的。他们展示了我日常活动的照片，并称已经跟踪我一段时间了。他们想知道为什么来自黎巴嫩的一个20多岁的年轻人能说一口流利的俄语和中文？还有，更重要的是，我在为谁工作？我没有为任何人工作，和他们想的不一样——我只是确实很擅长语言。

我意识到自己有语言天赋时只有11岁。那是1964年，我随父母从利比里亚搬到贝鲁特，开始在学校里学习英语。

不到3个月我就完全掌握了英语，并渴望着学习另一种语言。我体内的某种东西被唤醒。在家里，我起的比任何人都早，而晚上又是最后一个拉上窗帘的人。不到6个月，我又学会了法语、德语和亚美尼亚语；学年结束前，我已经熟练掌握了所有斯堪的纳维亚语言。

当时，贝鲁特有一家书店能买到世界上所有语言的入门手册和录音带。只要我有了点钱，就会去买尽可能多的入门手册回来，形成了自己的学习方法。这十分简单。首先听录音带，这能让我开始学习语音。几天内我就能掌握这部分。接下来学习语法，这会花费更多的时间——特别是如果要学习新字母表的话——但让我即使在复杂场合，也能够表达自己的意思。

3个月之内我就能掌握一种新语言——听、说、读、写。这种学习方法意味着我能够同时学习3种语言，并用3个月的时间掌握它们。

在我少年时，人们开始传言我具有一种特殊的才能。中国领事就学习中文向我发出挑战，他声称，任何人都不可能在3个月内掌握这门语言。

3个月后，我给他打了电话，说的当然是中文，而他无法相信是我打的电话。他甚至邀请我去拜访他，以便能够和我用中文对话——我能够流利地进行交谈，这让他彻底惊呆了。

不过我的语言技能并非总会带来好事情。我16岁那年，三个男人联系到我，说他们是巴勒斯坦解放组织(PLO)的人，正计划劫持一架以色列飞机，希望我能担任他们的翻译。当我拒绝后，他们给了我48小时考虑是否改变主意。我很幸运：我兄弟的一个朋友认识巴解组织的人，他们找出了那几个家伙，并惩罚了他们。

几年后，有个声称来自以色列情报机构摩萨德(Mossad)的人问我，愿不愿意为他们工作。我回绝了他，并迅速离开黎巴嫩，前往巴西开始新的生活。

现在我是一名语言教师，已在里约热内卢居住了30年——虽然在巴西初期也发生过类似被CIA带走的小插曲。我开始放慢学习新语言的速度。我希望学习一些太平洋岛国的土语，但就目前而言，光是为了避免对已掌握的59种语言感到生疏，就要付出很多的努力。

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