She speaks in nine languages

Photo Benoît Philie
Diana Skaya will give a lecture on his film, Ocju, she wrote in Polish, in Russian and in Ukrainian, at the LangFest of Montreal, from 25 to 27 August. The docudrama tells the story of his grandfather who was murdered by the stalinist regime.

Benoît Philie

Monday, 31 July, 2017 06:30

UPDATE
Monday, 31 July, 2017 06:30

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Diana Skaya spoke six languages at the age of five years. In his twenties, instead of going out with her friends, she preferred to listen to the television series Greek in his room to learn… its ninth language.

“For me, it is a passion, but also an ease. There is a whole culture that comes with language, it is fascinating, ” says the Montreal.

A native of Armenia, the young woman of 30 years has been young puncture for languages.

“At home, it was the Armenian, the Russian, and my grandmother spoke to me only in Polish. As one who often traveled in the Ukraine, I also learned Ukrainian. Parents have a major responsibility in the language learning of their children, ” says the one whose mother also speaks seven languages.

4 languages in 4 years

Arriving in Montreal at 4 years old, she was already speaking these four languages of eastern Europe which joined the English and the French just a year later. The Spanish then came naturally to the teen years during trips to Mexico and Cuba, and then Arabic, in the university, she has learned at the end of three years of intense learning and hard.

She has more recently started to learn the Greek language by it-even during a stay of four months in Greece, where she worked as an interpreter. During her free time, she preferred to study the language in his hotel room instead of going out with his friends in the evening.

“I bought books of conversation, but my favorite technique is to listen to tv shows and movies on television. At the beginning, it is difficult, but it works, she says, adding that the Greek is the most beautiful language.

She would now like to turn to Hebrew, a language especially spoken in Israel which attracts them for a while.

LangFest

Ms. Skaya teaches English part time and working in the field of cinema.

It also gives a conference at the LangFest of Montreal, which took place from 25 to 27 August, about a docudrama that she has written in three languages, telling the story of his grand father murdered by Stalin’s regime in Ukraine in the 1930s.

One of the organizers of the event, Joey Perugino, believes that Montreal is an ideal place for language learning, given the coexistence of French and English, and the presence of many immigrants. Himself a polyglot, he is now learning his sixth language, Romanian.

He created the LangFest to share his passion and create a forum for enthusiasts of languages.

“When you start to speak a new language and to have exchanges with someone, it is a time where you feel very, very, very happy,” says Mr. Perugino, who is said to be “condemned” to learn languages for the rest of his life.

Bella, a prodigy Russian 4-year old speaks seven languages, as well as Richard Simcott, who control approximately 40, are also among the guests at the LangFest this year.

Learn a language in 4 steps

1. Be a ear : to learn about the culture and listen to content in the language one wants to learn (films, tv series, music). “At the beginning, we do not understand anything, but you get used to it,” says Diana Skaya.

2. Study the language : download apps, listen to YouTube videos, or read books that give some basics on the language chosen. The goal is to be able to hold a conversation structured. It is necessary to know about thirty sentences, and between 5000 and 10 000 words vocabulary to begin to have a discussion, writes Joey Perugino, multi-lingual and co-founder of the LangFest.

3. Speak the language and deepen your knowledge : travel in the countries where the language is spoken and discuss with the inhabitants. Use sites like itlaki.com to have conversations online.

4. Preserve the knowledge of the language : a crucial step. The only way to keep her knowledge of a language is to practice it and speak it fluently, writes Diana Skaya. According to it, a pause of six months is enough to start “losing” a language.

Its nine languages

• Russian
• Ukrainian
• Armenian
• Polish
• Arabic
• Greek
• Spanish
• English
• French