₦airaland Forum

19-Year-Old Chennai Prodigy Knows How to Read, Write in 400 Languages

Meet Mahmood Akram, a 19-year-old polyglot who knows how to read and write in 400 languages. Aside from his expansive literacy, the teen prodigy from Chennai is also fluent in 46 languages.

Akram was 12 when he had racked up his mind-numbingly diverse repertoire, but the young talent’s early signs had begun showing by the age of just four. The first of these was picked up on by his father, Shilbee Mozhippriyan, who, according to The Better India, speaks 16 languages himself.

Akram’s multilingual parents encouraged him to learn different languages, and learn he did. Within six days of first starting, he had memorised the English alphabet. By the end of the third week, he knew all the 247 letters used in Tamil.
At the age of six, Akram was neck deep into learning new languages, having mastered 50 by the time he turned eight. This earned him the world record for being the youngest multilingual typist.
Two years later, the polyglot achieved another world title, this time for writing the Indian national anthem in 20 different languages, all in just an hour.

For his third, and by far the most impressive, record, Akram took on 70 competitors at a linguistic race in Germany. This was when he showed the world he could read, write and type using 400 languages.

“We had to translate a sentence into as many languages as we could within three minutes,” he recalled. “I won the Germany Young Talent Award for translating the most. Even the experts could not keep up with my speed.”

While he crushed nearly every contest along the way, the journey had its own struggles. For a wunderkind such as Akram, no school was good enough in India, with a curriculum primarily focussed on language(s) largely missing from the country’s education system

They (the schools) insisted I start again from the sixth grade. So I decided to study through the National Institute of Open Schooling and cleared my exams that way,” he explained.

Akram got to continue his schooling after appearing at a talent show, which earned him the scholarship to the Danube International School in Vienna, Austria.

He credits his fluency to the institute’s diversity and studying with students of 39 nationalities in the same classroom.

Today, the 19-year-old is simultaneously pursuing three degrees: Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Linguistics at the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK, and Bachelors’ in English Literature and Animation at Alagappa University, Chennai.

Akram says learning different languages has made both the language programmes easier

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.timesnownews.com/chennai/19-year-old-chennai-prodigy-knows-how-to-read-write-in-400-languages-article-117722047/amp

Oh my God. It means this boy have the brain of 400 people in him.

Pure talent

But how do some persons are able to know more languages?

Great

Give him a job


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Can he speak Urhobo language? Tower of Babel comes to min!!!!!

Wowww Good ,How About Yoruba Language..Can he Speak Yoruba...

Damn!!!

That's super impressive.

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Had an Asian girlfriend who could read, write, and speak four languages fluently, that alone amazed me.

But the real shock? When we started dating, she picked up Nigerian Pidgin in no time… and my native language came next.

After God, I swear na polyglots.

Nna eh.. Four hundred languages ke... wawu!!

At nineteen, when some of you can’t even pronounce quinoa without coughing, Mahmood is out here collecting alphabets like a Yahoo boy collecting SIM cards.

But let’s be honest, this is both miracle and menace. A man that can sweet talk in 400 languages can steal your babe before you even finish saying babe. One “I love you” in Icelandic, and your girlfriend will follow him to Vienna without asking for transport fare.

Respect to his parents though. They planted books instead of PlayStations, dictionaries instead of data bundles.

Proof that when a family invests in brains instead of birthday parties, the harvest is pure wizardry.

May his head remain stronger than Nigerian network because carrying 400 languages inside one's brain is the kind of hotspot MTN can never provide.

Why is it that we don't hear this type of news in 9ja

Deepspirituals:
Wowww Good ,How About Yoruba Language..Can he Speak Yoruba...

I doubt but he will surely be able to speak igbo before any other nigerian language because more Igbo people travel to India than other ethnic groups from Nigeria 🤗

Even if it's to 'develop' India only

What a rare gift 27 more characters needed for nairaland

This is the kind of records I wish Nigerians should be breaking and trust me we have hidden gems that are later overwashed by the limitations of our society

Wow, it not easy o me when they study russian language for one year, na now i don dey understand and speak small small

"Merlin" of our time.

This is the real polyglot
Heheheeehe!!

Wao!! 400 languages.. that’s massive..

That’s another set of Rich brain that dude has..

Even before I opened the thread, I knew the guy would have migrated to Europe or the USA. The West has always laid claim to the bright minds of developing countries, leaving the mediocre behind. This is why I support North Korea's policy of executing any of its citizens who try to escape the country.

if this your talent cant make you rich, oh boy its just a waste of brain space...

I didn't bother to read the write up because achieving fluency in this amount of languages is unrealistic.

If not that AI has ruined it for you, you would've been among the most paid translators.

Nigerians Guinness world record attempters won't see this one. Na jollof rice and cooking them de see

Ironfaceman:
Oh my God. It means this boy have the brain of 400 people in him.

so if you speak Hausa,Igbo and Yoruba it means you have the brain of 3peoole…

This is juju. Not talent. How can you speak 400 languages at 19 years old when you are not a robot programmed to do that.

I hope he can speak Ukwuani

Seun please ask him for me

Mabuggi88:
Nigerians Guinness world record attempters won't see this one. Na jollof rice and cooking them de see

Why not use what you studied in school to break world record?

You expect a chef to build a rocket to take you to space.

Misplaced lamentations.

I was shocked when I hear him speaking igbo fluently. He said developers taught him.

Na demon dey sabi these much languages. This one pass referee own

E fit speak Oron language
Or UrueOffong
Not to talk of Annang

This is serious. Some people are indeed talented. Me I don't even know how to speak my indigenous dialect let al9ne gathering about foreign strange and foreign languages.

Not true. We want to see the lists of those languages.

emapeteum:
Not true. We want to see the lists of those languages.

No Igbo man can do it
..






Na the tone and tongue 👅 naim no go gree for am 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂

Thank God he achieved that feet before a woman comes into his life.