Four linguists tell Kate Hilpern how their skills have created amazing opportunities

Alex Rawlings, 21, won a 2012 competition to find the UK’s most multilingual student. The Oxford University student works as a language ambassador for Collins Language.

“I couldn’t believe it when I won Harper Collins’ competition. There was this crazy week when I was doing lots of interviews. I hadn’t realised my abilities were unusual. I speak 11 languages – English, Greek, German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Afrikaans, French, Hebrew, Catalan and Italian. As my mother is half-Greek, that became my second language from a young age. Then my dad moved to Japan for work when I was four and that introduced me to other languages. I met people from other places and wanted to be able to talk to them. I can remember thinking, ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful to talk to anyone anywhere?’

I got A*s for the languages I took at GCSE and A-level and I’m now at Oxford University, studying German and Russian. I chose Russian because I wanted the challenge of a new language. I chose German because I’d like to do a Masters there and in the current economy, Germany is one of the only countries with jobs. More.

See: The Independent