Being adept in more than two languages is quite an achievement for most adults. One Russian girl took it up a notch by speaking seven languages—and she’s only four years old.
Bella Devyatkina, a polyglot from Moscow, Russia, stunned both audiences and judges after fluently speaking seven languages on a TV show.
The smart youngster participated in the Russian reality TV show “Incredible People” and showcased her remarkable language skills by easily transitioning from English to Chinese, Spanish, German, French, Arabic and her native tongue Russian. The six languages, except for German, are among the United Nations’ official languages.
Bella skipped along the stage and effortlessly answered questions from lined up adults who spoke the language. She also showed her literacy by reading English and French questions, and even sang in Spanish.
After dazzling everyone with her amazing talents, Bella finally received the present that she was looking for at the beginning of the skit—a mermaid costume based on her favorite Disney character Ariel.
Her mother, Yulia, meanwhile, said her daughter has been learning different languages since birth, and first started with Russian and English. It also helped that she hired multiple nannies, who taught her different languages, based on their mother tongue.
A linguist and language expert was also impressed by the youngster’s performance.
“Such cases are rare but have happened in the past. Language centers in the human brain get switched on at different stages of development,” the expert said, according to a news report.
Bella’s performance got her to the next stage of the competition, whose winner could take home more than $20,000 in prize money.
She also became an instant internet celebrity, as her video has been circulated in social media. Khristian Ibarrola
