New York. NY (PRWEB) May 01, 2014 -- Tim Doner, teenage hyperpolyglot and the youngest person in the world able to communicate in over 20 languages, today announced the winners of the Teen Polyglot Challenge.
In an effort to promote linguistic diversity and multilingualism, Tim Doner launched his Teen Polyglot Challenge March 1, 2014, challenging teens around the world to start learning a language they hadn’t previously studied or used at home and to submit a 3-minutes video of themselves speaking the new language after 30 days.
Tim first drew worldwide attention after he posted videos demonstrating his unique linguistic talent, notably “American Polyglot Practicing 20 Languages” in which he speaks 20 languages consecutively, including Middle Eastern languages (Arabic, Hebrew and Persian) and languages from Africa (Hausa, Swahili and Xhosa), Europe (French, German and Russian) and Asia (Chinese, Indonesian and Hindi). Tim’s YouTube channel PolyglotPal, attracting nearly 4 million hits, has opened a dialogue with aspiring polyglots around the world who are encouraged by his passion for learning languages.
Teen Polyglot Challenge winners in the European category are 19-year old Astghik Hakobyan from Los Angeles, CA, a native Armenian-speaker who learned Spanish, and 17-year old Joshua Miguel from Brisbane, Australia, a native English and Tagalog-speaker who learned Catalan. Challenge winners in the non-European language category are 17-year old Chihiro Taguchi from Kawasaki, Japan, a native Japanese speaker who learned Tuvan, a Siberian language, and 16-year old Chris Kumaradjaja from Briarcliff Manor, NY, a native English-speaker who learned Mongolian.
“Knowledge of a foreign language provides huge cultural benefits for teens, and modern technology provides countless ways for them to learn and connect with native speakers,” said Teen Polyglot Tim Doner. “I want to encourage teens to prove to themselves that in just a month they can start learning a language that’s totally new to them. The submitted videos were eye-opening and show that teaching yourself a new language can be rewarding in many ways.”
Teenagers who took the challenge came from a wide arrange of countries including India, Denmark, Japan, Iran and Sweden as well as the U.S. and Canada. Tim judged the videos submitted to the Teen Polyglot Challenge based on the entrant’s language vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and tonality as well as ease of delivery. Winners will receive a one-year subscription to *Rosetta Stone in a language of their choice.
For additional information and to see videos of the Teen Polyglot Challenge winners and entrants, please visit Polyglotpal on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/PolyglotPal.
*Rosetta Stone is not connected to the management of the Challenge.
About Tim Doner
Tim Doner is a teenage hyperpolyglot and recognized as the youngest person in the world able to communicate in over 20 languages. He is a senior at the Dalton School in New York City and will be a freshman at Harvard University in the fall of 2014. A frequent speaker on foreign language learning, Tim has spoken at 2014 TEDxTeen as well as addressing groups at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Baruch College. Tim has made television and radio appearances on The Today Show, BBC World Today, NPR, Alhurra, Australia’s Sunrise and the Morning Show, Canada’s Global News 16x9, and many other outlets. He has also been featured in articles in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Economist displaying his talent for language, and in a YouTube documentary for THNKR Channel.
Media Contact:
Jodi Einhorn
E: jodi.einhorn(at)polyglotpal(dot)com
P: (917) 716-6052
Jodi Einhorn, Polyglotpal, +1 (917) 716-6052, [email protected]
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