Hyperpolyglot? Gesundheit!

Timothy Doner Joins Provo’s FluentWorlds Executive Team

Does this ever happen to you? You’re in a conversation, trying to make a point, and at a crucial moment, you can’t for the life of you remember a word. Or almost worse — you can think of the word in your second language, but not your first, and of course, the person you’re speaking to doesn’t speak that second language. So frustrating!

Well, imagine being fluent in 20 languages, like Timothy Doner. Doner is a recent Harvard graduate who has been described in the media as “the world’s youngest hyperpolyglot” — someone who speaks dozens of foreign languages. (And here I was, all impressed by the 65.5 million U.S. residents who speak a language other than English at home.) An avid student of the Middle East, Doner is proficient in both Arabic and Persian and has studied languages as far afield as Swahili, Russian, Mandarin, French and many more.

If he sounds familiar, you may have seen him on YouTube. At the age of 16, Doner became an instant celebrity when a video of him speaking 20 languages accumulated millions of hits. He has since achieved similar success with a viral TEDx Talk (3.4 million views) and a feature in the THNKR PRODIGIES series (8.5 million views).

Recently, Doner has teamed up with FluentWorlds, the world’s most sophisticated and flexible 3-D virtual platform for language immersion, which is headquartered here in Utah. And he’s ready to make an even bigger impact on language education.

“It’s a privilege to join the FluentWorlds team,” Doner said. “I’ve seen the product grow from a simple idea to a world-class app, and I know it has the potential to change the way we learn languages. I am confident … we can transition language education into the new frontier of 3-D environments — a bold and monumental shift for the industry.”

The FluentWorlds team is excited to have Doner join them. His enthusiasm for and expertise in immersive language training is a perfect fit for their mission.

“Tim Doner is iconic in the language world,” said David Bradford, FluentWorld CEO. “His language skills are almost beyond comprehension. He will help drive FluentWorlds to new heights and put it among the greatest language learning companies of the world.”

Dr. Linda Bradford, founder and chief product officer of FluentWorlds, said, “What a privilege it is to add Tim to our executive ranks. His knowledge and experience in immersive language training are remarkably consistent with our virtual immersion method — one where people can learn languages without having to pay thousands of dollars to travel to another country. We believe the addition of Tim, together with our focus on apps and live 3-D tutoring platform, will help create a new paradigm for business and education in the language-training market.”

To learn more about Doner, and all the other exciting things he’s doing in the world of language, you can check out his website. For more information about FluentWorlds, visit www.fluentworlds.com.