A search for the UK's most multilingual child

To mark the launch of their new language learning courses, Collins and Livemocha – the world’s largest online language-learning community – are searching for the UK’s most multilingual children and students. From 1st June 2011, Collins and Livemocha want to hear from the parents or guardians of children (up to and including the age of 15), and students (aged 16 to 22 years), who are conversant in multiple languages, and believe they have what it takes to be awarded the title of ‘Most Multilingual Child in Britain’ or ‘Most Multilingual Student in Britain’.

In keeping with this quest, Collins and Livemocha have discovered the UK’s leading multilingual adults... Richard Simcott is conversant in a staggering 33 languages. Richard works as the language consultant for eModeration – an international, specialist user-generated content moderation company – giving advice on multilingual projects and providing a QA service for their multilingual work. The list of languages Richard speaks and has studied in any depth are: English (mother tongue); French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Macedonian (near-native level, Richard is often assumed to be a native or bilingual speaker of these languages); Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Welsh, Czech, Esperanto, Bulgarian and Serbo-Croat (able to communicate thoughts and ideas easily); Danish, Romanian, Russian, Albanian, Greek and British Sign Language - able to converse with speakers at a conversational level and read (intermediate level); Icelandic, Hebrew, Mandarin, Arabic, Thai, Georgian, Norwegian, Luxembourgish, Polish, Estonian, Turkish, Slovene and Latvian (has studied and can communicate these languages at a basic level).

At the Collins website are instructions on how to submit your child's name for this award.