NOTIZIE DAL MONDO DELLA TRADUZIONE

“I’m the opposite of Odys­seus,” said Ikonomou, who looks younger than his 50 years, with close-cropped hair, a soul patch and a jawline beard. “He wanted to go home but I am always trying to open myself up to the world.”

Ikonomou achieves this aim in two ways. First, by travelling widely and frequently, and second, and more importantly, by using his remarkable linguistic skills.

It’s true that some polyglots have a few small things in common with the romanticised image of a polyglot. Unfortunately, these qualities end up becoming exaggerated and congeal into a single archetype. It’s as if the most interesting aspects of all polyglots were merged together, given a magic serum, and a mythical polyglot came out the other end.

The mythical, romanticized ideal of the polyglot is incredibly unhelpful to language learners. You can end up feeling that you’ll never reach the ideal, so why bother trying?

Today, I’m going to run through six of the most common myths about polyglots. I’ll explain why they exist, then reveal the real, messy, behind-the-scenes truth about what it means to be a polyglot.