Collins Language

What's it like to be a hyper-polyglot in a cosmopolitan city like London during an event like the Olympic games?  

A close friend once said to me that when you start learning a language, it’s like staring at a painting from really close: you can’t see much of it, and you can’t make sense of the little piece that you can.

Britain's Most Multilingual student writes about his second week of Chinese learning, in which he has a chat with a native speaker and starts building his vocabulary.

Students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland receive their A-level results today. The continuing decline in the numbers of pupils taking modern languages is one of the main discussion points from the results, with French, Spanish and German figures falling by 5.2%, 3.4% and 7.6% respectively. 

We asked Alex Rawlings, Britain's Most Multilingual Student, about language learning and why he loves it so much.

Alex Rawlings, winner of Collins Most Multilingual Student competition, can speak 11 languages. Now he's taken up the challenge to learn Chinese in just 10 weeks! Read his Chinese Challenge reports each week to find out how he gets on, and to see what tips he has for you when learning a new language.