An Interview with Simon from Omniglot║Lindsay Does Languages Video

I'm here now with Simon, who we've finally
managed to catch for an interview which I'm

really excited about. I would say it's nice
to meet you but we've met for two days now...it

seems silly! Simon runs the website that I'm
sure you will've heard of and used many times,

Omniglot. So first of all thank you for that.
Yep, you're welcome!

How did that come about?
Well it all started about back in 1998. Originally

I was trying to set up my own business as
an online web designer and translation agency.

That didn't really work out but Omniglot kind
of grew out of there. And I carried it on

as a hobby while I was working as a web designer
in Brighton and eventually I was made redundant

from that job and by that time I was making
a living from Omniglot. And since then I've

moved to Bangor, did an MA in Linguistics,
now I'm supporting myself completely from

Omniglot.
Brilliant! That's fantastic! That's truly

living the language dream, isn't it?
It is!

Brilliant. And I'd like to talk - your badge
- I don't know if you can see Simon's badge

from there - is very very impressive, so we've
spoken a bit...you did a degree initially

in Japanese and Mandarin Chinese is that correct?
That's right, yeah.

And then moved on a lot to C..I've forgotten
already! Celtic or Celtic?!

Celtic!
Celtic! Moved on a lot to Celtic languages.

What inspired you to begin with Celtic languages?
Well my mum's family come from Wales. She

grew up in England but her parents were from
South Wales, so I've always been interested

in Welsh and always had the intention to learn
it. And I eventually got round to it about

12 years ago. Started learning. Oh no, it
was actually, after I came back from Taiwan,

when I started Omniglot. Because one of the
jobs I applied for was in Bangor, in the International

Office, and they said you have to learn Welsh
to do this job if you don't already speak

it. So I started learning Welsh at that time
and I got Teach Yourself Welsh and I went

through it a couple of times and went to my
interview and they said "Do you speak Welsh?"

and I said "A little bit!". But I couldn't,
wasn't able to have a conversation at that

time. And then I didn't do much more for a
few years and then I was on holiday in Northern

Portugal doing a walking tour and there was
a couple of Welsh speakers in the group! And

I thought...
In Portugal?! I bet you weren't expecting

to practise your Welsh in Portugal?!
Well no! But they happened to be there in

the same group and I was sharing a room with
one of them and I tried to speak Welsh to

them and I soon ran out of things to say 'cause
it was all a while since I'd used it and I'd

forgotten a lot and when I got home I thought,
"I've learnt all these different languages

for going on holiday to places, out of interest",
and I thought, "which of these do I really

want to learn the most?" and I thought, "Welsh!
'Cause it's an ancestral language. My family

used to speak it a few generations ago and
I've always been interested in it. So for

the next few years I listened to Welsh language
radio on the internet every day at work, all

day, at first I understood hardly anything
but gradually it started to make more sense

and I got some more courses. I got Colloquial
Welsh and various other courses, and I started

reading things on the Internet, and I got
simple books for learners, which were kind

of much..I struggled with at first but eventually
it started to make sense and then more and

more I got to the stage where I could understand
it, I could read it, then I did a summer school

in Lampeter for two weeks...
Wahey! Lampeter! Ashley, cameraman, who you

can't see, went to Lampeter University so..there's
the link there!

Yeah, so, this was the first time I'd had
proper conversations in Welsh. So at first

I struggled a bit, but after 2 weeks I was
quite happy to babble away in Welsh all day.

So you almost created like, we've just come
out of a talk with Alex Rawlings, who was

mentioning about if you can't go to the country
physically, about creating a sort of remote

immersion - so that's pretty much what happened
to you with Welsh.

Exactly, yes. That's what I did, yeah.
And then what was your next language along

the way, from there? Where did you go? Did
you go to Manx or Cornish or Gaelic?

Well, Irish actually. I'd learnt a little
bit of Scottish Gaelic when I was in Taiwan

because I just fell in love with the music.
While I was at school I started playing the

tin whistle, listening to songs like Plynad(?),
Enya, and Capacaely(?) and Runry(?), and I

just love the sound of these languages, Scottish
and Irish Gaelic and I just wanted to learn

them and eventually I got round to it. And
I went... and I spent a year learning Irish

at home. I started with courses on Radio Ulster.
They have these little courses and they're

really good 'cause they just do little bits
'cause it's a radio programme so they just

do, take you through the basics in each programme
and then you learn a little bit more and they

reinforce what you've learnt already and I
found that really good and I got a book that

was based on another radio series called...what's
it called?..Irish On Your Own or Now You're

Talking.
Ahh, I like that, Now You're Talking! That's

cool!
Now You're Talking!

Now You're Talking yeah! Brilliant. It looks..I'm
not sure if we have to go back in soonish

so we'd better sort of wrap it up but it's
been an absolute pleasure. Is there a language

that's next on your list at all?
Well recently I've been learning Serbian.

Ah ha! To come to the Polyglot Conference!
Exactly! I'm not sure if I'll carry on when

I go home. I might do but I'd really like
to learn Russian and Czech more. I've done

some already and I started learning Swedish
earlier this year after the Polyglot Gathering

in Berlin and I've got other languages I'd
like to learn but at the moment, that's enough!

Yeah, that's quite a sort of lingering list.
It's nice! Brilliant! Well Simon, it's been

an absolute pleasure to meet you and I look
forward to meeting you again very very soon.

Ok thank you very much!
My pleasure!