Description
Foreign languages have been an important subject of interest of individuals for a long time. There exist many historical examples of individuals who mastered multiple languages and were passionate and motivated about learning them. Nowadays, such individuals are defined as polyglots and are characterised by their high level of motivation, enthusiasm and passion for studying, improving and practising languages. Even if some research in the areas of neuropsychology and motivation of polyglots exists there exists a research gap in the investigation of polyglots and their adaptation to and functioning in new-cultural environments. The purpose of this study is to seek to fill this research gap and to address two research questions. Firstly, it is examined to what extent language competences impacts polyglots’ awareness, understanding and adjustment to different cultures. Secondly, it is questioned which concrete language competences are relevant in this respect. The model of sociocultural adaptation was chosen as the main theoretical concept of this study where interaction with locals, understanding of cultural differences and obtaining of cultural knowledge are essential factors for an individual to adjust to a different culture. The present study is based on a qualitative approach where six polyglots from five different countries were interviewed, after which the interviews were hermeneutically interpreted by applying the sequence analysis approach. The results of the present work demonstrate that multiple language competence of the participants play a pivotal role in their awareness, acceptance and adaptation to different cultural encounters. Furthermore, profound knowledge of vocabulary, communication with locals in the local language and understanding of the contexts behind some grammatical and lexical phenomena are the most essential factors that positively influence polyglots’ ability to coping and functioning in different culures. Overall, even if the present study could be considered as a first step to investigate the relationship between polyglots’ linguistic competence and sociocultural adaptation it is encouraged to conduct further research in this context. For instance, it would be worth questioning how polyglots’ language learning approaches could impact their ability to adjust to and function in different cultures.
Olga Koeva is a Bulgarian hyperpolyglot and a professional organist and pianist. She has a Bachelor's degree of sacred music and a master's degree of organ improvisation. Additionally, Olga has a Bachelor's degree of International Relations and Management at the University of Applied Sciences in Regensburg, Germany. Recently, she successfully completed her Master's degree of Management of Intercultural Studies at the same university and obtained a Grade A (1.0) for her Master’s Thesis.
Olga Koeva has always been interested in studying, practising, analysing and improving languages. Olga speaks 13 languages fluently and is still improving them by reading literature in all these languages, listening to radio and communicating with her friends.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn9_dzA0MtPdqp-qGdls9gQ/videos
This video was recorded at the Polyglot Gathering 2025: https://www.polyglotgathering.com.