Ziad Fazah

Ziad Youssef Fazah (born June 10, 1954) is a Lebanese polyglot born in Liberia. He claims to be able to speak, read and understand in numerous languages.

Early Life and Education

Fazah discovered his talent for learning languages at the age of 11, when he was already able to speak Arabic, English, and French due to attending private schools. At the age of 14, he dedicated himself fully to learning the languages of the world. His method combined time and dedication, starting with phonetics and pronunciation, followed by grammar.

Language Skills

Fazah claims to master 59 languages, although Guinness World Records mentions him as a connoisseur of 58 languages. He has been tested in various TV shows, including a Chilean television show entitled Viva el lunes, where he was said to have successfully communicated with native speakers of several foreign languages.

Languages Spoken

According to Fazah, his language skills include:

* Albanian
* Amharic
* Arabic
* Armenian
* Azerbaijani (also referred to as "azera")
* Bengali
* Bulgarian
* Burmese
* Cambodian
* Canadian French
* Korean
* Czech
* Danish
* Dzongkha
* Hebrew
* English
* Fijian
* Finnish
* French
* German
* Greek (including Cypriot)
* Hindi
* and many others

Personal Life

Fazah was born in Liberia but grew up in Lebanon. He has lived in Brazil since the 1970s, as of April 2020 residing in Porto Alegre.

Methodology

According to Fazah, his skills are a gift given to him by God. He attributes his ability to learn languages to his dedication and methodical approach, which involves starting with phonetics and pronunciation, followed by grammar.