Richard Simcott


Richard William Simcott is the Head of Conservation & Collections Care at the Mary Rose Trust. Simcott is a hyperpolyglot who lives in Skopje, North Macedonia. He speaks 16 languages fluently. Harper Collins referred to him as "One of the most multilingual people from the United Kingdom". Besides the languages that he exhibits fluency in, he also has actively studied more than 50 languages at some point in his career.

Background

Simcott was born in the UK, with English as his first language, quickly learning French at a young age. He grew up in the English Wales Border districts so quickly learnt Welsh as well. His Father re-married a Thai woman, so he started to learn Thai on some trips there as a teenager. Since that time he has learned a range of languages including Turkish, Polish, Hebrew, Chinese, Icelandic, Macedonian and Esperanto. Simcott has worked with languages in the UK diplomatic service, he has been a production manager for Emoderation as well as being the languages director for Polpea. He has also hosted a range of Polyglot conferences internationally, and is the current head of the Polyglot conference. He was interviewed by 16×9 for a short television programme about polyglots. Simcott runs his own Blog "Speaking Fluently" and has published a book on French Short Stories. In 2015 the Goethe Institut named him Ambassador for Multilingualism.

Language abilities

He is regarded as one of the most proficient polyglots in the UK. Simcott can learn languages in very short periods of time, and has passed C1 Fluency exams after 3 months of study. He can speak about 30 languages in total to some degree. Unlike many polyglots, Simcott continues to study languages in a university environment.