Friday 28 February 2014

A Multilingual Boy (what if I new all the languages in the world)

There are numerous stories that might seem unbelievable. This could be either because they are so fascinating, that you just cannot believe your ears, or they simply have never happened.
Elizabeth was quite busy that Tuesday, I would say too busy for a five-year-old girl. Hardly had she finished her piano class that morning, when her tutor of French arrived to help her brush up her grammar.
What a lovely day, - Elli sighed. – I wish I could play and dance all day, just like those lazy girls in the neighborhood”.
This busy way of life was just too much for this young creature and it has never really made her happy either. However, her father claimed that it undoubtedly has a great impact on her education.
Oh dear, why are you so selfish? Can’t you see the child is not happy with all your education stuff? Why don’t you let her have a normal childhood?” – her mother would  show her dissatisfaction time after time. And as you can see it never worked.
But as the twilight covered the city, her happiest time began. This Tuesday, as usual, her dear nanny Dorothy was ready with one of those stories that you usually do not believe.
Good evening, young lady. I bet you can’t wait to hear my new story!”
Oh darling, I don’t feel like listening to any stories tonight. All I need now is some rest.”
I understand you so much, but there was one extraordinary boy, who could understand you even more…”
Really? Was he as busy as me?”
Even more, my princess, much busier. His parents were very famous linguists (each knew about 74 different languages) and as their first child was born, they decided that this one will know all the languages in the world by the time he turns 30. When they announced their intention in press, everyone thought it was crazy, but it has never stopped this marvelous couple. To their happiness, the child turned out to be an extremely obedient one (they even called him Obeyan), so he, unlike you, young lady, never ever complained about the amount of hours he had to study every day.
There are about 5 thousand languages in the world, so he had to learn about 166 languages a year, which equals about two days for each language. Quite challenging, isn’t it? So his parents had to hire the best tutors from all over the world and of course it wouldn’t succeed without brain stimulating pills, which were invented by a very talented Chinese scientist especially for them. Sometimes Obeyan even had to stay up all night to succeed in his studies, which certainly lead to huge health problems, to reduce which they kept asking for a helping hand from scientists.
With every language he learned, the heads of his parents grew more and more gray and as he finally learned all the languages in the world and got his lifetime financial provision for this his parents couldn’t swallow the delightfulness of it and died on the same day. In order to spread the blessed memory of his dear parents, Obeyan packed his bags and hit the road. First he went to Rome, then to Oslo, he also has visited Egypt, Sydney, Prague, Paris, London, New York and many other capitals. It gave him great pleasure that he could understand people whichever language they spoke, but he was also sad, because he hadn’t found the way to apply his great talent, so that it would help people.
Days and nights he spent thinking about the way to help all people in the world, when finally it occurred to him that the best way to do it is just to ask what people need. This was a great time for a new around the world journey with a generous intention to help people. He went from town to town, from village to village, asking people what they need in different languages. Unsurprisingly, that people all over the world were standing in queues to get some help from a generous multilingual man.  Some asked for money, some asked for happiness, some wanted the war to stop; others simply wanted a piece of advice on how to become successful in learning languages. And certainly, Obeyan tried his best to help everyone.
Consequently, the health of this extraordinary man grew poorer and he even started forgetting some languages he knew before. No matter how hard the best doctors of the world tried to save his life, the old age of his wouldn’t let him survive. And finally he died. Millions of people went to honor him and some of them even swore to follow his path of entire kindness.
And they actually kept their promise. Moreover, they even invented a special holiday for all to be kind and cheerful at least once a year.”
Are you talking about Christmas, nanny?”
Absolutely, my dear… Oh goodness, it’s high time you fell asleep. Nighty night, sweetheart”.
Good night, darling” – whispered little Elli, closing her shinny eyes to see the sweetest dream about how she learned all the languages in the world and followed a fascinating road of kindness, just like Obeyan once did.


Author: Tetyana Gurchenko