Maria is studying English

Maria, Maiol’s mother, spoke several languages when I met her. She was fluent in Spanish and Catalan, and comfortable in German and French. However, she had decided to learn English because she and the rest of her family were getting ready for a trip to the U.S. later that year, to meet the family that Maiol had stayed with.

I was constantly amazed by how many languages were spoken by the people that I met. Maiol had worked as a translator during the 1992 Summer Olympics that had been held in Barcelona the previous year, as he spoke Spanish, Catalan, English, French, Italian, German, and Russian. Now he is a teacher and writer of English at the University of Barcelona, and continues to strengthen his linguistic skills as he works toward a Doctorate in Linguistics.