Timothy Doner from New York gained fame after he posted videos showing off his skills on Youtube, including one in which he was seen speaking 20 consecutive languages。
Experts have classified him as a "hyperpolyglot", making him part of a small, exclusive group of individuals who can master a language in very short period of time。
Doner came into limelight
after he started posting his videos, gathering several thousand hits from people who also encouraged him to further showcase his unique talent。
Languages caught his interest for the first time when he started learning Hebrew, gaining proficiency in it within a week, the Huffington Post reported。
Doner practices his language skills in the real-world by speaking with New York City cab drivers, interacting with others at restaurants and connecting with people around the world via e-mail and Skype, it said。
对于大部分人来说，能掌握三五种语言就已经很了不起了。但美国纽约少年蒂莫西·多纳年仅17岁，就已经会说23种语言。不仅如此，只需几周时间，他便能学会一种新语言。
据报道，多纳会说的语言除了“大众”的法语、西班牙语、意大利语、德语，还包括许多听起来很“冷门”的语言，如南非官方语言之一的科萨语、冈比亚常用语言沃洛夫语、斯瓦西里语及美国欧吉布威原住民语。除了这些，多纳还会说数种非洲方言。
多纳在视频网站YouTube上上传自己说不同语言的影片后，吸引了全球语言爱好者关注。受到这些人的鼓励，多纳通过阅读教学书籍和使用手机应用程序继续学习，在数周或数月内就能学会一种新语言。
多纳2012年曾登上《纽约时报》，专家将当时16岁的他列为一小群精通多国语言的“语言狂人”之一，这群人学语言的速度之快相当惊人。
