Well not only does he speak 20 languages, he's also a great public speaker!

"Knowing a language is a lot more than knowing a couple words out of the dictionary". Well said Tim.

*He is fluent in Italian hand movement*

"You can translate words easily, but you can't quite translate meaning." - Tim Doner, 2014.

"they told me to do a little kid with a lisp but i wanted to do darth vader with a french accent" this guy is fucking golden

"you cant translate meaning" this is true

every english-speaking monolingual needs to see this

I'M LEARNING ENGLISH AND I COULD UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING WITHOUT SUBTITLE. I LOVED HIM :) GREETINGS FROM MEXICO

Mom: hey there watcha watching? me: oh nothing it's fine *runs upstairs to my room and starts violently learning icelandic*

*adjusts glasses in Spanish*

Omggg! My mother tongue is Arabic, and his Arabic was on point. And his speech was truly inspiring, as well as humorous. I truly enjoyed it.

The Persian part cracked me up, we really are melodramatic.

I speak Finnish, English, Tagalog and Japanese fluently right now. He's a huge inspiration to me. I'm aspiring to be like him. Right now I'm 13, so I got a looong way ahead of me.

His last line is very true: You can translate words, but you can't translate meaning.

He can work and live anywhere in the world he wants, now that's freedom

As an Iranian, I dare to say his persian accent is beautiful 😍

Language is power.

Tim Doner is bae He's handsome, intelligent, kinda witty and he likes languages it's a shame he's three years older than me and lives across the globe

Here I am, listening to a TedTalk and learning English at the same time. I had to check my playback speed because he speak really fast

I am a Turk and my ancestors say: One language is one person, two languages ​​are two people☺️

I WAS DRINKING WATER WHEN HE SAID ECONOMY, INDEPENDENCE AND DOWNFALL AND I CHOKED HOLY DANG HOW SMOOTH

And I felt good about fluently speaking 3 languages lol.

I speak fluently 3 languages I’m impressed by him His Arabic accent and pronunciation ARE DOPE ! Bravo

my native language is Swahili language.. am from Zanzibar..i am surprised that This person speaks swahili very well without staying in Tanzania... wonderful!!!!

I am from germany and his german was 👌

I LOVE this guy 😂😂😂😂 I want him as my friend lol

His humour is so refreshingly witty and entertaining, it's what shows his true brilliance.

I speak English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, and Polish and gotta say, Tim knows his stuff! I love listening to him give monologues in multiple languages. It's a lovely workout and the content is super interesting!

I know a guy who knows like 18 languages. Java, C, C++, C#, Python, Ruby....

I had a chance to meet him and he's so friendly :) he inspired me so much

He's literally an inspiration, after watching him i started to learn about languages Now i can speak urdu, Kashmiri, hindi, english, arabic, persian, turkish Now learning French and Spanish

I have been learning English for 25 years. It's difficult to fully acquire only one foreign language. Language is not only what is written in textbooks, it is also a variation of slang. Language like society is constantly changing. Language is not only a grammar, words and collocations it is also a literature, film, music, law, society, system of beliefs and more.

I'm Iranian and his explanation of Farsi was hilarious hahaha

"I wonder if that guy can get any girls?" If you live in the U.S. and you know how to speak a foreign girls language, i would bet that your chances increase exponentially.

His Russia language is incredible so clear,perfect job

Cries in every language he knows.

I'm the same age as this guy and when I first discovered him 4 years ago, instead of getting disappointed in myself and feeling useless like some people here in the comment section, I got inspired. He showed me a possibility which I took to action and now I'm tackling my 4th language so far. I'm not as proficient as him but becoming fluent as fluent can be in 6 languages is my goal for now. It's best to compete with yourself and get better than your previous self from the day before. Don't compare yourself with 1 or 2 exceptional people and get discouraged.

I completely did not expect him to have bothered learning Pashto! Especially because I have personally never met an American who had ever even heard of the language. It completely warmed my heart!

This is certainly the best Ted talk I have watched so far.

"His pronounciation is not that good". 🙄 Boy, u thought u could give a dude who speaks 20 languages a break about pronounciation 🙄.

"You can translate words easily, but you can't quite translate meaning" . Those are wise words. Enjoyed the talk.

"You can translate words easily, but you cannot translate meaning" how true...

And I'm here still struggling with learning English after 20 years 😭

I am Iranian. the Persian part was hilarious. we have a lot of taarof phrases :). thank you for your concern to languages and cultures.

best ted talk I've ever watched

I can speak 8 languages fluently and this guy is much more fluent than me.

Okay. I have a crush on him and I don't know what to do now.

Serving two years as a missionary in Argentina + Austrian girlfriend + Japanese best friend + Majoring in Chinese + Working at a Cantonese Speaking restaurant + 2 years in the military in Korea + Korean wife + working in the International Terminal in San Francisco = A very powerful tool communicate and connect with people.

This guy gets it. It's never about language itself, it's about the context and cultural meaning, something very beautiful if you can master it. Such an inspiration!

"you can translate words easily, but you can't quite translate meaning" ♡

Hearing him speak the language with the correct accent is great

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="150">2:30</a> When he speak Turkish I looked directly to comments to see Turkish people :D Where are we guys? :D Nerdesiniz gençleeerrr :D

*breathes in english*

I know only two languages, it's my native russian and english. This guy inspired me so now I really want to learn japanese, german, and latin. Because, you know, I love languages, they're all so beautiful and so different :D

He’s a genius of our generation, of the 21. Century. He’s a philosopher, a sociologist, psychologist, a writer, a poet, a musician, an observer, a comedian, an optimist, a naturalist, a scientist, a spiritual, a healer,... We will be following his evolution. Thank you for sharing your energy with the world.

I am 14 i speak English Russian and Georgian. he became big inspiration for me .

I only speak Spanish and I'm currently learning English, and I must say that learning different languages definitely gives you a different view of the world, it opens you doors but not only for a job or at school, but also to ways of thinking, there are many things I'd never perceived certain way if I only had seen them through the cultural view or ideology that comes with my native language. When I finally achieve a decent level of English I'd like to learn many other languages as long as my memory let me.

Canadian born. Somali background. Korean language trainee. "Fighting~!"

as an indigenous First Nations person I’m so thankful to see him learn Ojibwe ? I’m not even Ojibwe but to see someone who isn’t native to be interested in learning an indigenous language is so touching

У меня нет слов)) И это так совпало с моим отношением к языкам, к тому какая история, характер, культура стоит за каждым из них.

Wasn't this the dude who could shoot webs from his hands?

I really admire Tim, not because of his ability to learn languages so easily but for understanding that knowing a language goes much further than just knowing how to say "thank you" and "where's the bathroom?"... learning another language is open up our minds to a totally different way of seeing the world... and only like that, by understanding each other, is how we can truly get a world in peace.

This guy is Intelligent AF. Can make you laugh, can inspire you and CAN INSULT YOU IN 15+ Languages. Edit: check the caption options of this video it will make you even happier!

日本語出てきたとき嬉しかった

The fact that he can speak like this in front of an audience, clearly shows what a genius he is.

How does this TedX have so few views? It's definitely one of the best that I've seen.

I love how every language has its sound and it's so clear with his voice and how he changes the ups and downs of the rythm when he chages the language.. I really respect the fact that he challeged himself to languages that often are not learned.. far away from latin languages

I have such a deep love for high functioning insomniacs, it's such a brilliant way to turn around what can be so debilitating.

Inspiring... I'm not a prodigious person when it comes to languages and stuff but I know 5 languages. I am fluent in English, I'm studying Japanese, I learned French, and I studied some German and my native language is spanish. I don't consider myself as a polyglot but I've been through what he mentioned on the beginning. "Oh you know so many languages! Say something in German" "Teach me how to say penis in Japanese" "vous voulez coucher avec moi ç'est soir? Did I say it right?" and the college teachers and stuff.. when important people went to see the college "hey you, introduce yourself in five languages. See? He smart, we teach well" IT SUCKS! Anyways, I agree/disagree with some stuff he says. I dunno... I feel like logic and math is easier in english, expressing yourself is better in spanish, being polite and respectulf and yet a little bit childish is for japanese and being proffesional is for german. I always felt learning a language changes you more than you think and... notice something, when he acts the interview. His modisms changes, his posture changes even his voice. Learning languages is indeed awesome, you learn more than a few words. You get a new viewpoint. *sigh* Someday I hope I get to talk in conferences like that guy... So if anybody got interested in what I said and read all through. Thank you

Your accent in Arabic is really good!

Amazing person but not because he speaks 20 language but have the courage to learn every language

I have the same thought for motivation, when I am learning german. In german this thought is "wenn man einem mann in einer sprache, die er versteht, spricht, geht das in seinen kopf. wenn man in seiener eingenen sparache spricht, geht das in sein herz" this thought always motivates me :)

Tim is the first polyglot I subscribed to on UKposts when I was looking for inspiration to learn. I know many polyglots like to pretend that language learning isn't that difficult, but Tim Doner is seriously a prodigy. It takes a special kind of person to learn as quickly as he does. And to think the dude is a year younger than me. It's too bad his method for learning is mostly an extroverted strategy. Wish somebody would find a way to streamline the learning process for introverts.

He seems like the kind of guy that would remind the teacher that the class had a pop-quiz

Goodddd so let's learn 20 languages during quarantine 🏋️‍♀️🤷‍♀️

As a Persian, he's speaking damn awesome!

I'm a linguistics graduate, speak a couple of languages, and think it's great how Tim promotes language learning and shows that languages are so much more than words. It definitely takes "some" talent to know that many languages, Tim's knowledge is very impressive!

He is so confident !

Me - is gassed at being one of the rare native English speakers that can is learning a foreign language Him - showing me up

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart

I love how when I turned on captions it didn't do anything good for me. Like when he spoke in Turkish it said "(Turkish)"

he's so cute and charming

Yet another person to show that age is just a number. He is wise beyond his age. I love the way he thinks and speaks. It's really inspiring!

Really inspiring for me as I aspire to be a polyglot.

He is so good in Russian. I'm shocked. His accent is not bad.

I think I'm in love

I'm Iranian, I'm happy you learn Dari persian (afghani) true persian, and he speak so good, he really undrestand the nature of a language that's why he does speak so good. □ in English : A: can i have this book? B: "yes ofcurs" □ In Persian A: Can I have this book? B: "pá ruyi çashom" translate " your wish is worth higher than my eyes"

My dream is to be like this

This made me depressed... Like shit guys my life is useless and I feel like my mind is fucking incapable of doing anything worthwhile.

Watching this rather than doing my French homework. Does this count? XD

I remember being shown a video on him in a school assembly a few years ago and I was in awe. He’s a huge inspiration for me and whenever I start slacking or feeling like I can’t get a language, I always come back to watch his videos.

Seeing this young boy speaking many languages made me remenber of Moses. RIP Moses McCormick, you were so brilliant guy with a brilliant mind.

He certainly is a clever man and I very much respect his reasons for learning languages. The world needs more people who think as he does.

Unfortunately, most of people who want to become a polyglot dont have an oportunity to travel cuz the travelling is the best, the fastest, the most interesting way to learn any language. P.s. I think I was wrong 2 years ago. Of course it’s an advantage to have a chance to study a language in a native speaking country, but that is not relevant. So now I’m almost sure that one can learn a foreign language as good in his own country as he’d abroad.

You are one of my reason why I loved to speak Spanish Thank you for ur moltivation

He's so fluent in Arabic Persian Urdu Hindi Turkish n Pashto... superb 👏👏👏👏👏

This kid is so likable. His confidence and spirit just flows right out when he speaks. My biggest self-defeating bad habit in learning languages is I get nervous speaking to native or very advanced speakers out of fear of sounding dumb. It's really narcissistic of me, because I'm sure they are flattered that someone probably very different from them culturally, has an interest in their own culture and wanting learn from them. Tim is clearly special and languages come easier to him than most but what I can take away from him is having the right amount of enthusiasm, intentions and boldness to put oneself out there regardless of looking foolish are a few key tips to get on the path to fluency of any language. I'm such a fan of Tim. So inspirational.

When he spoke arabic I died I'm arab , yet he is more fluent than me 😂😂😂 wtf!

I speak English, Danish, German, French, Cantonese and Mandarin fluently... and still learned a TON from this guy. Love it.

Hi I m an iranian girl and really enjoyed. BRAVO TIM. You did the best!!!! I greally respect to you, your efforts and knowledge.