Hi fellow language lovers 
I hope you’re all doing well.
To be honest, I don’t know how to kick off this thread but I guess I’ll just begin typing hoping that the text I produce won’t be choppy and that it’ll be coherent enough even though I haven’t neatly organized and marshalled all of my thoughts and ideas which I wish to include in this text. I might not get straight to the point because I want to tell you about some relevant information about me first, so please bear with me. I might sometimes come across as an overexplainer but I am not trying to patronize anyone considering there are more experienced and accomplished language learners here than me but I feel like I need to explain every detail of my goal and my language learning background very clearly in order to avoid misunderstandings.
I am a 22-year-old native Hungarian speaker who speaks English, German and French (in addition to Hungarian)
I have already passed the Cambridge C2 exam in English and the Goethe C2 exam in German.
Becoming a conference interpreter has been a dream of mine since the age of 14 and I have been working on this goal ever since.
Due to some personal issues, I had to shelve this goal because there are some surgeries I need in order to alleviate some severe emotional distress.
But luckily I am in a line of work that enables me to work with languages while saving for the surgeries: Currently I work at a call center where I answer calls in English, German, and sometimes in French on behalf of doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects, tradespeople, international companies,etc. Additionally this job also entails doing some secretarial work for our clients who outsource their calls to our call center. So it’s a very interesting job where I never know what topic I’ll have to discuss and which of my three languages I’ll have to use with the next caller.
Despite thoroughly enjoying this job, I am still very passionate about interpreting and once I have all of the surgeries I need I’ll definitely return to pursuing a career in this profession and I’d really love to work with a bunch of different languages (most of them will be passive meaning I’ll “only” have to understand them very well because I’ll be interpreting from them into my active languages but I’ll never interpret into my passive languages)
For those who aren’t familiar with the language categorization system in the profession of conference interpreting:
There are two types of active languages:
A language: In conference interpreting parlance this is the conference interpreter’s strongest language. They work from Bs and Cs into their A.
B language(s): These are languages which the interpreter not only understands very well but they speak them at a high level that not only enables them to render utterances made in the B language(s) into the A language but they can also interpret from their A language into their B languages(s).
And then there’s the passive languages category with the C languages: The interpreter understands these very well but not necessarily speaks them well. Nonetheless, due to their strong passive skills they can provide faithful rendition from their Cs into their A.
I have been thinking about what kind of languages I should acquire to make my future language combination as a conference interpreter as competitive and marketable as possible.
I have also taken into consideration what languages I find very interesting.
One of them is Mandarin hands down. I have always been interested in Mandarin and I know that Mandarin is difficult because of the characters and the tones but the grammar is straightforward (which-I know- doesn’t detract from the difficulty that the complete mastery of the two above mentioned aspects of the language presents.)
Even though I am seriously interested in all languages I have picked, the languages my heart really burns for are English and Mandarin, so I definitely want them as my B languages. I am continuously improving my English further because there’s always room for improvement and I have also made a point of upping my Mandarin learning game.
As for the C languages… Well… this where things get a bit for lack of a better word doubtful for me.
I have a serious interest in 10 languages as potential C languages which I know sounds a lot but it’s also important to note that I won’t have to speak them very well. I’ll “only” have to understand them very well. I know that attaining a strong comprehension level in any given language is challenging but in my experience it’s easier than aiming for complete functional perfection that is being C2 across all skills (listening, speaking, writing, and reading). Plus, there are interpreters who have a bunch of C languages. According to Lydia Machova ( I hope I have spelled her name correctly), there is an interpreter working for the EU institutions with 14 C languages.
Here are the ten languages:
German
French
Spanish
Italian
Portuguese
Russian
Polish
Dutch
Swedish
Danish
Do you think this language combination is attainable in light of the facts that I have to speak “only” three languages (English, Hungarian, and Mandarin) at a very high level while “only” understanding ten more at a very high level but not speaking them fluently?
I know that some of you might think: Why don’t you just work with English, French, German and Hungarian?
Well, there is a compelling reason:
There are plenty of Hungarian A interpreters with this combination, thus I’d face a lot of competition with this combination and then there’s also the rapid development of AI.
I’d love to have a unique language combination that gives me a competitive edge. I don’t see myself being able to do anything but interpreting because this is the only occupation that really fascinates me.
I have considered teaching but I am bad at explaining how grammar works even though I speak correctly (with some occasional slip-ups).
And as for other jobs, even though I am interested in a lot of things such as law, medicine, etc. I have only a rather superficial interest in them plus I am not good at math, chemistry, and physics, so so much for me becoming a forensic pathologist. 
The bottom line is that I can only imagine doing interpreting.
If the suggested combination above is too unrealistic, I am willing to focus on this one instead (even though it’s painful to exclude the other languages from the combination and I am not being dramatic ):
Hungarian A
English B
Mandarin B
French C
Spanish C
Russian C
I have also considered having this language combination:
Hungarian A
English B
Mandarin B
French B
Spanish B
Russian B
However, the problem is that most interpreters max out at two B languages. It’s much more professional and accepted to have one or two B languages at most in addition to several C languages than having a bunch of Bs because the thorough maintenance of B languages is very time consuming.
But I have rambled enough. I am sorry this text has turned out this long.
I look forward to reading your takes on this matter.