Hi everyone,
I’m Élise, currently located in Cincinnati. I’m new to the Conference, though it was spoken so highly of at this year’s Gathering that I just had to check it out.
I’m a translator and writer, and divide my time other than that between chess, photography, streaming, travel, and learning one language or other (I tend to rotate them, working on one till I get bored and then switching).
My working languages include most major EU languages, a few smaller EU languages, as well as Russian, Japanese, Korean, and Yiddish.
Languages I’m interested in include basically all of them, but my current projects are Finnish, Turkish, Vietnamese, and Farsi.
I look forward to meeting you all!
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Hello and welcome. It’s wonderful to meet you. I hope you enjoy all the conference has to offer. It’s a good group here.
Hi Élise! This is Elise 
from the Netherlands. Currently based in Georgia, travelling around and soon starting on a Workaway project in Tbilisi.
It sounds like you know many languages, that’s truly impressive! Did you grow up with them or did you pick all of them up later in life?
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Hi Élise,
Welcome! 
I’ve seen in your profile that you have 4 native languages. How did your parents manage that?
I’m currently raising my baby girl (1 year) bilingually alone (as my partner doesn’t speak any language properly – don’t ask 
). Would love to hear how somebody can learn 4 languages as a baby
Thank you for the welcome. It really is a lovely group. This year was both my first Polyglot Gathering and my first Polyglot Conference, and I’m quite glad to have participated in both.
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Hi Ramona,
Thanks for the welcome.
It’s actually three, not four (though with Japanese I’m close enough that Japanese colleagues actually have said they prefer my translations into Japanese over those of native Japanese translators, and I do get taken for native often enough on the phone).
The way that works is that we spoke English in my house, but amongst friends at school, etc., I was actually speaking more German and Spanish than English on a daily basis for much of the time growing up, so they’re basically my three default languages, a three-way tie.
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Hi other Elise (between the Elises and Elisas, this is the most instances of my name, or versions thereof, that I think i’ve ever found in one place).
I’ve always been curious to visit Georgia. Years ago, I got a start at learning the language, but between not really having anyone to talk to and the impressively complicated verb forms, I never got much beyond learning the script. Love the wine, though. If you haven’t had it yet, you’re in for a treat.
I got a start with languages quite early in life, growing up with English, German, and Spanish (the three that come easiest to me). Plus, when I was 5, I had a 1966 Random House Unabridged Dictionary in my room, which had, on its final page, a table entitled ‘Alphabets of the World’ (all five of them LOL). One of those alphabets included was Russian, and it fascinated me so much that I had to learn everything about it (which wasn’t easy in the 1980s). Since there was nobody available to teach me, I just started working on whatever books and tapes and things I could find on my own, and got used to doing it that way. Not long thereafter, I started working on Japanese (in part because a cousin kept bringing me back gifts from Japan and I wanted to read the writing and even more because several Japanese kids who hadn’t yet learnt a word of English had started at my school and I wanted to be able to talk to them). Eventually, learning languages became something of a habit, and I’m always working on one or another, rotating between them whenever I get bored or stop making progress. Right now, the rotation includes Finnish, Vietnamese, Mongolian, Hindi, and Farsi.
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A pleasure to be in the conversation groups with you, Elise, and thanks for the reference to Jungle Jim’s today…looks like quite a treasure for all those in the area who are interested in international food and other products!
Nice to hear from you. And yes, it really is an incredible shop. Anytime I’m homesick for someplace, I can usually find something to scratch the itch there.
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Salut from up the road! I’m in Ann Arbor, MI–you should come up to visit!