When Junior Nicolas Robredo is not busy with his regular course week, he is usually watching YouTube videos or TV shows dubbed in a foreign language.
Although being born and raised here in Austin, he does this to learn how to understand and speak foreign languages like Russian, Ukrainian, German, and Polish. The special part of this whole process is that Nicolas is all self-taught. This is what Nicolas finds interest in and how far it’ll take him for his future.
Chief Master Seargent Andre Davis, who is Robredo’s JROTC instructor, said Robredo’s dedication to learning foreign languages has impressed him.
“For an individual to be able to speak five languages,” Davis said. “That is very impressive, especially at such a young age.”
EE: So what languages are you learning as of right now? Which ones have you already learned?
NR: Right now I am learning Mandarin, Spanish, and Polish. I’ve already learned Russian, Ukrainian, and German
EE: So far what have you been doing to learn these languages to learn these languages?
NR: I’ve mainly just been using Netflix and YouTube, talking to people from the country, and just immersing myself through the internet.
EE: What made you want to learn all these languages?
NR: I don’t really know. Because when I started studying my first language. I was 11 and I did it because I was bored. And I just haven’t stopped from that.
EE: How long was the process of learning?
NR: My first language learning it, it took a long time. It took around three or four years to reach a good level. But after that, it started going a lot quicker as I started to learn how to actually learn a language.
EE: Do you feel comfortable and fluent enough to have a conversation?
NR: Yes. In fact, there have been times when I have spoken to native speakers and they thought I was from the country itself and they didn’t think I was American.EE: Do you plan to use language skills for your future career? What do you plan to persu ?
NR: Yes most likely. I want to be an analyst in the CIA.
EE: Do you have any other languages in mind that you plan to learn?
NR: Maybe French and Japanese
EE: Is it difficult learning multiple languages at the same time? Do you ever get words mixed up between languages?
NR: Yes, I get my languages mixed up a lot, especially when they’re in the same language family like Polish, Ukrainian, and Russian and stuff, so they do get mixed up, but I can slowly start to get better with it.
