PROVO, UTAH — Among the crowd listening to addresses at Brigham Young University's graduation exercises Aug. 15-16, only one held the ability to translate the speakers' words back and forth into 15 different languages — American Sign Language, Arabic, Arabic Sign Language, Eastern and Western Armenian, English, French, Georgian, German, Italian, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, Syriac and Turkish.
John Henry Jorgensen, a linguistics and Russian major, learned nine of the 15 while attending BYU and calculates that he has taken more than 40 language classes on campus. Back when he could only speak six languages, he chose to attend BYU because of its extensive language program.
He is under review by the Guinness Book of Records for designation as the most multi-lingual interpreter in the world.
He always had a full plate as a student — in addition to his double major, he minored in Arabic. He has also been instrumental in encouraging the implementation of an Armenian program at the Center for Language Studies at BYU, known for teaching less commonly taught languages. He worked as a part-time instructor, teaching introductory Armenian classes in an effort to expand the program.
He is writing an Armenian textbook to accompany the course.
"His work will make an original and important contribution to the field of language instruction, because sufficient teaching materials for Armenian are not currently available," said Cynthia Hallen, a professor of linguistics at BYU and the polyglot's mentor for the project.
The youngest of five children born outside the United States, John was the last in his family to learn a second language. It didn't take him long to catch up, however, learning his first foreign language at age 11.
He enjoys sharing his love of languages. While serving a mission for the Church in an area that included parts of Russia, the Republic of Georgia and Armenia, he taught hearing-impaired Russians American Sign Language.
He has traveled to more than 22 countries and, with the exception of China, has visited countries where each of his 15 languages is spoken. As a part of BYU's study abroad program, he spent time in Turkey, where he added Turkish to his ever-growing repertoire. This led to work as a volunteer during the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympic Games, where he helped greet Turkish athletes.
He also participated in BYU's Men's Chorus, and Ballroom Dance Company vied for his time and talents along with his usual load of academic work, and performed in a BYU opera in the fall 2001 production of "The Magic Flute."
"It was a dream of mine," he said, "I had always wanted to sing in an opera, and BYU helped me achieve that."
Of all of his interests, he said that his love of languages has always come first. He has the chance to practice at least four of his languages each day on campus.
"I have been amazed — I hear Russian every day, I use my French and Spanish every day, I even use my Armenian here. There have been days I can remember using more, just because BYU is such a great setting for foreign language use."
For other students struggling to learn languages, his advice: "Keep pushing until it clicks."
He plans to continue learning new languages through the years and hopes to gain admittance to Oxford's graduate linguistics program in fall 2003. In the interim, he plans to spend time in China, teaching English and furthering his Chinese studies.
"BYU has been one of the most engaging learning experiences of my life."
