During his time as correspondent for the AP, Philip Crowther has had time to report on various events and topics in English, Luxembourgish, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese.
Crowther was born in Luxembourg, where he grew up with his German mother and British father.
He believes himself that there are three factors that contributed to his broad knowledge of languages.
- My mother and father always spoke their own languages, both with me and with each other.
So if my mother said something in German, my father answered in English and vice versa, he says and continues:
- In school, they also learned French and German, so I got four languages with me.
I have learned Spanish and Portuguese by studying, he says.
Crowther started working as a journalist at France24 where he reported in French.
After that he started taking occasional radio jobs in German.
However, he never believed that he would become a reporter who travels the world to report in different languages.
- It was when I started at AP that we came up with the idea to use my language skills.
I was not sure I would be able to do live broadcasts in German or Portuguese, but with a little practice and preparation it felt perfectly okay.
Hear the quick language changes and get Philips' best tips for becoming a language talent in the clip above.