10 year old boy speaks 11 languages

London: A 10 year old British Indian boy has learnt to speak 10 languages apart from English mostly on his own. Arpan Sharma, from Oldbury in the West Midlands, learned Hindi at a very young age as it is his mother tongue.

The primary school student has taught himself French, Spanish, German, Italian, Swahili, Mandarin, Polish, Thai and the Lugandan language of Uganda either by lessons in school or by using CD-ROMs.

Arpan speaks French with flair, rattles off German with ease and can hold a lengthy conversation in Swahili. His Spanish is impressive as is his Italian; he has more than a grasp of Mandarin, Thai, Swahili and Polish and is currently studying the difficult Lugandan language of Uganda, according to the Daily Mail.

The 10 year old, who is a member of the National Children's Orchestra, learnt French, Spanish, German and Italian in school and picked up other languages by using interactive, multimedia CD-ROMs. He learnt Italian when he was seven, German when he was eight, Spanish a year later and French last term.

In 2007, he has studied a computer based programme called Junior Language Challenge, taking in Polish, Thai, Swahili, Chinese Mandarin and now Lugandan.

His dream is to become a top surgeon able to travel around the world to different hospitals speaking in their native tongue.

"Learning these languages is my favourite part of school along with music. I have known how to speak and understand Hindi since I was very little because both my mum and dad speak it," said Arpan.