Four-year-old Bella Devyatkina has won the hearts of people all over the world after showing off her knack for different languages on Udivitelniye Lyudi (Incredible People), a televised talent show in Russia, The Telegraph reports.
Bella spoke to the show’s host in Russian, then moved on to six other stations on the stage to converse with adults in perfect English, French, Spanish, Chinese, and Arabic. The gifted child also showed off her literacy skills by reading in English and French, and also delighted the audience with a Spanish song.
After the little polyglot was done talking to everyone, Bella was presented with a mermaid tail—a dream come true for the little girl, the host told the audience. Just like any 4-year-old, Bella clutched the mermaid tail close to her chest and bounced around in joy before running back to her parents in the audience.
Watch the incredible video here:
A skeptical few have speculated that Bella must have memorized her lines, but her mother insists that her daughter is the real thing.
“We’ve been learning languages from birth,” Bella’s mom, an English teacher, explained. “But when we saw her interest growing, we added new languages bit by bit and that’s how we got to seven!”
Bella also has multiple nannies of different nationalities who talk to her in their native languages, Weird Russia reports. Not only do they teach her words and phrases, they also have discussions on different issues and topics from Bella’s encyclopedias.
The benefits of multilingualism are boundless—not only does it expand your child’s horizons, it’s also great for their cognitive functions.
“There is a general consensus that being able to communicate in more than one language has positive effects on our children’s brain development and that it is never too late to learn a second one,” Roberto Filippi writes in The Telegraph. “Using two languages may protect the brain from cognitive decline in older age.”
If you want to raise a multilingual child, it’s best to start them early. “The age of three and four is when there is the most amount of brain development, and it is absolutely appropriate to learn a language,” psychologist Nesha O’Neil tells news.com.au.
Teaching an infant or toddler isn’t the same as teaching an adult, obviously. According to the Multilingual Children’s Association, infants actually can’t be taught a language—instead, they acquire them. They learn best by being talked to—this is why children usually only pick up the languages their parents speak.
If you want them to learn a certain language that neither you nor your partner speak, you can enlist help from a nanny or an immersion program. It’s also a good idea to get a support network of other parents who are also trying to raise multilingual children. This gives your child a way to interact with other children in the language she is trying to learn.
How many languages can your child speak?