Polyglot by Kató Lomb

Kató Lomb, born in Hungary in 1909, was one of the first recorded simultaneous interpreters. Her book is part memoir, part advice on language learning. In college, I took Introduction to Translation and Interpretation, and trying to put those ideas into practice really showed me how challenging it is — it’s not as simple as “I speak language A and language B.” And that’s with all the modern technology and theory we have today, let alone what Lomb had to work with when she started her work in the 1930s and ‘40s.

Lomb grew up in a turbulent period of Hungarian history, coming of age during the Nazi occupation and later as part of the Soviet Union’s “Iron Curtain.” The post-World War II era marked an unprecedented expansion of large-scale cultural interaction, made possible by modern transportation, communication technology, and diplomacy. There had been exchanges since colonization a few centuries earlier, but it was mostly limited to traders, colonists, and clergy due to logistical difficulty. 

Deeply fascinated by language and human communication, Lomb bought a used Russian dictionary and began studying, disguising it with a different cover because it was dangerous in a country that was becoming more and more fascist. She would sit in shelters, reading under the dim light while Russian bombs fell overhead. 

When the war ended, Lomb’s skills put her in a unique position, precisely because others had avoided everything Russian;

City Hall was liberated on February 5, 1945. I presented myself that day as a Russian interpreter. They lost no time in hiring me and I received my first assignment right away: I had to call the city commander and tell him who the mayor was. When I asked for the phone number of the commander’s headquarters, they just shrugged and told me to pick up the receiver; HQ would be at the other end. There was but one live phone line in Budapest on February 5, 1945.

The book mixes in her language-learning advice with other amusing stories, like being the official interpreter to a state dinner receiving the very first Japanese envoy — a delicate situation, given Hungary’s shifting political alignment — and how she navigated that potential minefield with professionalism.

Overall, I enjoyed the book more for Lomb’s stories and her unique experiences as one of the only people at the time doing what she did, rather than the practical advice. It could be useful for someone new to language-learning theory, but much of her strategies seem outdated, relying heavily on reading and translation rather than the communicative, immersive approaches common today.

If you’re interested in how people bridged cultures and what it meant to be a polyglot before the modern world, Polyglot is an interesting read. The book is available as a PDF here.