Ioannis Ikonomou, a Greek translator at the European Commission, is fluent in all 23 official languages and several others, including Chinese. The Commission works in only three languages: English, French, and German. The world has around 7,000 languages, with a quarter of the population speaking some English. The UN Declaration of Human Rights is the most translated document, while the Bible has been translated into 2,454 languages. In Luxembourg, 99% of people speak at least one foreign language.
European Commission translator knows 32 different languages: Ioannis Ikonomou, a Greek Commission translator since 2014, is fluent in the 23 official languages of the European Commission: Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek , Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish. Other languages he is fluent in include Arabic, Russian, Turkish and Chinese. Indeed, Ikonomou is the only translator in charge of Chinese in the European Commission. Although the European Commission has 23 official languages, its internal work is conducted in only three languages: English, French and German.
Learn more about languages:
There are around 7,000 total languages in the world and it is estimated that a quarter of the world’s population can speak at least some English.
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the most translated document in the world, with over 300 languages available, while the Holy Bible is the book that has been translated into the largest number of languages: 2,454.
In the country of Luxembourg, 99% of people speak at least one foreign language.
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