Meet Oluwafunmibi Babalola, a 24-year-old student who can speak 24 languages

By Balogun Kamilu Lekan

It all started with a tweet when Prosper Oluwafunmibi Babalola pitched herself about being a hyperpolyglot and how she’s been occupied with subtitling jobs during the ongoing ASUU strike. She, however, said in the tweet that she still needs more jobs.

Oluwafunmini can speak 24 languages ranging from German, Spanish, Hindi, Korean, Japanese, Twi, Zulu, Russian, Chinese, Indonesian, Dutch, French, Latin, Hangul, Italian, English, Hausa, Yoruba, Egun, Egede, and Igbo, among others.

Prosper, an undergraduate of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Ibadan, explained in an interview how learning new languages is fun for her and how she uses it as an escape from the stress that comes with studying Vet. 

She said, “There are a lot of challenges. Veterinary school is very crazy. We have classes from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. And you have to resume early so as not to be locked out. But when it’s about learning languages, I am abnormal. I know how to strike a balance. For instance, I have used Duolingo consistently for about a year without missing out on a day. So, how is this possible? It’s consistency. It’s just like a fun activity to me. It’s like an escape from Vet school for me. I see it as fun, not hard work”

Prosper, also called “Prosperlingua,” explained how technology has played a vital role in her quest to acquire new language skills, making it seamless and easy.

She also said that there is room for improvement in technology as some languages are not online and she needs to hire a private coach to put her through.

According to her, “Using technology will give us exposure to comprehensive applications that can speed up the process of learning languages. I can tell you that the major problem I have had, trying to learn some local languages, was because they don’t exist on the Internet.

“For instance, Egbiri, I googled and googled, yet I couldn’t find any resources online. Now, I have to meet people from that tribe for personal coaching. And it was very hard getting them to teach me at my own pace. But when there is an application, it speeds up the process”

The super polyglot, Oluwafunmibi, has also taken to Twitter to tweet how her first tweet has gotten her more translating jobs.

Prosper is, however, a sensation to watch out for in the coming years, as she is quoted to have said, “I am already focusing on them, but the bigger plans are still something I want to keep private for now.”