MULTILINGUAL SPEAKER TO GIVE AREA SEMINAR.Byline: Stacy Brown Daily News Staff Writer Talk to Powell Janulus and you will find there are more than 60 different ways he can answer you. After all, the Guinness Book of Records named him the globe's master linguist lin·guist n. 1. A person who speaks several languages fluently. 2. A specialist in linguistics. [Latin lingua, language; see . Janulus, 58, became interested in languages as a little boy in Queensboro, British Columbia British Columbia, province (2001 pop. 3,907,738), 366,255 sq mi (948,600 sq km), including 6,976 sq mi (18,068 sq km) of water surface, W Canada. Geography , where his Polish-born mother spoke in six different tongues while his Lithuanian-born father was fluent in at least four. ``When the Polish milk delivery man would come to my door, my mom would talk Polish to him,'' Janulus said. ``When the Jewish neighbor came by, my mom talked Yiddish and dad talked Russian to our Doukhobor neighbors,'' he said. Janulus described the area where he grew up as a ``little United Nations'' because of the many languages spoke there. Now he claims he can help anyone become functional in three new languages in two weeks. Janulus will make his first Los Angeles-area appearance in 20 years when he hosts a pair of language seminars starting Feb. 2 in Santa Clarita Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, and Woodland Hills. The seminars will be held at the Woodland Hills Marriott and the Santa Clarita Residence Inn in Newhall. For details, call Janulus' spokesman, Dwight James, at (888) 446-9797. In 1985, Janulus was recognized by Guinness for the 41 languages he worked with at the time, far outdistancing the 28 spoken by a United Nations interpreter. He said he now speaks 60 different languages - give or take a few - and has nearly completed studies that will enable him to be functional in about 20 more. ``My life has been an adventure, you wouldn't believe all the people I've met and all the cultures I've experienced,'' Janulus said. James said the Canadian is quite modest about his talent for languages. ``You see, he'll tell you that it's 60 and he's studying 20 more,'' James said. ``But actually he knows about 80 already that he easily uses.'' Powell's ability to speak various languages landed him a job as the chief court interpreter in British Columbia as well as various part-time positions. ``I often get called by the police - sometimes in the middle of the night - to translate to someone their rights,'' Janulus said. Janulus once appeared on ``The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson
A local radio station followed up with a similar test. ``They wanted to see if I could answer all the questions and I did miss one, an African one, but you can't know everything,'' Janulus said with a chuckle. The late John Candy John Franklin Candy (October 31, 1950 – March 4, 1994) was a Canadian comedian and actor. Candy rose to fame as a member of the Toronto, Canada branch of The Second City, often playing lovable losers and characters with bad luck but big hearts. hired Janulus to help him speak Punjabi for the movie ``Who's Harry Crumb?'' Janulus, who owns a housing complex in Canada, said tenants who can speak and teach him a new language live rent-free. ``Because it is invaluable so that is how they pay their rent,'' Janulus said. The most difficult language for Janulus is Inuit, a Polar Indian dialogue that took him about a month to master. What of English? ``I think English is the nicest language grammatically because there aren't very many verb endings,'' Janulus said. He said Americans should be more progressive and reform the writing system so words were spelled just the way they are spoken. Janulus believes that once you have learned the phonetics phonetics (fōnĕt`ĭks, fə–), study of the sounds of languages from three basic points of view. Phonetics studies speech sounds according to their production in the vocal organs (articulatory phonetics), their physical properties , producing any sound is possible. He said many of the languages he uses are rooted strongly in the great oral tradition, meaning he taught himself to speak and understand the many tongues without the aid of any written instructions or materials. ``I just communicate with ordinary people about ordinary things,'' Janulus said. JANULUS' LANGUAGES These are the languages Powell Janulus has mastered: Afrikaans (South Africa South Africa, Afrikaans Suid-Afrika, officially Republic of South Africa, republic (2005 est. pop. 44,344,000), 471,442 sq mi (1,221,037 sq km), S Africa. ), Bohemian (Bohemia Bohemia, Czech Čechy, historic region (20,368 sq mi/52,753 sq km) and former kingdom, in W and central Czech Republic. Bohemia is bounded by Austria in the southeast, by Germany in the west and northwest, by Poland in the north and northeast, and by Czech Republic Czech Republic, Czech Česká Republika (2005 est. pop. 10,241,000), republic, 29,677 sq mi (78,864 sq km), central Europe. It is bordered by Slovakia on the east, Austria on the south, Germany on the west, and Poland on the north. ), Bulgarian (Bulgaria), Catalan (Andorra, Spain), Cantonese (Hong Kong Hong Kong (hŏng kŏng), Mandarin Xianggang, special administrative region of China, formerly a British crown colony (2005 est. pop. 6,899,000), land area 422 sq mi (1,092 sq km), adjacent to Guangdong prov. ), Croatian (Croatia), Czech (Czechoslovakia), Danish (Denmark), Doaba (Northern India), Dutch (Holland), English, Esperanto (International), Eyecorus (Russia), Farsi (Iran), Flemish (Belgium), French (France), Frisian (Holland), Frivlano (Northern Italy Northern Italy comprises of two areas belonging to NUTS level 1:
or Tartar Any member of the Turkic-speaking peoples who today live mainly in west-central Russia east to the Ural Mountains, in Kazakhstan, and in western Siberia. They first appeared as nomadic tribes in northeastern Mongolia in the 5th century. (Uzbekistan, former Soviet Union), Turkish (Turkey), Ukrainian (Ukraine), Urdu (Pakistan), Wendish (East Germany East Germany: see Germany. ). CAPTION(S): Box BOX: (Ran in SAC only) Janulus' languages (see text) |
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