On The Trilingual Track: Junior Charlie Bethay is learning French, Latin and Spanish. Despite being legally blind.

As his hands move left to right across his braille book, his eyes stare at the show “True Crime” on the TV while ‘80s music blares through his ears — comprehending each task simultaneously. Junior Charlie Bethay is a multitasker. For some, performing these tasks all at once seems impossible. For Charlie, it’s a breeze.

To put his talent to good use, Charlie is taking on the challenge of mastering French, Spanish and Latin — all at the same time.

For Charlie, the trick to learning the languages all at the same time is compartmentalizing the different languages in his brain.

“There’s just little boxes in my brain saying ‘this is a Spanish word, a French word and a Latin word’,” Charlie said. “They’re all fundamentally different.” 

Charlie was born visually impaired. He has 20/50 vision in his right eye and 20/70 vision in his left. So when an object is 70 feet away, he has to be 20 feet away to see it. Despite this, he can still use devices like his phone and Apple Watch. 

Charlie’s ability to grasp multiple concepts at once has always impressed family and friends. Charlie’s dad, Walter, wasn’t surprised when he heard the news that his son was learning not only one language, but three. 

“Ever since he was a kid he would read a book with his fingers, then listen to another book at the same time,” Walter said. “I would call bull crap and say he wasn’t doing both, but then I would ask him to tell me what he’s reading and he would perfectly.”

Kris, Charlie’s mom, explains how when he talks about his new hobby, she can see the passion and confidence within him. 

“When he said he wanted to learn these languages, I was excited because he can be our interpreter and we don’t have to worry about struggling around communication when we’re in Mexico on our annual spring break trip,” Kris said.

Walter explains Charlie’s memory as almost photographic. For as long as Walter can remember, Charlie’s been able to group tasks in his head by placing each one in a different part of his brain. His unusual talent allows him to separate the different sounds of Spanish, French and Latin.

Starting French in eighth grade at Indian Hills Middle School, Charlie was fascinated by the different accents and sounds each word made. However, the strict curriculum in a middle school French 1 class moved at a pace too slow for him and allowed no flexibility. 

Moving to the mobile language app, Duolingo, allowed Charlie to learn French at his own schedule and pace. Exploring the language without the constraints of his French 1 class allowed Charlie’s interest to grow into a full love of French.

“I like French the most out of all three because it’s easier and more fun,” Charlie said. “There’s also weird words where I’m like, ‘why are you there?’”

Charlie first downloaded Duolingo in June 2020 to prepare for his spring break trip to Mexico. He didn’t get very far into the Spanish curriculum before deciding to start Duolingo’s French program to build on his prior knowledge. Seeing Latin as an option sparked his interest because it’s the root of all languages, so he added it to his growing list of languages to learn. 

“It’s always mystified me why the world has multiple languages,” Charlie said. “I was excited to learn and make connections between all of the languages.”

His Duolingo practice has even become part of his nightly routine. After finishing his APUSH homework and brushing his teeth for the night, Charlie heads to bed and pulls out his iPhone, the green reflection shining across his face. He practices for 30 minutes each night, spending 10 minutes on each language.  

As for the practice itself, Charlie focuses on a different category of words in each language, such as family in Spanish or travel in French and school in Latin. He always makes an effort to listen, translate and write each word. To Charlie, learning the verbs and pronouns comes naturally — his biggest challenge is grasping the accent.

“It’s helpful to have the speaking portion,” Charlie said. “The difficult part isn’t speaking the specific language in an English accent, it’s actually being able to learn the accent of the language.”  

Charlie has found ways to practice his skills in real life. In his journalism class, he sits next to Corentine Armaing, a French foreign exchange student — which gives him an opportunity to converse with her in a real-world context. 

“I could speak little French phrases, not enough to have a whole conversation, but enough for her to know that I knew it,” Charlie said. “We were able to have enough communication to function, which I hope makes her feel included.”

Even though Charlie has to ability to separate specific information in his brain, he knows it’s not a walk in the park to learn languages by yourself. Being committed and determined to stick with not only one language but three, has shown Charlie that mastering a skill takes patience. He hopes to one day be fluent in all three and travel to put his knowledge to use.