Today's Article

Yuji Beleza, TikTok: I interview people from all over the world, speaking their language and putting smiles on their faces. 

CNN Narrator: This is Yuji Beleza, and he calls himself a wannabe 1polyglot, a.k.a. a language 2enthusiast, someone who speaks and understands 3multiple languages 4fluently. 

He says he can speak in around 30 languages 5conversationally, and he's only 27 years old. 

Yuji Beleza: I speak fluently in English, Japanese, Russian, German and also Turkish. 

"Excuse me, if I speak your language, I'll give you a 6Kazakh chocolate." 

- Do you know him? 

-Yes, he's on TikTok. 

Yuji Beleza: I have right now nearly 4 million followers on TikTok and nearly 3 million followers on Instagram. 

- Say your language. 

- Show us, show us.

CNN Narrator: Yuji grew up in a 7bilingual community in Japan with his Irish mother and Japanese father, but says he never felt completely accepted as a Japanese person. In high school, he went to Ireland for a year and says he felt like an 8immigrant there too. 

Yuji Beleza: I had made more friends with actually the 9Polish and 10Lithuanian community. That's one of the reasons I became friends with them. And basically they were speaking Russian. That was the moment that kind of like sparked my interest in languages. 

CNN Narrator: In college in Japan, he started studying Russian. Next, he got a master's in Vienna, where he felt more comfortable with Turkish immigrants. 

Yuji Beleza: Then I also realized that I need to learn Turkish to become more friends with them. I want to really learn this language to understand the people and communicate with the people. So that made it easier. 

CNN Narrator: It was one of those Turkish friends who 11encouraged him to start making videos. 

Now he speaks 12dozens of languages and interviews people from all over the world speaking their 13native tongue. 

Yuji Beleza: I really enjoy talking to the older generation because they're really wise and they have knowledge, like super, super interesting stories to tell. 

CNN Narrator: Yuji says he thinks that anyone who wants to learn a language should try to step out of the classroom, 14forget the nerves, and just use it. Another secret to languages one is 15a doorway to the next. 

Yuji Beleza: Hungarian language is similar to 16Finnish grammatically and also Hungarian is very similar to the 17Turkic group, which is Turkish language. And also Turkish language is very similar to Japanese language. So every language is kind of connected 18in a way.