Photo: video screengrab

Bella Devyatkina’s language skills were put to the test on the Russian television talent show ‘Incredible People’, where she had to answer questions in English, French, Spanish, German, Chinese and Arabic. She passed the test with flying colors, proving that she either can really understand all these foreign languages, or she has the best memory of any four-year-old, allowing her to memorize all the answers.

Yulia Devyatkina claims that Bella now spends about six hours every day studying foreign languages, from 10 in the morning to 1 p.m. and again from 5 p.m. to 8 in the evening. Upon hearing this, many people have accused her parents of stripping her of her childhood, but they insist that the classes are all structured as fun games that she genuinely enjoys. As far as Bella is concerned, she is playing, not studying.

Photo: video screengrab

But while most of the world has been shocked by the young girls ability to speak six foreign languages, Russian neuropsychologist Anna Semenovich reminds us that in 19th century Russia, speaking several foreign languages was common for children of royal families.

“In pre-revolutionary Russia, if a child from a noble family couldn’t speak three-four languages by the age of five or six, it was a shame to take him out. Then in school Latin and ancient Greek were added to those. So five-six languages were a standard package for an educated youth back in 19th-century Russia,” Semenovich told Komsomolskaya Pravda.

The neuropsychologist says that we can only say that Bella Devyatkina has some truly special abilities in 15-20 years. She gave musical prodigies as an example. Some children possess remarkable hearing and singing ability, but they lose them as they grow older. Either their voices change, or they simply lose interest in music. Semenovich claims that a lot of work is required for these kids to reach their full potential, as well as favorable conditions, like talented teachers, a creative environment and an atmosphere of love and support. “I want to wish this girl good luck, but the public needs to understand that the path to true genius is a thorny one. That’s why most prodigies don’t reach their full potential,” she concluded. Still, many argue that the fact that Bella has managed to become fluent in languages belonging to three different groups: Indo-European (Russian, French, English, Spanish, German), Semitic (Arabic) and Sino-Tibetan (Chinese), which means they are very different and lack structural similarities, is simply mind-blowing