Kato Lomb - the first simultaneous interpreter

Kato Lomb deserves the title of a high-class simultaneous interpreter, one of the first professionals in this field.

The woman was born on February 8, 1909 in Hungary, the city of Pec. She was educated as a chemist and physicist, but at a young age became very interested in learning languages. Another reason for this was the financial need — she wanted to start earning, for which she decided to study English. Kato herself said: "In 1933, the first novel in English that I decided to read was Galsworthy's book. After a couple of weeks, I began to understand what was written in the book, and after a few months, I was able to fully understand the meaning”

In one of her books, she says that she learned the Russian language in secret during the Second World War. The first step in the study was reading the book "Dead Souls". After the Soviet Union reached the territory of Hungary, Kato Lomb became the main translator, working with the very top of the government. Her career developed rapidly and after a short period of time, she began working in the Foreign Ministry. This was the impetus for the comprehension of languages, because now her life was connected with various trips to foreign countries in order to provide simultaneous translation services.

Craving for foreign languages

Kato has gained great popularity due to its unique ability to easily learn foreign languages. Among them: German, French, English and Russian, which she knew perfectly. She spoke conversational Polish, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, and Italian. I read Ukrainian, Romanian, Danish, Slovak, Bulgarian, and Latin.

It is especially valuable that Kato Lomb studied languages independently, by reading various literary works and textbooks. Even after reaching the age of 90, Kato Lomb did not stop being interested in learning foreign languages and decided to study Hebrew, and after that she wanted to learn Arabic. In her biography, there is an interesting fact — when at the age of 86 she met a 54-year-old man, she said, " Steve, you have such a great age, because you can have time to learn many more foreign languages."

After Kato learned several languages, she felt drawn not only to her own constant learning, but also to the transfer of her knowledge to others, and began to give lessons.

Master`s degree student I course Botakoz Yergaliyeva; Scientific adviser, professor Danat Zhanatayev,  Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty