A 10-YEAR-OLD schoolgirl who is fluent in FOUR languages has become the youngest interpreter to work at the European Parliament – and she is BLIND.
Alexia Sloane lost her sight at the age of two after she was diagnosed with a brain tumour while on holiday in France.
But despite her disability the little girl has excelled at languages and at the age of 10 she is already fluent in English, French, Spanish and Mandarin – and learning German.
Now she has fulfilled her dream of working as an interpreter after East of England MEP Robert Sturdy invited her to spend a day at the European Parliament in Brussels.
“There is usually a minimum age requirement of 14 just to enter the European Parliament so for Alexia to interpret there at the age of 10 was amazing,” said mum Isabelle.
“She was given special dispensation to get into the parliament building and sat in a booth and spent the day listening and interpreting.
“The other interpreters were amazed at how well she did as the debate was quite complicated and many of the words were rather technical.”
Alexia has been tri-lingual since birth as her mum is half French and half Spanish and her dad Richard is English. She started talking and communicating in all three languages at a young age but when she was just two tragedy struck when she was suddenly diagnosed with a brain tumour. She was given chemotherapy but lost her sight almost immediately.
Amazingly Alexia quickly adapted to her blindness and by the young age of four she was reading and writing in Braille. Two years later when she was just six she asked her parents if she could learn another language to add to her portfolio and incredibly she chose Chinese.
“She has always been very good at languages and shown an interest from a very young age,” added Isabelle, who also has a four-year-old daughter Melissa.
“She takes everything in her stride and even with the brain tumour she has never let anything stop her.
“When she was six she suddenly said she wanted to learn a very different language and her grandfather suggested Chinese so she decided to try it.”
Alexia, from Cambridge, started having lessons once a week and after four years she will soon be sitting a GCSE in Mandarin. She already achieved an A* in GCSE French and Spanish last year when she was just nine.
“As Alexia started Mandarin at such a young age she has picked it up really well and her teacher is amazed by how she sounds,” said Isabelle, a French teacher.
“She is hoping to do her oral A-level exams in French and Spanish this year so she is doing incredibly well.”
Alexia, who had to have another round of chemotherapy when she was eight as the tumour started to grow, is now also learning German at school. She has dreamed of becoming an interpreter since she was six and chose to go to the European Parliament as her prize when she won the Young Achiever Community Award of the Year, which was sponsored by Homerton College in Cambridge. She asked if she could spend a day shadowing interpreters and MEP Robert Sturdy agreed to take her along as his guest. Alexia, who is at Fawcett Primary School in Trumpington, Cambridge, worked with the head of interpreting and had a real taste of life in the parliament building.
“It was fantastic and I’m absolutely determined now to become an interpreter,” said Alexia. “Nothing can stop me.”
MEP Robert Sturdy added: “To go into a booth in a full environment committee meeting and start interpreting at the age of 10 is fantastic.”
