Organizers

Richard Simcott — Founder & Lead Organizer

Richard Simcott is a British polyglot, who has studied over 50 languages. HarperCollins described him as one of the most multilingual people in the United Kingdom, and the Goethe Institute gave him the title Ambassador for Multilingualism.

He has many years of consulting experience using languages with diverse clients and offering his expertise on multilingual and multinational projects.

He is the original founder of the Polyglot Conference and The Language Event and manages a popular Facebook page called Speaking Fluently.

Anja Spilker — Co-Organizer (Global 2022 & Cholula 2022)

Anja Spilker (Anja from Alemania) is a German born polyglot and travelling entrepreneur. She is the
founder and CEO of ZALOA Languages and has lived in Mexico for over 7 years. Her passion for
Mexican languages and working with indigenous cultures inspired her to invite the Polyglot
Conference to Cholula. After having co-organized two successful online conferences, she is now
excited to host a real-life conference and to meet everyone in person.
As an experienced startup founder, she advises startups on their business models, helping founders
make a positive impact on the world.
Her goal for the Polyglot conference 2022 in Cholula: Making an impact by celebrating and
promoting the indigenous languages of Mexico and integrating more Latin Americans into the
polyglot community.

Nayeli Mulato — Zaloa Languages

Nayeli Mulato is a Spanish teacher, lawyer, and the COO of ZALOA Languages, but most importantly a  proud Mexican woman with a driving passion to make people fall in love with her beloved country: Mexico.  By sharing her native language, culture, and traditions, she has helped hundreds of people to learn and improve their Spanish both in Mexico and abroad.

 

Being a curious person always looking to learn new things and to get to know other people and different cultures, she has studied several languages. She is currently learning Nahuatl, an indigenous language from Mexico which has a very special place in her heart. The connection with indigenous languages allows Nayeli to promote an inclusive and conscious Mexican Spanish, making her teaching method very unique. Nayeli is in charge of the Spanish immersion week in Cholula from October 24 – 27 and is looking forward to welcoming everyone interested in improving their Spanish. 



Osvaldo-Alexis Zúñiga-Elizalde — Zaloa Languages

Osvaldo-Alexis Zúñiga-Elizalde (Os)  is a Mexican teacher for languages, culture and art. He has learned Nahuatl since he was a child and keeps using this knowledge to enrich the world by sharing his knowledge with others. Os is the Nahuatl teacher at ZALOA Languages and has been teaching the language to hundreds of Mexicans and foreigners from all over the world. 

 

The Nahuatl expert has been translating State and Federal documents from Spanish to Nahuatl and has worked in several positions that required knowing Nahuatl.

In his artwork, he is famous for integrating scripts and writings from the Mexias and Mayans in his paintings which you can find at his art gallery in Cholula.

Together with ZALOA, he created the donation-based videocourse GO!Nahuatl and is your teacher at the Nahuatl immersion week from October 24 – 27 in Cholula.



Avishta Seeras — The Lingua-Cultura Experience — Event Producer

Avishta Seeras is a neurolanguage educator, translator and polyglot.
She is the founder and producer of Connection: A Lingua-Cultura Experience, the first free and non-funded world languages and cultures conference that took place on Clubhouse in June 2021. This multilingual event was focused on language, culture and identity, and it is part of her vision to build a multilingual and multicultural future.
She is also the co-organiser of Camp Languages: A Place to Experience World Languages and Cultures which was part of the 2021 Virtual Burning Man event.
Her mission is to use the Lingua-Cultura Experience platforms to promote multilingualism and intercultural understanding and to advocate for the preservation of languages and cultures. She has built online communities of language and cultural educators, learners, and activists where she engages the members in conversations about language, culture and identity in multiple languages.
Avishta has a B.A. (Hons.) in Modern Languages & Cultural Studies, a B.Sc. in Human Ecology, and has also earned several certifications. She aspires to become a policy-maker to implement change in education and immigration policies to make quality language education more accessible to learners worldwide.

Alexander Arguelles — Academic Liaison

Alexander Arguelles was reared and has roots in New York City, Chicago, and Berkeley, California. He studied French and German literature as an undergraduate at Columbia and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago with a dissertation on Old Norse literature and the comparative history of religions. He then did postdoctoral research in Germany on a fellowship from the Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies.

Alexander has worked as a language specialist for the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization in Singapore and as professor at universities in Korea, Lebanon, and the U.S. He is currently a professor in the college of education at the American University in the Emirates in Dubai.

Alexander is the author of an English French Spanish German Dictionary and of numerous publications in Korean linguistics such as A Historical, Literary, and Cultural Approach to the Korean Language, A Handbook of Korean Verbal Conjugation, and a North Korean Reader. Having devoted his life to studying as many languages as possible as systematically as possible, he has been the subject of investigative studies into polyglottery such as Michael Erard’s Babel No More.

Miguel Ariza — Forum Moderator & Community Animator

Miguel is a language enthusiast on Mexican parents from New York City who now lives in Brazil. A late self “learner from 23, he has tried to study numerous languages, and found an interest in Slavic languages, but as a tutor, he enjoys helping others with Spanish and English, as well as in other things that others in the community may need.

Tetsu Yung — LangFest Co-Organizer

Tetsu Yung is the polyglot father of 4 multilingual kids, and runs a YouTube channel called Multilingual Kids – AskTetsu based on his experience raising his 4 kids in 5 languages (English, French, Japanese, Mandarin, and Spanish). On the side, he also organizes LangFest.

Emily Martyn — uTalk Languages Manager

Emily Martyn is uTalk’s Languages Manager and in-house language specialist. Fascinated by the Hispanic world, Emily has lived in both Spain and Latin America and has a keen interest in indigenous languages from there. Emily is also passionate about promoting the many social, cultural and psychological benefits of language learning and intercultural communication.