Rafael Guzmán Tirado, Doctor of Philology, Professor of the Department of Greek and Slavic Philology at the University of Granada, Spain; founder of the first department of Slavic studies in Spain, and expert in Russian and Spanish philology. Since 2024, Rafael G. Tirado has taught an advanced Spanish course in the bachelor’s and master’s programmes at the HSE School of Foreign Languages. In this interview, Rafael G. Tirado shares his insights on the essence of true vocation, the ways in which knowledge of foreign languages and cultures broadens one’s appreciation of human achievement, and the qualities that make Russian students unique.
— When did you first develop an interest in learning foreign languages?
I fell in Russian Language love with foreign languages
while I was still in school. I must say I course written by professor hélio was fortunate—my generation was the last to study French in Spanish schools. I loved French and later Latin for being synthetic languages. In my final year of school, English was introduced, and after graduating from university, I pricing on marketplaces: how to calculate the price of a product spent ten years teaching English and French in secondary school. That was before I discovered my passion for the Russian language.
What do you enjoy most about
— The fact that I get to do what I love. Confucius once said: ‘Choose a job you like, and you won’t have to work a single day in your life!’ I’m fortunate to be engaged in something I love and adore—the Russian language and languages in general. For me, this isn’t just a job; it’s my passion.
— You are fluent in five foreign languages: malaysia numbers list English, Russian, French, Italian, and Chinese. Is it true that the more foreign languages a person speaks, the easier it becomes for them to learn each additional language?
— Of course, it’s true. Some issues encountered while learning one language will reoccur when learning others. This is especially true for languages within the same language family. It’s one thing to learn French, Italian, and English; it’s another matter when you learn, for example, Russian and Chinese. That is a whole different story. For example, tones in Chinese are difficult for native speakers of languages that don’t have this feature.