A 16-year-old Queens native is making international headlines for her multi talents in both language and music.
Mabou Loiseau was considered a prodigy long before becoming a teenager after she was discovered for speaking eight languages fluently: English, Kreyol, Spanish, French, Russian, Arabic, Mandarin and American Sign Language.
According a report in BlackHistory.com, Mabou was two when she caught her mother’s attention while attempting to speak French. She had not been exposed to the language on a daily basis so she did some research and found that she had the rare ability to master several languages.
It was then that her parents spent $1,500 a week to have tutors train her daughter on lessons. She would spend seven hours a day learning languages until she became fluent in one language at a time.
While training, her mother advised tutors to help her by speaking in their native language for half of the lesson. The other half of her day was made up of reading, writing and learning new vocabulary. Of all the languages she learned to speak, the teenage prodigy says Russian was her favorite language to learn. So her mother decided that when her daughter misbehaved, she would threaten to take away her Russian lessons.
“Russian is my most favorite,” Mabou said in an interview when she was just 5. “I just hear something, and if I do not understand I say, ‘What does that mean?’ and they will tell me.”
Her mother says her friends and neighbors were stunned that she had her daughter take lessons so early. In their minds, they thought they should just let her be a kid. But it was later discovered that in addition to her ability to learn multiple languages, she could play several instruments. As it stands, Mabou can play the piano, the violin, the clarinet, the flute, the drums, the guitar and the harp.
In addition to the remarkable feat, Mabou also teaches piano lessons while studying college-level algebra. Aside from language and music, she enjoys dancing, painting, and singing and owns a dance studio where she is currently learning how to tap dance and ballet.
Her mother says their kitchen space has reduced in size to make room for a drum set. But when it’s all said and done, Mabou plans to become either a brain surgeon, lawyer or singer.
