Warning: This story may make you feel like an under-achiever!

Image source: Cambridge News
Alexia Sloane, a blind ten-year-old has become the youngest ever interpreter for the EU Parliament. She was invited to Brussels by a local politician after winning the ‘Young Achiever of the Year’ award. Normally, nobody under the age of 14 is even allowed into the building, but Alexia was given special dispensation. She spent the day shadowing interpreters, listening and interpreting, and worked with the head of interpreting for the EU Parliament.

Alexia has been trilingual since birth, and has learned Mandarin and German since. She even gained A* grades in French and Spanish GCSEs last year, years ahead of her classmates. Having lost her sight at the age of two, she also reads and writes in Braille. Alexia said that her experience was fantastic, and that she is “absolutely determined now to become an interpreter”.

I think it would be very hard not to be impressed with this gifted young girl, and we wish her all the best in her future career as an interpreter!