Kató Lomb

Kató Lomb (8 February 19099 June 2003) was a Hungarian interpreter, translator and one of the first simultaneous interpreters in the world. Originally educated in chemistry and physics, her interest soon led her to languages. Native in Hungarian, she could interpret fluently in nine or ten languages (in four, without preparation), translated technical literature, and read belles-lettres in six languages. She understood journalism in a further 11 languages. She stated that she worked professionally with 16 languages (Bulgarian, Chinese, Danish, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish and Ukrainian), which she learnt from self-study due to her interest in them.

According to her own account, her life was highlighted not primarily by her use of languages, but by her study of them. This was described in her books, conversations and interviews. As an interpreter, she visited 40 countries on five continents, and documented her experiences in her book (''Egy tolmács a világ körül'', "An Interpreter Around the World" ). Provided by Wikipedia