MoneyTap CEO can speak 9 languages, says it strengthens relationships

Picking up a second or third language comes naturally to most Indians. But Bala Parthasarathy decided to take it a step further. The MoneyTap CEO can speak nine languages. “Connecting with people in their language really strengthens relationships,” he explained. “Plus, you get serious brownie points for trying.”

Parthasarathy is fluent in Tamil, Kannada, Spanish and Italian and can converse in Hindi, Telugu, Portuguese, French and German. Of the lot, he found French was the toughest. “It was a total mystery, because I had learned it using basic tapes and a university class. But nobody in France could understand me. Even now, it takes a few days in France to get the language back, and until then, it is complete blank stares.”

“It’s a very difficult language to speak or understand, because how you read it is not how you pronounce it,” he explains further. “Mandarin is even more embarrassing, and I’ve given up on it — if you don’t use the exact tone, you will say terrible things.”


Next on Parthasarathy’s list: Russian. “I’d like to travel to the Caucasus, and it’s necessary to speak Russian there.”