Draft:Lindie Botes
polyglot, educator, language coach
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Lindie Botes is a South African polyglot, product designer, language coach, and educator. She is known for her language learning content on YouTube, where she documents her methods for learning and maintaining multiple languages. Botes is a co-founder of Wikitongues, a non-profit organization that aims to document and promote languages worldwide. She speaks more than 12 languages at various levels of proficiency.[1]
| Submission declined on 5 June 2025 by SafariScribe (talk). This draft's references do not show that the person meets Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion for people. The draft requires multiple published secondary sources that:
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| Submission declined on 6 May 2025 by MarcGarver (talk). This draft's references do not show that the person meets Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion for people. The draft requires multiple published secondary sources that:
Declined by MarcGarver 10 months ago.
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| Submission declined on 5 May 2025 by HitroMilanese (talk). This draft is not adequately supported by reliable sources. Wikipedia's verifiability policy requires that all content be supported by reliable sources.
This draft's references do not show that the person meets Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion for people. The draft requires multiple published secondary sources that:
Declined by HitroMilanese 10 months ago.
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Comment: I've made this easier for you by removing the various "references" you added that are not suitable and I have replaced them with tags for a citation needed. For example, LinkedIn, SoundCloud, blogs, YouTube, a CV upload site, are all self published and are not usable as a reference. Anyone can write anything on their LinkedIn profile so it isn't acceptable as a source. MarcGarver (talk) 15:07, 6 May 2025 (UTC)
- Comment: Additional references from independent and reliable sources are essential to demonstrate notability. Currently, the draft is sourced to mostly unreliable sources such as Soundcloud, YouTube, LinkedIn etc. Hitro talk 10:57, 5 May 2025 (UTC)
Lindie Botes | |
|---|---|
| Born | Pretoria, South Africa |
| Occupations | Product Designer, Language Coach, Educator |
| Known for | Language learning content, Co-founder of Wikitongues |
| Website | https://lindiebotes.com |
Early life and education
Botes was born in Pretoria, South Africa. She grew up as a "third culture kid," living in multiple countries including Pakistan, France, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan due to her father's career in foreign affairs.[2][3][4][5] Her father worked in the South African parliament and had interactions with Nelson Mandela.[citation needed]
She attended the University of Pretoria, where she studied information design and communications.[citation needed] During her university years, she spent significant time in Tokyo, Japan, where her parents were living, and completed internships there.
Career
Design and Education
Botes began her design career in Japan, working on packaging design for various clients including the manga One Piece. She later transitioned to product design while working in Singapore.
As of 2025, Botes is a co-founder and Design Lead at Lingolette[6], a position she has held since December 2024. She also serves as a Postgraduate Interaction Design Lecturer at Vega School and teaches at the University of Pretoria, where she lectures on Corporate Identity and UI/UX design modules.[7]
Language Content Creation
Botes maintains a YouTube channel focused on language learning where she shares her methods, reviews language learning apps, documents her language progress, and posts travel vlogs using various languages.[8] She started her YouTube channel in September 2013. As of April 2025, her channel has over 345,000 subscribers.[9]
She has also created language learning resources, including ebooks on language habits and writing in new languages, and offers language coaching services through her website.[10]
Wikitongues
In 2014, Botes co-founded Wikitongues with Frederico Andrade and Daniel Bögre Udell. Wikitongues is a non-profit organization that aims to document and promote all languages worldwide. The organization records videos of people speaking their native languages and has documented over 350 languages as of 2018. Botes is currently still a design volunteer at Wikitongues.[11]
Personal life
Botes has described herself as having been extremely shy as a child with few friends.[1] She has spoken openly about her struggles with depression and anxiety. In her content, she identifies as a Christian.
In 2022, Botes shared that her mother had passed away from cancer [12], which prompted her return to South Africa from Singapore.
Languages
Botes speaks multiple languages at various levels of proficiency. Her native languages are Afrikaans and English. [1] According to various sources and evaluations, she also speaks: Korean, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Indonesian, Malay, French, Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Arabic, Hungarian, Turkish, Thai. [13]
In a 2025 evaluation of her language abilities by the YouTube channel "Evildea," Botes was assessed as having five non-native languages at B1 level or higher, which by some definitions would classify her as a hyperpolyglot.
Botes has described her experience with languages as living a "truly multi-lingual life," noting that she prays in Afrikaans, counts in English, expresses frustration in Korean, and sometimes dreams in French or Spanish.[1]
Popularity in Korea and a viral hospital incident
Lindie Botes has gained notable popularity in South Korea, particularly among Korean language learners and the general public, due to her impressive command of the Korean language and her engaging online presence.[14] Her fame in Korea was amplified after a humorous and widely shared incident in which she woke up from anesthesia in a South African hospital and began speaking fluent Korean, despite never having lived in Korea. The video of this event, uploaded to her YouTube channel, went viral and was widely covered by Korean media, surprising many viewers with her fluency and sparking discussions about language learning and the effects of multilingualism.[15][16][17]
Botes has also been featured in Korean-language interviews and podcasts, where she discusses her language journey and experiences with Korean culture.[14][18][19] In these interviews, she is praised for her natural accent and deep understanding of Korean, further solidifying her reputation among Korean audiences.
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