Poverty-stricken boy, 9, can speak twelve languages

Meet the nine-year-old boy genius who can speak a staggering twelve languages.

The poverty-stricken youngster has learned the incredible linguistic skills by selling souvenirs to tourists at the Angkor Wat temple in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

He can speak fluently in his native Khmer, plus English, Thai, Mandarin and French. The enterprising youngster also has conversational skills in Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, German, Filipino and Malaysian.

The boy was filmed speaking with a Malaysian tourist at the iconic religious site which sees more than two million visitors from around the world every year.

He begins in Mandarin, listing his languages as ''Cantonese, Chinese, English, Thai, Japanese, Korean, French, Spanish....''.

The brain-box then reveals his sales patter in French, Cantonese, Chinese and Japanese, before having a conversation in fluent Thai.

Asked how he has learned so many languages, he says: ''I've learned from tourists''. He has developed the skills in order to scrape together a living.

The boy and his seven-year-old sister spend their days at the temple selling gifts including handmade wallets, magnets and bracelets for between one dollar and two dollars, the local currency. He even offers to sing songs in the holidaymaker's native tongue if they buy his wares.

The uplifting footage was taken by traveller Venus G from Malaysia who said she was ''amazed''.