Proven: 75% of people find you attractive if you can do this

May is sitting next to me and suddenly I don't know what I'm hearing. She has her phone casually against her ear. ‘Bonjour, je veux réserver une table pour six personnes, mais oui, dimanche prochain...’, followed by a lot of abracadabra.

Excusez-moi. That's French. All of this. May speaks it fluently.. She spells her name effortlessly, explains her phone number letter by letter including the country code, and kindly thanks the person on the other line for their time. And yes, see you next Sunday then. When she hangs up, I have understood about four words. and I just understand that the table for six is only available at eight o'clock and not at half past seven. Lilian jokingly screams that she heard May say ‘Isabel Marant’. But she didn't say that, of course, she was just explaining that she comes from ‘Hollande’. ‘Hollande’. ‘Marant...’. So much for our French knowledge.

It has something magical about switching gears and chatting in another language. As easy as it seems, it's so difficult to do. Of course, asking in English if someone knows where there is a toilet or where the nearest supermarket is, that's a piece of cake. But French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese... Goodness.

Now research shows that as many as 75% of people find someone attractive if they speak a foreign language. No, stronger still, at least 95% of people would rather go on a date with someone who speaks another language besides Dutch than with someone with a six-pack under their shirt. So we massively choose brains over beauty (oh, look, just a bit of bilingualism in this sentence) and that makes sense in a way. Because if we want to reproduce, we do want some good genes. And those who speak more languages automatically seem smart to us. So wave goodbye to your gym.

Back to the order of the day. What are the most attractive languages, according to researchers? Book that refresher course in French, Spanish, or Italian, and you'll be set in your love life, because most singles find these the sexiest languages to hear. Oh yes, after May made the reservation, she casually mentioned that she also speaks Italian fluently. I don't know, but I'm already frantically googling for lessons in Southern European languages. Adieu. Arrivederci. Adiós.

FACTS

• English is the most spoken language: at least 1.5 billion people can talk a bit in this language.
• In the European Union, about 23 million people speak Dutch as their first language.
• Hi language enthusiast: you are called a hyperpolyglot if you can speak six or more languages fluently.