Story By: Ana Marjanovic, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Newsflash
An 83-year-old doctor who had a baby with his 35-year-old wife has told how they have hired a private Chinese language tutor for their nine-month-old son.
Nutrition expert Alberto Cormillot said he and his wife Estefania Pasquini began planning for the child’s future as soon as they knew the baby was on the way.
Dr Cormillot – who lives in Argentina – said that he wanted his son to learn Chinese because it was the “language of the future”.
Nutritionist Estefania became pregnant with the tot after fertility treatment.
Although he was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2012 he says all traces of the tumor were removed by surgery.
And despite his age, he says he is actively involved in raising his new son.
He already has two adult sons, Renee and Adrian, and three granddaughters. His first wife Monika Arborgast died in 2017.
As well as learning Chinese, he is also teaching the new baby to play the organ and posted a video of himself with the youngster at the keyboard.
He added that he was constantly thinking how he can best prepare his son for the future while he was still around.
He said: “I’m aware that life is not infinite. That little guy’s here and I’m going to accompany him until a certain moment.
“Until that happens I plan to enjoy every day to the fullest and make plans that are more short-term, which means I enjoy every day as fully as I can.
“I’m encouraging him to crawl for example.”
He said that he liked to teach the boy songs from when he was a child, as always planning how to make the most of their time together.
He added that he wanted to enjoy the time together and leave his son with memories when he himself was no longer physically able to accompany him.
And he constantly leaves messages for his son to discover in the future.
He said: “I record audio is all the time in the Senate or WhatsApp that he has.
“That means that although he still really a baby has a phone number with WhatsApp in which I record audio and send him videos. I don’t over-dramatise things, I just record the reality of life.”
Speaking about the boy’s Chinese teacher, he said: “Emilio has a person who twice a week talks to him, sings to him and plays for him in Chinese.
“As it is the language of the future, I want him to get used to hearing it as a child and he will find it easier to learn it better when he grows up.”
He said the female tutor comes to the house and speaks Chinese so he gets used to the sound of the language.
He added: “I don’t know if he will speak in Chinese in the future, but at least that’s how we can incorporate it.”
Dr Cormillot has written more than a hundred scientific papers presented at international conferences and journals and written more than 50 books mostly on health education
