Nine-year-old genius Ben Keeling is becoming a man of the world

by mastering the basics of three foreign languages in a matter of months.

He already has the hang of dozens of words and phrases in Portuguese and Japanese.

Ben has reached the nationwide final of a contest aimed at encouraging children to study modern languages.

But to win the final Ben faces faces a tough test of his grasp of the obscure Malawi language of Chichewa.

Ben, who attends 200-pupil St Aubyns School, Rottingdean, joined 2,500 primary schoolchildren in the EuroTalk Junior Language Challenge.

In the latest test at Hurstpierpoint College on Wednesday, he scored 221 marks out of 250 to shortlist him for the national finals at Olympia in London on November 4.

Year 5 pupil Ben, who lives in Hove, said: "Learning Portugese and Japanese was hard but learning Chichewa is going to be even harder.

"I'm looking forward to just going to London but if I win I get to go to Malawi.

"I don't really know how I manage to remember all the words, I just do."

Ben's love of a challenge also stretches to playing football, chess and rugby and he is a member of Brighton Rugby Club.

He admitted yesterday that he has yet to learn a single Chichewa phrase but aims to do plenty of cramming in time for the final.

English is widely spoken in the landlocked south-eastern African country but most people have spoken Chichewa since 1968.

Ben's mother, Lisa, 39, said: "He just likes to take part in challenges.

"He's into sudoku and chess and seems to like a lot of mind sports.

"The way the challenge works is they are given headphones to wear and images flash up on the screen and they have to match it with the corresponding word.

"All the tests are slightly different but Ben seems to enjoy doing them.

"He seems to be able to remember lots of things.

"I must remember he's good at remembering when I next forget my shopping list.

"He's not sure what he wants to be when he grows up.

"At the moment he is more interested in getting a 10p packet of Haribo sweets than anything else, like any other nine-year-old boy."