#which makes their swedish a lot more difficult to understand for native speakers than they might think

[erasedcitizen2]

saw a thread on reddit that was like "I'm an american how much swedish do I need to learn to visit Sweden?"

lol

lmao

good luck trying to get swedish people to speak swedish with you if you know english. unless you're proficient enough in swedish to hold a solid conversation you're getting english from us.

[uc1wa]

Ok, so, it's the middle of the night and I have some thoughts about the beauty of accents that I need to share, this is probably be ranty and unnecessarily long so bear with me (or don't it's your blog, right!)

I'm Canadian but i listen to this band from Japan and I have for 17ish years, the lead singer sometimes sings in English and I love his accent. Most of the time he sings clearly and I can understand what he is saying even if he pronounced something incorrectly and sometimes I can't because it's a metal band and I probably wouldn't fully understand without reading the lyrics even if he didn't have an accent.

So, while listening to them tonight it got me thinking about accents, like jjk happens in Japan so obviously they would speak Japanese, I watch in English because I don't know Japanese, but I was wondering what Geto, gojo, and the rest of them actually speaking English would sound like. Obviously they wouldn't sound like the English VAs.

Accents tell you so much about a person that most people don't even realize. More than just where they are from. Accents come from languages having different sounds and different cadence in speaking. For example, there is no "L" or "th" sound in most Asian languages. So those are difficult sounds to make when learning english. Like, the singer in the band I listen to sings a line in English "gasp for breath" but it sounds like "gasp for bress." If you pay attention to where your tongue is in your mouth when you make a "th" sound compared to a "ss" sound it's not very different but if you didn't grow up moving your tongue that way or haven't specifically been told where to put your tongue you're not going to make the sound like a native speaker. Same with the "L" sound coming out as an "R" sound, very minor differences in tongue position. And to be fair even if you know where to put your tongue and have a minimal accent, if you speak too quickly you'll naturally go back to moving your tongue the way your muscles are used to and your accent will come back. On the flip side Swedish uses almost the exact same set of sounds as English so while learning either language is still a difficult task, pronunciation isn't and when most Swedish people speak English they have very minor accents. (I'm one of your hockey anons and my team has had a LOT of Swedish players over the years so I looked into why they didn't sound like Swedish people you see in movies, it's because Swedish people don't actually talk like that at all 😂) So the language(s) you grew up speaking affect the way your muscles move.

Language also affects the way you perceive the world. For example, the Inuit have between 40 and 70 words for snow! Imagine knowing the difference between that many types of snow! Like I said, I'm Canadian and I can only think of snow with adjectives in front of it (packy snow, frozen snow, fluffy snow) but it's still all the word snow. But it goes deeper than that. There is a stereotype that Asian people are amazing at math so "they," I don't remember who at the moment, ( the moment being 1:38 am) did I study on it, and they found that students in Eastern Asia consistently could remember more numbers when given a list of numbers than north American students could. But Asian students in North America were a mixed bag. They realized the Asian students in North America whose numbers were comparable to the east Asian scores weren't native English speakers, their first language was an East Asian language. Whereas the Asian students whose first language was English had numbers comparable to the rest of the English speakers. Most east Asian languages have a very simple way of counting, like Japanese, from my minimal understanding, the number 84 would be spoken as eight ten four, whereas in English each set of ten has it's own name which causes a longer processing time in your mind. (84 in french is 4 20 4, you have to do math just to count! I assume that would make french speakers even slower at math than English speakers, insert that video of the new York cabby going off about french numbers) also the individual numbers tend to be a single short syllable and that also quickens processing time. This allows east Asian native speakers to remember more numbers than native English speakers. Being Asian doesn't make you better at math, being a native Asian language speaker does. It's not race, it's language.

If you think about it the laws of the universe are defined by physics, and what is physics but math in motion. So, your language literally affects the wiring in your brain and your perception of the world around you.

You can hear the way a brain is wired from the way someone's tongue moves, how cool is that? AND, it can change depending on where you grew up, even with the same language! I tongue from Scotland will move differently than a tongue in Oklahoma! And you can hear it and I love it! I love accents so much. 😩😩😩

Back to jjk, would Geto put in the effort to minimize his accent? I don't think so, honestly I don't think cult leader Geto would even attempt learning English since Jujutsu is mostly in Japan, why would he want to talk to monkeys? (Also, Naoya? Not learning English either, too proud of his family line and honestly not willing to be bad at something, like everyone is at the beginning) Gojo on the other hand, I think he would learn English (to annoy more people) and know lots of words but not necessarily speak clearly, he's the best at everything right? Why wouldn't he be the best at English? So he puts no effort into minimizing his accent, doesn't think he needs to, spoiler he does, haha. I think Yuuji might learn for fun or to understand Jennifer Lawrence interviews, I think he'd have a decent accent but speak clearly.

Anyways, do you have thoughts on this? This being accents in jjk (or any anime) Or am I deliriously tired and not making sense.

finally answering this now that i can give this the attention it deserves. beforehand note, this is such a coincidence bc i took an anthropological linguistic class last sem! also HELLO ONE OF MY HOCKEY ANONS!! MISSED U!

in terms of jjk! most (besides kyoto ppl) are from northern jp, miyagi i think!! i'm from the osaka-hyogo area so there is definitely a different dialect in comparison to miyagi! i do speak more similar to that of kyoto ofc since it is closer. but, just like any city, there are sayings that are foreign in one and the ssame in another.

Most east Asian languages have a very simple way of counting, like Japanese, from my minimal understanding, the number 84 would be spoken as eight ten four, whereas in English each set of ten has it's own name which causes a longer processing time in your mind.

this part was crazy^^ to me. honestly, as somebody who speaks japanese, i never thought of this on my own though it makes perfect sense. saying this as a data science major who grew up being trilingual HAHA

gojo... i honestly think he' grow up speaking english. coming from the most notorious clan in all of jujutsu, i feel like it would just come natural to him and his clan to speak both jp and english. yuuji w the jlaw interviews made me LOL btw.

so, something funny ab naoya (specifically naoya cuz he;s fucking crazy ofc) is he speaks the kansai dialect (this is what i speak as well so ab to clown myself in the process. yk how in english there is like a "valley girl" way of speaking? kansai is the jp version of that. so naoya the all and powerful speaks japanese like a socal valley girl would speak english.

anyways, i loved reading this! language and anthropology in general is so interesting to me. its so cool learned about different people and what makes them... them!! another silly to imagine, when i was little i would sometimes accidentally use an accent from one of my languages when speakig another. imagine a 5 year old xi speaking spanish in a japanese accent lol

[russianwave]

As someone that frequents a variety of language learning communities, a common question that I see come up is someone asking if they should learn an ‘easy’ language before going on to the ‘harder’ language that they actually want to study. As someone who has also attempted to study an ‘easy’ language before studying the language I want, and subsequently failing on numerous occasions, I thought I should write on this topic.

The first thing we should do is define what an ‘easy’ language is. Whilst I don’t agree with the idea that there are ‘easy’ languages, typically when people ask this they are referring to languages that the FSI ranks as Category 1 or 2. Languages that fall into these categories are ones like French, German, Dutch, Swedish, and so on [For a more complete list, please check here]. It is also important to note that this categorisation assumes you are a native English speaker.

Typically, when someone refers to a more difficult language they are talking about Japanese and Korean, but languages such as Russian, Polish, Finnish, and some others can fall into this ‘difficult’ language category. I think it’s important to note that I’m not doubting that these languages are difficult to learn and may present more of a challenge to someone learning a lower classified language. Nor is this to undermine the difficulties and struggles of those that are studying an ‘easy’ language.

The point is, that classifying study isn’t straight forward. If five people were to study the same language they wouldn’t all reach fluency at the same time, they wouldn’t find the same things difficult, they wouldn’t even end up with the same vocabulary at the end. Interest also plays a huge role in how people can study a language. If you are genuinely really passionate about developing in a specific language then chances are your tolerance of setbacks is going to be much higher than a language you have no interest in and feel forced to study.

I studied French for years at school, which the FSI would class as one of the easiest languages for native English speakers to learn. Yet, I found it next to impossible. I was constantly failing tests and even now I know just a handful of words. This is because French was compulsory for me at school, and I had to study it despite having no interest in it. I then had to continue studying it long after I became to hate the language as a result of not enjoying learning it in school. 

During my time at high school, and extended periods after, I really did want to learn Russian. So I looked to language learning resources to try and find the way I could do this. One of the pieces of advice I kept coming across was to learn an ‘easy’ language first before I should even attempt to learn Russian. To push Russian to a distant corner of my mind until I learnt something like Dutch to fluency.

The argument was pretty compelling. Essentially, you learn an easy language to train your brain to learn languages. Because it’s an easy language you can quickly develop an understanding of another language’s vocabulary and grammar constructions which act as a stepping stone to going on to harder content. You get to experiment with learning styles and see what works best for you, which means by the time you go on to study your preferred language you already have a structured framework for how to study it. 

Whilst I’m sure for some people they may gain some benefit from this, especially if the languages have a lot of the same grammar and vocabulary, I can’t help but feel this guidance is very misguided. Whilst having a better understanding of grammar certainly can’t go amiss, this very advice set me back for years. What learning methods work for one language certainly isn’t going to work for another language. Languages have different resources available, you’ll have to learn about new grammatical concepts or throw away old ones you hold dear. 

I didn’t want to learn Dutch, or Swedish, or revisit French, and whatever other languages I tried to act as a stepping stone to Russian. I would just become so demotivated and frustrated, which led to me believing that I wasn’t smart enough to learn any language. I saw the problem as lying solely with my intelligence and not the advice I was trying to follow. Interest plays such a huge role in language learning that for me it’s the foundation of language learning as a whole. The number one answer I give to people asking what language they want to study will always be “what language are you interested in?”

The truth is, I would have been in a much better position with Russian if I had just tried to learn Russian from the start. Learning some vocabulary in other languages never helped much when it came to Russian, and it certainly didn’t help me wrap my head around the case system. So my advice to anyone asking themselves a similar question is this, just study the language you actually want to do. In fact, I know much more Russian now than I ever did studying years of French despite the fact I’ve not spent much time with Russian and it’s a much more ‘difficult’ language. I’ve also more importantly had fun with it, I look forward to my study sessions and enjoy working with it.

It might be difficult, but it’ll be so much more rewarding for you. You’ll get to study something you actually care about, and you’ll have a much better way of diving deeper into a culture that interests you. You don’t have to keep forcing yourself through grammar drills or vocabulary memorisation of a language you don’t care about. You’ll make a lot more progress than you think. The time you spend on another language is time you could spend with the language you want to develop fluency in, and in more difficult languages those hours really count. 

You will mess up. At times you’ll feel like your whole mind has wiped clean and you’ve entirely forgotten the language. But there’s so much fun and reward to be had by studying what you care about, rather than what others are telling you to care about to sell you courses.

[thelanguagecommunity]

“what language should I learn?”

���is it better to learn [x] or [x]?”

“is it worth learning [x]?”

I get this type of question a lot and I see questions like these a lot on language learning forums, but it’s very difficult to answer because ultimately language learning is a highly personal decision. Passion is required to motivate your studies, and if you aren’t in love with your language it will be very hard to put in the time you need. Thus, no language is objectively better or worse, it all comes down to factors in your life. So, I’ve put together a guide to assist your with the kind of factors you can consider when choosing a language for study.

First, address you language-learning priorities.

Think of the reasons why are you interested in learning a new language. Try to really articulate what draws you to languages. Keeping these reasons in mind as you begin study will help keep you focused and motivated. Here are some suggestions to help you get started, complete with wikipedia links so you can learn more:

Linguistic curiosity?

For this, I recommend looking into dead, literary or constructed languages. There are lots of cool linguistic experiments and reconstructions going on and active communities that work on them! Here’s a brief list:

Dead languages:

Akkadian

Egyptian (Ancient Egyptian)

Gaulish

Gothic

Hittite

Old Prussian

Sumerian

Older iterations of modern day languages:

Classical Armenian

Classical Nahuatl (language of the Aztec Empire)

Early Modern English (Shakespearean English)

Galician-Portuguese

Middle English (Chaucer English)

Middle Persian/Pahlavi

Old English

Old French

Old Spanish

Old Tagalog (+ Baybayin)

Ottoman Turkish

Constructed:

Anglish (experiment to create a purely Anglo-Saxon English)

Esperanto

Interlingua

Láadan (a “feminist language”)

Lingua Franca Nova

Lingwa de Planeta

Lobjan

Toki Pona (a minimalist language)

Wenedyk (what if the Romans had occupied Poland?)

Cultural interests?

Maybe you just want to connect to another culture. A language is often the portal to a culture and are great for broadening your horizons! The world is full of rich cultures; learning the language helps you navigate a culture and appreciate it more fully.

Here are some popular languages and what they are “famous for”:

Cantonese: film

French: culinary arts, film, literature, music, philosophy, tv programs, a prestige language for a long time so lots of historical media, spoken in many countries (especially in Africa)

German: film, literature, philosophy, tv programs, spoken in several Central European countries

Italian: architecture, art history, catholicism (Vatican city!), culinary arts, design, fashion, film, music, opera

Mandarin: culinary arts, literature, music, poetry, tv programs

Japanese: anime, culinary arts, film, manga, music, video games, the longtime isolation of the country has developed a culture that many find interesting, a comparatively large internet presence

Korean: tv dramas, music, film

Portuguese: film, internet culture, music, poetry

Russian: literature, philosophy, spoken in the Eastern Bloc or former-Soviet countries, internet culture

Spanish: film, literature, music, spoken in many countries in the Americas

Swedish: music, tv, film, sometimes thought of as a “buy one, get two free” deal along with Norwegian & Danish

Religious & liturgical languages:

Avestan (Zoroastrianism)

Biblical Hebrew (language of the Tanakh, Old Testament)

Church Slavonic (Eastern Orthodox churches)

Classical Arabic (Islam)

Coptic (Coptic Orthodox Church)

Ecclesiastical Latin (Catholic Church)

Ge’ez (Ethiopian Orthodox Church)

Iyaric (Rastafari movement)

Koine Greek (language of the New Testament)

Mishnaic Hebrew (language of the Talmud)

Pali (language of some Hindu texts and Theravada Buddhism)

Sanskrit (Hinduism)

Syriac (Syriac Orthodox Church, Maronite Church, Church of the East)

Reconnecting with family?

If your immediate family speaks a language that you don’t or if you are a heritage speaker that has been disconnected, then the choice is obvious! If not, you might have to do some family tree digging, and maybe you might find something that makes you feel more connected to your family. Maybe you come from an immigrant community that has an associated immigration or contact language! Or maybe there is a branch of the family that speaks/spoke another language entirely.

Immigrant & Diaspora languages:

Arbëresh (Albanians in Italy)

Arvanitika (Albanians in Greece)

Brazilian German

Canadian Gaelic (Scottish Gaelic in Canada)

Canadian Ukrainian (Ukrainians in Canada)

Caribbean Hindustani (Indian communities in the Caribbean)

Chipilo Venetian (Venetians in Mexico)

Griko (Greeks in Italy)

Hutterite German (German spoken by Hutterite settlers of Canada/US)

Fiji Hindi (Indians in Fiji)

Louisiana French (Cajuns) 

Patagonian Welsh (Welsh in Argentina)

Pennsylvania Dutch (High German spoken by early settlers of Canada/ the US)

Plaudietsch (German spoken by Mennonites)

Talian (Venetian in Brazilian)

Texas Silesian (Poles in the US)

Click here for a list of languages of the African diaspora (there are too many for this post!). 

If you are Jewish, maybe look into the language of your particular diaspora community ( * indicates the language is extinct or moribund - no native speakers or only elderly speakers):

Bukhori (Bukharan Jews)

Hebrew

Italkian (Italian Jews) *

Judeo-Arabic (MENA Jews)

Judeo-Aramaic

Judeo-Malayalam *

Judeo-Marathi

Judeo-Persian

Juhuri (Jews of the Caucasus)

Karaim (Crimean Karaites) *

Kivruli (Georgian Jews)

Krymchak (Krymchaks) *

Ladino (Sephardi)

Lusitanic (Portuguese Jews) *

Shuadit (French Jewish Occitan) *

Yevanic (Romaniotes)*

Yiddish (Ashkenazi)

Finding a job?

Try looking around for what languages are in demand in your field. Most often, competency in a relevant makes you very competitive for positions. English is in demand pretty much anywhere. Here are some other suggestions based on industry (from what I know!):

Business (General): Arabic, French, German, Hindi, Korean, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish

Design: Italian (especially furniture)

Economics: Arabic, German

Education: French, Spanish

Energy: Arabic, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish

Engineering: German, Russian

Finance & Investment: French, Cantonese, German, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish

International Orgs. & Diplomacy (NATO, UN, etc.): Arabic, French, Mandarin, Persian, Russian, Spanish

Medicine: German, Latin, Sign Languages, Spanish

Military: Arabic, Dari, French, Indonesian, Korean, Kurdish, Mandarin, Pashto, Persian, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Urdu

Programming: German, Japanese

Sales & Marketing: French, German, Japanese, Portuguese

Service (General): French, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, Sign Languages, Spanish

Scientific Research (General): German, Japanese, Russian

Tourism: French, Japanese, Mandarin, Sign Languages, Spanish

Translation: Arabic, Russian, Sign Languages

Other special interests?

Learning a language just because is a perfectly valid reason as well! Maybe you are really into a piece of media that has it’s own conlang! 

Fictional:

Atlantean (Atlantis: The Lost Empire)

Dothraki (Game of Thrones)

Elvish (Lord of the Rings)

Gallifreyan (Doctor Who)

High Valyrian (Game of Thrones)

Klingon (Star Trek)

Nadsat (A Clockwork Orange)

Na’vi (Avatar)

Newspeak (1984)

Trigedasleng (The 100)

Vulcan (Star Trek)

Or if you just like to learn languages, take a look maybe at languages that have lots of speakers but not usually popular among the language-learning community:

Arabic

Bengali

Cantonese

Hindi

Javanese

Hausa

Indonesian

Malay

Pashto

Persian

Polish

Punjabi

Swahili

Tamil

Telugu

Thai

Turkish

Urdu

Vietnamese

Yoruba

If you have still are having trouble, consider the following:

What languages do you already speak?

How many and which languages you already speak will have a huge impact on the ease of learning. 

If you are shy about speaking with natives, you might want to look at languages with similar consonant/vowel sounds. Similarity between languages’ grammars and vocabularies can also help speed up the process. Several families are famous for this such as the Romance languages (Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, Romanian), North Germanic languages (Norwegian, Swedish, Danish) or East Slavic languages (Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian). If you are a native English speaker, check out the FSI’s ranking of language difficulty for the approximate amount of hours you’ll need to put into different languages.

You could also take a look at languages’ writing systems to make things easier or for an added challenge.

Another thing to remember is that the languages you already speak will have a huge impact on what resources are available to you. This is especially true with minority languages, as resources are more frequently published in the dominant language of that area. For example, most Ainu resources are in Japanese, most Nheengatu resources are in Portuguese, and most Nahuatl resources are in Spanish.

What are your life circumstances?

Where you live with influence you language studies too! Local universities will often offer resources (or you could even enroll in classes) for specific languages, usually the “big” ones and a few region-specific languages.

Also consider if what communities area near you. Is there a vibrant Deaf community near you that offers classes? Is there a Vietnamese neighborhood you regularly interact with? Sometimes all it takes is someone to understand you in your own language to make your day! Consider what languages you could realistically use in your own day-to-day. If you don’t know where to start, try checking to see if there are any language/cultural meetups in your town!

How much time can you realistically put into your studies? Do you have a fluency goal you want to meet? If you are pressed for time, consider picking up a language similar to ones you already know or maintaining your other languages rather than taking on a new one.

Please remember when choosing a language for study to always respect the feelings and opinions of native speakers/communities, particularly with endangered or minoritized languages. Language is often closely tied to identity, and some communities are “closed” to outsiders. A notable examples are Hopi, several Romani languages, many Aboriginal Australian languages and some Jewish languages. If you are considering a minoritized language, please closely examine your motivations for doing so, as well as do a little research into what is the community consensus on outsiders learning the language. 

[language-fox]

I need help. Spanish is more useful where I live and I'll run into it more but german is more interesting in my opinion. What do I do

This is a big question, and I will not tell you which language to learn. Both are, in my opinion, really cool, but deciding what langauge to learn is highly individual and depends on several factors. Here’s some ideas what to consider:

1) Which language will you be willing/ able to learn for a long time? Language learning can be stressful, it can be difficult, it can be boring and sometimes you’ll want to quit. In that case you’ll have to remember why you want to learn a language - is “it’s useful” strong enough an incentive for you to keep pushing on? Which reason is the most likely for you to pursue this language in the long term?

2) “It’s useful” - for what? "Useful” largely depends on your situation. Literally everyone told me “why don’t you learn Spanish, it’s way more useful than Swedish”. Except... what for? I don’t have plans to go to South America or Spain as of now, and I probably won’t work a job where I’ll likely be in contact with people who only speak Spanish. But chances are I’ll be in Sweden from time to time, I might even emigrate some day. So in this situation, Swedish was the much better pick, even though it’s the smaller language. (Also, despite it’s usefulness I still have to meet a native Spanish speaker, so....)

Also remember that your situation changes with your actions - if you learn German you’ll likely get in contact with other learners and native speakers. Then you’ll immediately get to use it. The same goes for Spanish. As you shape your interaction with the world, “useful” is a flexible concept.

3) How interested are you in the culture?Language is so much more than just words. You’ll never truly understand a language until you learn something about the people who speak it. Which one would you like to learn about?

4) How many resources do you have?German and Spanish are both “bigger” langauges with a lot of resources on the web and in real life, so this is more of a nuance depending on where you live, your budget (if you want to use physical books) and if there’s native speakers around. (Though not everyone wants to talk with natives right away, which is fine. And even if there’s none around, the internet is still open.)

5) Decisions aren’t foreverLearning one language now doesn’t mean you’ll NEVER learn the other one. I don’t recommend starting two langs at once, it’s very overwhelming, but in a few years time you may be confident enough to say “okay, I did this, let’s go for the other”. Or, let’s say you learn german for a bit, but lose interest and start Spanish instead. I know tumblr is all about discipline and studying all the time, but dropping a language isn’t a mortal sin. You can always change your mind and revisit it later, that’s okay.

I hope this helped you a bit in your decision-making process. People like to comment on other’s choices all the time, but they don’t really matter as long as you do what feels best for you. Happy learning!

[fluentlanguage]

Interlinear Books Review: a Powerful Language Learning Tool

Remember the recent podcast about reading in other languages? We talked a lot about how difficult it can be to find original literature in your target language that is actually comprehensible too.

In today's post, I've asked Fluent contributor Victoria to take a look at an intriguing offer...Interlinear books - they're like original subtitled literature. Say what! Victoria is both Norwegian and book-obsessed - no better candidate to review the books we examined in this post.

Read on to find out if the promise of Interlinear books delivers:

When I was asked to review Interlinear Books, a language learning literature tool, I was intrigued - I'm always looking for new reading experiences, and this certainly was unlike anything I have read before!

Short version of verdict: Interlinear Books are a great supporting language learning tool for intermediate learners to infuse some foreign language literature into their lives.

This review is based on no previous knowledge about Interlinear products, and all comments are based on my first-hand experience of trialing the Swedish Interlinear book.

What are Interlinear Books?

Interlinear are bilingual books that include the original and an English translation below. The English is in a smaller font, so that it doesn’t distract too much from the original language. Each word or phrase is translated below the original one, and the books are classic literature from the language it is teaching. In Interlinear Books’ own words: it’s like subtitles for books.

Click here to view all Interlinear books

Does it work?

Initially I was intrigued by the idea of learning language by reading quality literature – as a literature graduate and a book lover at large there could hardly be anything more fitting! I chose the Swedish title, Skatten: Herr Arnes Penningar (The Treasure: Sir Arne’s Money) and dived into it.

As a native Norwegian speaker, I was already fairly acquainted with Swedish as a language and feel that I was already somewhere between advanced and fluent level. However, I find that reading books in the language you are learning is always useful to broaden vocabulary, regardless of your fluency level. I wanted to feel more confident reading Swedish and thought this would be the perfect tool to do so with some guidance.

The story is not the most compelling and the language is fairly poetic for a novel, which I thought was a slightly strange choice. However, Interlinear does ensure that this poetic language carries through into the English translation, which I appreciated.

Not Your Usual Translation

Since each word is translated in the word order of the original text, I found that the English text could sometimes be strange to read. As a consequence of the word-for-word translation, the English sentence structure is sometimes quite unusual. However, this appears to be an effect of Interlinear’s aim to make you read sentences, rather than single words; the intention is for you to be able to grasp the meaning of the sentence without looking up every single word, just the ones you don’t already know. The text is translated and proofread by humans, which sets it apart from other translation language learning services.

Personally, I found the layout of the pages slightly hard to follow; the translation may be in a smaller font, but it is nonetheless very existent on the page and can be distracting at times. The result of the text appearing twice on one page is often that there is very little white space. You do get used to this as you read, however it may throw you off slightly at first.

I did, however, very much enjoy reading the text, and found that my reading skills improved throughout reading the text, as well as adding new words to my vocabulary. I also enjoyed the fact that Interlinear Books allow you to explore the literature of the country whose language you are learning and consequently get an insight into the cultural specifics.

Intermediate Learner? Look to Explore Interlinear

Interlinear really works best if you're an intermediate learner, as the concept of understanding the meaning of a sentence from understanding a few key words is unlikely to be effective at a beginner level. For this same reason I would also suggest that the Interlinear Books are a great tool for bridging the gap between beginner and intermediate; it allows you to put your language skills to the test with the translation to fall back on when necessary.

The key question you're all probably wondering about right now – can the Interlinear Books support your language learning experience? The answer is: absolutely.

So Should You Give Interlinear Books a Go?

If you're an intermediate learner, the short answer is: yes – but be aware that it cannot replace more conventional language courses or classes. It works best as a learning supplement.

The whole concept of Interlinear Books is to provide a tool that helps support your language learning, and the books should therefore not be the sole language learning you implement in your everyday life. Instead, you should use the books to replace some of your other English-language reading – read a chapter during lunch or during your commute, for example. The books are relatively short, so they are likely to feel easier to get through than a massive brick.

Interlinear Books currently have 10 books on offer, in 10 different languages. They're also continuously developing new books and languages, and you can sign up for their newsletter to be the first to hear about any new titles they produce.

View the Interlinear catalogue in full by clicking here

So, if you're looking to take that next step into reading books in the language you are reading, Interlinear Books is a brilliant place to start.

[universal-translation-services]

What Are the Easiest Languages To Learn?

There are many great things about being a human. Our species have it easy in many ways. Other species don’t even know of the benefits that we enjoy on a daily basis. Imagine if we had to find shelter every night like animals or live without electricity, a thing plants have no concept of. One of the things that our species should be grateful for but we always take for granted is our ability to learn whatever we want. We can learn to read and that opens endless possibilities for us. Animals absorb information too but the knowledge they can acquire is limited because of their inability to read. Had humans not created languages and writing systems, they never would have had anything to learn in the first place. Today, no matter where you live in the world, you can find information on any topic in your tongue easily. This means that there is no limit for any of us and we can read and absorb whatever we want as long as we are interested. It is also worth noting that the more knowledge we acquire, the better our brain functions. By learning new concepts and theories, we keep the wheels of our mind turning. Those who give up on learning and don’t keep on trying to educate themselves throughout their lives, end up bored and confused. Our brains are not made for rest which is why we should always strive to find out more about our world and the people who live in it. If someone tried to study the cultures of a single continent of planet earth, they won’t be able to do that in a lifetime, that’s how much information we have available to us. There are many who don’t like spending their lives aimlessly and always pick up new things to learn about. One of the best things to learn in the world is a foreign language and that’s why many people study other tongues to expand their minds.However, learning something new is not easy, and when it comes to foreign languages, they have a complete set of rules which is difficult to master. But those who really want to learn different tongues and be able to understand its speakers in a better way wouldn’t want to give up on their dream, no matter how impossible it may seem. There is a solution to this problem where people can study new languages without spending too much of their time on it and that is to learn easiest tongues. Mostly, different languages are easy to study for the speakers of different tongues, but there are a few which don’t have too many complicated rules of grammar.

What Are the Easiest Languages to Learn?

Some people may think that languages from the same family will be similar and hence the speaker of one could get the hang of the other. But that’s not how it works. Each language family is huge and has multiple sub groups. Sometimes, there are a few similarities between tongues of the same group or family but if a vernacular has undergone a lot of changes in the recent past, it wouldn’t be similar to its distant cousins anymore. This is why it is better to know beforehand which languages are easiest to learn so you can make your decision accordingly. Danish: The language of Denmark shares a lot of similarities with English and is therefore easier to pick up for the speakers of the latter. Almost a thousand Danish words are a part of the English vocabulary. Which means you already know some Danish. It has also been influenced by English and has a lot of similar words in its vocabulary. The speakers of Swedish and Norwegian can also learn Danish easily because the three languages are mutually intelligible. This important tongue is not only spoken in Denmark but also Greenland.   Spanish: One of the world’s most spoken languages is also very easy to master. Whether you are a native English speaker or a non-native one, you can easily get a grip on the Spanish vocabulary. Spanish is also a pretty useful tongue to learn because it is an official language in more than twenty countries. If you travel constantly, you will run into Spanish speakers constantly and in those moments, knowing their tongue will help you a lot.   Tagalog: The language of the Philippines is pretty easy to learn for those who are fluent in Spanish. It shares a lot of similarities with Spanish. A lot of words are either the same in the two tongues or very similar to each other.   Afrikaans: This South African tongue which descended from Dutch is very simple. Which makes it pretty easy to learn. If you are already familiar with Dutch then your learning process will go without any problems. The rules of grammar are pretty simple too and therefore don’t require a lot of study time.   English: The number of non-native English speakers in the world is greater than its native speakers, and that’s not only because of the language’s popularity. It is a very easy to learn language regardless of someone’s native tongue. A lot of tongues have taken loan words from English which means non-native speakers already know a few words and can become fluent in it within weeks. Now you know world’s five easiest languages to learn and you can start your learning process by picking your favorite from the list. Read the full article

[airlinepolyglot-blog]

another infrequent update

NOTE: a few links and whatnot are missing from this post, several YouTubes, etc. I will add them very shortly, and if I do not, then please remind me!

Hello everyone, I know it’s been awhile once again. It’s not that I haven’t been doing language things (quite the contrary), but rather that I don’t have time to tell you about them. A quick rundown of what I’ll be talking about here:

Travels and how language related:

-my trip to Toronto

-my trip to Hong Kong

-a brief mention of my trip to Cancun

What I have learned, language wise, since my last update:

-Norwegian

-German

-Welsh

-Hungarian

-Russian

-Turkish

I went to Toronto with my girlfriend Marisa since my last update. Toronto is of course an English majority city so there isn’t a ton to write about that, but it’s worth noting just how bilingual Canada is in many ways. Most people in Toronto can’t speak French, or rarely speak it, but it’s as prevalent as Spanish is in the US. Everything is cosigned in both languages, and of course the government enforces Canada’s bilingualism, which was extremely interesting. I’ll be interested to visit a really bilingual city in Canada, like Ottawa or Montreal, where everyone can speak both languages.

Hong Kong had been one of my top cities to visit after I got the airline job (and before that, too). There was obviously absolutely no way it was going to disappoint, and luckily it didn’t in the slightest. Definitely the best place I have been to to date (lovely English right there!), on so many levels. It’s extremely welcoming and inviting to an outsider, insanely easy to get around, very safe, etc. But to the world tourist, the level of English spoken in Hong Kong is extremely impressive. Literally everyone in Hong Kong spoke English that I spoke with, to a very good degree. Curiously, the Filipino domestic helpers spoke some of the poorest english (they stuck to Tagalog), and more obviously, the mainland tourists spoke very little (if any) English. I used Mandarin a few times, but interestingly I used German quite a bit (there’s apparently quite a bit of German expatriation in Hong Kong). I was caught off guard with the German, considering I was fairly out of practice (but usually made out just fine!), but I came armed with the Mandarin. Using HelloChinese and a few audio resources (Living Language) I had a conversational amount down, though I never used it to that degree (it would just be pointing someone in the right direction or making small talk), after really seeing Mainland Chinese in action in Hong Kong, I felt very motivated to really work on my Mandarin. Sadly, I haven’t much since my trip ended, but I’m sure I’ll pick it back up at some point - I love Mandarin and always preach how simple it is to everyone and tell people it’s far easier than people think. Because it is...once you accept that the characters are an “over time” thing. And as expected, the little Cantonese I spoke (“ni ho”, “mh’goi”, “ching”, etc) was received very well, but considering how widely English was spoken, it was just my sign of gratitude to the natives.

I did visit Cancun, Mexico with Marisa as well, because it was affordable, accessible, and warm. While it wasn’t great (we had a good time together though), I’ll of course cover the language situation there. Largely of course English to cater to tourists, a few people did indeed lead with Spanish, which was surprising. I had an Uber driver who only spoke Spanish and so he and I pieced through a conversation together, and he was helping me learn. But still, the Spanish language and I don’t really click sadly. A shame, as I want to visit Madrid, Colombia (any city), Santiago de Chile, and of course return to Buenos Aires. But luckily Marisa knows and likes Spanish, so she can come with me and help out with that until I’m back on track.

Okay, now an update on my language study stuff. I could post Duolingo stats but eh I don’t think those give as accurate an estimation as me describing my progress. So, I’ve been focusing on Norwegian a lot recently, which is without question my favorite language. I’ve been really focused on finishing the tree, and am at Level 17 on Duolingo. Admittedly, Duolingo is the only resource I’m using for Norwegian right now. No books, no YouTube, no audio, just Duolingo. So the terrible robot voice that Duo uses is my only way of hearing the language at the moment, but I’m doing that on purpose. Going to finish the tree and really have this language down, and then see how quickly I really pick up on it when I hear it spoken by actual people. It’s such a simple and logical language on almost every level that it’s amazing. The grammar is just so much more simple than any other language. The verb conjugations (or relative lack thereof), definite articles (which are suffixes), word order, negation (just “ikke”) just all make so much sense. The amazing Paul (Langfocus) did an awesome video about Norwegian and its relation to Swedish and Danish, with a lesser extent Faroese and Icelandic (both of which are far more complicated grammatically than the other three). In an ideal world, the Vikings and their successors would’ve pushed for Norwegian (or Swedish, but I like Norwegian and the culture of Norway just a bit more) to be the universal language of the world instead of English. Norwegian is an easier and better language than English, and it’s far more logical in ways (grammatically and pronounced) than English ever could be. It (as well as Swedish and Danish) also lacks the case system that comes along with German, which makes it much easier to learn than the main language of its family. Through Norwegian, you can almost fully understand Swedish. I haven’t done Swedish on Duolingo at all, but I can read Swedish text incredibly well, point out and translate words in IKEA, and breeze through Memrise and Tinycards decks, thanks to my understanding of Norwegian. I can understand written Danish to the same degree, but it’s a wildly different language when spoken. I haven’t studied Danish much, but I’m sure once you’re used to how they pronounce things (like Spanish/Portuguese differences), you’ll be in great shape. I can’t wait to hopefully visit Oslo this summer, as I still have not gotten to speak Norwegian in real life at all yet, but am confident I can do so….well, confidently. We will find out soon.

I am returning to Germany in a few weeks, and in preparation I’m of course going through my German resources again. Reguilding Duolingo, going through some advanced levels on Memrise, playing around on Babadum, and things like that. German is annoyingly difficult/tricky in so many ways (and after learning one of the North Germanic languages, it will frustrate you more once you’ve learned just how simple it all can be!!!), but I’m convinced the language runs through my blood and is almost second nature to me at this point, which I’m extremely grateful for. I can jump into conversations often, understand it when I hear it (even Swiss German!), and generally carry myself along. I just wish it wasn’t so difficult for new learners who aren’t picking it up in a classroom setting - it really is a difficult language to teach yourself, especially if you’ve never dealt with a three gender language AND one that has a case system, no less. Plus, “sie” can mean she/formal you/they, which I’m sure can certainly trip anyone up. That’s just a bit impractical, but luckily I have that advantage I guess.

I dabbled briefly in Welsh on Duolingo. A very fun and surprisingly simple language, I put it on hold temporarily due to my desire to focus on other languages. Nonetheless, I found it super interesting, though of course often difficult to pronounce. The “dd” sound in Welsh is maybe the most difficult thing I’ve ever attempted to pronounce, and I’m convinced only natives will ever master it. I want to see this language kept alive, so certainly give it a shot - the Duolingo course is wonderful and very well designed, and this YouTube video (linked within the course) will teach you how to pronounce the language very well.

My last three languages I’ll sort of talk about together. They are Russian, Hungarian, and Turkish. Three languages from different families (but I guess a similar part of the world), but damn are they a lot of fun to me. I’m actually glad I waited a week to write this post, as I attempted to look at Turkish again last night for the first time in ages and it suddenly made tons of sense to me - being an agglutinative language and all, just like Hungarian and to a lesser extent Russian. All three of these languages are pretty “out there” for an English speaker, and I’ll agree, some of the trickiest for an English speaker to learn, as they have a lot of rules. But honestly that’s a lot of the fun, once you get the rules down and can form sentences and work with the case system (all three languages feature a case system), you feel really accomplished speaking these beautiful languages. Russian always tends to amaze me, the amount of loanwords and similar vocabulary in Russian will really surprise you. Once you master the Cyrillic alphabet, I bet you could look at a Russian text and point out so many words that are similar to the Romance or Germanic languages. This makes for fun learning once you figure out the Slavic twist to put on each word. The lack of articles in Russian and verb “to be” is of course a massive advantage - once you dig into the language you realize just how much of a blessing this is. I’m really enjoying Russian, and while I still make plenty of grammar mistakes and still struggle to pronounce some things, I can’t wait to really get this language down and be able to speak it with confidence. While I won’t be able to speak Hungarian with sure confidence probably for a long time, it’s an extremely fun language to me. It has something like 15 cases - definitely an extreme amount, and not a language for the faint of heart, but if you’re really into this kind of thing you may want to look into it. The alphabet and pronunciation are quite simple once you get them down, and word order is very free thanks to the case system (similar to Russian!). Plus, the Hungarian people are great and amazed anyone attempts to learn their very hard language. I’m going to see for myself when I go to Budapest next month and attempt to drag some Hungarian out (they’re also attempting to learn English widespread, as tourism in Hungary amongst Europeans is climbing), and we’ll see if the rumors are true about how happy Hungarians are that we even let out a “szia” (hello/goodbye) or a “köszönöm” (thank you) in conversation. If you’re scared off by Russian’s foreign alphabet and Hungarian’s crazy amount of cases, then maybe Turkish is a good place to start if you’re interested in an agglutinative language that differs wildly from English and the languages similar (romance/germanic). Turkish follows a Subject+Object+Verb order which is kind of fun because you know the action is always at the end, and the vocabulary is very cool (and apparently features tons of Persian and Arabic loanwords). While I haven’t dove too deep into Turkish, by the time my next update rolls around, I believe I will have more to tell you, as I plan to get right back to Turkish on Duolingo once I’ve posted this. While neither Turkey (political situation) nor Russia (complicated visa issues) would be suitable to visit now, Azerbaijan would be a good place I think, as a large part of the population still speaks Russian, a lot speak English (thanks to all the expats), and their native language, Azerbaijani (or Azeri Turkish) is apparently very close to Turkish, so someone who knows Turkish well can quickly pick up on Azerbaijani. I wonder if the differences are as close as Norwegian to Swedish or more like Spanish to Italian. Maybe I’ll know by the time I write here next.

I also am attempting to learn the Greek alphabet because why not (the lowercase letters are throwing me off big time - why must they be different from the uppercase?!) and of course still looking at Italian, French, etc from time to time. I don’t have any decent observations on these developments.

Hopefully I’ll write to you all again soon. Follow me on Instagram or something if you’d like more frequent updates about my life.

[survivedeadsea]

John’s Jury Questions

Hello final 2!! Congrats on making it to the spot that all of us ultimately wanted to make it to. Usually when I end up on the jury I am bitter and set on my vote. This time around I have the unique experience of having the two people I worked the closest with in the final 2. Alex, you and I bonded the very first night and I knew I could trust you when you immediately tried to give me the extra vote we all received LOL. After going on calls and talking every day our friendship became very sincere. We always knew we were on the bottom of something, and we continued to play from the bottom once the merge hit. You're a beast and it was amazing to get to know you. Despite what the jury may have to say to you, I know you are not a hateful person. Luke, you and I also bonded from the beginning of the game in LOHM and then our mess of a swapped tribe. We had some amazing times of you falling asleep without voting and struggling to keep ourselves alive and I was ready to be loyal to you. When we merged you did tell me about the big alliance and we got to work with each other without technically being on the same side. It was messy and we lied to each other a lot, but when it came down to it I was not going to make a move against you. I am not bitter that you voted me out anymore, still love you and am proud of you for making it to the end despite humiliating me by MAKING ME PLAY TETRIS AKDBSOSH.

So that was kinda just a rant but whatever I have a few questions for both of you. 1. Forget big moves. What subtle moves would you say you made to get yourself here? 2. Please write a 5 paragraph essay on why you love me ty

Alex’s Response:

John, I bonded with you in this game like no other and this is a friendship I'm holding very dear. I never found myself in a situation where I'm willing to risk my own chances to win a game so a friend of mine can win, and that was a feeling I had throughout this entire game. You deserved it way more than me, and the only thing standing in your way was that tiebreaker challenge. A few years ago I won a game almost unanimously after winning a tiebreaker at final 4, and by that time I sucked at flash games. It took me years to get better and figure out strategies to do them more effectively, but this is an important part of ORGs. I just want to say, you will definitely win Survivor games in the future, don't let this experience make you have any doubts about yourself or your ability to win challenges.

 To your questions:

 1. I think my most effective subtle move was faking my long idol hunt at final 8. Immediately after I did that, Jay messaged me asking "how was the puzzle?". She openly said the round after she's certain I have an idol, another round later Ruthie asked me directly if I have an idol. I have no doubt that this move worked and created the perception that I found one, however I still consider it a subtle move because it didn't have a big impact on the game in retrospect.

You did find an idol right after, but nobody even paid attention to the fact you were gone for two hours because everyone were so focused on me. So in a way, this move helped you hide your idol too.

 2. I'd expect no other question from you <3 I think you know most of the reasons already but I'll try to surprise you anyway ;)

 Well, where do I begin?

What probably sets you apart the most from other people I've worked and bonded with in ORGs, is the fact you're American. It might sound like the most trivial and irrelevant thing ever, but for someone like me who isn't a native English speaker and has little to no clue about how life in the states are, it is very difficult to find Americans relatable. I always try to initiate conversations that go beyond geographical and cultural boundaries to connect with people, and while I've been able to do it pretty easily with Europeans (non-UK) and Asians, Americans have always been a tough cookie. It's a huge hurdle if you want to establish a strong social game in a predominantly American community of players, and the fact that it played no role whatsoever in my relationship with you is an evidence to how open and flexible you can be with people from different backgrounds.

 Your other best asset in my opinion is your sense of humor, lightheartedness and goofiness. You always had some funny story for every situation which you weren't embarrassed to share, you cared very little what other people might think about you, you never held grudges against anyone or seemed to have any strong negative feelings despite the many frustrating situations this game has faced you with. This carefree and mature attitude was easily charming, and it made me want you to stick around no matter what, because the game would not have been fun at all if you weren't here.

 Lastly, and most importantly, you gave me what most people I met in this game didn't give me – a chance. And I know, some of them are saying now that they actually wanted to work with me, but it was me who isolated myself and mistreated them. I think you more than anyone know the truth, how badly I tried to socialize with people and how poorly were these attempts often received, because you had more or less the same experience (you just have more patience than me I guess).

You always said "yes, it's like that. These people are hard to talk to, I know what you're talking about". I think I had pretty good awareness of how much each person cared about me or was willing to put effort with me, my expectations were different. I've played in communities where the social game is different, and it was comforting to have you reassure me of my perspectives, even though you thought I'm a newbie.

Luke’s Response: 

Ahhhh! I'm sorry for making you play Tetris, I'm sure you definitely hate that game now thanks to me so I truly am sorry! Okay so your first question asks about the subtle moves that I made that helped me get to the end. I'm not entirely sure that I made all that many "subtle" moves rather than just sit back and observe what was going on in the tribes that I was placed on and who was friends with him. A subtle move that I did make was telling you and Sam to vote for me during the round that I played my idol so that the other players (Ruthie, Zach and Nicholas) had no suspicions about us coming into the merge. I really think that this helped you and I especially because people didn't put his together as two people that were ever working together which is why I think you were left out of the alliance that was formed at the beginning of the merge. People assumed I was on the outs thanks to that one move.

My Essay of Love for John Coffey by Luke Blackmore: Wow....John Coffey and I first met at the beginning of Dead Sea. I knew immediately that I wanted to align with you because of your friendship with my loving wife and cat mom, Amanda Dandelion Cappuccino (I'm still feeling the repercussions from her about voting you out!). You added me on Facebook mid-way through this game and became my 727th friend which is a big milestone because 727 AKA 7/27 AKA Fifth Harmony's iconic album is my favourite thing. Working together in this game with you was incredible because we worked really well together which is good because when I inevitably propose to you when I get drunk next week, at least you know we'll be able to work together well ;). I'm totally kidding...unless of course you want to get married because in that case I'm on my way. I've never been really good at writing essays, evidenced by the fact that I've been putting off doing one for around a month now but oops, I have plenty of time to do that, this essay is more important.

I could rant for hours and hours about your eyes...or your hair...or your face...or your...coffey cakes (heh) but you already know that you're pretty so let's turn our attention to your love of dancing around and singing on Snapchat because honestly? My entertainment. You told the tribe one day that you were listening to a Swedish (i think?) boy band and you didn't understand the words to the song but it was still a bop and that you'd been dancing around to it all day and I thought to myself "huh...that is such a John Coffey thing to do, what a wonderful man"! I think you're purely an incredible person and I'm really glad we met in this game. I love that this is basically just a chance to kiss your ass and boost your ego so I hope I did a good job hehe. Much love!

[blogbotgovind-blog]

5 Habits of Seriously Successful Language Learners

Just as learning is for everyone, everyone can learn a language. Check out our famous polyglots as you read the blog! (A polyglot is a person who speaks multiple languages fluently.) While a multitude of factors might hinder you from learning a sport or a musical instrument, language learning is a path where obstacles are seldom present.

First remember this - it’s all in your brain

We are not talking about extraordinary people with out-of-this-world intelligence or brains the size of watermelons. Like you and me, a polyglot would have been a monolingual at some stage of his/her life until they decided to explore the universe of language learning. And from there, there was no turning back.

After extensive research and digging into the brains of well renowned polyglots, we have developed our own list of 5 habits of a successful language learner.

We are born with a language instinct. Our brains are naturally wired for language. They have the innate ability to process complex information in the form of sounds, gestures and context.

This capacity for language extends throughout life. Which means you can learn any language, at any age. This is possible because the brain is plastic. Plasticity is the brain’s ability to make new neural connections. Continued research has found that this happens all throughout a person’s lifetime. Your brain today is not the same one as it was last month. Neural connections are created regardless of age.

So much so that Researchers claim languages should be a requirement for any kind of degree as bilingualism could protect the brain in later life. Studies have shown that certain types of dementia appear up to five years later for people who speak a second language compared with monolinguists. It's thought that bilingual people have a cognitive reserve that delays the onset.

So now that we have covered the science part, let's get on to those seriously successful tips.

1. Less means more

The Pareto principle states that only 20% effort is needed to acquire 80% comprehension while learning a language. What this means is, studying particular words of a certain language will allow you to comprehend and converse in that particular language with a fluency of 80%. This is possible because almost every language has a core bundle of words that makes up your daily conversations. For instance, in English just 300 words make up 65% of all written material. We use those words a lot, and that’s the case in every other language as well.

Prioritize your learning content using the Pareto principle. You may well be capable of understanding 95% of a language within a short span of three months. This is applicable for conversational fluency as well as comprehension and writing. Although you might plateau at the point, the view down the mountain will be great! To improve from there and make it to the top, it might take you years as you dwell deeper into the language and aim to reach the level of native speakers.

Queen Cleopatra V11 (Reputed to have spoken 9 languages, including her native Greek, as well as Egyptian, Syrian, Persian, and Arabic)

2. Make your Goals Specific and Attainable

It simply means you should know why you are learning a particular language and the content you want to excel in. Never set your targets too low or too high. Always be self-aware of your strengths and limitations. This prevents complacency and loss of interest in learning. Make your learning a great experience by taking incremental steps rather than a steep climb.

Queen Elizabeth 1 (10 languages: English, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Latin, Welsh, Cornish, Scottish, Irish)

3. Measurable

This is the ability to check your progress. It could be a self-reflection after completing a lesson or testing yourself with quizzes and conversational exercises. For information to be retained in the brain, it must be recalled at least 14 times. This phenomenon of testing yourself on an idea or concept to help you remember it is called the “testing effect” or “retrieval practice.” People have known about the idea for centuries. Sir Francis Bacon mentioned it, as did the psychologist William James. In 350 BCE, Aristotle wrote that “exercise in repeatedly recalling a thing strengthens the memory.”

Natalie Portman (6 languages: English, Hebrew, French, Japanese, German, Arabic)

4. Relevant

Most languages evolve over the years. Make sure you are up to date with the most relevant language content. Learning an extinct or endangered language can be exciting but also tough if you find the content difficult to source. Be aware of your constraints, and check you can access enough stuff and resources to keep you motivated and learning.

JRR Tolkien (Author of Lord of the Rings - 13 languages, including Latin, French, German, Greek, Italian and Spanish, Middle English, Old English, Old Norse and even Medieval Welsh.

5. Time-bound

This is the most important aspect of successful learners. Every successful learner sets a timeframe to achieve his or her goals. Maintain a schedule while learning and stick to it. Colin Powell, the first African American appointed as the U.S. Secretary of State, once gave a powerful TED Talk on the importance of instilling structure in children. It is the same with adults. Routine provides a sense of structure and familiarity. Structure is a way of organizing your life so that it makes sense to you. You wake up with a sense of ownership, order, and organization of your life.

Christopher Lee (French, Italian, German, Spanish, and English, plus knowledge of Swedish, Russian, and Greek.)

So the shortcut to success?

Choose wisely, focus, set timescales and stick to it!

We hope our famous polyglots have inspired you to get learning and be seriously successful at learning your next language!