How Many Languages Are There in the World?
How many languages are there? Today, there are over 7,000 around the world. But in all of history, linguists think people have spoken some 31,000 different languages.
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How to Tackle Gender Issues in Your Target Language
Masculine or Feminine (or Neuter)? This can be one of the most frustrating things for beginner to intermediate learners; the added information they have to learn of associating a gender with each word. Not only can it seem pointless to assign a gender to inanimate sexless objects (especially for native English speakers who aren’t used […]
How to make your computer multilingual
I’ve always said that total immersion and avoiding English are the key to learning a language quickly. However, even when living in the country, watching TV, socialising and doing everything else in the local language, you may still be exposed to too much English on your computer. And if you can’t travel yet to practise […]
Why I love Brazilians (& Br. Portuguese)
If you liked this post, I’ve also written about How to speak like a Carioca, and how to learn Portuguese after Spanish. Brazilian Portuguese Motivation is extremely important in being able to improve your command over a language. Today I’d like to share my motivation for deciding to make Portuguese the first language that I […]
Summary of month 1 in the mission to become Brazilian
Exactly a month ago I arrived in Rio with the mission of becoming Brazilian in 3 months. As in my previous language mission, I’ll give a monthly update for those curious of my progress, and my hopes of reaching the goal of walking the walk and talking the talk enough to convince some Cariocas that […]
Best free online dictionaries for translators and linguists
Sorry traditionalists, but printed dictionaries are on the way out! They are either too small to contain enough entries or too large for those of us who travel, as well as being too expensive. In the time it takes me to go get a big fat dictionary, and flick through the pages for a particular […]
How to become a polyglot
One of the most frequent questions I get asked is How can I become a polyglot like you? A polyglot is someone who can speak several languages. You can see me demonstrate the ones that I know in the compilation video above. You can see the full version of all of those videos in several different languages on my videoblog. [Edit: Here’s a much cooler video I made in 8 languages]
Getting rid of your English accent when speaking a foreign language
Right, let’s get down to business! If you want to sound like a local, you need to work on many things and your foreigner accent is one of them. When I speak in English I’ve got a lovely wee (slightly watered down) Irish accent. However, when trying to speak my first foreign language I had […]
Finding the right accommodation for immersion in a culture
Hello from Rio de Janeiro!! Since I’m still just settling in (and getting over jetlag), tonight will be the first time that I go out on the town! Obviously the main part of this mission is to get out and meet Cariocas who can help me understand their language and culture a little bit more, […]
My next mission: Become Brazilian in 3 months!
EDIT: This mission was a success! You can read how I spoke Portuguese with no foreign accent, and how I adapted to life in Rio. I also wrote about why I love Brazilians so much :=) After learning 6 languages to fluency in 6 years of travels, and learning to speak Czech in just two […]
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