Feel like you can never learn that language? Well, this bright young man has just put us all to shame with his command of 12 languages from self-study.
At the age of 17, Ha Duy Loc, now speaks English, French, Chinese and Russian proficiently and can also communicate fluently in Arabic, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, [...]
Posts under ‘Interesting’
12 languages, jealous anyone?
Another benefit of languages – Thwarting hostage situations
Going travelling? You might even have a chance to put your new language to use before you get off the plane. A clever pilot, with the help of his passengers, managed to thwart a hijacking attempt. He realised when talking to the hijacker that he didn’t speak French, despite trying to force the plane to [...]
Playing with languages
Bilingual toys are becoming more popular with parents wanting to expose their children to other languages. Remember all those toys you had that taught you to count and read? How about getting them in another language as well? The benefits of learning a second, third, fourth language are more and more apparent in our multicultural [...]
The world in your pocket
Tired of learning all those new languages while travelling? Well, of course you’re not. You’re here because you love learning languages and can’t get enough of them. However, there are some people who just want a nice easy solution. And sometimes you may even want to understand the answer to the question you just asked.
Well [...]
Communicating in relationships
Even when you’re speaking the same language, you can often confuse the message. This is never truer than when it comes to relationships. As the book title says, “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.”
So, since this falls under my goal of “languages and cultural differences explored,” check out this article about a relationship [...]
Love and language learning
97% of woman would learn a language to better communicate with a partner according to research by Rosetta Stone software company. How many men? 71%.
However, how many men would learn a language to impress a partner on a romantic getaway? 64% compared to only 22% of women.
Who would have thought that men would put being romantic [...]
To immerse or not to immerse
Here’s an article claiming immersing students in Mandarin might not have the same success as Spanish immersion programmes. My favourite part is the first comment saying that it seems to work pretty well in China; Chinese children seem to pick up Mandarin like it’s their native language or something!
Speaking of text speak
I see that New Zealand have started to let students use text speak in exams where they are not required to demonstrate their use of the language. Have we already started down the slippery slope? Will linguists take a vow of silence? Stay tuned as the future unfolds before us.
Language evolution, the never ending debate
Things change, languages change, is it good or bad? This article discusses the arrival of Instant Messaging speak in schools. Students today are using it more as a form of note taking and it’s creeping into some assignments as well. Generally, this article is positive in that the students know when IM speak is appropriate and [...]
Only one more benefit, I promise
A Welsh study is currently looking into the ability of bilingual people to concentrate better. They propose that because of the need to suppress one language while speaking, this ability can pass over to other aspects of life. Bilingual people have the ability to suppress the small things and focus on the relevant so to speak.