Meerkat

Oh my! But how the wonders of technology do help the world. What if one day, we have Star Trek Universal translators soon?! We will be obsolete!

No, I don't sadly. But if you want to get rare, check out these two articles; http://listverse.com/2013/04/07/10-bizarre-languages-still-spoken-around-the-world/ http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-rarest-languages.php Cant believe there are languages with only 1-8 speakers...

Has anyone ever used an absurd method of remembering a phrase or word in your chosen language? I don't mean mnemonics, I mean really daft. For example, to learn the phrase "don't worry" (ne valnuytes), I walked around for 15 minutes translating the chorus from the song "dont worry be happy". Quite memorable. Sure the neighbors must have enjoyed the chorus of "dont worry be happy" in Russian whilst I was putting the washing out!!! Anyone else acted like this :wacky:

Oh my goodness... language of the hopi indians! I would love to learn a little. Feel free to pm... :shy:

Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

I would definitely say the same. Once you realise that it definitely is not English, it is easy as pie to pronounce. Yes, grammar is a bit different. But any language is like this! Alright, Hungarian is an exception.

As I am an afficianado of Michel Thomas and also had the same problem, I'm going to chip in. First of all, find some good books. Teach yourself is a fairly good company, but whatever floats your boat. Second, get some online resources. Many sites will teach you arabic. Next, if you are fairly advanced, obtain some Arabic literature.This will assisst you vastly. Work on from then.

здравствуте! I am the Meerkat, and I am looking for a MALE(important!) language partner, as you can see in the title, I have only basic Russian, and am looking for a native Russian to practice with. I am only Thirteen, but my passion for language is more serious than War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. PM For details. NOTE; I cannot do skype. And I have to have audio, no e-mail. :ninja:

I believe that there is no limit. You should simply work, 2-3 hours per day on any language you have chosen, and when it is complete, move on. My list of languages, not including extras, now numbers in 28 languages. Will I learn them all? Probably not! However, I have made an amusing abbreviated goal for myself. RAPID. It stands for Russian, Arabic, Polish, Italian, and Dutch. Some of the most interesting languages(to me) in the world. So, I'd say about 5, or more!

I adore the fluent in 3 months website. It has taught me the errors of believing that languages such as Irish, Hungarian, and Polish are not hard at all. Different...but not hard. Great blog. And THAT is the way to travel!

Very true! Why not pile on Old Church Slavonic, too?

Well, I like to cheat a little. And there was a story of a man who learned an entire lingala dictionary over 10 weeks (22 hours 17 minutes!) using Memrise. Has inspired me to upload my AA Phrasebook onboard http://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/nov/09/learn-language-in-three-months http://fourhourworkweek.com/2009/01/20/learning-language/ Very interesting read! Lets be polyglots, shall we? Enjoy...

Anywhere except a train waiting room :wacky: However, I can quite easily practice in a train. But I am always careful of annoying others when in a train/library/street/home.

Very true! I would say practice and immersion are 2 major keys to becoming truly proficient in a language. 1-3 hours work at least per day are essential.

Yes, it does depend on devotion. Most people who say it took 3-5 years mean about 2-3 times a week. If you want real progress FAST, work everyday. One tip suggested online is get labels and a dictionary. Label certain things in the language you want them in, and whenever you interact with one of them, say its name. Did you know? If you know the 1000 most common words in any language, you will be able to read 70% of texts in that language!