Before I went to Japan in April, I decided I should probably learn some Japanese so I wouldn’t be totally lost when I was there. I didn’t have much time, and I was currently studying intensive Chinese at university, so I knew from the onset that I didn’t want to…
So you’ve been told you’ve got a heavy accent in the language you’re learning? Or do people find it hard to understand you when you speak? Maybe you just want to improve your pronunciation and sound more like a native? Or you want to make sure you don’t make a…
By now we all know Despacito, but are you looking for something different to expand your Spanish music horizons? When you’re not immersed in the Hispanic world yourself, it can be so hard to find good music that you like. That’s why I’m here to help you find good songs…
I often get asked why I decided to learn Portuguese and what value I get from it (especially by Brazilians). I guess it’s because Portuguese is not considered a ‘popular’ language to learn – it is usually not people’s first option when choosing a foreign language to learn. In New…
When I meet foreigners abroad I often get asked about the languages of New Zealand. Aside from the painfully cringeworthy “what language do you speak in New Zealand?” and compliments on how well I speak English (!), people often want to know if the way we talk in New Zealand…
When you have to type in multiple languages regularly it can be really frustrating and confusing having to switch between keyboards on your computer. Not only is it a hassle having to manually change the keyboard every time you want to type in another language, but the letters or punctuation…
So you’re reading an article or watching a Youtube video in Spanish and come across a word you don’t recognise. What do you do? What do you use to look up the word, and how do you make sure you understand it and remember it? In reality, memorising a new…
It’s the question that most every aspiring polyglot struggles with: should I just stick to the few languages I know, and learn to speak them fluently, or should I move on to another, then another, then another language, just learning the basics of each one? Believe me, I understand that…
Travel and language blogs are not as easy to come by as you might think. There are so many language blogs out there, and so many travel blogs, but I have found that there are very few blogs which combine the two seemingly highly related topics. When I first started…
So, I decided to challenge myself to see what it takes to learn the 625-word ‘essential’ base vocabulary list in Chinese. Hold on, I learned Chinese for two years. How do I not know such basics? Well, the truth is I learned Chinese at university. As is often the case…