Easy Languages: Stories of Language Learning

It’s a wrap for season 1! The Easy Languages Podcast is taking a break. We hope you have enjoyed the past 21 episodes, found our language stories interesting, and our tips useful and actionable. As for the future… stay tuned on the Easy Languages YouTube channel and on our website: easy-languages.org

On behalf of the Easy Languages team, thanks for listening, and happy language learning!

Join Rita in this special episode and listen to our remarkable guest, Tim Keeley - a hyperpolyglot & author - as he tells us about his fantastic life journey in 30 languages and gives us valuable insights into the historical and cultural ties that bind 4 of the major East Asian Languages: Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese. Tim explains - examples in support - the fascinating similarities these languages share and how it is an advantage to learn them together.

Show Notes

Polyglot Conference

Polyglot Gathering

Polyglots mentioned in this episode:

Richard Simcott

Luca Lampariello

Judith Meyer

Map of Japan

Ryukyuan languages, Japan

Chinese Dynasties Timeline

Scripts & Language Structure:

Alexandre de Rhodes & the Vietnamese Script

Hiragana, Katakana & Romaji

Old Names for Japan

Korean Script (Hangul)

“Japan Made English” (Wasei-Eigo)

Particles in Korean & Japanese

In this episode we introduce artificial languages: a group of languages spoken, among other places, on Avatar's Pandora, or Tolkien's Middle-Earth. But the first stop of our trip is actually in Eastern Europe, where Esperanto was created in 1887.

In the second part of the episode, we answer questions from two of our listeners, Anna and Joanna.

Tune in and join the language talk!

Show Notes

Esperanto

Esperanto (Wikipedia)

16 Grammar Rules (Wikiversity)

6 Basic Phrases in Esperanto (HiNative)

World Esperanto Congress (Universala Esperanto-Asocio, in Esperanto)

Other Constructed Languages (Wikipedia)

Latino sine Flexione

Klingon

Naʼvi

Dothraki

Valyrian languages

Elvish languages

Toki Pona

13 Sentences to Deconstruct a Language

How to Learn (But Not Master) Any Language in 1 Hour (The Tim Ferriss blog)

What makes some languages harder to learn than others? In this episode, we attempt to entangle the objective factors - as to why a language is complex - from the subjective ones. We also dedicate a section to talking about our experiences with those languages which we traditionally think are the most difficult to master.

Show Notes

Foreign Service Institute Language Rankings (Foreign Language Training)

Can We Measure Language Difficulty by the Numbers? (Ofer Tirosh, TowardsScience)

Rank of Language Difficulty (Michael Campbell, Glossika Blog)

What is the Hardest Language to Learn? (Steve Kaufmann, The Linguist Blog)

Past tense ending in Turkish: ‑mış (TurkishTexbook)

13 Russian Verbs of Motion to Move Your Learning Forward (Kelly Virginia Phelan, FluentU)

Chinese Classifiers: What Are They And How To Use Them ( Angie, ChineseEdge)

Japanese Formal & Informal Speech (Lydia Thron, Wyzant)

Conjugation of The Verb To Eat in Japanese (JapaneseVerbConjugator)

Join Rita and Raffaele in this new episode as they discuss the importance of using comprehensible input throughout your language learning journey, and how a certain degree of difficulty is needed and welcome while consuming language-related content.

In the second part of the episode, they share a few resources like apps, books, and courses that make use of this principle and have helped them in the past and can help you too!

But what does Rita really think about all this? Can you believe that even in-comprehensible input can help?

Show Notes

Comprehensible input (British Council)

Linguist (definition) (Cambridge Dictionary)

Dog/Language Learning meme (Fluent Forever)

Resources mentioned:

Rosetta Stone

Lingq

Storylearning Books

Interlinear Books

YouTube videos:

Does Input Have to Be "Comprehensible"? (Matt vs Japan)

Why Did You Learn Esperanto? (Easy Esperanto 1)