The first Polyglot Conference was organised by Richard Simcott and Luca Lampariello in Budapest in October 2013. I love Budapest which only added to my regret that I found out about the event too late to take part. The October 2014 Conference was going to be held in Canada but, luckily for those of us based in Europe, the venue switched when the Cultural Centre of Novi Sad … [Read more...]
Ten reasons why you should learn Portuguese before Spanish
Should I learn Spanish or Portuguese in 2025? Well, I'm sometimes asked in surprise why I've chosen to learn Portuguese instead of its close - and more pushy - relative, Spanish. After all, most people learn Spanish not Portuguese. Unlike Spanish, Portuguese is hardly ever taught as a foreign language in schools in English-speaking countries. It's taken up only by only a … [Read more...]
Mission accomplished as “Add1Challenge 4” draws to a close
How do you learn a language on the internet? For three months from the third week of July, I was taking part in the fourth run of Brian Kwong's collaborative online language learning "Add1Challenge" (2023 update - the Challenge no longer exists but I've kept this post as it's still valuable to show how the "group challenge" model can work in language learning). With the … [Read more...]
Reflections on the June 2014 Polyglot Gathering, Berlin
German "hyperpolyglot" Judith Meyer and other well-serious language learners were inspired to organise the "Polyglot Gathering" (Berlin, 15-18 June 2014) by their experience of the Polyglot Conference in Budapest in May 2013. I only found out about the 2013 Conference late in the day and was unable to attend, so I made darn sure to sign up in good time to the Gathering and … [Read more...]
Basque Add1Challenge: 3 weeks in….
It's three weeks tomorrow since the beginning of the three-month Add1Challenge, here, later than expected, is the first of my promised progress updates. What have I been doing? The main development in my approach to Basque this summer has been working with native speakers on Skype. I have never done this before but I was keen to keep going during the summer … [Read more...]