I've just attended Language Show Live at London's Olympia. The show - which is free - is held there over three days every October (and, since last year, there's one in March, in Glasgow). The event's core is a large hall packed with exhibitors including publishers, app developers, language schools, educational agencies and cultural institutions. I went on Saturday and Sunday … [Read more...]
Polyglot Gathering 3: the movie
"H2GF at Large" is back, this time with a vlog from the 3rd Polyglot Gathering. The film has been strewn across the cutting room floor here at Howtogetfluent Towers since I got back from Berlin (quite a few weeks ago) but now....(drum roll)....here's the vlog. It was actually at the 2nd Gathering, last year, that I decided it would be fun to have a go in this medium and I … [Read more...]
At the Polyglot Gathering 2016
Summer 2016 in Berlin began as language enthusiasts converged from far and wide for the third Polyglot Gathering. The sun was out, the temperature rose, the lilac bloomed. A bright yellow budget hostel in the Lehrterstrasse became once again, for four heady days, the pop-up capital of world language learning. I attended talks and workshops, practised my languages, drank my … [Read more...]
Vlogging the Polyglot Conference
As promised in my recent review of the Polyglot Conference in New York City, here (drumroll) is a short film about my visit. I've long wanted to try my hand at vlogging. There's still a lot to learn, but, once I'd bought a new camera (on the same trip), I started shooting at once. "Howtogetfluent at the Polyglot Conference" is the main video I've got lined up from the … [Read more...]
“With my people”: in New York City for the third Polyglot Conference
Thanks to the choice of venue for this year's Polyglot Conference (an international gathering of over 400 language learning enthusiasts), I finally got chance to pay a second visit to New York City. Here are some personal impressions from my own distinct route through this great metropolis and an overview of what went on at the Conference. A Basque welcome: "ongi etorri New … [Read more...]
The Polyglot Gathering 2015: top language learners’ tips and reflections
When you put three hundred language enthusiasts from all over the world in a box and shake it up for four days you're bound to get some good ideas about how to learn a foreign language. That's what happened at the second Polyglot Gathering (Berlin, May 2015). In this post I want to give you a taste of the event and pass on some top polyglots' language learning tips. Let's … [Read more...]
Language Show Live – a review
Language Show Live is a kind of "trade fair meets educational event" which styles itself as "Europe's leading annual event for people passionate about languages". I attended for the first time in 2013. Again in 2014, the event took place one Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the middle of October. The venue: the historic Olympia Exhibition Centre in London's West Kensington … [Read more...]
At the Polyglot Conference 2014, Novi Sad
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...]
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...]