Easy Languages: Stories of Language Learning – Détails, épisodes et analyse

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.

• 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 Raffaele “goes solo” and tells you everything about Self-Talk, the incredibly underrated technique that can boost your speaking skills all the way to basic fluency. But how does it work exactly? What are its pros and cons? Join Raffaele and you’ll find out!

Raffaele also shares the news about the most recent addition to our Podcast network, and replies to a question from Easy French’s Hélène about frustration in language learning.

• Easy Russian Podcast
• Self-Talk
  • How to Improve Your Language-Learning Skills Using Self-Talk (Language Mentoring)

If you've been struggling with maintaining consistency in your language learning journey, Kerstin Cable has some words of wisdom to share.

Kerstin Cable is a language and communications coach, writer, and podcaster living in England. She is a native German speaker who has studied 10 languages, including her language crush, Welsh. Kerstin is the author of 15+ books and courses for language learners, co-organizer of the Women in Language conference, and creator of the Fluent Show podcast, along with being a popular speaker at language events. Kerstin Cable has been featured on BBC World Service, Süddeutsche Zeitung, and The Cut.

In today's episode:

• She tells us more about her journey as a language coach, podcaster & enthusiast
• she shares her "secret formula" for successfully building a language learning system, habits, and some more actionable tips & rules to manifest your vision & goals.

And for those who joined our community on Patreon, you'll hear our multilingual after-show featuring Kerstin.

• Kerstin's podcast:

** [The Farewell Episode](https://www.fluent.show/240 **

• Kerstin's blog:

** [How to Maintain a Language While Starting a New One (blog)](https://www.fluentlanguage.co.uk/blog/maintain-languages**

• Kerstin's secret formula:

** [The Language Habit System:](www.fluentlanguage.co.uk/lhs**

In the first part of this episode, we tell the story of Vilfredo Pareto, the Italian economist who discovered a distribution law that changed economics, and how we can all apply this principle to language learning, especially acquiring vocabulary.

In the second part, we go into more detail and spill the beans on how we go about learning new words in the first stages of studying a language, and why it’s a bad idea to learn from lists of words.

• Pareto Principle
  • Pareto principle (Wikipedia)
  • Vilredo Pareto (Wikipedia)
  • 8 Ways To Apply The 80/20 Rule To Language Learning (Storylearning)
  • The Pareto Principle (80-20 Rule): Minimize the Effort, Maximize the Results (Fluent in 3 Months)
  • 80/20 Rule: How to Learn Languages with the Pareto Principle (The Intrepid Guide)
  • How to Master the ‘Magical 2,5%’ (Language Boost)
• Simple English Wikipedia
  • Wikipedia Article about it (Wikipedia)
  • The free online encyclopedia in Basic English and Learning English (Simple English Wikipedia)
• Japanese
  • Kanji (Wikipedia)
  • Kanji Frequency List (Aichi University of Education)
• Mandarin Chinese
  • Chinese characters (Wikipedia)
  • Pareto Principle & the Chinese Language (Mandarin Blueprint)
• Easy Languages Videos on the World Cup 2022
  • Foreigners Trying to Pronounce the Names of Polish Football Players | Easy Polish 192
  • Brazilians Predict the 2022 World Cup Winners | Easy Portuguese 73

Go on Dying! Do you wonder why Icelanders keep cursing each other regularly or where their names originated? Would you be able to name the God of Poetry in Icelandic mythology or even pronounce Thor or Odin's name correctly? Join Rita and her guest from Speak Viking, Óskar Bragi Stefansson, through Eddas, Sagas, on a journey to learning about an alluring language: Icelandic. Learn about the unofficial motto of Iceland and listen to Óskar explain how to implement the KISS principle effectively in learning Icelandic. And for those who joined our beautiful community, you'll get to know how to greet people in Icelandic during this jolly season along a few fun facts about Icelandic and much more. Bless, bless!

• *Speak Viking Media: *

  • [Website & Newsletter Subscription](www.speakviking.com)
  • Youtube Channel
  • Facebook Page

• ** Old Norse:**

  • What is Old Norse? (OldNorse.org)
  • Old Norse | Can Norwegian, Danish and Icelandic speakers understand it? (Ecolinguist)

• *Bragi: *

  • Norse Mythology

• *Eddas & Sagas: *

  • The Icelandic Literature Center

• *Gunnar: *

  • Norse and Viking Mythology

• *Þetta Reddast! It will all work out ok! Iceland’s Unofficial Motto: *

  • BBC

• *How to ACTUALLY pronounce names from Norse Mythology (Icelandic): *

  • Hrafna Youtube Channel

• Pronunciation of Iceland’s Famous Volcanic Glacier:

  • The Icelandic Volcano Tongue Twister (April 20th, 2010) (DennisMenice10)
  • Secret Life of Walter Mitty - What is "Eyjafjallajökull"? (ID X)
  • Eyjafjallajökull (imdb)

Salam!

This episode discusses how Arabic varieties around the "Arab world" differ from each other and where a beginner should start their journey with a fascinating yet not fully appreciated language. Therefore, we interrogate which variety one should learn and how long it takes to learn Arabic. And last but not least, we risk asking the taunting question: isn't "darija" -the ugly duckling of the Arabic dialects- underrated? We share our views on these highly controversial topics and a few fun facts surrounding this West Semitic language.

And for those who took the leap and joined our community, you'll be able to learn some basic phrases in Arabic, along with Raffaele, in the aftershow! Yallah!

• Introduction to Arabic (in English):

La langue arabe: Son histoire étonnante et fonctionnalités (Paul, Langfocus)

Arabic Language (Britannica)

• Comparison between dialects:

Moroccan DARIJA (An Arabic Dialect??) (Paul, Langfocus)
Arabic Dialects - Which Arabic dialect to learn? (Al Andalusi)

• Resources to learn Arabic (Levantine):

Read & Write ANYTHING in Arabic in only 6 lessons! Alphabet #1 (LearnArabicwithMaha)

Learn Lebanese (with Dalia) (Instagram)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLnr17rEFrQ(Language Simp)

• The Alphabet:

Arabic Alphabet Explained by an American (Language Simp)

• Challenge:

Saying the Arabic Alphabet for 10 Hours Straight (Language Simp)

• Fun Facts:

Transliteration and texting in Arabic - Why So many numbers? (talkinarabic)

• Arabic in Easy Languages

What makes you happy? (Easy Egyptian Arabic 23)

We Asked Egyptians What They Were Doing! (Easy Egyptian Arabic 36 with Tim from Easy Dutch)

What Are Your Hobbies? (Easy Tunisian Arabic 13)

In this episode, we meet José, a polyglot from Bolivia who moved to Spain and currently studies linguistics, but only when he's not creating content for Easy Spanish.

We discuss how Spanish varieties around the world differ, and what is voseo. But most importantly, we answer the ultimate question for those who want to learn Spanish: which variety should you study?

Finally, should grammar be the priority when you learn a new language? Does grammar even exist? We share our views on these hotly debated topics and more!

• Easy Spanish
  • Easy Spanish YouTube Channel
  • Easy Spanish Podcast
  • Easy Spanish Winter School 2023
• Wikipedia
  • Bolivia
  • Saint Seiya
  • Spanish language
  • Spanish dialects and varieties
  • Voseo
  • Kingdom of Naples
  • Rioplatense Spanish
  • Italian Argentines

In this episode, we delve into the dark depths of the etymology of words like Halloween and Samhain! But fear not, it’s just an excuse for us to talk about Celtic languages and some words that creeped into the English language!

We also covered a hotly debated topic: can you really learn a language in 3 months? And if not, how long does it really take to do so? We’ll check what scientific studies say, but we will also share our own opinions and experiences.

• Wikipedia
  • Hogmanay
  • Halloween
  • Samhain
  • Languages of Scotland
  • Scots Language
  • Scottish Gaelic
  • Celtic Languages
  • Welsh Corgi dog
  • Whisky, etymology
  • Book series read by Raffaele: The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell
• Benny Lewis, Fluent in 3 Months
• Steve Kaufmann, Lingq, The Linguist (YouTube)
• Language Learning Timelines (Foreign Service Institute, US Department of State)
• What are the hardest languages to learn (Voxy)
• Five Factors That Determine How Long it Takes to Learn a Foreign Language (Study and Go Abroad)
• How to learn any language in six months, Chris Lonsdale, TEDx (YouTube)
• Omniglot
• A short passage from a movie in which a young Chinese guy enters a bar in Ireland, speaks Irish, and… (YouTube)

In this episode we celebrate a new milestone: the Easy Greek YouTube channel has reached 50k subscribers! We invited Dimitris to learn a little bit more about his passions but also his family, heritage and languages.

We also discussed the history of the Greek language and its influences on today's Europe and why his students decided to learn the language of mythology and philosophy.

Finally, Dimitris shares his approach to raising multilingual children and his language-learning tips for grown-ups.

• Easy Greek Videos:

  • How to Make Spanakopita Like a Greek Mum | Easy Greek 92
  • Do Modern Greeks Know Ancient Greek? | Easy Greek 12
  • Modern Greeks Try to Read Ancient Greek | Easy Greek 56
  • The Greek Alphabet 1: Pronunciation | Super Easy Greek 3

• Little Kook, Athens (Tripadvisor)

• Strange Brew, Athens (Tripadvisor)

• Saganaki (Wikipedia)

• History of Greek (Wikipedia)

• The Ingenious Language, Andrea Marcolongo (Amazon)

• Book Review (The Guardian)

• Easy Greek Podcast 94: Οι κατηγορίες των Easy Greekers

• Big Fat Greek Wedding, "Give my any word" scene with Mr Portokalos

• The word for orange (fruit) in many languages, map (Maps on the Web)

• In Greek mythology, apricots were believed to be "golden apples" (Jogobella)

• Greece-Italy relations (Wikipedia)

• "Una faccia, una razza" (Greek Reporter)

• One person, one language (Wikipedia)