Posts tonen met het label learn language. Alle posts tonen
Posts tonen met het label learn language. Alle posts tonen

dinsdag 19 juli 2016

Flirting and compliments - a great way to learn languages!

Dating is one of the best ways to learn a language. You're motivated. Every day. Every text message. Every phone call. You'll do anything to prove your counterpart you're learning his/her language for him/her. How great.

Show you care - give a compliment in his/her language! ©
To help you in your dating life, I've made online videos in German, French and Dutch to find your loved one. Sure it will help you, whether you're flirting or in a relationship. Isn't it great if your loved one would give you pet names in your language? Or saying someone has beautiful eyes?

On the other hand, knowing how to give compliments in the language you're learning will help you in many other ways. You'll be more respected, you'll make more native friends and you'll have more to talk about. It's the total opposite of swearing (well, even some can appreciate that). Being nice is not a crime, believe it or not.

However, don't start over-complimenting people. Only give genuine, sincere compliments.

My video about Dutch compliments and flirting:


My video about German compliments and flirting:



My video about French compliments and flirting:



maandag 9 mei 2016

Language learning hack: the 100 most used words

How do you start to learn a new language? There's many ways to start:

  • Learn how to introduce yourself: that sounds very logic, since you start speaking by introducing yourself
  • Pronunciation: important, especially for languages that are very different from your own
  • My favourite: learn the in the language. By learning those words, you will already understand a good part of the language. Below are a few links to the most used words in the most spoken languages of the world. 
  • Find other tips here.

1. English. Oxford Online did a research on what the 100 most written words were. Here's the list. If you prefer them in a video, here it is. For the spoken words, check the Reading Teachers Book of Lists, here are the 100 most spoken words.

2. Mandarin Chinese. Chinese is a little different. So you can learn the 100 most used characters. Or, you can learn the 100 most common phrases or words. And you might want to check out this website, which has a number of core words. There are pronunciations and explanations as well.

3. French. Here you'll find the 100 most common French words. Plus translations. Alternatively, you can follow this course on Memrise. And there's core words on the same website as for Chinese.

4. Spanish. The easiest list can be found here. Would you like to hear them all in one video? Click here. You can also look for 100 words you need to know here. They're not the most used, but handy anyway. For the 100 most used phrases and words, click here. For the verbs, here. And this blog claims you know half of the language with the 100 most used words.

5. Portuguese. It's a little more complicated to find a top 100, but you can start with the 1000 most common ones. Pronunciations are also available on this website. And here are the core 100 words.

6. Arabic. Arabic signs are different from Latin ones used in English, but here are the most common used words written out for you. Here are the top 100 verbs and you can listen to those on YouTube.

Beware though: languages change. So those lists are approximately the most used words in the respective languages.

Did I already tell you I wrote a book with over 100 language learning tips? Get your free copy here!

woensdag 4 mei 2016

Free language learning website

In our quest to learn languages, we're always on the lookout for free materials. Now, I've found a great website that has a wealth of links, phrases and more than you can imagine. I'm very happy I found this little treasure to learn a language. Or two.

However, there's one thing: the homepage looks a bit scary. There's loads of Constructed Scripts, Astrolinguistics, and other Secani's. They are no animals, to my surprise, but subjects related to language.

The easiest way to find learning materials for the language you're studying, is like this: find your language on this list, and scroll down below to the learning materials, phrases and other websites where you'll find way more information, such as online language courses and learning websites.

Happy learning!