Conversations in any language for everyone! The future of languages... or not?

The future of languages is there: the Pilot. It's a small piece of technology you can put in your ear, and in the ear of the person you're speaking to (don't force it!). And when you speak to that person, it will automatically translate into that person's language. So you can have conversations with anyone around the world in any language. Potentially. It's produced by Waverly Labs, whose website crashed because of the high demand after its release.

Here's the promotion film:

Have you seen Her? It's a beautiful movie about a futuristic society, where everyone has a personal assistant in an earplug. The character falls in love with the earplug during the movie. What does the movie has to do with the Pilot? It's one of the reasons why I overall don't support the product: it's very impersonal. Of course, the original goal, a world without language barriers, is very promising.

But imagine. Most of the persons who speak to you in another language, you're not going to listen to their voice anymore. If you don't both have the plug, what are you going to do? And when your battery is empty? And if you're in the middle of a crowd? And if you make mistakes in your own language? How is it going to translate sensitive issues? What about sayings and dialects?

Is the the end of foreign conversations as we know them? ©

Who will buy those things (they're priced at 250-300$)? People who need them: migrants/expats, travelling businessmen, persons working in customer care or in multinational environments. Except those that came into those businesses for learning languages. And for free, you'll lose the personal touch.

I see only two viable potential markets: emergency situations (e.g. tourists in hospitals) and to replace interpreters at conferences. And the people that don't want to do the effort of learning a language, like tourists - not sure if they will do the effort of putting earplugs in the ears of everyone they want to talk to. Well, maybe I'm wrong - the website crash suggests it. But let's see how it goes in the future.

Funny thing: the inventor came to the idea when he met a French girl. I wonder how you could communicate intimately: 'kiss me in the neck', says a generic voice in his earplug after a few seconds. Very romantic.

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!

Polyglot shares language learning tips - without leaving her country

Ever wonder how polyglots learn languages? Here there's one that shares her secrets... She learned many languages, including English, French, Turkish and Hindi. Without leaving her country.

And don't forget: get your free copy of my Ebook: 100+ tips to learn any language.

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!

Learn French online: French lessons

How about learning French online? Start with this course. The French lessons cover the basics of pronunciation, the verb to be and how you can meet someone. A number of exercises are added, and there's a quiz at the end to test if French is really your destiny. And the best part is: it's entirely for free.

You'll start with 'bonjour' (it means hello), and before you know it, you'll be fluent! One important aspect is to practise the French language. Find yourself a language exchange partner for free, and start practising.

Oh yes - there's 29 countries that have French as an official language. So it's a great way to choose some of your travel destinations. Europe, Africa and Canada are the usual suspects. But did you know there's many little paradises near the East coast of Australia where French is spoken? As well as in Vietnam and 2 of its neighbours?

Also, check out some resources to learn French here. And don't forget that there's a full French course waiting for you here. Other free online language lessons are here.

Languages of Game of Thrones

Fan of Game of Thrones? Did you ever wonder where the successful series' languages came from? Excellent question. The series are the brainchild of George R. R. Martin. However, he did not create whole new languages. In preparation of the TV series, David Peterson was asked to further develop the languages used in Game of Thrones.

There are two families of languages spoken, besides English. The first family is the Valyrian family, and the second one is the Dothraki family. Dotrhraki is spoken by the inhabitants near the Dothraki sea. These were very prominent in the first seasons of Game of Thrones. It sounds like a mix of Arabic and Spanish, but it's an entirely other language. There's even a blog about it. Fans submitted some poetry, meaning there's a community to join if you're interested.


Valyrian, on the other hand, has many dialects. There's High Valyrian, spoken by the elite, and some other, less developed and derived languages. Even for this language, certain fans submit poetry. And of course, you can follow some language lessons to become fluent.

It's interesting to see that persons find time to learn fictional languages rather than real ones. Once the series will end, it's not like you're going to be able to do order food in the supermarket with it. Or anything else. Except watching the series again. I'll stick with the subtitles. You?

If you feel the urge to learn the series' languages, this website is your way to go! And on Facebook, it seems only few pages exist... Except this one.

Learn Maltese online for free!

Learn Maltese online for free!


Did you always want to learn Maltese? Well, here's your opportunity. I just published a full course on Malta's beautiful language.

Maltese originally comes from Sicily, as settlers came from there around the year 1100 in Malta. Nowadays, it is a mix from mainly Italian, Arabic, English and some French. Those influences can clearly be noticed when learning the language. Knowing any of those will help you a lot. Maltese became the official language, together with English, in Malta in 1934. It is the only semitic language written with Latin letters. Maltese is as well closely related to Tunisian Arabic.

Around the world, there are around 500.000 native Maltese speakers. About 400.000 of them live in Malta. The others live mainly in the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. Due to the accession to the European Union, many Maltese immigrated to Brussels in Belgium.

The Maltese language is regulated by the National Council for the Maltese Language (Il-Kunsill Nazzjonali tal-Ilsien Malti, that’s not so difficult isn’t it - ilsien means language). The Council was created in 2005. Its task is to promote the use of standard Maltese and to regulate the new words coming into Maltese (words like mowbajl - which means cell phone, you guessed it right).

Here's the playlist on YouTube. You will find exercises here. And a 4-hour course is available here. Other resources to learn Maltese are here.