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.

Maltese: now with an official dictionary!

There are many reasons why translating Maltese is just a little more difficult than other European languages. It's mostly spoken, it has vocabulary based on Arabic and Maltese includes some Arabic grammar as well. To strengthen the Maltese language, the Malta Communications Authority published a dictionary.

public domain

The first official dictionary. It recognises the words you type in. It even has an automatic panel to write the letters that are typically Maltese: the ħ, for example. However, no translation is given. So you need to know the word you're looking for. So it will function as a reference dictionary.

On the one hand, this new dictionary will help Maltese in the first place, to find the correct spelling online. On the other hand, foreigners wishing to translate are better helped with this dictionary or this one.

An interesting exercise is to translate Maltese news articles into English. And advanced students can always translate from English to Maltese. For instance on TVM, with this article in English and in Maltese. And TVM has an English and a Maltese version, so students can translate as much as they like!

Studying Maltese? Follow my course! Over 200 students already enrolled!

17-years old polyglot shares his language learning tips!

In need of inspiration? Why not check out this interview with a teenage polyglot. He shares some of his tips to learn his new languages.

Don't get demotivated though! You can learn any language anytime, it only takes some effort and a right state of mind! No need to start as early as this talented teenager.

Teenage hyperpolyglot
Timothy Doner, an enormously accomplished language learner at age 17, talks with us in French, Mandarin and Russian, explains how each language "feels" to him, and shares some of his tips
Posted by The Economist on Wednesday, 16 March 2016