How do you know when you’re fluent in another language?

The other day, in a moment of idle curiosity, I took an online Spanish test. And it went rather well; when I finished, I was told that I was 87% fluent. This is very funny, because – to my shame – I haven’t spoken Spanish properly for years. And although the test proved that everything I … Read more

Putting Flemish to good use in Ghent

For me, the big glacé cherry on top of the holiday cake is seizing the opportunity to say something in the local language. There is nothing – nothing! – more dispiriting than shying away from an opportunity to test your language skills, forcing someone else to speak your language instead. When I went to Ghent this month, … Read more

How learning a language earned me a free jar of seaweed

Hello, goodbye, yes, no, please, thank you – and ‘can I have a glass of wine, please?’ You may well wonder what connects the words and phrase above. It’s quite simple: for me, these are the bare essentials of foreign language knowledge when visiting another country. You may of course prefer beer or water, but … Read more

How idioms help you make a language your own

When learning a new language we are happy to pass every little milestone: the first time you address a native speaker, the first conversation… All these achievements mean the world to us, they are the reward of our continuous learning. When becoming fluent in a language you can express almost everything you want to say, … Read more

A beginner’s guide to Esperanto

We hope you’ve enjoyed our Esperanto week! If we’ve convinced you to give the language a try, you might find this handy beginner’s guide a good place to start… Please feel free to share it with anyone you think might be interested. And for more information about Esperanto, visit edukado.net, a site run by linguist … Read more

Top 10 tips for learning a language

We originally published this infographic back at the start of last year as ‘top 10 tips for learning a language in 2014‘. But if there’s one thing we know, it’s that learning a language is something you can do anytime, anywhere. So here are our top 10 tips for learning a language – whenever you … Read more

How to learn a language on a budget

Why do people give up on learning a language? There are many answers to this question, of course. Recently, we’ve been running a survey (which you can still complete, if you have two minutes), about language learning, reasons for learning and things that might get in the way. According to the results so far, two … Read more