Nee's Language Blog

You have probably never heard of the Eurovision (the Eurovision Song Contest) if you were not raised in Europe. It did not catch my attention until the recent few years but I am not a crazy fan either. But I was hooked to it, this singing competition show is different.

Foreigners’ presence in Taipei city is quite visible. Wherever you go, on the street or inside the MRT station, you will see foreign faces easily. Taipei is really an international city. There are a lot of foreign restaurants, bars, nightclubs, etc. If you have free time every day and want to get some acquaintances, Taipei has plenty of meetups that you can join. One of them is “Language Meetup” where participants gather to practice different languages. These participants come from various walks of life: expats, professionals, students, etc.

Let's meet Manfred Sailer from Germany Website
1. Could you tell us about yourself, including the languages you know? Hello, my name is Manfred Sailer. I am a German monolingual. Ever since elementary school, I have been fascinated by the grammar. I still remember how excited I was when we learned what an "adjective" was. I only started learning other languages at the age of 10. I managed to turn grammar into my profession, studying general linguistics and working as a linguist in the English department of Goethe University, Frankfurt. I love learning languages, though I am quite lazy when it comes to memorizing vocabulary.

"Ripeti con me" means "repeat with me" in Italian. Repetition has always been one of many successful factors of language learning. It does not matter whichever language you learn, you need to repeat it daily, and make it part of your life to get a better outcome.

Let's meet Hanbid Kim from South Korea
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1. Could you tell us about yourself, including the languages you know? Hello everyone, my name is Hanbid Kim and my English name is Jack. My mother tongue is Korean. I have special hobbies such as studying several languages and traveling. I really like to study languages because I think of languages as the versatile tools. There are languages like English, Chinese, Cantonese, etc. which are the main languages I can speak fluently. I want to know more languages around the world in my life.

Besides English, which other language is more useful and gives a higher investment return? Many Korean drama fans learn Korean, Japanese drama fans learn Japanese, did you know that these two languages are only used in Korea and Japan, respectively? The chance to use these two languages in many countries around the world is low.

I got several chances for an interview about my language learning recently. The topic varied from my experience of learning various languages to Esperanto and constructed languages. Besides, there were also chances for doing presentations to raise public awareness about language learning and to demonstrate how easy and fun it is for everyone.

When I was asked to give a presentation about constructed language (conlang), I thought to myself "How can I deliver my presentation so that it won't be boring?". Right, "boring" is the word that appeared in my mind because I did not want my presentation to be too technical and difficult to understand for my audience. They don't have a linguistics background.

Admit it, we are living in the era of globalization where you can see foreign brands, products, and even the people anywhere you go. Tourists can travel from one place to other places so much easier than it was done one century ago.

Let me begin by asking you an important question, "What do you focus at the beginning of your language learning? Grammar? Pronunciation? Phrases?". Answering this question decides how you will spend your time learning the language. If you start wrongly, then you may need much more time to master the language.

I once asked on Facebook about what my friends usually do on weekend mornings. Some answered that they go hiking and some others sleep in. This curiosity struck me as I was having my breakfast on a Saturday morning. I always bring a book to read while going to have breakfast, and I realized on that morning that it has become my habit to read while having breakfast.

When I first started learning Russian, I was intimidated with the language. The only previous experience I had with languages was with Spanish and my native English. Many aspects of the Russian language were completely new to me, including verbal aspect, grammatical cases, and some sounds from the Russian alphabet.

In Pingtung, we have Benjamin Irwin, a Canadian who just moved there from Taipei. He has been teaching English at cram school since last summer. He can speak Esperanto and Italian fluently, besides Chinese that he masters quite well.

A nationwide Indonesian language proficiency test can be taken for the first time in Taiwan. More than 50 participants from various background and profession attended the test. The host for this test is the Language Center of National Taichung University of Science and Technology, cooperating with the International Language Center of the University of Indonesia.

A Finnish comedian, ISMO, shared his experience of learning English in a video. He mentioned that the most complicated word in English is "ass" that generally means "a person's buttocks".