Language Marathon

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.

During an interview one day, I was praised that my successful language learning does not come only from good learning technique and correct mindset but also from good communication with my language partners that come from around the world.

To have another language is to possess a second soul - Charlemagne

If you think that knowing how to speak a foreign language is enough for successful international communication, you are wrong. Knowing about foreign culture and custom helps you communicate better. You need to learn how they speak, which topic is safe and unsafe to talk about.

I like to watch documentary films in my free time. I usually watch anything about culture, society, and history in general, or of a certain country. I also like to watch about tourism. At the time of this writing, I am watching a YouTube video about tourism in Cape Verde in the French language. Cape Verde is almost unknown for Asian, so I believe that there is not much information available in Asian languages. The advantage of knowing a foreign language is to be able to get information that is limited in your languages.

Keep On Reading

Reading is part of my daily activity. I like reading in various languages, and I find that Wikipedia is very suitable for my learning style. I can read the same topic in various languages. Wikipedia's articles of the same topic have different contents in different languages. So, you will find that there is much more information in certain languages. This makes reading Wikipedia articles very interesting!

On the left bottom of the article, there is a list of languages in which the article is available. I usually select the languages from the top one of the list. This is what I do every day to practice the languages that I know. It may sound like a daunting task that requires much concentration but believe me, it is a good practice for your brain too.

Wikipedia article about Cape Verde is available in more than 197 languages

I do not have many opportunities to meet native speakers for practicing languages because they are not available here. One way to solve this problem is to utilize the internet. I can know anyone from any countries to speak any languages although minority language speakers may not be easy to find it is still possible.

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