5 reasons NOT to learn a language
Yes, you did read that correctly. We’re always telling you why learning a language is one of the best things you can do – so today, we’re examining a few of the main reasons why people choose not to do it. How many of these do you recognise?
1. I’m not good at languages
We’ve all said this at some point. What it really means is ‘I didn’t do well at languages at school, so I must be bad at them.’ (Remember that time in Spanish class when you accidentally said you were pregnant when you meant embarrassed, and everyone laughed? Nightmare.)
But we all learn differently and at school, we were only taught one way. So maybe it’s just that you haven’t found the right way for you yet…
2. I can’t afford it
Learning a language doesn’t need to cost a fortune. You could read newspapers online in the language you’re learning. Or find a friend to chat to, either in person or via Skype. If you’re a creative type, make yourself some flashcards and use them to practise your vocabulary.
For more tips, visit Alex’s article on learning a language on a budget. And check out our special offer at the end of this email…
3. I don’t need to learn a language
This is one that’s often heard among English speakers: ‘But everyone speaks English!’ (Apparently 33% of Brits think speaking English with a foreign accent is the answer. It really isn’t.)
And while it might be true that a lot of people now speak English, that doesn’t mean we should stop making the effort. By knowing just a few words like hello and thank you, we show respect and probably end up having a better experience as a result.
4. I haven’t got time
We all lead busy lives, and it can be hard to find time to do everything we want to do. But learning a language doesn’t have to mean studying for hours on end. Break it up into small, manageable tasks and fit it around your daily life – on the bus to work, for instance, or waiting for a meeting to start. You may be surprised how much time you actually have.
For more advice, check out our blog post on making time to learn a language.
5. I’m too old to learn a language
You’re never too old. It may be true that children’s brains are better suited to picking up new languages, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that adults can’t do it. Just look at Benny Lewis, who hated languages at school and now speaks seven fluently. If he can do it, why not the rest of us?
So let’s stop making excuses and start learning a language now; in a year’s time we’ll be glad we did…
The Long And Winding Road… of Long Distance Bus Travel
If you’re on a budget or just want to indulge in a bit of thinking time, travelling across Europe by bus could be the thing for you. With numerous companies offering fantastic prices, it’s a wonder that more people haven’t partaken in this not-so-secret method of transport.
Based on two particular routes*, here are some ‘dos and don’ts’ from our own personal experience.
Checking In
If you are travelling from the UK, Victoria Coach Station insist on you being available to check in at least one hour before departure. From other countries it is usually around half an hour maximum.
Check in normally involves only showing your ticket or reference number, however in some places there will also be an additional check of your ID card or passport.
If you want to guarantee a window seat or that your luggage is on first, face the fact that you will have to queue. Embrace it. Or at least prepare some good music to dance to whilst waiting.
Luggage
Whilst coach companies are very generous and often overlook oversized luggage, don’t get too greedy. Luggage limits are usually around 25kg and it’s mostly okay to go over that – although not with your entire house. On a very recent trip one single traveller was furious that her guitar, record player, large holdall, large backpack, and two very large suitcases were deemed too much. Shocking.
On The Bus
Thankfully coach seats do not recline as much as plane seats might, but there will always be someone who believes they alone need all the body space and legroom that is/isn’t available.
Mind where you sit. If you’re someone who needs the toilet regularly then you have to weigh up the pros of being close to the toilet with the cons of constantly hearing the door slam and the toilet flush – amongst other things.
Also. Take tissue with you. The one solitary toilet roll that is often installed in coach toilets pretty quickly disappears, so if you need to use the facilities more than two hours into the journey, take your own supply.
Trips to the toilet in the middle of the night can either be a human assault course or a foot fetishist’s idea of heaven: those lucky enough to not have to share a seat will sprawl out as best they can, with feet both socked and bare blocking your way. Do what you will.
Take headphones or earplugs. You are guaranteed to have either one token unhappy child or one potentially unstable adult who feels the need to tell everyone their life story. Look busy. At all times.
A small blanket is a very good idea for the coach, no matter the season you travel in. There’s nothing worse than attempting to sleep as a contortionist might, when there’s a breeze coming in on your back or you are shivering.
If you board a bus that originates from the UK, and you happen to have a UK adapter/plug, guard it with your life. For once other unprepared passengers are aware of this little treasure, everyone will suddenly want to befriend you and ‘borrow’ it.
Regular Stops
When there is a stop, use the toilet. Whether you feel the urge or not. If nothing else it is an opportunity to wash your hands thoroughly as the sinks in coach toilets always seem to have the smallest trickle of water and very little soap.
Take plenty of change with you for the vending machines at service stations. Not only will this work out cheaper than buying a ‘proper’ coffee at every stop, you will also be pleasantly surprised by the range and quality of hot beverages available. Especially in France. May we recommend the vanilla cappuccino.
Crossing The Channel
Depending on the time of day, you will either face the claustrophobic challenge that is the Channel Tunnel, or walk around a ferry at your leisure for around an hour before trying to find your coach again at the last minute. The ferry feels much more civilised as you can lounge on sofas or pace up and down the deck, but the Tunnel is much faster.
Be prepared for long delays at the border. It can either take under half an hour to go through the two separate controls for France and England, or it can take two hours. It depends on if they feel like checking your luggage as well as your passports, if they want their sniffer dogs to check you over, and if your fellow passengers who need visas have filled in or need help with filling in their paperwork.
Pet Peeves And Pluses
The main pet peeve of long distance coach travel, it has to be said, are Those People. You know the ones. Those who feel that every single stop, be it to refuel or for the driver to change, is their own personal cigarette break. Those that when the driver says there is a 45 minute break, decide to casually stroll into the service station five minutes before departure and delay the coach with their hot drinks that the driver has clearly said are not allowed onboard. Those that are veterans of the journey and will not leave the driver alone for a moment, or will give the entire coach a loud, running commentary the entire route.
A big plus is the long stops when changing buses. Stopping in Paris for 3 hours gives you ample time to wander to the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe as well as popping into a patisserie for a cheeky pastry for your petit dejeuner.
It does have to be said though, at least in our experience, that the drivers make the journey. They are jolly, they tell bad jokes, and they cheer you on with gusto to encourage you to get through the border control quicker than their previous coach passengers. Definitely an added bonus that will make you smile.
Bus travel. It isn’t for everyone. But perhaps it is for you.
Kelly
One more plus from us: you’ll meet loads of interesting people on your bus journey. Why not download uTalk for iOS, so you’ll always know how to say hello, even if you’re from different countries?
*Budapest to London, via Eurolines, with a travel time of 26 hours and 45 minutes. Calling at: Győr, Vienna, Linz, Liege, Brussels, Ghent, Lille and Dover before terminating at Victoria Coach Station, London.
Barcelona to London, via Megabus, travelling for approximately 26 hours. Calling at: Toulouse, Brive, Paris and Amiens and terminating at Victoria Coach Station.
The Language Forest: how are world languages related?
Have you ever wondered how different languages in the world are related to each other? Some of the answers may be surprising…
Did you know, for example, that the Finnish language isn’t directly related to Danish or Norwegian? It’s actually a Uralic language, in the same family as Hungarian and Estonian, whereas the others are North Germanic.
Or that Korean and Basque are two examples of a language isolate, which means they’re not related to any other language in the world?
According to Ethnologue, the Indo-European language family has the most speakers (2.9m), although the Niger-Congo family includes the most languages (1,524).
To find out more, check out our forest of language family trees below. Please click on the image to make it bigger and have a good look around; you may well discover languages you never knew existed…
(Please note: the forest doesn’t include every language in the world; it would have been difficult to fit all 6,000+ in! So if we’ve missed off your language, we’re really sorry and hope you’ll forgive us.)
If you’d like to share the image on your own blog or website, you’re more than welcome – please use the embed code below. We also include a free poster-sized copy of the language forest with all our CD-ROM and USB products (available from eurotalk.com), with a world language map on the reverse.
We hope you enjoy exploring the language forest 🙂
Embed This Image On Your Site (copy code below):
Travels with a language geek
After almost three years as an (unofficial, for the last year) member of the EuroTalk family, I’ve finally decided that it’s time for me to move on and take my passion for languages and cultures on the road. So, I’m hanging up my localisation project manager hat (not literally of course – there’s no designated hat for that) and setting off on a trip across Europe.
I have to say that at the moment my plans are pretty vague. My partner has a car, so we’re packing our stuff in the boot, getting in and heading off for a mega road trip across Europe: the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland and Ukraine, for a start. Then the idea is to end up in Lviv, Western Ukraine and stick around there for a while until we decide the next phase of our plan. There’s no particular time-scale on any of this – we’re simply going to drive from city to city, visit a few friends, see some sights and move on when we feel like it. The only limit on how much time we can spend driving from place to place is money, and how long we can stand spending that much time together. When we finally get to Lviv, we’re planning to rent a flat there for a while and live the digital nomad lifestyle, experiencing life in Ukraine and using Lviv as a base from which to explore other parts of Eastern Europe.
You might wonder why of all places I’ve chosen to go and live in Ukraine. Well, I wish I could give you a really great and well-thought out reason, but the simple fact is: it’s really cheap to live there right now! According to NomadList.com, you can live in Lviv on $400 a month. That’s around £250 – less than half of what I pay each month in rent here in London. Which is pretty appealing to someone who is trying to live as a digital nomad for the foreseeable future. For those of you who don’t spend as much time as I do stalking travel bloggers on Twitter, a digital nomad is someone who lives abroad and/or travels indefinitely, funding themselves by working remotely via wifi and their laptop. A few intrepid travellers out there have managed to fund themselves all the way around the world just by blogging, writing or completing other online work. In my case I’ll be translating to earn my daily bread, whilst pretending to be a super-cool international travel blogger the rest of the time. It’s all about wearing expensive sunglasses and taking selfies, I’m assured.
But taking advantage of 30p beers isn’t the only reason I’m excited to experience life in Eastern Europe. As a language geek, of course I can’t wait to try my hand at picking up Russian and bits of other local languages: Polish, Ukrainian and Czech sounds like a start! Not to mention finding out as much as I can about the culture, lifestyle and places of this amazing region. Oh, and I’ll be bombarding everyone with updates and photos via my brand-new blog: postcardsfromukraine.com, which is already in the top ten blogs about being a digital nomad in Ukraine written by a Brit and an Italian. So, if you’re curious, feel free to catch up with us on Twitter @ukrpostcards or the Postcards from Ukraine Facebook page, and I promise to keep EuroTalk updated on my language-learning goals too.
Alex
Language of the Week: Samoan
To celebrate Samoan Language Week which runs from 24th May to 1st June this year, here are ten facts about this beautiful language and nation, which many of us know very little about.
If you fancy giving it a try, you can now start learning Samoan for free with uTalk. And for this week only, we’ve reduced the price of the Essentials and Premium upgrades to £2.99 and £6.99 (usually £7.99 and £11.99).
10 Facts about Samoan
- Samoan is a member of the Polynesian language family, one of the oldest branches still in existence today.
- It’s the official language of Samoa, where it has approximately 200,000 native speakers.
- It’s also spoken in New Zealand, where it’s the third most-spoken language, after English and Māori.
- The Samoan language is written using a Latin-based alphabet.
- Samoan’s alphabet has just 14 letters: 5 vowels and 9 consonants. 3 more consonants – H, K and R – are used in loan words from other languages.
- The Samoan flag’s upper left quarter is blue and has five white, five-rayed stars representing the Southern Cross. The rest of the flag is red.
- Samoa consists of seven islands in the South Pacific Ocean. The two main islands are Savai’i and Upolu.
- It takes 20 hours to fly to Samoa from London.
- Lu’au is a traditional Samoan dish, consisting of coconut cream, onions and taro, wrapped in taro leaves and then cooked.
- Samoans are known throughout Polynesia as ‘happy people’.
5 Samoan proverbs
The Samoan language is full of proverbs and idioms; here are five of our favourites:
E pala le maʻa, a e le pala le upu
Translation: Even stones decay, but words endure.
A reminder of the damage that hurtful words can do.
Ia malu le vai i lou finagalo
Translation: May your mind be like cool water.
This phrase is used to ask someone for forgiveness if you’ve offended them.
Se’i fono le pa’a ma ona vae
Translation: Let the crab take counsel with its legs.
This proverb advises us to think things through before we take action.
Amuia le masina, e alu ma toe sau
Translation: Fortunate is the moon, to go and then return.TranslationHumans only get one life, unlike the moon; so we should make the most of it.
Humans only get one life, unlike the moon; so we should make the most of it.
Ua ‘afa le aso
Translation: A day for plaiting ‘afa.
A rainy day. ‘Afa is a plaited rope made from dried coconut fibres, and used in architecture and boat building.
We’ll be sharing more fun facts about Samoan as the week goes on…
