General language learning

Phonetic Slavic languages
Phonetic comes from ancient Greek meaning ’sound - voice’. The Slavic languages are phonetic. This is one great advantage when trying to learn. Despite the strange streams of consonants or the Cyrillic alphabet, once you learn the 50 or so sound combinations and letters you can read as you would speak. Spelling is [...]

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Tags: alphabet, language, phonetic, Polish, russian, slavic, Ukrainian

English language accent percentages
What percentage of people in the world speak American language accents vs British or other accents?
Accent percentages
American accents 70%
English accents 15%
Canadian accents 5%
Australian accents 5%
Other 5%

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Tags: accents, american accents, canadian accents, custralain accents, english, english accents

How big is your language learning library
When I ask most of my friends how many language resources, that is, books, CDs, programs etc they own most have a small library. I think when you are learning a language having many resources is helpful. Most people buy a few dictionaries, both pocket and complete, [...]

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Tags: books, do you own, how many, How to learn a language, language books, language CDs, language library, language software, MP3, mp3 language learning

Teaching languages abroad
If you make a mini career out of teaching languages, such as English abroad, you generally have an upper middle class income. Initially your backpackers income translates to a middle class income, but if you refine your teaching and perfect your method in addition to organizing your schedule, you can earn an upper [...]

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Tags: abroad, ESL, language, learn, teach, Teaching languages abroad

How long does it take to be conversational in a language
It takes from 3 months to 3 years to be conversational in a language.  I teach and learn languages and you need about 3000 words to get by and about 5000 words to be conversational, even with no grammar.  You have to calculate how long [...]

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Tags: conversation, conversational, conversational in a language, language, Techniques for language learning

How much time does it take to achieve fluency in a language
In my experience working with people, on average, it takes about 10 years to be fluent in a language.  However, it depends how you define fluency.  Generally, you need to study a language for about 10 years to be good.   Of course to be [...]

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Tags: fluency, fluent, how long does it take to be fluent in a language, language, language fluency

Language and the Neanderthals
Neanderthals  had  the capacity to speak just as Modern humans do, at least that is what their genes tell us.  According to Johannes Krause and Svante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute, in Germany who were part of a European team that studied the Neanderthals genome.  The specific gene is FOXP2, and is known [...]

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Tags: gene, language, Neandertals, Neanderthals, Neanderthals and language, Origin of languages

Verbs evolve linguistically different
Commonly used verbs are less likely to change
A verb that is used often will change verb slowly, whilst a verb that is used less frequently will change less. This is according to a Harvard University team lead by Martin Nowak. Nowak is not a linguist but rather a professor of mathematics and [...]

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Tags: evolution, linguistic, verbs

Gesture reflects or body language language development: Evidence from bilingual children
Using hand gestures to help you in expressing yourself was seen as a sign of weak verbal or language development.  A substitution for verbal fluency.  However, the work on Elena Nicoladis Department of Psychology University of Alberta indicates the contrary. Children who used more hand gestures and [...]

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Tags: bilingual, body-language, children, hand gestures, How to learn a language, language, techniques to learn a language, verbal

15% more earnings for bilingual skills
I have been looking around at how much people get paid for being bilingual. If you are talking apples and apples, bilingualism will reward you with about a 15% increase per year in your pay. However, this is for basic job. The reward for a professionals, will be a higher, [...]

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Tags: bilingual, bilingualism, earnings, language, learn, Ukraine, Ukrainian