Foreign languages are something that I enjoy. I speak a few and none of them perfectly but I enjoy them nonetheless. English is my native language, Spanish was the next language that I learned to speak fairly well and then Portuguese followed a few years later. The first video is in Portuguese, the second in Spanish and the third in English. We’ll see if I can manage to make short videos in anything else.
I agree with many of the things you mention in your English video about learning languages, and I share your enthusiasm for speaking a foreign language.
I started learning Mandarin Chinese at age 18, lived and traveled in Taiwan and China, then moved to Taiwan for the long-term in 2001, when I was 32. I speak and read Mandarin in my work every day, and have done translation and interpreting off and on for years.
I speak a bit of Spanish (I’m from Arizona, and will guess that we are from approximately the same region in the US), and do what I can to improve my Taiwanese (aka Minnan, a local dialect in Taiwan spoken by 80% if its inhabitants).
I’ll post a link to your blog on my blog, The Lingua Franca. I write mainly about issues related to learning Chinese and about cross-cultural communications in business in the Greater China area. If I can help you find the answers to any questions about learning Mandarin, let me know.
Cheers,
Truett Black
Cara, seu português é muito bom, seu sotaque é quase nativo. Se você morasse no Brasil, com certeza depois de certo tempo iam pensar que você é brasileiro. Eu vi sua entrevista no blog do Steve Kaufmann, muito legal! Meu nome é Mairo, sou tutor de português no LingQ, e também tenho um blog em http://www.comoaprenderjapones.com. Já coloquei seu blog no meu RSS Reader, vou começar a acompanhar. Falow!
Olavo de Carvalho deve ser o maior e melhor filósofo e cientista politico de língua portuguesa
[...] primarily by The Linguist Blogger’s YouTube videos where he demonstrates his Spanish and Portuguese abilities, I created a short video on YouTube, [...]
There is only one thing that I disagree with… I think you implied that it is more beneficial for Americans to learn Spanish rather than languages like French and German, unless people travel to Europe often. The thing is though, that it’s so easy now to find awesome people to meet online and then speak on microphone for free and have conversations and learn that way. It can open up doors for you and allow you to meet and talk to people who speak almost any language you want to learn. I think, depending on a person’s interests, this is much more beneficial to certain individuals than learning Spanish and speaking it with neighbors, etc, if this is not the language you truly desire to learn and find interesting…
Andrea: You are right! If someone is interested enough in French, or Faroese even, to learn the language then I think that person should go for it. I do, however, stand by my original comment. All things being equal, it is better to learn a language that you can use often than one you will barely touch. It is only a suggestion but I think it is based on sound logic.
By the way you speak very well. Parabens!!!
como mejorar y aprender ingles.Hablo español nativamente y quiero mejor mi ingles.Podria tener charlas contigo para intercambiar idiomas? gracias
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.