Languages and the world

To learn a language is to be part of the world

Mayan language The Mayans were the only perhaps the only indigenous peoples of the Americas that had a written language. And what it revealed was a powerful civilization marked my rituals and blood. The Language Mayan languages were written in the Maya hieroglyphic script. Some of the script were sounds and others words. The surviving [...]

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English has invaded other national languages. Trends in business and demographics is like global warming, often there is little that can be done to reverse these trends. So is the case with the English language. “English has already invaded the languages of Moliere, Cervantes and Goethe, dominating the fields of technology and business and even [...]

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Polish is the hardest language to learn in the world What is the hardest language to learn for English Speakers? Take a guess; it is not Chinese or Japanese. It is Polish. Polish has seven cases and Polish grammar has more exception than rules. German for example has four cases all which are logical, seem [...]

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Native American Languages This quote is from James Fenimore Cooper’s classic “Last of the Mohicans” Although Cooper’s writing is a bit old fashion and forgive his non politically correctness, his description of Native American languages very interesting, beautiful and I think accurate.   If you have ever tried to learn languages that are not French, German, Spanish or typical [...]

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One world language Linguists have dubbed it “proto-world” or “proto-sapiens.” language The idea that all human language has a common root is a controversial theory, but even more is the idea of one world language.  The story of the tower of Babel is certainly a great story that alludes to the idea that all human [...]

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I am currently on vacation in Crimea, right now Feodosia. I thought I would flex and expand some of my linquistic skills and learn some Ukrainian and Russian, as a complement to Polish.  I have to say nothing mentally has happened other than me sleeping on the beach and back in my flat.  I have never [...]

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English as the official language for the Untied States of America     I am American.  I was born in United States.  I learnt no other language than English, until I learnt French in school.  My parents spoke Polish and Ukrainian, but in the 1960s when I grew up, the conventional wisdom  in the United States [...]

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Students are studying less traditional European languages and more exotic languages What languages are hot now?  Chinese and Arabic.  These languages are growing in popularity. French and Latin not as much. The reasons are obvious, Chinese and Arabic is a manifestation of the geo-economic-political-demographics shifts. Also its fun to be different. If everyone around you [...]

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benefits of language learning “In 1922, Ludwig Wittgenstein noted that “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” How relevant these words are today. The most obvious need for increased language proficiency stems from our inability to understand and communicate adequately with others with whom we have shared interests; and in a [...]

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Did you know France has two languages?  Proper French and a separate Occitan language or lenga d’òc.  Occitan is the language of the south.  It had its relative zienth in the 14th century but still has several million speakers today.  However, there is a huge delcine in native speakers, only about a half a million [...]

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