Audrius is yet another brilliant person we met at this year’s Polyglot Gathering in Berlin. Being an expert in many fields, including environmental sciences and languages, he is a true 21st-century renaissance man đ Check out our interview in which he talks about how to overcome stagnation and how languages can influence your life.
Have you heard of Italki yet? If not, you definitely should! Italki was one of the sponsors of this year’s Polyglot Gathering in Berlin. Ivan, who represented the company during the event, told us about some of the ideas behind Italki and the company’s plans for the future. Check it out!
VocApp: Hi Ivan, thank you for giving us your time to do this little interview. Ivan works for Italki, a language company that provides its user with the ability to connect with language speakers all over the world. Ivan my first question is, your platform is an excellent tool for communicating with language enthusiasts all over the world, but do you think it is also efficient at the very beginning of the learning process when most of us are still very stressed about speaking?
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Recently, we’ve had the pleasure of exchanging our insights on learning languages with Simone, who is as passionate about them as we are đ Check out our interview and take your language learning to the next level!
VocApp: Is it true that knowing languages makes travelling easier?
Simone: You bet it does! Knowing languages makes travelling a lot easier especially in those countries where English is not spoken (or at least not that much). A good example can be Italy, my motherland, where not everyone working on railway stations speaks fluent English, especially if you go out of the big cities. I know itâs always challenging for tourists who need information. On the other hand, Italians are known to make themselves understood just by using their hand gestures, so the tourists can rest assured đ I’d also like to add that knowing languages not only makes travelling easier but it enriches your travel experience a lot. If I think about my solo trip to South America it wouldnât have been the same without being able to speak Spanish. The locals were really open with me and I was even invited for lunch or dinner a few times. I really had a full immersion in the local culture, both in Argentina and Chile, and got to know much more about their traditions thanks to the language.
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You want to learn a language but you donât have time? Iâm about to prove you wrong! You can achieve your goal with the help of your daily activities. Thanks to that you will not only improve your Spanish, German or whatever youâre learning, but also make your day more interesting. Below is a list of 14 daily activities that  will give you up to 4 hours of language learning every day.
For many of us, using Facebook is as obvious as breathing. Because we know it so well, it is time we changed the language of the interface to the one weâre currently learning. There are dozens of options, starting with such âmundaneâ languages as French, German, or Spanish through gems such as Pirate English, where the âLikeâ button changes to âArr!â đ
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Jimmy Mello is a polyglot from Brazil famous for his Mello Method – an innovative approach to language learning based on speaking from day one and postponing the study of advanced grammar to later stages. His invention earned Jimmy an international renown and provided his students with a very efficient means of learning new languages. In fact, he’s recently become the endorser of VocApp, as he also believes that flashcards are an indispensable component of learning a foreign language. Watch Meaghan’s interview with Jimmy and get inspired to speak from day one!
read moreMost times it is a good idea to open a post with an anecdote, especially if it originates from such a fantastic event as Polyglot Gathering Berlin 2015.
We were very lucky. We had just scheduled an interview with Richard Simcott and were headed for the nearby park where we could sit and talk. But first we had to take the lift to the ground floor. With us were other participants of the Polyglot Gathering 2015. We jokingly said that Richard was as popular among the polyglots who had come to Berlin as the Pope was among catholics. Suddenly, one of the men seized his hand screaming âPapa!â(Italian for âPopeâ) and kissed it.
read moreCan external motivation transform into passion? How to use 60 minutes to study effectively? Alex Rawlings, âBritainâs most multilingual studentâ and organiser of polyglot workshops shares his experience with learning foreign languages. Â Watch and find out!
VocApp.com: All right Alex. Thank you very much for giving us your precious time. Can we just start by telling our viewers who you are, what you do and why we were so happy to trace you down to the conference for the interview.
Alex Rawlings: Three years ago in 2012 I won a competition by Harper Collins, the publishers, which was trying to find Britain’s most multilingual student. I was tested for fluency in eleven different languages by native speakers and I was given the prize. Back then I was studying German and Russian at Oxford, I’ve since left Oxford and I’m now living in Budapest, where I’m learning Hungary and teaching, English, German and Russian.
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Benny Lewis gave us a bunch of simple, yet very useful tips on how to learn languages.
He knows very well what he is talking about: at the age of 21 he spoke only English — now he speaks more than 12 languages. Today the author of Fluent in 3 Months is one of the most famous polyglots in the world!
Watch our interview from Polyglot Gathering Berlin 2015 and find out:
VocApp.com:Â Hi Benny, I’m very, very happy that you managed to find time for us. I perfectly know who you are, but can you please just start by telling our viewers who you are and what you do, and why we are so happy that we managed to meet here.
read morePick up helpful tips on learning languages from the author of BrazilianGringo.com, who speaks 5 languages. In this first episode of our interview series with known polyglots, Meaghan asks Josh (among other things) about:
Tip: if you are not an English native speaker, you can use this interview as an interesting learning material – the video contains subtitles.
Meaghan: Hi, my name is Meaghan, and today I will be talking with Josh Plotkin. Josh runs a website and blog at BrazilianGringo.com. His website helps non-Brazilians learn Portuguese and gives tip on surviving in Brazil. Thank you, Josh, so much for talking with me today. How are you?
read moreGabriel Wyner is  the author of “Fluent Forever – How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It”. I have to admit that the title gets straight to the point. No more, no less. For me it was kind of an epiphany.
Here, at VocApp.com, we are deeply impressed by Gabriel and want to make our platform as compatible with his methodology as possible — to a much greater extent than Anki or other spaced repetition systems. Watch our interview with Gabriel. We will ask him about:
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