[BY REQUEST] I AmA polyglot (multilingual person) from Ireland. I only spoke English when I was 21, but now I speak 10 languages and can sign ASL. I've given a TEDx talk to inspire adult language learners. AMA

What do you think about duolingo ?

Here's a review on my blog: http://www.fluentin3months.com/duolingo/ My thoughts on it are near the end. In general, it's a fantastic idea, but needs a bit of tweaking.

Klingon? Java? C++? .NET?

Klingon, yes!! :) Watch this video of me giving a tour of the place I was renting in Chicago, in costume! http://www.fluentin3months.com/klingon-vid/

I learned C++ in school, but use PHP more than anything nowadays for my blog, although I don't know it so well.

Ever mix languages up to make a new superlanguage only other decatongued people could follow? What is your favorite word?

I'd mix languages up in the learning stages, but way less frequently when I speak it fluently.

My favourite word is "saudades", a sense of longing or missing deep in your soul. It's Brazilian Portuguese and you understand exactly what it means after you leave the country and wish you were back!

Edit: OK, it's Portuguese for any country. I only speak Brazilian Portuguese and wasn't aware of this.

Not wanting to nitpick, or maybe I do, but "saudades" is not specific to Brazilian Portuguese.

I may as well ask this too:

If you did learn Brazilian Portuguese rather than its European version, and you say Spanish is the hardest language, have you actually ever been to Portugal or talked to Portuguese people to try and see how it sounds? You may as well expand this question to all your other languages.

Not trying to say EP is harder than Spanish or BP, I'm just curious really.

I've met Portuguese in my travels and could adjust to their accent with some concentration. But I've never been to Portugal, and I'm not sure if they were adjusting because they knew I spoke Brazilian Portuguese.

What's your shoe size?

45 European.

Why did you move to Spain? What's the best place you've lived in?

Spanish students came to my home town in Ireland when I was growing up and I liked how much fun they were. I never learned Spanish from them because they were there to improve their English. After graduation, I thought I had worked hard enough at my degree and deserved some "fiestas". I had initially only planned to move to Spain for the summer, but spent an entire year there and came back later for a further six months.

My favourite country in the world is Brazil. I wrote why here.

Carioca here, glad to hear you consider Brazil your favourite country. Abraço!

Tu vai adorar esse artigo: http://www.fluentin3months.com/sound-like-a-carioca/ ;) Saudades da cidade maravilhosa!!

Ok, you are now my new hero.

I set a challenge to learn five languages before I am 30 (25 now) but am currently feeling like a complete thick twat in trying to learn Spanish via Rosetta Stone.

Thanks for the AMA.

One language per year. Focus will get you furthest. Ditch Rosetta Stone and meet up with native speakers in person or online, or use affordable books like Teach Yourself, Colloquial or the Lonely Planet Phrasebook.

First of all, I'd like to say that that's amazing and inspiring. I love learning languages and hope to be like you someday.

My question is what inspired you to start learning different languages in the first place? Surely, quite often it's enough to jsut get by on English.

It is indeed enough to just get by on English! In most places, you can travel just with English no problem. You will always pay way more, but it's certainly possible.

The problem is that it's only ever "getting by". I don't travel for the places, but the people. So basic functional to ask directions to the sights is not important to me, since I'm not much of a sight-seer. I want to speak with human beings, and make that my focus.

I've had some amazing experiences thanks to speaking the local language that would have been absolutely impossible for an English speaking traveller. It opens up a whole new world for you!! People who only use English with the university educated elite have no idea what they are missing.

Thank you for your response!

Since you mentioned opening up a whole new world-which language do you tend to think in now or which language do you think in most of the time if you think in multiple languages? Do you feel like thinking in another language has changed your perspective on things?

I do indeed force myself to think in the target language. Rather than wait until it comes naturally I would voiceover in my head "Wow, she's pretty!" or "Damn it! I forgot to get milk in the shop!" in the language I'm learning. This helps you get into it a lot, so I don't translate but am thinking in the language when using it, and hesitate less thanks to this.

Yes, it has changed my perspective on a lot of things. This blog post describes what I've learned in the last decade. It's been popular on Reddit and been read about a million times: http://www.fluentin3months.com/life-lessons

As an Irish man, who was also chronic at German and Irish in school, this is inspirational. If you were to recommend one language for an English speaker to learn, for ease and usefullness, what would it be?

I definitely would not recommend any language "for an English speaker". This is too impersonal for me. If you are PASSIONATE about your target language, then it's the best one FOR YOU. Never listen to me or anyone else tell you what the "best" language is. My favourite language is Portuguese, but this all down to personal experience.

I'd recommend you read up on other cultures and see which one you'd love to experience more of. Then that may be the language for you! As an Irish person I personally find it very easy to live in Spain, as they are festive, like to slag (this is playful mocking for any non-Irish reading this) and easy to get along with, and as an EU country you won't have working or visa issues there.

Could you be more specific on how you learn? Do just buy a general phrase book, learn a few phrases each day and then apply them to the real world? I understand it's down to the individual but everyone needs a starting point.

I have always wanted to learn a language, attempted a few times but never got anywhere. Recently i have been getting more determined but want to do it right. Did a lot of research on RS and decided against it, had a look at the Anki type programs which seem useful but not as a stand alone. I work in the Oil and Gas industry and have a lot of multi lingual people around me so interaction with other languages shouldn't be a problem. But really looking for a starting point...

You can follow me attempting to learn a language from scratch to fluency in 3 months starting September (in the wrong country).

But basically: buy a Lonely Planet phrasebook. Learn full phrases off, use them. Get courses like Assimil, Teach yourself, Colloquial and use that for a little bit more of a base. Use it. Practice a tonne. When you are somewhat comfortable in the language, then (and only then) study some grammar to tidy it up. Practice more.

That's it in a nutshell, but obviously there are other parts to it that I write about a lot on my blog.

I agree that RS is not going to help.

How do you finance your travels? Do you search a job in the countries you're traveling to?

I used to - I worked as an English teacher, Mathematics teacher, Youth Hostel receptionist etc. for many years. Then for about three years I worked as a freelance translator. This was all email based, so I could take it anywhere and earn in euro.

Now, because my blog gets 400,000 visitors per month, I just need 0.01% of them to end up on http://speakfromday1.com (separate to my blog) and invest in the multimediate package. It's expensive, so I only need to sell one or two a day and I'm doing great. I never tell people to buy it as a necessary step - only if they are really curious to see my best tips without blog stories and other distractions.

For the moment I'm earning off sales from that product. Since my blog is so huge, I don't even promote it so much - no banner advertisements etc. I'll do a promotion once a year and that's about it.

So my work is really blogging and sharing my language learning tips for FREE. Getting shared on Reddit is fantastic because this is more people who will check me out. I want 99.99% of them to never pay me anything and learn as much as they can from what I write, and the 0.01% will support me so I can continue to do this.

In other words, this thread should net you some serious visits as well as a few sales here and there. :)

Precisely! It's why I've devoted most of the day to answering as many comments as I can... Reddit has helped me with some new subscribers, so I want to help back and make sure I do indeed live up to AMA (although the quantity means I have to skip a few questions I've answered already, or can't answer sufficiently)

Very interesting AMA! I loved your video and as a youngling who is following a somewhat similar path I have a lot of questions.

First of all, have you ever considered learning japanese? I learned English and French (native Spanish) and became fluent pretty quickly. Howver, Japanese seems to be so much harder. I know my learning method is partly to blame but now that i'm living and breathing it, it still seems pretty hard.

Can you read and write chinese characters or did you only focus on conversation? If not, do you ever plan to / think that it's worth it?

What do you do when you get discouraged while learning a language?

How has being a polyglot influenced the way you think?

Sorry for the list of questions but I am very intrested! Oh and fucking great French and Spanish btw.

Yes, I'll learn Japanese some day. Follow my blog to see me get around to it!

I can read Chinese signs fine, but not books. I would write text messages and emails in Chinese all the time, as this uses pinyin. I personally have no use for writing the traditional way, as I do all writing in all my languages using technology.

Good friends can always give you encouragement, and speaking it with friendly people is the best encouragement you can get. Don't keep your head in books alone in your study, and you'll be less likely to get discouraged :)

Hey Benny! You've truly inspired me with your videos and story. I love the fact that you do what you do and try so hard to get it out there.

Now I wanted to ask you something about the big slap to the forehead you just made me do in discovering how you learned your languages. It's because I've been trying really hard, with the Pimsleur and RS approach to learn Arabic, and it's tough. But here's the thing, my girlfriend's fluent in Lebanese Arabic and I want to learn it in order to better communicate with her family.

Am I ignoring a gold mine of knowledge in not just asking her to start speaking to me in Arabic? If so, how do we start? Should we have hours of time where I ask her to only try and communicate with me in Arabic, or just ask her "what does this mean, that mean" ?

Thanks in advanced, you've really inspired me to quit trying to force the language and seek this new worldly approach I should've been doing all along.

Yes you are. You have the greatest language learning resource in the world right under your nose. She is your key to fluency in Arabic, not generic courses built by marketers.

Try your best to learn some phrases and use them with her, and have an Arabic only time. She'll have to be patient at first, but if she is you will learn very quickly.

Best of luck!

Linguist and Classicist here. Ever thought about learning an ancient language like Latin, Greek, or Sanscrit to give yourself some background?

Latin would be relatively easy to learn given all the Romance languages you know already, and it would make maintaining them a lot easier, I think.

Since my language learning focus is communicative and spoken focused, I wouldn't be so interested in learning classical languages for now. I did understand some written Latin when I lived in Rome though, so you're right. But I doubt I'll invest time in it for the moment. Plenty of living languages to keep me busy!!

Hey Benny, I've been a big fan for a while now. First off I was wondering if you could share different techniques you use to confront people and start talking to them (without seeming too weird and without making the person feel like they are obviously a foreigner which I feel might be offensive to some people). I think this is my biggest problem with meeting new people to practice language with. Also have you had some bad experiences approaching people in this manner and if so has it discouraged you at all? Thanks for doing an AMA!

I was really inspired by Moses, as this technique of approaching people in public is not something I do often. I generally message people online through sites like Couchsurfing to meet up, or go to a party, which is easier to approach people without them feeling apprehensive.

Moses showed me that I need to expand on this.

But in general there is no "technique". I don't use something like PUA tricks - I just walk up to someone and say whatever. It's a lot less of a big deal than people think. I don't remember ever having bad experiences by doing this. Sometimes people aren't that interested, so you shrug your shoulders and go to someone else. No big deal.

A friend of mine calls it "Social Skydiving". You approach as many strangers as possible, and eventually you gain the confidence to do it better and better. You have to swallow it up and get over the fear asap though.

Yea I guess I just have to bite the bullet and it will get easier as time goes on, I already do it occasionally but not as much as I would like. Who are your favourite online polyglots? Obviously Moses must be up there but what about Luca, Richard Simcott, Steve Kaufman? Do you know them personally/ what do you think of them (particularly their online presence) Are there any online polyglots you could recommend that people might not have heard of?

Richard Simcott is the nicest of all of us. The two of us talked for ages on Skype and will record a video together some time soon enough.

StuJay is another one of my favourites, since he's the only other one I know of (besides myself) who puts serious work into attempting to professionally edit his videos, and he has some great ideas to share.

I'm a big fan of Khatzumoto, and even though I haven't gotten to Japanese yet, I love his twitter feed @ajatt for some inspiration (even if our approaches and focus are different).

Steve has some wise things to say, but the two of us don't get along unfortunately (he's way too critical IMO and would do well to stop sending me so much discouragement when I take on a new language project; I don't see the point). Before we fell out, you can hear an otherwise interesting audio exchange between us if you google it a little on his blog.

I haven't been in touch with Luca yet, and hope to some day. I'm generally more active in person than online so I'd look him up when I make it to Paris if he's interested. I've met Moses and Glossika in person and communicated with a bunch of other people.

To be totally honest with you, I don't have much of a huge interest in polyglotism. Richard does an excellent job interviewing many polyglots and discussing the topic. My focus is more on particular languages, so I try to interview natives instead, and write about learning ONE language, since this is more relevant to most people. So people who speak one other language can give you excellent advice!

This voted list of top language bloggers is a good place to start: http://en.bab.la/news/top-25-language-learning-blogs-2012

Awesome video man! Really inspiring. When you use one of those lonely planet phrase books, how much time a day do you spend on learning it? Like when you're bored or taking a shit, or do you set 2-4 hour study sessions aside for it?

I give it my undivided attention. When I was working as an English teacher in Spain, every single second of spare time was devoted to improving my Spanish, not just when taking a shit ;)

As I said, focus is the magic ingredient for successful language learners!

So you are fluent in 6-7 languages, how well would you say you manage the grammar\writing part of the languages you know?

Edit: Also If you have the time it would be cool to hear your favorite story where you overheard something or understood something you were not supposed.

Added your second question to the end of the original description since it's coming up a lot.

I've studied the grammar and writing formally in a few languages, and sat high level diplomas in these. I don't care much for it though, so I don't practice it all that much beyond personal emails and the like. I do try to have good grammar though, AFTER I've reached a decent conversational stage of a language and am ready to tidy it up.

Whats the most interesting experience you've had on your travels?

Either getting detained by the Federal Police in Brazil: http://www.fluentin3months.com/escape/ or going speed dating in Dutch just after starting to learn it: http://www.fluentin3months.com/speed-dating/

These are some of the most fun stories, but the most interesting experiences are actually not such good anecdotes and it comes down to meeting fascinating people and hearing THEIR stories :)

Wat weegt zwaarder voor jou, kwantiteit of kwaliteit? Oftewel, hoe goed kun je al deze talen verstaan/lezen/spreken?

Kwaliteit! Ik kun echt goed spreken (6 tallen), en communiceren een beetje en anderen tallen. Ik lees en schrijf goed Spaans, Frans, etc.... nog niet in het Nederlands! :)

Ik zal een video en het Nederlands in september doen, omdat je mijn uitspreek horen kan!

Maybe you can help me out some problems I've been having recently: I am a native english speaker, and I used to know German to the point where I could get by without the use of any english. Although my grammar was poor, my vocabulary and listening comprehension were at a high level (by my standards, at least).

This was all done in preparation for a move to Germany last year - due to a number of circumstances I ended up moving to the Czech Republic instead. For the past 8 months I've been learning Czech, and I am finding that I am now storing the vocabulary for Czech in the same locations as I did in German - Black and white is now "černý a bilý" instead of "schwartz und weiß." When I am in the Czech Republic everything is OK (albeit very slow conversation), but when I go to Germany I am using Czech words in place of what I should be saying in German. It makes for interesting conversation...

Do you have any tricks to keep the languages separate from each other? I don't want to lose all the progress I had made with German!

This blog post I wrote may help! http://www.fluentin3months.com/not-mix-up/

What language would you say people are most impressed at you being able to speak?

Esperanto. It's ironic because it's the easiest one. But it's the one that always grabs people's attention most. They are "impressed" not at the skill involved (in learning the easiest language..), but that I would do it in the first place.

In fact, I've lived about six weeks of my life entirely through Esperanto. I learned it not out of linguistic curiosity, but because I genuinely enjoy the community of people that speak the language, many of whom are also multilingual too.

Inspirational; I'm 24 and would love to learn a few other languages, French and Greek being the top two.

Quick question: Do you know of Michel Thomas and his method, and if so, what are your opinions? I was planning on using his tapes to begin learning French.

Yes, I'll be writing about MT on the blog soon, as I used his material with Chinese. It's relaxing, but a little too slow for my tastes. The tones focus did help me with Chinese at least. If you are in no hurry and have it on in your car etc., then it could be very effective!

Do you want to learn anymore?

Yes! I'll be blogging about my next language learning project in September. I'm not saying what it is yet though. ;)

Completely off topic: I'm going to Ireland in the fall starting with Dublin. Where should I go in Dublin? Where should I go in the rest of Ireland? And is there anything I should know about Irish woman (I'm 30). Cheers,

I'm not a huge fan of Dublin. Galway is a much nicer city in my opinion.

Did you ever bother to learn irish ?:) I live in Ireland and in my 28 years of life I have heard ONE person using it conversationally that wasn't a politician...

I'm in the Gaeltacht RIGHT NOW, speaking Irish nearly all day. Took the morning off to write this IAmA and answer some comments, but getting back into it for the rest of the day :)

You can see some of my videos in Irish here: http://www.irishpolyglot.com/ga

Pourrais-tu nous donner un exemple de la qualité de ton français ? Je pense soit à un paragraphe sur la médiocrité des liaisons ferroviaires transversales dans l'hexagone, soit à un texte nous expliquant pourquoi to daron n'est pas un schbeb. Merci. (en échange : un vote, et une lecture sérieuse de ton blog ; pour ma part, c'est français (10/10), allemand (9) , anglais (8) , suédois (5/10), un tout petit peu de latin, japonais, vietnamien, grec ancien, espagnol, portugais, néerlandais, danois, tchèque, polonais, dans l'ordre)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw5Re7k1KBA Oh la la, quel sujet plus ennuyant !! Je ne peux même pas écrire sur les trains en France en anglais quoi ! Regarde cette vidéo si tu veux critiquer mon français, d'acc ? ;) Bravo pour tes langues !