Languages in the video: English, Slovak, Hungarian, Czech, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, German, Italian, French, Spanish, Serbian, Farsi, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Dutch, Taiwanese, Japanese and Cantonese.
My book: www.foreverastudent.com/p/book...
My podcast: / vladimir-skultety
Language Blog: www.foreverastudent.com
00:06 English
00:30 Slovak
00:57 Hungarian
01:40 Czech
02:11 Mandarin Chinese
03:00 Russian
04:00 German
04:48 Italian
05:29 French
06:20 Spanish
06:42 Serbian
07:47 Farsi
08:37 Polish
09:30 Portuguese
10:33 Romanian
11:20 Dutch
12:23 Taiwanese
13:17 Japanese
14:07 Cantonese
Frequently asked questions:
Q: What is your job?
A: I work as an interpreter of English, Slovak and Mandarin Chinese.
Q: What was the most difficult language you've ever studied?
A: Mandarin Chinese.
Q: How old are you?
A: I'm 34 now. I was 32 in the video.
Q: Which language do you like most?
A: Difficult to say, but if I had to pick a favorite it would be: Hungarian, Russian, Cantonese and Persian.
Q: Which language do you dream in/think in?
A: I think probably those that I use most often: Slovak, English, Mandarin.
Q: When did you start learning foreign languages?/How long did it take you to learn all the languages you speak?
A: I don't think there was a starting moment in my life. Very fortunately I grew up with 2-3 native languages and spoke 5 at an almost native level by the time I was 13 and just continued learning languages here and there as I grew up. It took me my entire life.
Q: Could you give me some tips to learn language XYZ?
A: I have a blog where I wrote probably everything I think about language learning (www.foreverastudent.com). I also made a lot of videos about language learning here on this channel. Feel free to check them out.
Q: How long does it take you to learn a new language?
A: It depends on the language. Also it is difficult to tell what it means to 'learn a language'. To get to a C1 level in Russian it took me about 3 months because Russian is very close my native Slovak language and most Slovaks could do it, to do the same thing in Chinese took me about 7-8 years.
Q: How should I start learning a language?
A: • How to learn a languag...
Q: What is your secret?
A: I don't think there is one. Only passion, lots of time spent on practice, good conditions and a bit of talent.
Q: Where are you from?
A: I was born and lived most of my life in Slovakia.
Q: You made a mistake in the French part. It shouldn't be 'ce video' it should be 'cette video'.
A: Thank you, I'll remember.
Q: You made a mistake in the Serbian part. It should't be 'kuči' but 'kući'.
A: Thank you. I realized it the moment I said it.
Q: The Spanish part was too short.
A: I'll try to make a video where I speak only Spanish next time.
Q: You don't speak Portuguese, you speak Brazilian. Why did you learn that ugly Brazilian Portuguese and not the real Portuguese from Portugal?
A: I must've gotten about 100 comments like this and worse. I honestly don't understand why all the hate against Brazilian Portuguese from Portugal. I just felt silly writing 'Brazilian' instead of 'Portuguese' especially since as far as I know the official language of Brazil is called Portuguese, not Brazilian. It's like saying I speak 'American' instead of 'English'. But, lesson learned, next time I will proudly say I learned 'Brazilian Portuguese'. I learned Brazilian Portuguese because: I love its sound, wonderful Brazilian smiling people, the country, the music, the nature and because I'd like to live there one day.
Q: You didn't learn Greek! You should be ashamed of yourself.
A: I got about 50 similar comments. I have no intelligent answer for this. People help me out:)
Q: Why didn't you learn Arabic? Armenian? Hindi? Indonesian? European Portuguese? Greek?... I'm dissapointed.
A: I never had a good reason or interest.
Q: Were you ever interested in learning
Scandinavian languages?
A: Originally no, because I never had a chance or good reasons to learn them, plus it's too cold for me up there, but recently I went to Finland and I read a book by Stieg Larsson, enjoyed both very much, so maybe some time in the future I will.
Q: Great Chinese but you speak with a Taiwanese accent.
A: I lived in Taiwan for 5 years. I'm not doing it on purpose. I don't know how to speak in any other way.
Q: The use of the word 'geil' in the German part was inappropriate/wrong/off.
A: Some people really seem to think it was inappropriate, but some people in the comments don't. I learned German when I was a teenager and didn't use it since. I said the word without thinking too much. It's definitely not that I used it on purpose to sound cool.
#polyglot #multilingual #language #foreign languages #Vladimir Skultety