10 Famous Faces Who Speak Other Languages

We’ve posted previously about movie and sport stars who speak other languages. But it turns out they’re not the only famous linguists, so here are a few more. Prepare to be impressed… Audrey Hepburn There was much more to the star of Roman Holiday and Breakfast at Tiffany’s than her movie career. Audrey Hepburn was well known for … Read more

Beginner’s Guide to Romanian

The Junior Language Challenge is a national competition for children aged 10 and under across the UK. One of the goals of the competition is to give young learners the chance to discover exciting new languages, and this year we’ve chosen Romanian as the first language. But how much do you know about this European … Read more

You speak more French than you think

So you think you can’t speak French? You may not realise it but if you’re an English speaker, you probably know more French than you think. Just take a look… Biscuit A common snack or treat in the UK and the US, there are so many options to choose from. But did you know that … Read more

Stop thinking about it and get going!

In the spirit of ‘Linguists Anonymous’, I am Felicity Jones, 45, and I am mildly addicted to learning other languages. I speak French, German, Spanish, Italian and some Mandarin. I have used uTalk to learn some Danish, and my January challenge is Greek. Even as a child I would listen under the bed cover to … Read more

Why Russian? Why not?

Lucy was our first ever winner of the Junior Language Challenge and at age 23 has now chosen to take part in the uTalk Challenge learning Russian. Lucy already speaks Spanish, French, Italian, German and Latin and has been learning languages since she was 10 years old. Why? Why not? I was talking to some … Read more

Learning Latin with Harry Potter

Just before Christmas, I helped our language producer record Latin, which will be coming to uTalk later in the year. Whilst listening to the Latin speakers I found I recognised some of the words (although I have never learnt Latin before). And then I realised this was due to my love for/slight obsession with Harry … Read more

Why learning Persian made me feel Fanta-stic

Nancy Reynolds is a freelance writer from the USA, who’s currently working on a novel.  In her spare time she studies Persian and has vocabulary contests with her teenaged daughter who has studied Latin, German, Mandarin and Ancient Greek. Here’s her language story… For some people, learning a foreign language is good for business, a school … Read more

Why I think languages are Lingotastic

Sarah Barrett from Lingotastic runs language classes for children and families, using music, crafts, puppets and bubbles – it sounds so much fun we might have to go and check it out ourselves! Here’s Sarah’s language story… On my first visit to Germany to visit my husband Maik’s parents, I had a few language misunderstandings. One … Read more

To tip or not to tip?

A social dilemma you’re bound to fall into at some point is whether or not to tip – and how much! Tip too little and you risk the waiter chasing you down the street shouting abuse; tip too much and you might gravely offend the staff. Tipping customs vary all over the world, between different countries … Read more

Who needs football? I’d rather learn a language…

What’s your inspiration for learning a language? Today we’re hearing from Jack, a student and blogger at LangLearningBlog, on how he got addicted… What inspired you to start learning French? I never really was fond of languages, and I only studied French at school for a GCSE in a language – but bear with me! Soon I became almost addicted … Read more