Tara Sattar
There are no barriers in languages, it is but a mean of communication that bring people closer. Such is an example that Luca Lampariello showed in his article. Luca learned 11 languages by the age of 35. He suggests learning languages is cool, but he highly doubts that it is challenging. Luca begins by telling why he learned 11 languages as opposed to how he learned them. His primary focus was on traveling. He said, these languages are what made his experiences achievable.
Here’s how he did it:
English: English was a tough language to learn as far as the basics were concerned. Studying grammar was boring and the materials were monotonous. But it all took a new turn when he started watching English shows and read English books and took guide from his home tutor who set him free to learn without the mechanism. In two years time, he was fluent in English with a heavy hint of American accent.
French: Learning French was almost the same as learning English. But thanks to the French TV, he became fluent in French in one year! Luca used to watch French TV for two hours daily at a particular time. That’s quite a technique in entertainment.
German: Starting this venture was completely his own decision. He started with a book from his grandmother’s shelf and the grammar again disheartened him. However, he soon picked up his own method when he saw a commercial on TV about a series that could help learn four languages. He came up with a basic that led him to learn any language in a light, natural and fun way. He started reading ravenously. It took him one and half years to learn German.
Spanish: Spanish and Italian are like sister languages, luca said. When he was learning Spanish, all he had to do was speak Italian and put an ‘s’ in the end of the words. The overall structure of the two languages is the same, he said.
Dutch: While camping in North Sardinia, Luca met a Dutch girl named Dotte. They had a great time together but none spoke each other’s language. Eventually, they became frustrated. So Luca went ahead and learned Dutch too!
Swedish: This language, for its many intonations, sounds like music when spoken. But it’s quite hard to catch up at first. And once you have learned Swedish, you can also communicate with the Scandinavians.
Russian: Learning Russian was the toughest and after trying for eight long months, Luca had almost given up. A language learning ambassador by then, he posted a video on YouTube where he spoke Russian and the response was amazing. The Russians think that their language is difficult to catch up and hence, they appreciate what little they hear. He then gained the confidence and started working through the amazing maze of Russian grammar.
Portuguese: Portuguese sounded like a series of broken consonants. But it wasn’t hard. To the untrained eras, it might sound like Russian.
Polish: Polish was learnt in Poland during the visit in 2012. Luca used to communicate with a polish boy named Michal. Polish and Russian are different in many ways but the structure is the same. .
Mandarin Chinese: Learning Chinese all by yourself is never possible, so goes a saying. Luca wanted to overcome that and he learnt it all by himself. He said that some of the aspects were quite difficult but it also had some refreshing ones. The trick lies only in catching the tones and treating the Chinese characters right.
Japanese: For someone, who has learned so many languages, Japanese was the hardest to catch, says Luca. It is difficult to even structure a sentence in Japanese. But Luca is still hopeful. He says he will get there.