Language learning

The Master speaks 50 languages. The student asks how he does it.

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Teacher: Start with the simple stuff: everyday objects, body parts. After nouns go to verbs, make sentences. Listen to the sounds.

Student: How long does it take to learn a new language?

Teacher: An hour for the essentials. A week for the complex grammar of a difficult language like Dutch.

Student: Any tricks?

Teacher: Use tools. Film subtitles are good. Oh, and leverage your resources. If you are learning one language, learn two or three others at the same time.

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Voiceover

Kenneth Hale put his language gifts to humanitarian use. He learned languages that were dying. Some he could rescue.

He reckoned that when we lose a language we lose “intellectual wealth, a work of art. It’s like dropping a bomb on the Louvre.”

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