Today the google index for InternetPolyglot is collapsed the whole day. It shows only one page. Is it because if changed title tags on all lesson detail pages? Who knows, but anyway this had to be done.
In plans is to change again the urls for lesson lists. Currently they look like "www.internetpolyglot.com/lessons-es-en" for Spanish - English lessons but they are not too SEO and user-friendly.
I am going to change these urls to something like "www.internetpolyglot.com/spanish_english_lessons.html" so that the keywords are in the url itself and also this is much more user friendly for people who would want to save it as a bookmark or come again to this page by trying to recall the url.
I also contemplate on the model of creating visual content for lessons. Yesterday I talked to a guy who would possibly start doing digital photographs for existing lessons. Currently the biggest bottleneck is the amount of words - about 800. How much time can you spend on something like this? So I need to talk to more people about it.
Another thing is how to insentivise those people. What can I do except suggesting putting links to their sites? At this moment nothing else but to me it can be very beneficial for them. If InternetPolyglot gets lots of traffic then they will get lots of traffic too. And it will be up to them what to do with this traffic - put advertisements of open an online store selling photos or photo equipment or anything else.
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Google index is acting
It's up and down. One time you check indexing of your site and it shows quite a few pages indexed (today it's already 243 and growing). And next time all of a sudden everything is collapsing back to one page. You jump through the roof shouting curse words. WTF?
I have two theories:
1) The site is still in flux and balances on the edge between sandbox and good indexing;
2) During crawling googlebot removes old data.
The latter seems not very likely because in this case it would be true for all sites, including huge monstrous tycoons and they would lose lots of money because of that. So it seems that InternetPolyglot is still too young and unstable.
But the good news is that the number of indexed pages is growing.
A huge thanks to Wout who keeps giving me search engine optimisation tips. From his advice yesterday I changed the title for Lesson Detail pages by moving more competitive keywords (language names) to the front and the name of the lesson to the back of the title tag.
Also I added the desription and keywords meta tags on the Lesson Detail and Lesson List pages.
I have two theories:
1) The site is still in flux and balances on the edge between sandbox and good indexing;
2) During crawling googlebot removes old data.
The latter seems not very likely because in this case it would be true for all sites, including huge monstrous tycoons and they would lose lots of money because of that. So it seems that InternetPolyglot is still too young and unstable.
But the good news is that the number of indexed pages is growing.
A huge thanks to Wout who keeps giving me search engine optimisation tips. From his advice yesterday I changed the title for Lesson Detail pages by moving more competitive keywords (language names) to the front and the name of the lesson to the back of the title tag.
Also I added the desription and keywords meta tags on the Lesson Detail and Lesson List pages.
Friday, January 27, 2006
Forums optimisation
Worked yesterday night on forums optimisation suggested by this nice source : http://www.able2know.com/forums/about15132.html
Looks like session id disappeared from the urls, which is a nice thing. Still, I couldn't make work the mod_rewrite part, I am too new into it and still don't know where this mystic .htaccess file should be placed. I tried to place it under phpBB2 folder or under ROOT folder but nothing took any effect.
I sent an email to eapps support and they told me to play with "Custom Settings" tab in the Control Panel. I don't know, AFAIR this tab modifies the httpd.conf file in Apache. Is it the same as modifying .htaccess? Can I use the same syntax as for .htaccess? I should either try it myself or send another email to eapps support.
Looks like session id disappeared from the urls, which is a nice thing. Still, I couldn't make work the mod_rewrite part, I am too new into it and still don't know where this mystic .htaccess file should be placed. I tried to place it under phpBB2 folder or under ROOT folder but nothing took any effect.
I sent an email to eapps support and they told me to play with "Custom Settings" tab in the Control Panel. I don't know, AFAIR this tab modifies the httpd.conf file in Apache. Is it the same as modifying .htaccess? Can I use the same syntax as for .htaccess? I should either try it myself or send another email to eapps support.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
InternetPolyglot is in the Google Index!
A-A-A-A-A-A-A!!!!!!!!
At last http://www.InternetPolyglot.com is out of the Google sandbox!!! See for yourself! This is the happiest days of its existence.
Let's celebrate! Champaine, champaine to the room! Everybody is dancing kachucha!!!
At last http://www.InternetPolyglot.com is out of the Google sandbox!!! See for yourself! This is the happiest days of its existence.
Let's celebrate! Champaine, champaine to the room! Everybody is dancing kachucha!!!
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
More languages. More! More!
It seems that clearly more and more people become interested in creating lessons for http://www.InternetPolyglot.com
Finished: English, Spanish, French, Russian, Turkish
Coming to finish: Latin
In the middle: Dutch, German
Starting: Hebrew, Estonian, Romanian
Of all Slavonic languages, Russian is by far the most widely spread and spoken as well as being the language that covers the most of the Eurasia region. Russian is categorized under the East Slavonic language tree, next to Ukrainian or Byelorussian and has a solid shared structure with these languages. However, the Russian language has its differences and uniqueness as well as being influenced by other lingual trends.
The importance of the Russian language is not only given by the number of its speakers (around 250 million people) but also because of the economical and political power held by Russia. These factors made Russian become one of the official languages used by the United Nations as well as a means of communication in trade or international affairs.
Being spoken by such a large number of people in such a wide territory, several dialects have formed in the Russian language through out time. Linguists can pin-point dozens of such dialects, but they are usually split up into three main groups, called Northern Russian, Central Russian and Southern Russian.
Learning Russian – Why and how?
The ”why” question is easily answerable. First of all, Russia is a fascinating country with a fascinating culture and at the same extent, hearing it fascinates people. Being an international power nowadays, knowing Russian can give you a boost in your career as more and more businesses are conducted between Russia and the Western world, a thing that was just a few decades ago, thought impossible. Once you’ve learnt such a hard, fascinating language there’s no stopping you into becoming a true polyglot.
A great way to start learning Russian is with the help of the Internet. This comes extremely handy, especially if you don’t have the time or money to start up on some “Learn Russian” courses in your locality. On the Internet though, you are free to learn at your own pace and whenever you want. You can be your own boss (well...teacher) so to speak. There are virtually dozens of free Russian online lessons out there, all you need to do is browse them, pick one that you think will suit you and follow it up close.
If you’re having trouble with your vocabulary improvement pace, you might want to try out some Russian vocabulary games. These games will help you memorize words efficiently and give you a solid vocabulary increase overall. These games are also quite relaxing and fun, which is to your advantage since everything that we learn for fun instead of enforcement is memorized better by our brain.
Articles about Russian in different languages:
The Russian Language (in English)
Lengua Rusa (in Spanish)
Langue russe (in French)
Russische Sprache (in German)
Lingua russa (in Italian)
Russische Taal (in Dutch)
Língua Russian (in Portuguese)
Limba Rusa (in Romanian)
Выучить русский – «зачем» и «как» (in Russian)
تعلّم الروسي - كيف و لماذا؟ (in Arabic)
Articles in Russian about different languages:
История английского языка
Корни испанского языка
Три причины, чтобы начать учить французский
О китайском языке
Что хорошо было бы знать о немецком языке
Язык Восходящего Солнца
Сведения об итальянском языке
Голландский язык – от истоков до наших дней
Выучить русский – «зачем» и «как»
Краткий обзор истории португальского языка
Греция и греческий язык
Краткие сведения об арабском языке
Полезные советы изучающим иврит
Истоки цивилизации
Хинди. История и факты
Корни польского языка
История румынского языка
Турецкий язык. Исторические факты
Происхождение и история чешского языка
Корни украинского языка
Historical facts about the Turkish language
Being one of the greatest European and International powers of the Middle Ages, the Ottoman Empire, which can is the ancestor of modern Turkey spread its conquest and influence through sword and word alike. Although the sword part was definitely used a lot more, the use of the Turkish language in influencing and assimilating new territories is undeniable, since trade, international affairs and other similar aspects were handled in Turkish in South Eastern Europe at that time.
From an ethnic point of view, Turkish is a Turkic language (big surprise, eh?) that developed in the Middle East, stretching all the way to Eastern Europe. From a broader point of view, Turkish is categorized under the Ural-Altaic family of languages, which also includes languages such as Hungarian or Finnish.
Nowadays, Turkish is spoken by roughly 70 million people worldwide, most of which are concentrated in Turkey. Other countries that have strong Turkish speaking communities include Denmark, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Israel and France.
Difficulties in learning Turkish
Regardless of what culture you’re coming from and what languages you might already know, you will probably find Turkish a rather difficult language to learn. This is not to say that you can’t do it if you’re ambitious enough, but the learning process will probably be less smooth than if you’re learning an “easier” language such as say, Spanish, French, English and so forth.
First of all, Turkish writing is quite hard to understand. Back at the start of the 20th century, Turkish writing used the Perso-Arabic script, which was later switched to the Latin script by the so-called “modernizer” of Turkey, Kemal Ataturk. This can still cause confusion at times, although the old Arabic script is rarely used (some consider it extinct even).
Most “Learn Turkish” courses will focus on other aspects rather than start off with the script, the most common starting points being a vocabulary increase and a short insight into the grammar rules of the Turkish language. From a grammatical point of view, Turkish is usually considered quite ordinary in what regards the difficulty with which its rules can be assimilated and understood. The main problems are pronunciation and spelling usually.
But before you can spell or pronounce words, you must know what they mean in the first place. That’s why your first task will have to be to improve vocabulary and memorize words. This can be done through several means. The first would be that you take some free Turkish lessons online, which will naturally improve your base vocabulary as you go deeper in the course. Your second option could be to use translated texts as a means of finding new words and memorizing. Last but not least, if you want a more relaxing, fun approach to the issue, you could try out a few vocabulary games such as puzzles or quizzes. They might not be the most efficient of learning methods, but they combine utility with pleasure, hence they’re a great tool you can use in your Turkish learning process.
Articles about Turkish in different languages:
Facts About The Turkish Language (in English)
Lengua Turca (in Spanish)
Langue turque (in French)
Türkische Sprache (in German)
Lingua turca (in Italian)
Turkse Taal (in Dutch)
Língua Turkish (in Portuguese)
Date istorice legate de limba Turca (in Romanian)
Турецкий язык. Исторические факты (in Russian)
الحقائق التأريخية حول اللغة التركية (in Arabic)
Finished: English, Spanish, French, Russian, Turkish
Coming to finish: Latin
In the middle: Dutch, German
Starting: Hebrew, Estonian, Romanian
Of all Slavonic languages, Russian is by far the most widely spread and spoken as well as being the language that covers the most of the Eurasia region. Russian is categorized under the East Slavonic language tree, next to Ukrainian or Byelorussian and has a solid shared structure with these languages. However, the Russian language has its differences and uniqueness as well as being influenced by other lingual trends.
The importance of the Russian language is not only given by the number of its speakers (around 250 million people) but also because of the economical and political power held by Russia. These factors made Russian become one of the official languages used by the United Nations as well as a means of communication in trade or international affairs.
Being spoken by such a large number of people in such a wide territory, several dialects have formed in the Russian language through out time. Linguists can pin-point dozens of such dialects, but they are usually split up into three main groups, called Northern Russian, Central Russian and Southern Russian.
Learning Russian – Why and how?
The ”why” question is easily answerable. First of all, Russia is a fascinating country with a fascinating culture and at the same extent, hearing it fascinates people. Being an international power nowadays, knowing Russian can give you a boost in your career as more and more businesses are conducted between Russia and the Western world, a thing that was just a few decades ago, thought impossible. Once you’ve learnt such a hard, fascinating language there’s no stopping you into becoming a true polyglot.
A great way to start learning Russian is with the help of the Internet. This comes extremely handy, especially if you don’t have the time or money to start up on some “Learn Russian” courses in your locality. On the Internet though, you are free to learn at your own pace and whenever you want. You can be your own boss (well...teacher) so to speak. There are virtually dozens of free Russian online lessons out there, all you need to do is browse them, pick one that you think will suit you and follow it up close.
If you’re having trouble with your vocabulary improvement pace, you might want to try out some Russian vocabulary games. These games will help you memorize words efficiently and give you a solid vocabulary increase overall. These games are also quite relaxing and fun, which is to your advantage since everything that we learn for fun instead of enforcement is memorized better by our brain.
Articles about Russian in different languages:
The Russian Language (in English)
Lengua Rusa (in Spanish)
Langue russe (in French)
Russische Sprache (in German)
Lingua russa (in Italian)
Russische Taal (in Dutch)
Língua Russian (in Portuguese)
Limba Rusa (in Romanian)
Выучить русский – «зачем» и «как» (in Russian)
تعلّم الروسي - كيف و لماذا؟ (in Arabic)
Articles in Russian about different languages:
История английского языка
Корни испанского языка
Три причины, чтобы начать учить французский
О китайском языке
Что хорошо было бы знать о немецком языке
Язык Восходящего Солнца
Сведения об итальянском языке
Голландский язык – от истоков до наших дней
Выучить русский – «зачем» и «как»
Краткий обзор истории португальского языка
Греция и греческий язык
Краткие сведения об арабском языке
Полезные советы изучающим иврит
Истоки цивилизации
Хинди. История и факты
Корни польского языка
История румынского языка
Турецкий язык. Исторические факты
Происхождение и история чешского языка
Корни украинского языка
Historical facts about the Turkish language
Being one of the greatest European and International powers of the Middle Ages, the Ottoman Empire, which can is the ancestor of modern Turkey spread its conquest and influence through sword and word alike. Although the sword part was definitely used a lot more, the use of the Turkish language in influencing and assimilating new territories is undeniable, since trade, international affairs and other similar aspects were handled in Turkish in South Eastern Europe at that time.
From an ethnic point of view, Turkish is a Turkic language (big surprise, eh?) that developed in the Middle East, stretching all the way to Eastern Europe. From a broader point of view, Turkish is categorized under the Ural-Altaic family of languages, which also includes languages such as Hungarian or Finnish.
Nowadays, Turkish is spoken by roughly 70 million people worldwide, most of which are concentrated in Turkey. Other countries that have strong Turkish speaking communities include Denmark, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Israel and France.
Difficulties in learning Turkish
Regardless of what culture you’re coming from and what languages you might already know, you will probably find Turkish a rather difficult language to learn. This is not to say that you can’t do it if you’re ambitious enough, but the learning process will probably be less smooth than if you’re learning an “easier” language such as say, Spanish, French, English and so forth.
First of all, Turkish writing is quite hard to understand. Back at the start of the 20th century, Turkish writing used the Perso-Arabic script, which was later switched to the Latin script by the so-called “modernizer” of Turkey, Kemal Ataturk. This can still cause confusion at times, although the old Arabic script is rarely used (some consider it extinct even).
Most “Learn Turkish” courses will focus on other aspects rather than start off with the script, the most common starting points being a vocabulary increase and a short insight into the grammar rules of the Turkish language. From a grammatical point of view, Turkish is usually considered quite ordinary in what regards the difficulty with which its rules can be assimilated and understood. The main problems are pronunciation and spelling usually.
But before you can spell or pronounce words, you must know what they mean in the first place. That’s why your first task will have to be to improve vocabulary and memorize words. This can be done through several means. The first would be that you take some free Turkish lessons online, which will naturally improve your base vocabulary as you go deeper in the course. Your second option could be to use translated texts as a means of finding new words and memorizing. Last but not least, if you want a more relaxing, fun approach to the issue, you could try out a few vocabulary games such as puzzles or quizzes. They might not be the most efficient of learning methods, but they combine utility with pleasure, hence they’re a great tool you can use in your Turkish learning process.
Articles about Turkish in different languages:
Facts About The Turkish Language (in English)
Lengua Turca (in Spanish)
Langue turque (in French)
Türkische Sprache (in German)
Lingua turca (in Italian)
Turkse Taal (in Dutch)
Língua Turkish (in Portuguese)
Date istorice legate de limba Turca (in Romanian)
Турецкий язык. Исторические факты (in Russian)
الحقائق التأريخية حول اللغة التركية (in Arabic)
Adsense research for InternetPolyglot
I am working on an idea of encouraging lesson creators by adding their Google AdSense advertisements on http://www.InternetPolyglot.com . So far it seems that it is quite possible as long as there are no more Google ads from me or other users of http://www.InternetPolyglot.com on the same page.
The idea is simple:
- People create lessons and can put their Google AdSense on their lessons
- They become financially incentivized and start promoting their lessons
- More people come to http://www.InternetPolyglot.com , I enjoy more traffic and put ads from other ad providers (as long as they do not contradict Google's terms and conditions)
- Everybody is happy, everything is mutually beneficial
Are there any loopholes? Have to investigate more.
The idea is simple:
- People create lessons and can put their Google AdSense on their lessons
- They become financially incentivized and start promoting their lessons
- More people come to http://www.InternetPolyglot.com , I enjoy more traffic and put ads from other ad providers (as long as they do not contradict Google's terms and conditions)
- Everybody is happy, everything is mutually beneficial
Are there any loopholes? Have to investigate more.
Monday, January 09, 2006
Been to Hawaii, didn't surf: Compression in Tomcat works well
Been to Hawaii, didn't surf: Compression in Tomcat works well
This is a blog of my good friend. I have just looked for the first time at this fine piece of blog community. A blog dedicated to technological advances as well as technical solutions.
Lots of useful technology tips are placed there, including industry analyses, personal impressions, advice. On a side note, this blog is being written by a computer programmer, with whom I share the same area of specialization - J2EE. And whose opinion I always cherish and listen to closely.
Don't miss this blog: Denka's me-techie blog
This is a blog of my good friend. I have just looked for the first time at this fine piece of blog community. A blog dedicated to technological advances as well as technical solutions.
Lots of useful technology tips are placed there, including industry analyses, personal impressions, advice. On a side note, this blog is being written by a computer programmer, with whom I share the same area of specialization - J2EE. And whose opinion I always cherish and listen to closely.
Don't miss this blog: Denka's me-techie blog
Thursday, January 05, 2006
InternetPolyglot keeps growing
I have added about 800 new lessons. A smart programming allowed to create various combinations of language pairs: English-Spanish, Spanish-French, French-Russian, Russian-Spanish, etc., etc.
Currently I am working on making urls more pretty. At the same time I am working on trying to find a suitable platform for the future huge community of people who are going to visit www.internetpolyglot.com for fun and learning and exchanging their language learning experience.
Last month there were 60 unique visits, this month there are already 28 unique visits in first 5 days. Not bad process, huh? Considering that Google still keeps me in the sandbox and only search engine that has indexed me so far is MSN.
History of the English Language
The history of the English language is as fascinating and complex as that of the English people themselves. At its root, English is part of the West Germanic language group since it developed from the Anglo Saxon’s Old English tongue. Old English was spoken on the British mainland for the most part, but it quickly spread over to the rest of the British Isles.
Throughout time, nomadic invasions as well as more peaceful contact with the other nations have strongly influenced the English language. French and Latin as well as several other northern and Germanic languages have produced a strong vocabulary increase, diversifying and polishing the mainstream of the English language to what it is today.
Statistics associated with the English Language
The English language is considered today’s “lingua franca”, which means that it’s the dominating language of its era, being used in international affairs such as diplomacy or commerce. Roughly 360 million people use English as their first language and a billion more know it as a secondary language. In addition, many countries use English as their official language.
It is also estimated that over 50 million people are in the process of studying the English language each year, either through organized education, through personal study with the help of free English lessons online or by using “learn English courses” in order to improve their vocabulary, memorize words and so forth.
Learning English online
Even though most schools across the world teach English as the secondary language, organized education can often be improved through free English lessons online or other sources that can offer you a vocabulary increase and help you memorize words easier.
If your typical “learn English" course won’t cut it for you, or if you want to try a more relaxing way of learning the language, you could try out some vocabulary games found online. Playing vocabulary games is a great way to memorize words, improve vocabulary and polish your spelling and possibly your speaking skills at the same time.
In conclusion, we should state that English is one of the easiest languages to learn, not only because of its less complicated grammar, spelling and phonetic structures but also due to the media invasion, which helps us accommodate with the English language. Even in countries with completely different language rules and structures such as China or Japan, English finds its way with the help of Hollywood movies, commercials and international affairs.
Articles about English in different languages:
English Language (in English)
Historia de la lengua inglesa (in Spanish)
Anglais. (in French)
Englische Sprache (in German)
Lingua inglese (in Italian)
Engelse Taal (in Dutch)
Língua inglesa (in Portuguese)
Limba Engleza (in Romanian)
История английского языка (in Russian)
تأريخ اللغة الإنجليزية (in Arabic)
The roots of the Spanish language
Linguists consider the birthplace of the Spanish language as the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula, around the Burgos and La Rioja areas. At that time, the Peninsula was under Romanic influence, hence Latin was the tool of the trade for commerce in the area. Taking this new language and polishing it with their own specific language traits, the locals spread it throughout the entire Peninsula, eventually making it the official language of government and trade in the area.
Therefore, being a Romanic language at its roots, Spanish keeps the basic rules and structure of its parent. However, the local Iberian influence as well as several other nomadic influences in the area has given room for a vast, specific vocabulary increase. From thereon, the Spanish language was formed, which will soon become known to history as one of the most widely spread and used languages on the face of the Earth.
The modern Spanish language
During the colonization era, Spain was a global power and was one of the most powerful nations on water, with an enormous fleet and a great net of commercial routes to back up the claim. This helped spread the Spanish language, as colonists, gold seekers and explorers made their way over the oceans and established settlements in the newfound lands. The effect of this is visible today, with most of the countries in South and Central America as well as the ones in the Caribbean area having Spanish as their official language.
Tips for learning Spanish
Being one of the most widely spoken languages of today, with over 450 million speakers throughout the entire World, Spanish is becoming a learning attraction or even a necessity for more and more people. If you don’t have the chance to study the language in school or through some other form of organized education, you could always do it by yourself through a “learn Spanish” course or book. Of course, these courses usually cost quite a lot and they also have a fixed schedule that you might not be able to follow to the point. In this case, you might be better off looking for a website that offers free Spanish lessons online. These websites provide a great deal of content that can be useful in order to improve vocabulary and to memorize words in the Spanish language.
Speaking of vocabulary increase, another great way to achieve it is by playing vocabulary games. Some websites offer such vocabulary games freely and they can be an extremely fun and relaxing way to learn Spanish. If all fails and you can’t seem to memorize words and improve vocabulary through any of the above mentioned methods, you could try watching some Spanish television, especially if you’re into soap operas. Learning through media is a great way to get things started and you’ll notice a solid vocabulary increase even after a few weeks.
Articles about Spanish in different languages:
The Spanish Language (in English)
Las raíces de la lengua española (in Spanish)
Langue espagnole (in French)
Spanische Sprache (in German)
Lingua spagnola (in Italian)
Spaanse Taal (in Dutch)
Língua espanhola (in Portuguese)
Originile limbii Spaniole (in Romanian)
Корни испанского языка (in Russian)
جذور اللغة الإسبانية (in Arabic)
The francophone World
French is a language that has descended from Latin, hence its main ethnic layer is similar to other Romanic languages such as Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian and so forth. Above this Latin layer, French “suffered” from a lot of influences such as the native Celtic, from the Gauls, several other Germanic languages as well as ancient Greek. Each of these influences can be easily spotted today in either pronunciation, spelling or grammar, giving the French language a unique spot among the Romanic languages.
The term “Francophonie” refers to the entirety of the French Diaspora, spread amongst over 40 countries that have French as their official language. Besides France itself, the language is spoken in several European countries such as Belgium, Luxembourg or Switzerland, in Northern America throughout Canada as well as a number of countries in Africa, namely: Algeria, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Morocco, Congo, Niger, Senegal and several others. In all these countries French is either studied as the main language throughout the local educational system, or as a secondary, “official” language right next to the native tongue. “Learn French” courses are popular in organized institutions as well as privately.
3 reasons to start learning French
1. If your mother tongue has a Romanic or Anglo-Saxon origin, learning French is extremely easy, since it shares a lot of grammatical rules and structures as any of the above mentioned languages. Memorizing words will be made easy by the fact that a lot of French words are look-alikes to their English counterparts, so if you’re reading and understanding this, you should also have it easy when you’ll try to improve vocabulary in French.
2. If you don’t have time or money to take up on the various “Learn French” courses that take place all across the World, you can easily opt for taking free French lessons online. The Internet offers a lot of these free lessons in various forms from quiz tests that help you memorize words, vocabulary games that help improve vocabulary and increase your spelling skills or the more classic grammar courses.
3. French is one of today’s 6 international languages, so it is extremely important to know it or at least understand it if you’re in a work field that has the word “international” in it. Commerce, diplomacy, media and several other fields are strongly influenced by French, so taking a few free French lessons online can get you out of a lot of tight spots as well as impress the persons you’re dealing with.
Articles about French in different languages:
The French Language (in English)
La Lengua Francesa (in Spanish)
Langue française. (in French)
Französische Sprache (in German)
Lingua francese (in Italian)
Franse Taal (in Dutch)
Три причины, чтобы начать учить французский (in Russian)
Língua francesa (in Portuguese)
Limba Franceza (in Romanian)
عالم الفرانكوفوني (in Arabic)
Currently I am working on making urls more pretty. At the same time I am working on trying to find a suitable platform for the future huge community of people who are going to visit www.internetpolyglot.com for fun and learning and exchanging their language learning experience.
Last month there were 60 unique visits, this month there are already 28 unique visits in first 5 days. Not bad process, huh? Considering that Google still keeps me in the sandbox and only search engine that has indexed me so far is MSN.
History of the English Language
The history of the English language is as fascinating and complex as that of the English people themselves. At its root, English is part of the West Germanic language group since it developed from the Anglo Saxon’s Old English tongue. Old English was spoken on the British mainland for the most part, but it quickly spread over to the rest of the British Isles.
Throughout time, nomadic invasions as well as more peaceful contact with the other nations have strongly influenced the English language. French and Latin as well as several other northern and Germanic languages have produced a strong vocabulary increase, diversifying and polishing the mainstream of the English language to what it is today.
Statistics associated with the English Language
The English language is considered today’s “lingua franca”, which means that it’s the dominating language of its era, being used in international affairs such as diplomacy or commerce. Roughly 360 million people use English as their first language and a billion more know it as a secondary language. In addition, many countries use English as their official language.
It is also estimated that over 50 million people are in the process of studying the English language each year, either through organized education, through personal study with the help of free English lessons online or by using “learn English courses” in order to improve their vocabulary, memorize words and so forth.
Learning English online
Even though most schools across the world teach English as the secondary language, organized education can often be improved through free English lessons online or other sources that can offer you a vocabulary increase and help you memorize words easier.
If your typical “learn English" course won’t cut it for you, or if you want to try a more relaxing way of learning the language, you could try out some vocabulary games found online. Playing vocabulary games is a great way to memorize words, improve vocabulary and polish your spelling and possibly your speaking skills at the same time.
In conclusion, we should state that English is one of the easiest languages to learn, not only because of its less complicated grammar, spelling and phonetic structures but also due to the media invasion, which helps us accommodate with the English language. Even in countries with completely different language rules and structures such as China or Japan, English finds its way with the help of Hollywood movies, commercials and international affairs.
Articles about English in different languages:
English Language (in English)
Historia de la lengua inglesa (in Spanish)
Anglais. (in French)
Englische Sprache (in German)
Lingua inglese (in Italian)
Engelse Taal (in Dutch)
Língua inglesa (in Portuguese)
Limba Engleza (in Romanian)
История английского языка (in Russian)
تأريخ اللغة الإنجليزية (in Arabic)
The roots of the Spanish language
Linguists consider the birthplace of the Spanish language as the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula, around the Burgos and La Rioja areas. At that time, the Peninsula was under Romanic influence, hence Latin was the tool of the trade for commerce in the area. Taking this new language and polishing it with their own specific language traits, the locals spread it throughout the entire Peninsula, eventually making it the official language of government and trade in the area.
Therefore, being a Romanic language at its roots, Spanish keeps the basic rules and structure of its parent. However, the local Iberian influence as well as several other nomadic influences in the area has given room for a vast, specific vocabulary increase. From thereon, the Spanish language was formed, which will soon become known to history as one of the most widely spread and used languages on the face of the Earth.
The modern Spanish language
During the colonization era, Spain was a global power and was one of the most powerful nations on water, with an enormous fleet and a great net of commercial routes to back up the claim. This helped spread the Spanish language, as colonists, gold seekers and explorers made their way over the oceans and established settlements in the newfound lands. The effect of this is visible today, with most of the countries in South and Central America as well as the ones in the Caribbean area having Spanish as their official language.
Tips for learning Spanish
Being one of the most widely spoken languages of today, with over 450 million speakers throughout the entire World, Spanish is becoming a learning attraction or even a necessity for more and more people. If you don’t have the chance to study the language in school or through some other form of organized education, you could always do it by yourself through a “learn Spanish” course or book. Of course, these courses usually cost quite a lot and they also have a fixed schedule that you might not be able to follow to the point. In this case, you might be better off looking for a website that offers free Spanish lessons online. These websites provide a great deal of content that can be useful in order to improve vocabulary and to memorize words in the Spanish language.
Speaking of vocabulary increase, another great way to achieve it is by playing vocabulary games. Some websites offer such vocabulary games freely and they can be an extremely fun and relaxing way to learn Spanish. If all fails and you can’t seem to memorize words and improve vocabulary through any of the above mentioned methods, you could try watching some Spanish television, especially if you’re into soap operas. Learning through media is a great way to get things started and you’ll notice a solid vocabulary increase even after a few weeks.
Articles about Spanish in different languages:
The Spanish Language (in English)
Las raíces de la lengua española (in Spanish)
Langue espagnole (in French)
Spanische Sprache (in German)
Lingua spagnola (in Italian)
Spaanse Taal (in Dutch)
Língua espanhola (in Portuguese)
Originile limbii Spaniole (in Romanian)
Корни испанского языка (in Russian)
جذور اللغة الإسبانية (in Arabic)
The francophone World
French is a language that has descended from Latin, hence its main ethnic layer is similar to other Romanic languages such as Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian and so forth. Above this Latin layer, French “suffered” from a lot of influences such as the native Celtic, from the Gauls, several other Germanic languages as well as ancient Greek. Each of these influences can be easily spotted today in either pronunciation, spelling or grammar, giving the French language a unique spot among the Romanic languages.
The term “Francophonie” refers to the entirety of the French Diaspora, spread amongst over 40 countries that have French as their official language. Besides France itself, the language is spoken in several European countries such as Belgium, Luxembourg or Switzerland, in Northern America throughout Canada as well as a number of countries in Africa, namely: Algeria, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Morocco, Congo, Niger, Senegal and several others. In all these countries French is either studied as the main language throughout the local educational system, or as a secondary, “official” language right next to the native tongue. “Learn French” courses are popular in organized institutions as well as privately.
3 reasons to start learning French
1. If your mother tongue has a Romanic or Anglo-Saxon origin, learning French is extremely easy, since it shares a lot of grammatical rules and structures as any of the above mentioned languages. Memorizing words will be made easy by the fact that a lot of French words are look-alikes to their English counterparts, so if you’re reading and understanding this, you should also have it easy when you’ll try to improve vocabulary in French.
2. If you don’t have time or money to take up on the various “Learn French” courses that take place all across the World, you can easily opt for taking free French lessons online. The Internet offers a lot of these free lessons in various forms from quiz tests that help you memorize words, vocabulary games that help improve vocabulary and increase your spelling skills or the more classic grammar courses.
3. French is one of today’s 6 international languages, so it is extremely important to know it or at least understand it if you’re in a work field that has the word “international” in it. Commerce, diplomacy, media and several other fields are strongly influenced by French, so taking a few free French lessons online can get you out of a lot of tight spots as well as impress the persons you’re dealing with.
Articles about French in different languages:
The French Language (in English)
La Lengua Francesa (in Spanish)
Langue française. (in French)
Französische Sprache (in German)
Lingua francese (in Italian)
Franse Taal (in Dutch)
Три причины, чтобы начать учить французский (in Russian)
Língua francesa (in Portuguese)
Limba Franceza (in Romanian)
عالم الفرانكوفوني (in Arabic)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
