The wonderful world of language offers us endless opportunities for growth and communication and is rooted in a great deal of rich history. Language first evolved during the time of modern homo sapiens, 50,000–150,000 years ago and since then, over 7000 different spoken languages have been established.
This vast universe of languages also happens to be full of fun and interesting facts to whip out whenever you want to impress your pals. Like the fact that the word ‘language’ itself actually comes from the Latin word ‘lingua’, which means tongue. Hungry for more linguistic tidbits? Keep reading!
1. There’s a language only 8 people speak
Talk about exclusive! The unclassified Busuu language is spoken in the Southern Bantoid of Cameroon – but only by eight people. In fact, when they checked in 1986, there were eight Busuu speakers and in 2005, only three, making it an endangered language.
2. Chinese Mandarin is considered the hardest language to learn
When considering that the Chinese Mandarin alphabet is made up entirely of symbols, this fact is not surprising. The average Chinese local is estimated to be familiar with over 8000 symbols and 3000 is the minimum to be able to read the newspaper. There are also four different tones for pronunciation to differentiate between words as many characters have the same sound.
3. English is the language with the most words
English takes the cake in this category at a proud 750’000 words, with new ones being added all the time. In fact, it’s estimated that about 5’400 new English words are created annually, although only around a thousand of these will be incorporated into the vocabulary of the general public.
4. William Shakespeare invented 1700 words
On the subject of new words, our man William Shakespeare came up with a pretty large collection of novel terms. He did this through a combination of changing nouns to verbs, verbs to adjectives, combining words, adding prefixes and suffixes as well as just straight up inventing brand new ones.Read More Posts
If you’re like us, you probably spend a slightly unhealthy amount of time on social media. That could mean checking your Insta DMs and your Twitter mentions, laughing at ridiculous TikTok videos, watching competitive marble racing on YouTube. But what if we told you there was a way to use social media for more than just mindless entertainment? Using social media for language learning can be a great way to supplement your studies and to test out your skills in the “real world.”
Social media, when approached the right way, can be just as valuable for practicing a new language as TV shows, podcasts, books or any other form of media. In this article, you’ll find a few tips to keep in mind if you want to use social media for language learning, as well as some lists we’ve curated for specific accounts to follow based on the language you’re learning.
Tips For Using Social Media For Language Learning
Be A Follower
The best way to get started in your language learning via social media adventure is by following a number of accounts that post in your target language. It would be helpful to have a goal in mind first. For example, if you know you want to learn food vocabulary, you might want to follow a cooking account. Whether you’re interested in sports, travel, memes, general language basics or just about any other topic, there’s an account for that. And if you follow these accounts, they’ll start to show up in your feed, so you can incorporate a little language practice into your everyday scrolling.
Here are some lists we’ve put together of accounts to follow on various social media platforms to give you a place to start.Read More Posts
