1 . Do you love learning foreign languages? I love it so much that I like to learn a new language every two years, now working on my eighth one. As a successful language learner, people always ask me, “How do you speak so many languages like a polyglot?” They wanted to know why they are spending years trying to learn even one language, never making it.

To be honest, I really don’t know why. I’m curious to know what makes me speak several languages faster than other people. I decided to meet other people like me and find that out. I met Benny from Ireland, who told me that his way is to start speaking from day one. He learns a few phrases from a travel phrasebook and goes to meet native speakers and starts talking with them right away. He doesn’t mind making even 200 mistakes a day, because that’s how he learns, based on the practice.

I met some people who always start by learning sounds of the language, and others who always learn the 500 most used words of the language. And yet others who always start by reading about the grammar. As I was listening to these people telling me about their ways, it suddenly hit me that we simply found ways to enjoy the language learning. All of them use different ways, but they always make sure it is something that they personally enjoy. I realized that this is actually how I learn languages myself.

We are not geniuses (天才) and we have no shortcut to learning languages. It is really important to know how to turn language learning from a boring school subject into a pleasant activity which you don’t mind doing every day. In that way, you will love learning a language like me.

2 . How to Improve Your Pronunciation

It seems like all rules in English have an exception, doesn’t it?    1    However, learning a few of the exceptions can help make your learning easier! easier! Below are four groups of words that change in pronunciation based on where they are in a sentence or what letters they a replaced beside in a word. Check it out!

And, or, for and of are called “function words”.    2    They often drop letter sounds so that other more important words in a sentence can be stressed. Function words can also be integrated into words that come before or after them.

When T or D appear at the end of a word and the next word begins with a consonant(辅音), the sounds these letters make become softer or are dropped altogether. After the end sound of T or D is less stressed, the rest or the first word is generally integrated into the second word.

When -ed is placed on the end of a verb, its pronunciation depends on how the rest of the word is spelled. If the verb ends with a D or a T, -ed is pronounced as a whole new syllable. However, if the verb ends with a vowel(元音) sound or L, N, R, B, C, M, Z, S, or V, then-ed is just said like a D sound.    4    .

These article scan change in pronunciation depending on where they are in a sentence. You’ll need to identify if the word that follows them begins with a vowel or consonant.    5    . Additionally, if you’re wanting to stress the word that follows “the”, you should say it with a log vowel sound.