About The Mezzofanti Guild

I’ve been moving around and living in various parts of the world for the last two decades (you can learn more about me here).

I have a huge passion for language learning as well as helping to raise awareness of endangered minority languages around the world.

My goal is to spend the rest of my life pursuing this passion.

I’m happy to share information from my own experience that’ll help you in your efforts to pick up new languages.

Whether you’re living abroad immersed in your target language or struggling to learn at home on your own, there’s plenty of content here that will benefit you.

Why a “guild”?

This definition of the term ‘guild’ says it all:

An association of people for mutual aid or the pursuit of a common goal.

It’s really important that we continue to encourage and support one another as a community of language learners.

You might be learning a language on your own but consider yourself part of a wider, global family of learners who are in the same boat!

From time to time you’ll also hear from other experienced language learners on this blog and you’re always welcome to share your own thoughts and experiences.

My language experience in a nutshell

My family are all monolingual English speakers.

Even though I took a few years of compulsory Mandarin Chinese in school, it wasn’t until I encountered Koine Greek and Ancient Hebrew in college that I really became interested in foreign languages.

Learning these languages for a few years showed me how truly rewarding it is to be able to understand people not only across cultures but across time as well.

I moved on to Classical Arabic and ended up making friends with native Arabic speakers in Australia and the Middle East. These people taught me the Egyptian and Modern Standard dialects.

Arabic has been my area of specialization for many years.

I’ve also spent a lot of time learning the following languages as well through a mixture of immersion, formal and informal study: Georgian (the country), French, German, Italian, Spanish and Russian.

In 2012 I taught myself Irish Gaeilge, the indigenous language of Ireland, and I spent 2013 in South Korea where I learned to speak Korean.

I spent 2014 in a small town in Russia becoming conversationally fluent in Russian, followed by several years back and forth to Egypt, Jordan and Qatar to pursue more Arabic.

My own personal goal is to become fluent in at least one new language every year and to attempt to spend time living in that country while sharing my experience with all of you.

Would you like to know more about me? Click here.

A few of my media appearances:

How to learn Korean and win awards - BBC News

What It’s Like To Teach English To One Of The Wealthiest Families In Russia - Esquire Magazine (article of mine in Russian)

Australian Linguist Learns To Speak Irish In Nine Months - The Irish Echo, Australia

And a few popular posts to get you started:

You Don’t Need To Study Grammar To Learn A Foreign Language

How To Improve Your Foreign Language Listening Comprehension

Best Online Spanish Courses

Introducing Talk In Arabic 2.0 - All Dialects. Naturally Spoken

The Uncomfortable Truth: Social Risk-Takers Are Better Language Learners

Arabic And Hebrew: Why Semitic Languages Are Not Difficult (Despite What People Say)

Glossika Review And Interview With Founder Mike Campbell

12 Most Spoken Languages In The World (+ A Few Extras)

Lastly, do you use Facebook, Pinterest or Reddit?

Please help support me and my family by pinning/sharing/upvoting any posts that you find interesting or helpful. This is one of the best ways to support me.

Thanks! 🙂