Prague the golden city of towers and one visiting language nut.

I am sitting in an Internet cafe where I finally have access to the internet. I was promised Wifi at my hotel but that did not materialize. Last night I had a delightful dinner at the home of LingQ member Gabriela, cooked by her husband John!. I cannot wait until we have Czech at LingQ, she would make a great tutor.

Prague is fascinating. Last night after returning by street car from Gabriela and John's place I wandered into a wine bar and had a glass of wine, where I had an interesting conversation with a couple of radio journalists with Radio Free Europe, one English and one Russian, then chatted with my other neighbours who were with the Korean Embassy here. (I dusted off my rusty Korean, limited as it is).

This morning I had an early morning jog, visiting the small and large sqaures of Pragues and the Charles bridge, all at a trot. No city I know of blends the  Middle Ages with the 18th and 19th century in a way that is as spectacular and yet comfortable as Prague. The many pedestrian streets are a big part of the reason.You do not need to be dodging cars all the time.

Then I returned to have breakfast at the hotel where I chatted in Swedish and Chinese with my fellow hotel guests. (and handed out LingQ cards, as I did last night!)

Expolingua was a show directed at high school language learners, who thronged to the show. 90 % girls or so it appeared. I met some interesting people involved in language teaching, language exchange and language promotion, online and through travel and schools.

As for the exhibitors, there were people from Lithuania, young people, who spoke Russian. There were French, Spanish, Romanian, Austrians, Italians, Germans, Chinese (Confucius Institute of Olomouc), Portuguese, Guatemalans, Basque speakers, and one Japanese school whose the representative did not speak Japanese! I probably forgot some.

I had a lengthy discussion in Russian, with the Director of A University at Tomsk. She was very nice and seem to understand what I was saying most of the time,and did not make faces when I mutilated the Russian language, and I understood her.

There might  be some opportunities for cooperation with LingQ in all of this, but mostly I had a good time.

 

Comments

[Martyn]

Dear Steve,

I am glad that you are enjoying your trip in Europe. It's a shame that I left Europe before you came otherwise we could have met in Belgium or Prague. I am looking forward to when you will come over to Japan !

Anyway, I hear that Czech could be an option on LingQ. I have to say that I will be very excited when Polish and Czech will be upoloaded on LingQ and will be very likely to upgrade immediately on LingQ as I love those languages.

I know this is a very general question and that it is difficult to think about the future, but which languages do you think could be added on LingQ within the next 1-2 years?

Thank you in advance for the information and I hope that the rest of your journey in Europe will be very pleasant!

[Katie]

I also can't wait for Czech!

[Ana]

I used Mocha for a while. I even had a conversation with an American friend learning Portuguese I found there. We talked part in English and part in Portuguese. I couldn't feel it was very useful.
The courses are boring and very basic, I tried to do some French, but couldn't stand it for more than an hour...
I guess they are talking about one million of subscribed users, not active ones.

[Marc H.]

Ha ha. Your comment on the woman not making faces when you "mutilated" the Russian language made me laugh.

Are you planning any trips to Korea sometime? I'd love to meet up with you if you make it back out to Seoul.