Perhaps you meant to spend a little more time studying Spanish before your trip, or if you did, your mind just happened to draw a blank the second you got yourself and your bags into the taxi. ¿A dónde quieres ir? Uh… where’s that phrasebook? Nothing’s better than speaking the language—even if you can’t do...

Communication technology is getting better all the time, but how about their human users? They may still lag behind the times, as globalization brings people closer, while they can't speak to each other in a common language. Matt Gross, writer of the NY Times Frugal Traveler Blog, set out to find a way to improve...

"There are people everywhere who form a Fourth World, or a diaspora of their own. They are the lordly ones! They come in all colors. They can be Christians or Hindus or Muslims or Jews or pagans or athiests. They can be young or old, men or women, soldiers or pacifists, rich or poor. They...

. By Tim Ferriss How can you possibly maintain fluency in two foreign languages -- let alone five or six -- if the opportunities to use them are months or years apart? Few topics provoke more anxiety and depression in independent language learners than the prospect of irretrievably losing a hard-learned new language. After you...

By Tim Ferriss Remember Pig Latin? Perhaps you toyed with it in grade school or uttered the occasional "amscray," but it won't get you very far in pickup lines or job interviews. Outside of the Anglosphere, on the other hand, syllable inversion is much more than a childhood memory or annoying habit. In the U.S.,...

Note : Today I'm debuting a new feature here at Vagablogging -- "Learning Languages, with Tim Ferriss." Tim Ferriss is fluent in five languages, has studied more than 15, and has spent the last 12 years analyzing the world's best language learners. He has lived in more than 25 countries, designed curricula worldwide for Berlitz®,...