The Join Martin Blog:
Beyond The Question presents: The Join Martin Blog: The Place To Learn The Lingo.
In March 2008, journalist and writer, Martin Drury set himself a challenge. To learn as many languages as possible in just 1 year. He didn’t have to become fluent in any language but he had to learn key words and phrases in as many languages as possible. As the months passed the blog became hugely popular with more than forty thousand people from fifty countries now visiting on a regular basis.
In March 2009, the language learning challenge finished and you will soon be able to read Martin’s final thoughts on his challenge. But the popularity of this blog proved that others are just as passionate about language learning as Martin is and, in June 2009, the decision was made to keep this blog going. Join Martin is now part of Beyond Then Question, a blog network dedicated to new and novel approaches to learning.
There’s so much to enjoy on the Join Martin Blog. Thanks to the Word A Day and Key Phrases posts, you can now learn a language whilst your browse the blog. You’ll find interviews with inspirational people, celebrities, language learning experts, stars of the future and others who share Martin’s passion for learning. Learning the lingo has never been so much fun.
May 21, 2008 at 5:50 am
Good luck!
Polyglots rule.
August 7, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Hi Martin,
My name is Ben Valembois. I wanted to let you know that our website, http://www.lexiophiles.com, has complied a ranking of the best 100 language blogs, and your blog in number 18 in our list!
We have joined a brief description of your blog to the entry on our list, and we would like to invite you to visit the web page and check that this description is accurate. If it is not, please tell us, and we will modify it. Feel free to contact me should you have any questions.
Best,
Ben
September 25, 2008 at 5:49 pm
I know a social network where people can practice languages while making new friends. Its name is Babelyou (www.babelyou.com). You could try, from my point of view it is a funny way of learning
October 22, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Hi Martin, your challenge sounds difficult but interesting. I am learning German and Catalan and already speak French. Anyway, you could keep notes for all your languages with my FREE website/app ‘My Language Notebook’ – http://www.mylanguagenotebook.com .
MLN is a program that you can download from the site and is like a normal notebook where you would note down useful sentences etc but also, you can record the audio for each sentence and much more. You can also use MLN to view the language notes of other people. And you can upload your notes for others to see (and hear).
Anyway, I hope you like it.
Good luck with your challenge; I will keep my eye on this site.
Jim
November 5, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Thanks for the thanks! I came across your blog and loved the idea! And since I am trying to do almost the same thing, I definitely wanted to support your cause
It’s my goal to be able to speak five languages, other than English, by the time I turn 35. I’m 27 and I’ve got Spanish down pretty well. Portuguese is next, since my dad is from Brasil and I have lots of family there and in Portugal. Then probably Italian, French and, gulp, Russian. I know that’s a hard one. I’ve also been studying Latin and Gaelic a bit. ‘Cause I think they’re cool
Thanks for the offer to put me on your blog roll, I am flattered and would be much appreciative if you did!
Hope things are going well for you!
December 3, 2008 at 5:30 pm
what a neat project! I like the idea of not focusing on fluency but rather on exposure/variety… one of the translation websites I really like is logos.it – vast collection of languages, extensive vocabs (varies by language), some words have sound files for pronunciation help; I’m sure I’m only using a fraction of the capabilities of the Logos site, but even twiddling around like I do it’s fun and useful, esp if I ever need to know the word for “thirsty” in Punjabi (for which I don’t have the right character set //G//)
yes, feel free to add me to your blog roll (I’m honoured by the request, thx!), and I’ll try to keep up w/your linguistic endeavour here, it’s just a very cool idea…!
kind rgds,
Tanya