Language is a tool to get a message across. Don’t get caught up with being absolutely perfect. You’re not in school anymore. The locals in Mexico or China don’t care if you make a few mistakes. By any yardstick, you’ve succeeded if you can order dinner in the target language. Be proud.

If all you’re interested in doing is scoring an “A “, then by all means go do a technical language course at university.

If however you’re keen to just chat with locals and don’t mind laughing at yourself once in a while, just embrace the language learning journey. You’ll discover far more than a new language along the way.

Hennessy XO Cognac

Or more likely this:

Kweichow Moutai, Chinese white liquor

For the rest of us – it’s likely to be years of Mandarin lessons and lots of hard work.

Most people who come to Euroasia wish to converse with native speakers when travelling or doing business. Most seasoned businesspeople will understand “doing business” is largely about developing relationships so there’s a large degree of overlap between those learning a language for business and social reasons.

If your priority is to learn the written word, then you should focus on reading from Day 1. In some instances this may not be possible (think Chinese/Japanese/Korean), but for most European languages this is very do-able. You may need a dictionary but start with a few sentences a day, and with kids’ books.

If you wish to speak with natives, then do so from Day 1. Aim to spend an hour or two every week with native speaker(s) in addition to your usual Euroasia language course. Don’t worry about making mistakes. The idea is to expose yourself to the language frequently, and to practice what you’ve learnt.

If you live in Auckland, Wellington, or for that matter any New Zealand city, chances are you will find native speakers of the language you’re learning. Where? Try community groups. By this I mean joining groups where the majority of members are from the culture you wish to immerse yourself in. If you wish to learn French, join the French group learning about Kiwi culture, NOT the local group of Kiwis appreciating French wine. There are plenty of French travellers coming to NZ on working holidays and they are very keen to meet Kiwis. And all these French people congregate at Frogs in NZ.

Plenty of South American groups (ok usually by country eg Argentinian, Chilean, Colombian etc) exist, as well as Russian, Dutch, Japanese etc. Korean groups usually meet on Sundays (seeing most are Christians), and countless Chinese groups are dotted across the country along cultural, religious and provincial lines.  These migrants always welcome interactions with Kiwis and you will be treated very well. Don’t be put off if their website is in Chinese – similarly don’t be surprised if some of them speak better English than you!

If you live in Invercargill, you may need to resort to skype for virtual penpals. Distance and isolation is no excuse.

And most important of all – Have Fun!

There’s clearly growing interest in Asian languages, especially Mandarin.
When we started offering Mandarin about 6 years ago, it was very much a minority interest, and students seldom continued beyond level one. Now it’s the most popular language (surpassing Spanish), and we have students returning for a whole series of courses. We offer six levels, plus we have an advanced class for those who wish to continue beyond that point. Some of our students have been coming along for years, and are very happy to do so.

Interest in Japanese is fairly stable overall. We have a dedicated group of people who keep returning to study in our highest level class.  We also regularly have new beginners starting.

Korean is fairly popular. Perhaps this is because of Korean drama, K-Pop etc.

This year, Euroasia is also offering Cantonese, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian and Arabic, in response to requests from clients.

Our clients are predominantly young to middle-aged European professionals, although there’s a small but growing number of Asian clients. We also find that people originally from Asian countries are interested in learning another Asian language. Sometimes the reasons are surprising: for example, Chinese and Japanese people may express an interest in Korean soap operas!

Kiwis learn foreign languages for the following reasons:

- Personal travel

- Business

- Partner speaks that particular language

- Descended from speakers of that particular language

- General interest

Reasons vary from language to language: with Mandarin, often business; with Italian, usually personal travel; with Dutch, generally family connections.

We are often asked what can people realistically achieve by attending our courses.

To achieve near-native speaker competence takes years of study, together with a substantial amount of time in the country in question. Realistically, there are not that many people who achieve this level of competence. But there are many other levels of competence, and achieving these can be immensely rewarding as well as of practical benefit. Even a short, introductory course gives insights into the way the language works and the way people think, as well as providing a useful range of vocabulary for everyday situations. The more you study, the wider the range of experience you’re able to discuss in the foreign language. Language learning is an ongoing process, much like keeping fit. Just because you’ve managed to develop a summer beach body doesn’t mean you can stop working at it.

Latest from The Telegraph:

Plans to ease a ban on the use of English in French universities will be debated on Wednesday with unions threatening to strike in protest at a measure some claim will turn French into a “dead language”.

Under a 1994 “Toubon” law defending the French language, French must be used in classrooms from right through

nursery to university, barring lessons in a foreign language and visits from foreign guest teachers.

The law also obliges public bodies to find French alternatives to Anglicisms, such as “mercatique” for “marketing”.

Geneviève Fioraso, the Minister for Higher Education, wants to ramp up courses in English, warning that otherwise universities will eventually end up with “five people sitting around a table discussing Proust”. The measure, she said, is aimed at increasing the number of foreign students at French universities from the current level of 12 percent of the total to 15 percent by 2020.

But it has ignited a storm of protest from language purists, including the influential Academie Francaise, set up in 1635 and the official guardian of the language. Courriel, a French language defence association, even branded it “linguistic assassination”.

Now several leading unions in the education sector have threatened to strike on Wednesday, when a parliamentary debate over the proposal opens, with even some members of the ruling Socialist party opposing the plan.

Jane Driver, Head of Languages at Hinchingbrooke School.

It’s no good putting on a languages day at the end of year 9 if we want our students to study languages post 14. We’ve got to get our students excited and interested in languages right from the moment they arrive at secondary school (or, even better, before they come). The first place to start is raising the profile of languages in your school – as we can get a little hidden. We run a Eurovision song competition in year 7 which kick starts some great phonics work.

David Ceirog-Hughes teaches general studies and languages atWinchester College

I find introducing the students to poetry and short stories as soon as possible provides a real context for learning. I’m a particular fan of Philippe Delerm ”La première gorgée de bière” who writes these little essays on French life, and the poems of Jacques Prévert. It makes the language learning process

more meaningful. In France there’s a tradition of learning through poetry and we have a poetry recitation competition in the target language which pupils take seriously.

If you can stop language learning being remote that’s the key to unlocking so much interest.

Check out more tips from other language teachers at the Guardian site.

Check out the latest discovery from a Swedish-American team of researchers.

“We showed that the foetus during the last ten weeks of the pregnancy not only listens to but

remembers and learns languages,” Patricia Kuhl at the Washington University Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences told the BBC.

It was already known that babies during their last weeks in the womb could recognize their mother’s voice and vocal melody. After studying newborns, however, a Swedish-American team of scientists proved that the babies had learned a lot more than that.

The scientists studied forty infants who were just 30 hours old. The baby boys and girls were then made to listen to vocal sounds in Swedish and English.

The American babies would start sucking their pacifiers more intently when they heard Swedish vowels, which researchers interpreted as a sign of curiosity upon hearing a foreign tongue. The Swedish babies reacted similarly when they heard English sounds.

Coming back to Masterchef, some may argue that it’s not fair to ask a vegetarian to cook a whole duck.

But what do you expect? Anyone with any clue what

the show is about will realise that competitors are required to cook all sorts of dishes including non-halal, non-kosher, preparing; using every conceivable ingredient including meat, alcohol and whatever else the judges demand. That’s what you sign up for.

Simon Gault’s writeup on why he ejected Raheel is illuminating.

There are good reasons why individuals shouldn’t be forced to cook or eat anything which goes against their beliefs.  But you waive this right when you put yourself on a TV cooking show.

I explained to the Chinese lady that returns simply go into the box.

Chinese lady was shocked. She

asked how would the library know if the book was returned. What if the book goes missing?

I asked her not to worry but she wasn’t convinced. I explained to her this is how it works and assured her the books are safe.

It’s difficult for Kiwis to understand what the fuss is all about. Why can’t these Chinese folk just drop their books in the returns box like everyone else?

It’s also difficult for Chinese to understand why books aren’t returned over the counter. Who’s responsible if the books are stolen?

It’s inevitable. Our history and upbringing influence the

way we think and act.