Valentine’s Day is gradually approaching already, and people nowadays are perhaps planning as to how they’re going to express their love towards their special someone. Either they’d give flowers or chocolates to their darlings, spend time somewhere in a romantic restaurant for a date, or just simply give a Valentine card with words of love sweetly written on it, the lists go on.

Do you know that mouths are not just the only medium of language expression, but it also include the hearts?

For years of counseling and service for love, divorce, and marriage, a certain counselor in the name of Gary Chapman conducted a famous study called “Five Love Languages”. With his long-term analysis of marriage, he understood the pattern that couples undergo. It seemed like each person has his or her own love language, a principal way of conveying or expressing love.

In the marital context, miscommunication and the feeling of being unloved will occur to the wife if the husband fails to express her love language. However, the success of expressing one’s love language towards each other makes them feel loved and understood.

The five love languages, as presented by Dr. Chapman are the following:

Words of Affirmation

This certain love language refers to a positive reinforcement. If a person possesses this kind of love language, he or she feels loved upon hearing genuine complements, words of encouragements, or expressions of approval. Failure to express this language tends to make the speaker feel reviled. Verbal abuse, for example, makes him or her feel irrelevant.

A person with this love language appreciates hearing “I love you” from his or her love ones. Words of affirmation like “You’re the love of my life”, “Honey, you look so beautiful tonight. I really appreciate the dress you’re wearing” and “Thank you for your love, Dear. I’m so grateful for it” will make this speaker feel like heaven on earth.

People with this kind of love language understand the difference between affirmation and flattery. They have this natural instinct if the words released to them do come from the heart or not. They admire genuine appreciation but disappoint insults and harsh words.

Quality Time

If “I love you” according to the previous love language is expressed through words, then this love language interprets love by rendering undivided attention. From a simple conversation of spouses before sleeping at night to an extravagant family beach vacation fills the love tanks of the person possessing this love language. A wife may feel unloved if her husband refuses to spend time with her or postpone their anniversary date, since time is demanded by such speaker.

One classic example of quality time is couples sweetly sitting on the couch in their living room, with TV turned off, chores on standby, and ears attentively listening to one another as they mutually chat about anything they feel like talking. A simple get-together for people who speak this love language really means a lot to them.

Receiving Gifts

This love language interprets love through tangible things. A person with this love language appreciates given gifts from love ones not just on special occasions but even on ordinary days as well. Receiving Gifts is not mistaken from materialism because the receiver appreciates the love behind the given gift. Even a simple daisy picked from a nearby lot, once given to the person possessing this love language will surely jump her heart to gladness.

Such gesture is highly appreciated by these speakers because they look to these given gifts as efforts of sacrifices from their love ones. They feel special, loved, cared, and worthy to be given with everything. They are also particular to love ones remembering special holidays like Christmas and Valentine’s Day.

However, an inconsiderate gift of a missed birthday or anniversary frustrates the speaker of this language. Even a simple gesture like not wearing the wedding or engagement ring of the spouse is a grave discouragement.

Acts of Service

The fourth love language screams that “action speaks louder that words”, since Acts of Service speakers feel appreciated when their love ones goes out of their way to make things more pleasant. In other words, mopping the floor, washing the dishes, or fetching kids from school is an act of love for them. Doing things like household chores without being told or granting their requests melts their hearts with joy.

However, laziness and other form of making their responsibilities more complicated disregard them. They suffer unimportance and seems like all their efforts are not appreciated. They feel that they don’t really matter to their love ones.

People who speak this kind of love language know the difference between genuine assistance and obligatory work. The latter creates resentment for the speakers because they don’t want to be helped out of requirement, but out of real love.

Physical Touch

Love according to this love language is demonstrated through bodily contact. This doesn’t concern with sexual intercourse alone, though it’s a part of it. Physical Touch compasses all kinds of touch, from a tap of a concerned friend to a passionate kiss of a dedicated lover. Nothing beats the hug of a special someone during the lowest times of the speaker of this love language.

When physically abused, a person with this love language feels dreadfully unloved. Slaps, punches, and other hurtful gestures break the hearts of such language speakers. They feel insignificant, making relationships vicious and destructive.

Similar to the preceding love languages, Physical Touch speakers know when their respondents are genuine or not. When a husband forces the wife in bed, turmoil is the effect of it. Unless the husband expresses his real love and not just sex alone, couples will surely have a great night on their bedrooms.

These love languages are not limited to marital relationships only but to other relationships as well. Bear in mind that language is a medium of expressing one’s thoughts, feelings, and points of view. Therefore, in the context of love language, people can also express their thoughts, feelings, and points of view in the language their friends or siblings speak. The process of learning languages to understand other people is also applicable in these love languages— to learn these love languages and to relate it to those who are speakers of it.

Have you known your love language already? Are you the speaker who prefers an “I love you” through quality time? Or you appreciate the simple but sincere words from your love ones? Do you prefer the gifts you received from them, or the sweet kiss of your special someone swifts you away?

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Many studies have already revealed that children can learn foreign languages while they are still very young yet a new study finds that babies already start learning languages from their mothers’ wombs.

A new study published in Current Biology has found that newborns already bear the mark of the language that their parents speak. The research results suggest that infants begin picking up what would be their first language from the womb, long before they make their first sound.

Kathleen Wermke of the University of Würzburg in Germany has said that “The dramatic finding of this study is that not only are human neonates capable of producing different cry melodies, but they prefer to produce those melody patterns that are typical for the ambient language they have heard during their fetal life, within the last trimester of gestation. Contrary to orthodox interpretations, these data support the importance of human infants’ crying for seeding language development.”

Earlier studies have showed that human fetuses are able to memorize sounds from the external world by the last trimester of pregnancy with a specific sensitivity to melody contour in both language and music. Newborn babies prefer the voices of their mothers over other voices and they perceive the emotional content of messages conveyed through intonation contours in maternal speech. The perceptual preference of newborns for the surrounding language and their ability to differentiate between different languages and pitch changes are based mainly on melody.

It was known that prenatal exposure to native language influences newborn’s perception, scientists has thought that the surrounding language affected sound production much later. Now with the new study, what was thought to be is not so.

Kathleen Wermke’s research team recorded and analyzed the cries of sixty healthy newborn babies when they were three to five days old. Thirty of the babies are born into French-speaking families while the remaining thirty are born into German speaking families. The analysis of the babies’ cries revealed clear differences in the shape of the newborns’ cry melodies based on their native tongue.

The analysis shows that French newborn babies tend to cry with a rising melody contour while the German newborns prefer a falling melody contour in their crying. Wermke said that the crying patterns are consistent with characteristic differences between the French and German languages.

The researchers say new research data show an extremely early impact of native language since earlier studies of vocal limitation had shown that infants can match vowel sounds presented to them by adult speakers but not only from twelve weeks onwards. That language skill depends on the vocal control that just isn’t physically possible much earlier.

The researchers said that “Imitation of melody contour, in contrast, is merely predicated upon well-coordinated respiratory-laryngeal mechanisms and is not constrained by articulatory immaturity. Newborns are probably highly motivated to imitate their mother’s behavior in order to attract her and hence to foster bonding. Because melody contour may be the only aspect of their mother’s speech that newborns are able to imitate, this might explain why we found melody contour imitation at that early age.”

This new discovery may help produce more than just and understanding of how language develops. Wermke said, “Further analysis of human infants’ crying and other utterances may contribute to resolving the enigma as to how language may have emerged in early human ancestors.”

The researchers include Kathleen Wermke and Birgit Mampe of the University of Wurzburg, Wurzburg, Germany; Angela D. Friederici of the Max-Planck-Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany; and Anne Christophe of Ecole Normale Superieure/CNRS, Paris, France.

Would you agree or disagree that babies start learning languages from their mothers’ wombs? Share your thoughts with us.

Learning foreign languages is exciting and fun however, there are so many things to consider when you are learning foreign languages. We are all aware that learning a language other than one’s native tongue can help reap a lot of benefits in the future yet since there are so many tips out there, we should consider which ones that work for us – or do not!

Many people attempt to learn foreign languages and succeed, some try lo learn and then eventually fail. However, one of the keys to be able to learn languages is to keep learning, and keep trying until you succeed. So many language learners halt in the middle of the process because of sheer frustration either for lack of progress in learning the target language, or lack of motivation and support from family and peers.

If you are among those language learners who have seen bleak skies towards a multilingual future, you better not fret because you have other options to keep you going! If there are do’s in learning foreign languages, bear in mind that there are don’ts too!

Here are some of the don’ts in learning foreign languages:

• Don’t quit when your progress seems slow. You have to realize that learning languages does take time and if you don’t learn as fast as you ought to, don’t be frustrated and then throw in the towel right away. Learning foreign languages takes more than just skill but also your concentration, determination, and will to learn. Just imagine your target foreign language as a seed that is planted in your brain which is the soil. You have to water it frequently for the seed to grow into a sturdy plant. If you can’t see the plant growing as fast as you expect, you should bear in mind that even though it is not growing the way you want it, there are roots beneath the surface that will help you in the future!
• Don’t listen to the “nay sayers” around you. While you are still on the early stage of language learning and you make mistakes in spelling, pronunciation, and other stuff, you might have a hard time coping up especially if there are negative people around you – don’t listen to them! Don’t allow them to get into you and discourage you from continuing to learn your target language. When you give them a chance to win over your determination, you will never learn your target language at all! As much as possible, have a strong will to learn what you want to learn and it also helps if you surround yourself with people who are supportive of your goals.
• Don’t be pressured with time limitations. Time is essential in learning a foreign language and you should be aware that you should give time in learning your target language. What should you do and how much time should you spend on such an endeavor when you have other things to do and commitments to work on such as schoolwork, your job, or your family? If you are not on a language program in a language school, you should be aware that there are ways to help you improve your language skills on the go! When you are in your car and stuck in traffic, you can brush up on your listening and speaking skills by listening to and doing exercises with a language CD or tape. On your free time you can also read a language book or do exercises with language software on your computer or laptop! There’s so much you can do just be creative and determined to learn!

Those don’ts mentioned above are just few of the things you should avoid when you are learning foreign languages. Keep them in mind so that you will know how to persevere with language learning!

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English is one of the most common languages spoken globally. Everywhere you go, whether in America or Eastern parts of Asia, you can find people speaking this language. Since 375 million people speak this familiar tongue, there is no surprise that even you yourself know how to speak English.

But learning English with the British accent; is this also common to the majority?

Surfing the web exposes the fact that there are lots of people who are interested in learning English, the “British” way. They find this unique language with a twist, making English a more sophisticated and a good-to-hear kind of speech. They choose to learn this amazing language not just for the sake of knowing it, or because it sounds cute in a way, but for the reason of speaking properly. Communication has always been essential for people’s lifestyle and there is nothing more fulfilling than to understand one another.

Aside from learning this accent in a personal context, learning British English is also important in the business perspective. If interested people fascinate working in the European regions, then their learning of this kind of English is required from them. It’s a guarantee that businessmen with a British accent encounters people who speak the same kind of tongue will have a greater opportunity in business dealing.

Now, is it difficult to learn English with a different accent? It’s as easy as learning English in grade school.

It is actually a great factor if a person already resides in U.K. during his younger years. Researchers agree based on their studies that children learning languages in their early stage easily adopt the native language in their communities. Language schools with their comprehensive learning facilities aid learners to become efficient English communicators. Manchester and other popular cities in U.K. have language schools that excellently promote intensive English learning.

Prior to enrolling one’s self to language schools, an interested learner can always acquire British English by continually communicating to people who speak the same accent. Through this, a learner practices to improve his pronunciations similar to British accent. By frequently working on this, the learner gradually adopts the mannerisms that the British people possess. With the learner’s keen and observant manner, he’ll become an effective communicator in no-time.

All languages have their own wonders and magnificence. The prolonged usage of it makes it even more beautiful and awesome. As learners continue to pursue their learning on British accent, they will discover how significant it is, both on personal and business contexts. Try learning it yourself and you’ll see the beauty of British accent.

In the language world, every now and then we hear various terms such as monolinguals, bilinguals, multilinguals, polyglots and hyperpolyglots. Among the given terms, the hyperpolyglots rank in the higher sphere of people who speak more than one language. What are hyperpolyglots and why are they such amazing people?

A polyglot is a multilingual person who speaks two or more languages. He or she can also be referred to as bilingual or trilingual depending on the number of languages he or she can speak. A hyperpolyglot on the other hand is a polyglot who speaks more than the usual number of languages, more likely to be over ten languages.

Hyperpolyglots are multilingual people who have acquired and maintained at least one language during childhood which is then called as his or her first language. The hyperpolyglots’ first language is acquired without formal education and later on they acquire other languages either through immersion or formal language learning.

People who are potential hyperpolyglots are:

• those with strong interest in a foreign language;
• those who find in necessary to acquire other languages for practical purposes either for education, information, entertainment or business;
• those who reside in border areas between countries with different languages;
• those who migrate to other countries;
• those who are children of expatriates; those who are children of parents who speak different languages;
• children who have a parent or both parents who have learned other languages;
• and children in language-rich communities.

Since the world has so many languages and dialects, it is no wonder that some people are gifted enough to absorb and speak many as many as possible. The following are some people who are reputed to be hyeperpolyglots:

• Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti – known to have perfect knowledge of twenty-eight languages, spoke thirty-eight languages and forty dialects;
  

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• Heinrich Schliemann – known to be conversant in thirteen languages;
• Ziad Fazah – claims to speak fifty-nine languages;
• Uku Masing – knowledge of sixty-five languages;
• Alexander Arguelles – claims to have knowledge of more than twenty-one languages;
• Kenneth Hale – has speaking knowledge of more than fifty languages;
• Emil Krebs – mastered sixty-eight languages in speech and writing and studied one hundred twenty other languages;
• Sir John Bowring – reportedly spoke one hundred languages and had knowledge of more two hundred;
• Harold Williams – fluent in fifty-eight languages;
• Jose Rizal – known to be fluent in twenty-two languages;
• Richard Francis Burton – spoke twenty-nine languages;
• PV Narasimha Rao – reputed to speak thirteen languages;
• Paul Robeson – studied more than twenty languages;
• Barry Farber – studied twenty-six languages;
  

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• Daniel Tammet – speaks more than ten languages;
• Carlos do Amaral Freire – studied more than a hundred languages and mastered sixty of them.

If you are one of those who can speak and understand many languages, you are a polyglot and you may be a hyperpolyglot if you can speak more! If you are still one of those who speak only one language, be inspired and motivated enough to learn another language or two or more and be part of the many multilingual people in the world who outnumber the monolingual ones.