learn 100 words in ten languages

And it changed my life. The idea is brilliant and has lead me to near fluency in Spanish, passable French and just a bit of Japanese. I’m aiming to be semi-conversational in everything I learn. This site really inspired me with this lifelong goal!

Just getting back to this goal, trying to get the first five words down. But there’s no single word for yes, is there?

“Am.” “Can.” “Good.” “Like.” Just affirm the verb in the question. But that means you have to know the verb.

http://mandarin.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/yes_no.htm

I wonder if nodding or shaking your head means the same thing as in English. Anybody?

cool idea..
i’m thinking:
italian
french
portuguese
mandarin
spanish
japanese
thai
finnish
german
hindi

Mandarin
Spanish
Hindi
Arabic
Bengali
Portuguese
Russian
Japanese
French
German
Italian
ASL

Alts:
Swedish
Polish
Latin

I took nine years of french in school, of which I retained very little. So this is where I’ll start.

Things to do:
choose words and phrasesget a phrase book from the librarydownload a learning guide onto ipod
watch french movies with the subtitles turned off
read french kid’s books
read french poems
visit the french section in the library
buy a fabulous french magazine. don’t just look at the pictures. read it. or at least decipher the headings.
read and translate a french short story

by the way, i’m aiming for more than 100 words. ideally, i’d like to be at least semi-conversational.

Okay, decided on the first ten languages. The main justification was number of speakers, tempered slightly by my opportunity to speak them.

1. Mandarin
2. Spanish
3. Hindi
4. Arabic
5. Portugese
6. Russian
7. Japanese
8. German
9. Korean
10.ASL

Now I need to work on the words and phrases. The first five are pretty boring and phrasebooky, but seem like a good start.

• Research the words in all ten languages
• Make flash cards
• Start learning

1. Thank you
2. Hello
3. Good-bye
4. Yes
5. No

French
Mandarin
Greek
Russian
Polish
Italian
Spanish
Arabic
Swedish
Hebrew
German
Irish (http://forthelongrun.blogspot.com)
Sign Language
Latin

This one’s gonna take a while!

Brilliant idea – someday =)

Leading Contenders:

Mandarin
Spanish
Hindi
Portugese
Russian
Japanese
German
Korean
French
Swedish
ASL

Alternatives:
Farsi
Arabic
Klingon
Ubbi-Dubbi
Scots
Texan
Engineer