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Zulu or isiZulu is a widely spoken language in South Africa, characterised by its clicking consonants - vestiges of a the influence of the San and Khoi peoples who were the indigenous people of South Africa. Like many other African languages, Zulu is tonal and slight variations in tone can alter the meanings of similarly spelled words, so be careful! However, if you are to pick a South African lan...

A language so sweet, the people created a drum to mimic the undulating rhythms of the this south-western Nigerian language. This melodic language is the most-well-known Nigerian language outside the country's borders and is studied at University level by foreigners. In terms of structure and tense, the language is easy to learn but its classification as a tonal language makes it slightly tricky fo...

Xhosa or isiXhosa is one of 11 official languages spoken in South Africa. Like the Zulu with which it is mutually intelligible, the language is heavily influenced by the San and Khoi people with whom they mixed. This is evident in the presence of clicking consonants in the language. The story of the origin of the term "Xhosa" is quite interesting. The word means "angry men" and was a name given to...

At first glace, Welsh is quite the intimidating language. However, other than word order the language has fewer irregularities thand English. Once the basic rules have been understood, reading Welsh becomes significantly easier. Many believe that it lacks the use of vowels but there are more official vowels than in English with Welsh beating English out 7 to 5. Speaking of beating English out, fol...

Vietnamese is one of a few languages in Asia that uses the Latin alphabet. This makes it much easier to interpret street signs and even to learn to speak. The other good news is that Vietnamese grammar is among the easiest to pick up, with very few rules to learn. Due to it being a "tonal" language, pronunciation is a bit trickier, and this makes learning Vietnamese that much more fun! Vietnamese ...

Learn Urdu and communicate with close to 100 million people around the world. This gentle and sophisticated language, with many of its words used to show respect and civility, is the national language of Pakistan. It is also an official language of India, and one of the most critical languages for understanding the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, as well as South Asia as a whole. Did you know? Urdu i...

Learn Ukrainian and explore the Ukraine's fascinating culture and the resurgence of its rich history, charming traditions and inspiring heritage. Today Ukrainian is the state language in the Ukraine, thriving and expanding like never before. It is used in government, education, business, entertainment, the Internet and all types of media. Did you know? The tradition of the Easter egg has its begin...

Learn Turkish and be guaranteed to make new friends. One thing you will soon realize when visiting Turkey is part of the Turkish culture involves being very sociable. Turkish people love to meet new friends! The Turkish culture has its basis in the city that has been the capital of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, while the Turkish language is much younger, created in the late 1920's with the ne...

Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by over 100 million native speakers worldwide, making it the 10th most widely spoken language in the world. Spoken mainly in Punjab,the land famously referred to as ‘The Land of Five Rivers’, the language also has a significant presence in the United Arab Emirates, United States, Saudi Arabia, and Australia! Punjabi is a descendent of a language of nort...

Serbian is a South Slavic language spoken mainly in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, and Macedonia by about 11 million people. It's the official language of Serbia, spoken by 95% of the population, and the main one used in this country of stunning national parks and mountains. Virtually identical to Croatian, Serbian is written in the Cyrillic (or Russian) alphabet, and Croatia...