About The Mez Guild
G’day everyone!
My name’s Hubert and I’m from Ontario, Canada.
You've arrived at The Mez Guild.
I’ve been moving around and living in various parts of the world for the last two decades (you can learn more about me here).
I have a hugepassion for language learning as well as helping to raise awareness of endangered minority languagesaround the world.
My goal is to spend the rest of my lifepursuing this passion.
I’m happy to shareinformation from my own experience that’ll help youin your efforts to pick up new languages.
Whether you’re living abroad immersed in your target language or struggling to learn at home on your own, there’s plenty of content here that will benefit you.
Who is this Mez guy?
According to an exhaustive biography of Giuseppe Gasparo Mez(1774 – 1849) he spoke an impressive 39 languagesfluently.
Most of these languages were not Latin-based – obscure and uncommon Eastern languages, and a range of various dialects and ancient languages of the Near East.
The languages he spoke were rapidly self-taughtat a time where there was no internet, no electronic communicationand no abundance of learning materiallike we have at our disposal today.
I personally have a special affinity for Mez because of his theological background starting out with Greek and Hebrew, and the fact that he specialized in Arabic.
Why a “guild”?
This definition of the term ‘guild’says it all:
An association of people for mutual aidor the pursuit of a commongoal.
It’s really important that we continue to encourage and support one another as a community of language learners.
You might be learning a language on your own but consider yourself part of a wider, global family of learners who are in the same boat!
From time to time you’ll also hear from other experienced language learners on this blog and you’re always welcometo share your own thoughts and experiences.
My language experience in a nutshell
My family are all monolingual English speakers.
Even though I took a few years of compulsory Mandarin Chinesein school, it wasn’t until I encountered Koine Greekand Ancient Hebrewin college that I really became interested in foreign languages.
Learning these languages for a few years showed me how truly rewarding it is to be able to understand people not only across cultures but across timeas well.
I moved on to Classical Arabicand ended up making friends with native Arabic speakers in Australia and the Middle East. These people taught me the Egyptianand Modern Standarddialects.
Arabic has been my area of specialization for many years.
I’ve also spent a lot of time learning the following languages as well through a mixture of immersion, formaland informal study: Georgian(the country), French, German, Italian, Spanishand Russian.
In 2012 I taught myself Irish Gaeilge, the indigenous language of Ireland, and I spent 2013 in South Korea where I learned to speak Korean.
I spent 2014 in a small town in Russia becoming conversationally fluent in Russian, followed by several years back and forth to Egypt, Jordan and Qatar to pursue more Arabic.
My own personal goal is to become fluent in at least one new language every year and to attempt to spend time living in that country while sharing my experience with all of you.
Would you like to know more about me? Click here.
And a few popular posts to get you started:
You Don’t Need To Study Grammar To Learn A Foreign Language
How To Improve Your Foreign Language Listening Comprehension
Introducing Talk In Arabic 2.0 – All Dialects. Naturally Spoken
The Uncomfortable Truth: Social Risk-Takers Are Better Language Learners
Arabic And Hebrew: Why Semitic Languages Are Not Difficult (Despite What People Say)
Glossika Review And Interview With Founder Mike Campbell
12 Most Spoken Languages In The World (+ A Few Extras)
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Thanks!