People & Blogs
You don’t need a special talent to learn a new language #TEDTalks
Want to learn a new language but feel daunted or unsure where to begin? You don’t need some special talent or a “language gene,” says Lýdia Machová. In an upbeat, inspiring talk, she reveals the secrets of polyglots (people who speak multiple languages) and shares four principles to help unlock your own hidden language talent…
@JuJuK33
June 12, 2026 at 4:23 pm
❤
@KuboF
June 12, 2026 at 4:25 pm
I know Lýdia personally and I can confirm she lives for languages and she’s great at it. For everyone who wants to learn a language by themselves, Lýdia is a jewel!
@simulation001
June 12, 2026 at 10:12 pm
♥️
@emrayla
June 13, 2026 at 9:31 am
I’ve self-studied Japanese on and off for many years. I’ve tried many different strategies, and made visible progress. However, I am still not properly conversational it. (I’d say I’m “almost” there.) I also learned French in school for 5 years, and I was horrible at it. However, I know people who can have a language just roll off their tongue easily in a much less period of time. There definitely seems to be a genetic component to if the skill comes easily to you. Videos like this make me feel discouraged, because I’ve tried so many paths and I still struggle, yet they say if you do it right it’s easy.
If you work hard, you can get there eventually, yes, but quickly? I think that depends a lot on the individual circumstance. (I’d love to be proven wrong, though!)
@piccolo3031
June 15, 2026 at 10:48 pm
She forgets to mention you also need a high iq lol