{"id":24530,"count":6,"description":"Learning a new language is a big commitment, but these days there are a vast array of resources that make it a lot more fun than just reading a grammar textbook (though at some stage you'll probably need one of those, too). We have book recommendations for learning languages ancient and modern. The two are connected, in that by learning Latin, it will make it easier to learn the modern Romance languages (French, Italian, Spanish, Romanian) which are based on it. However, that's quite a roundabout way of setting about learning a modern language, and mostly learning ancient ones is about reading ancient texts, whether it's reading Plato\u2019s Apology of Socrates<\/em><\/a> or Herodotus's <\/a>Histories <\/em>in the original Greek, or deciphering the hieroglyphics on a temple wall in Karnak, Egypt.\r\n\r\nFor modern languages, the learning techniques are very different, as the primary objective is normally not just reading but communication with other human beings. It's worth reading our interviews on learning French and Spanish\u2014even if you're not interested in those specific languages\u2014because the techniques are similar in most languages. As Benny Lewis, the Irish polyglot points out, you really do need to get talking and not get too hung up on making mistakes, otherwise you're never going to get anywhere. Reading is also important and a quick way to ramp up your skills. Nice stories, that make you want to read to the end, are a great way to do this. Olly Richards, an English polyglot<\/a>, has written a really good series with stories catering to many languages and different abilities, starting with beginner.","link":"https:\/\/fivebooks.com\/category\/language\/learning-languages\/","name":"Books for Learning Languages","slug":"learning-languages","taxonomy":"category","parent":11189,"meta":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivebooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/24530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivebooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivebooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/taxonomies\/category"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivebooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/11189"}],"wp:post_type":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivebooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts?categories=24530"},{"href":"https:\/\/fivebooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book?categories=24530"},{"href":"https:\/\/fivebooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/books_like_this?categories=24530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}