(English)Hi, this is Gabe, from Towerofbabelfish.com. I’ve been asked for a demonstration of my languages, so here goes! (German) In 2004 I studied German. I did it in Middlebury, VT twice. I studied there in two summer semesters, and then I moved to Vienna. I’ve lived here since 2007, so I can speak German pretty fluently. (Italian) I studied Italian in Perugia. I did it in 6 weeks. My Italian isn’t bad, but it’s not good enough, because I love Italy, I love Italian culture, I love Italian food and I want my Italian to be perfect, and it’s not. But I’ll come back, and I’ll learn more, and that’s it! (French) My French..I learned French in 2010. It’s not bad. I took the DALF C2 exam. I didn’t pass it…I was missing 4 points, I think. So…At that time, I spoke at level C1. At the moment, I’m probably speaking at level B2 or something; I’ve forgotten a lot. I did most of it on my own, and I finished it up at Middlebury. (Russian) I…speak..now…now..I can speak Russian. It’s really hard to switch languages! So, Russian is a very complex and interesting language. I think that…I don’t know, I like it very much. And that’s it! (Hungarian) I speak a little Hungarian, but just a little. (English)I’ve been learning Hungarian for the last two months. I know a lot of vocabulary, and not so much grammar - I’m just starting to pick up the grammar. But, it’s not as bad as they say! You can learn Hungarian. It’s actually a pretty friendly language. I’m learning it to speak with my grandmother. She speaks a crazy number of languages and Hungarian was one of her native languages and I never knew a word of it. So this is kind of an experiment. That’s it, I hope this was interesting. I’ll be back with something more educational next time. Until next time!

(French) Hello everyone! This is Gabriel Wyner, from TowerofBabelfish.com. (English)And if you don’t speak French, there should be subtitles somewhere here. (French) Today, I have a personal story and a language tip for you. The story: A few months ago, I was seized by panic due to my French. Why? I learned French in 2010 in 5 months, and it wasn’t bad. But after that, I did other things: I learned Russian, I started learning Hungarian this year… And after these other languages and after 2.5 years, I forgot most of my French. For me, it was disastrous, not only because I’d like to retain my French forever, but because I’ve said quite publicly that I can speak French fluently, and I say that again in my book. So for me, forgetting French was a nightmare. And I *had* nightmares: Someone comes up to me and publicly exposes me as a liar; it was terrible. What to do? At the time, I didn’t have time to re-learn French; I was in the process of writing a book and learning Hungarian, and also, I don’t like learning two languages at once. And here comes the tip: If you want to refresh a language and you don’t want to work at it, watch television. It’s like magic. One month ago, I started watching the TV series 24 (dubbed in French, no subtitles) with Kiefer Sutherland. I watched 3 seasons, a few hours a day, and suddenly, my French came back. It was a pleasure, it was simple…it was basically relaxation. It’s a perfect method. It’s not really a method for improving a language…it’s not bad, but it’s not really a “method.” But for refreshing something…to refresh a language that you’ve forgotten a bit, it’s perfect. So, that was my tip! Thank you, and until next time.