- audioblog
- Children
- English
- French
- Homepage
- Italian
- language learning
- Language learning tips
- music
- Portuguese
- Spanish
- Uncategorised
- video
How Long Does it Take to Learn a Language
Watch our new video which highlights just how long it takes to learn a new language. Don’t let if put you off! It actually depends on a whole variety of factors and, most importantly, it’s an incredibly rewarding experience!
Our Top Spanish Movies to Help Learn Spanish
Our Top 10 Movies to Help You Learn Spanish For adults, learning a new language isn’t easy. Often students get lost in their their textbooks and can become frustrated about wanting to be able to speak more fluently and have a conversation. At The Language Machine we always encourage students to try and immerse themselves […]
Spanish Food Song
Learn some names of Spanish foods with our popular food song for children. Over 3000 views on YouTube woo hoo! PS. Adults might like it too!
Spanish is everywhere, which is why you should learn it
We often think of English as the ‘language of commerce’, and the most widely spoken of European languages, but the reality is not quite as simple as we like to think. In fact, while English is second only to mandarin in languages that people can speak in the world, when it comes to the native […]
Top 3 Reasons to Learn Portuguese in the Coming Year

New Year is just around the corner! New Year is not just a change in the numbers on your calendar, but it is an opportunity to begin everything afresh and change your way of life for the better. It is a time when you can bid farewell to any bad memories or lost opportunities from […]
How to Order Food and Drinks in Spanish
For all those heading off to Italy this summer we’ve put together a useful guide to Italian food terms and how to order in cafes and restaurants.
3 Reasons to Take Spanish Lessons in London
You will be well-aware about the incredible advantages that are gained from learning foreign language. These include; increased creativity; significant improvement in analytical skills; easy international travel and business; a competitive edge in career choices and the pleasure of being able to speak another tongue. There is no better time to embark on the journey […]
Italian Cafe and Restaurant Survival Guide
For all those heading off to Italy this summer we’ve put together a useful guide to Italian food terms and how to order in cafes and restaurants.
Varieties of Spanish
Spanish is the official language of 21 countries and is spoken by around 600 million people throughout the world and by 400 milliion as their first language.
People in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Spain, Guatemala, Equatorial Guinea, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Venezuela all speak Spanish! The Language Machine has Spanish tutors in London and other areas of the UK with teachers from just about all the countries on that list!
Highest Paid Languages of 2017
At The Language Machine we like to encourage pupils to learn languages for love. Cold hard economics, though, can never be ignored so we we’re also quite interested to see which languages would end up earning you the most. While most schools typically focus on French, German and Spanish research by job search portal Adzuna […]
15 Great Online Resources to Learn French
We’ve put together a list of some our favourite online resources to help you learn French. There’s a good mix of sites to help with grammar, speaking, reading and writing. Some of our private French students often ask how they can continue to improve their French outside of their private French lessons. Our best advice […]
15 Great Online Resources to Learn Spanish



Whether you want to speak, read or write Spanish take a look at our list of 15 online resources to help you learn Spanish. They are all excellent to supplement one of our private Spanish tuition courses — the more you immerse yourself in the language the better. (1) Duolingo: One of the best free resources out […]
Lingo Lunch Hour
Our Lingo Lunch Hour courses are perfect for colleagues who want to make the most out of their lunch break. Whether you want to learn some holiday Spanish, business French or any other language, we can provide lessons at your company. Groups are typically between 4 and 10 students and lessons are for one hour […]
CHRISTMAS AROUND THE WORLD


The countdown has begun! Only 24 more sleeps and Christmas day will be upon us. For most people in the UK this day conjures up a warm feeling inside and thoughts of a cosy family gathering. Children and grown-ups get presents from Father Christmas, houses get decorated with pine trees and tinsel, while mince pies […]
KLOO. PLAY AND LEARN A LANGUAGE
One of my fondest childhood pastimes was spending endless hours with my siblings animatedly playing board games, “juegos de mesa”, as we call them in Spanish. I come from a generation where the pinnacle of computer games meant a couple of white sticks on a black screen and power cuts were a frequent occurrence. When […]
HOW TO CHOOSE THE BEST WAY FOR YOU


Just a couple of decades ago, if you decided to start learning a language as an adult your choices on how to go about it were uncomplicated and limited. In today’s world your learning options have increased and diversified beyond recognition. Having more choice also means having to make decisions about which one is the […]
INTERNATIONAL TONGUE TWISTER DAY


Who would have thought? There really are celebratory dates for anything! November 7th celebrates International Tongue Twister Day. As keen linguists, we love challenging ourselves with word games, and tongue twisters in your second language can be a fun way to test your pronunciation skills. Do some tongue exercise today with these amusing phrases in […]
FIND OUT YOUR LEVEL


Whether you are studying in a group, privately or by yourself is always a good idea to see where you are at every so often. Moreover, if you need to describe your level to apply for uni abroad or a job where your language skills will be taken into account, giving a good idea of […]
GET YOURSELF MOTIVATED
7:30am February 2005. A thick, white sheet of snow had covered the heath overnight. Despite wearing skiing gloves, I could still feel the cold numbing my fingers. Had anyone looked from above, they would have seen a black dot going round the field, then entering the adjacent park and coming out again seemingly going nowhere. […]
ITALY IN NUMBERS
Italy measures approximately 116,400 square miles Italy is one of the most densely populated nations in Europe with 60,674,003 inhabitants The capital of Italy is Rome, known as the Eternal City, is almost 3,000 years old In 2007, a dog named Rocco discovered a truffle in Tuscany that weighed 3.3 pounds. It sold at auction […]
BRAZIL IN NUMBERS
Brazil is the 5th largest country in the world by both land area and population The population in 2016 is around 209 million people Brazil covers 3 time zones Around 60% of the Amazon Rainforest is located in Brazil Brazil is one of the 77 founding members of the United Nations There are around 2500 […]
BASIC ITALIAN VOCABULARY (FREE downloadable and printable)
Basic Italian vocabulary: numbers, colours, months of the year, days of the week and much more. basicvocabulary
TRADITIONAL PAELLA RECIPE (bilingual text)
Traditional paella originated in the Valencia region of Spain. It’s believed that its origins are a blend of Roman and Arab influences. The Romans introduced irrigation in this area and the Arabs brought rice. The rest of the ingredients would be what was local to the region and accessible for the peasants who traditionally cooked […]
EATING AND DRINKING (FRENCH downloadable exercises)





Review food and drink vocabulary and phrases and practise using the printable exercises. Bon appétit! cheers
MAKING FRIENDS IN FRENCH (FREE DOWNLOAD)





Learn how to make friends in French. Downloadable and printable theory and activities to practise basic French vocabulary and phrases. makingfriendstheory makingfriendsfrenchactivities
BASIC GRAMMAR GLOSSARY
Grammar terminology can be a bit overwhelming when students first start learning a new language. Whether you are a grammar novice or just need a bit of refreshing your memory, we have put together the following short list to help you to understand some of the terms used in the language learning environment. (1) NOUN […]
BASIC FRENCH VOCABULARY (FREE DOWNLOAD)





Refresh, learn for the first time or consolidate basic French vocabulary including numbers, colours, nationalities, professions and a lot more in this free downloadable file. Basic French vocabulary
SPANISH AND ITS VARIETIES
Spanish is spoken by around 500 million people throughout the world, and by 350 million as their first language. It is the official language of 22 countries: Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Spain, Guatemala, Equatorial Guinea, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Venezuela. […]
THE LANGUAGE STUDENTS’ GUIDE: THE SHY LEARNER
If public speaking fills your sleep with nightmares, small talk terrifies you and presentations are your idea of hell fire, language learning probably does not make it to your bucket list of hobbies. You probably consider yourself shy or maybe an introvert and spending time in a class trying to practise French with strangers is […]
12 UNTRANSLATABLE WORDS WE SHOULD ADOPT IN ENGLISH
One of my favourite words in English is moreish. The word moreish does not have an exact equivalent word in Spanish. We surely have the concept but this needs a long and winding clarification in Spanish that just kills the beauty of this word’s self -explanatory nature. It might look like a plain and unpretentious […]
SEPARATING THE MYTHS FROM THE FACTS OF SPANISH STEREOTYPES


SPANIARDS ARE GENERALLY LOUD FACT: We speak generally a couple of notches louder than inhabitants from other nations. ALL WOMEN LOOK LIKE PENELOPE CRUZ. ALL MEN LOOK LIKE ANTONIO BANDERAS MYTH: Erm, nope. We don’t. Unfortunately. Spain is a melting pot of different cultures and ethnicities. Although the combo dark eyes/dark hair prevails, we have […]
SMALL TALK FOR BRITISH LEARNERS: WHAT TO TALK ABOUT WHEN YOU ARE IN SPAIN.



Living in Britain we are never short of small talk material. Are we? I once went on a half hour train journey talking to a stranger about nothing but the weather: the unreliable, surprising, out of the blue, crazy old British weather. Much disliked, yet so handy when conversation is dwindling, especially in the summer. […]
FRIEND OR FOE. 6 FRENCH FALSE FRIENDS YOU SHOULD KNOW


English and French linguistic connections run deep and share many cognates or vrais amis, such as “animal”, “horrible”, “substance”, “importance” and lots more. However, there are instances when you might be deceived by the way words look. Faux amis, (false friends) or false cognates are pairs of words which seem to be linguistically connected but […]
SPANISH “YOU”. TÚ and USTED in SPAIN (bilingual text with audio)


Listen to the Spanish text here Once on a warm Spanish summer night, my friend S. and I were walking to the pub when our lives were changed forever. A 12 year old boy approached us smiling and without a warning asked my friend, “¿Tiene hora?”. When he left my friend turned round and asked […]
HEAD, SHOULDERS, KNEES AND TOES…SPANISH STYLE
CABEZA, HOMBROS, PIERNAS, PIES Cabeza, hombros, piernas, pies x2 Ojos, orejas, boca y nariz Cabeza, hombros, piernas, pies!
7 reasons why your child should learn a second language


Learning a second language has countless benefits at any age. Acquiring a foreign language at a young age has additional advantages which no child should miss. Below we have listed some of the reasons which go beyond the linguistic realm. COGNITIVE BENEFITS Aside from linguistic advantages, children who learn a second language early in life […]
Greetings song — Spanish for children


Canción de la mañana Good morning song Buenos días niños ¿cómo estáis? Buenos días niños ¿cómo estáis? Buenos días mamis, Buenos días papis, Buenos días niños, ¿cómo estáis? Muy bien! Good morning children, how are you? Good morning children, how are you? Good morning mummies, Good morning daddies, […]
Basic Holiday French



France is still one of the most popular summer holiday destinations. If you are heading that way, refresh your memory with this classic holiday French vocabulary list. S’il vous plaît (see-voo-play) – please Je suis (zheu swee) – I am Je cherche (zheu share-sh) – I’m looking for Je veux (zheu veu) – […]
7 de julio, San Fermin
7th July, San Fermin. Today Pamplona celebrates its Patron Saint, Saint Fermin with the running of the bulls. Over a million people take part in this festival every year. Thanks in part to Hemingway’s The Sun also arises, this event is now famous worlwide and the most renowned fiesta in Spain. See this morning’s bull […]
6 ways to make language learning easier


In a recent interview, British astronaut, Tim Peake admitted that learning Russian had been “the single most difficult aspect” of his training. It is hard to believe that learning a second language was more demanding that all the preparation astronauts travelling to the International Space Station (ISS) must undertake. This includes enduring huge amounts of […]
CLINTON FAILS HER SPANISH TEST


There are 45 million Hispanophones in the United States who speak Spanish as their first or second language. The Spanish speaking community rose from 10% of the US population to 13% from the year 2000 to 2010. This means that the US is the second largest Hispanophone country after Mexico. And somewhat surprisingly, there are […]
WHAT KIND OF LEARNER ARE YOU?


Knowing which kind of learner you are will help you make the most out of your learning time. Scientists and psychologists have devised various ways to identify how people learn best. According to one of the most popular methods, the VAK model, students fall into one, sometimes two, of these categories: visual, auditory and kinaesthetic. […]
Exam revision tips


Is learning a language on-line the right option for you? Here are some of the other advantages of learning your language of choice online with us…
Tips on Tipping


Going on holiday this summer? By now you know how to ask for the bill, but do you know how much to tip? If you are traveling with others, odds are that each one has a different theory about the amount. Most likely, you’ll end up applying the UK‘s default quantity and giving your […]
Too old to learn a language?


At The Language Machine, we have found that the number of mature students taking up a language is on the increase…
On Line Learning
Is learning a language on-line the right option for you? Here are some of the other advantages of learning your language of choice online with us…
New Year, New Language


Why not make 2015 the year you learn a new language? Learning a language has never been so easy and so much fun! The Language Machine…