[Skritter guys: If this is annoyingly off-topic, please feel free to delete it.]

I've just published an interview in Spanish with an Italian polyglot who speaks 10 languages, most of them with a near-native accent. His Chinese is still a work in progress but his English and Spanish are amazing and even his Swedish is really good.

Here's the link; if you can't read Spanish you can still check out the videos. He has quite a few on his YouTube channel.

http://www.nolapeles.com/2011/02/15/consejos-para-mejorar-el-acento-en-ingles/

My interest when I see this level of accomplishment is always to ask HOW the person managed to do it. We can throw up our hands and say "he's a genius" or we can try to break down his techniques and figure out what exactly he did to get to this level.

I think the key point here is that Luca TALKS TO HIMSELF. When he can, he speaks with natives as much as possible, but the core of his technique is to go through Assimil dialogues, reading, listening, and repeating things to himself.

If you want more detail, there are several links to blog posts in English at the end of the interview.

James

Vaya tela !!!! Thanks for sharing it with us.

@jlm2jlm2 ¿de dónde eres? no sabía "vaya tela", LOL

no problem; from Spain.

Thanks for sharing. It's pretty interesting. I'm surprised he's using Assimil. I got Assimil for Japanese but I didn't like it very much. As he said, it's not just the content it's how you use it.

There are many sites about learning languages but I found this one very interesting: http://www.streetsmartlanguagelearning.com
(it's a blog and the author wants to write a book with his findings).

Lately I'm thinking hard about how to improve my language skill for Japanese:

- Writing: skitter (+30m daily practice) does a good job
- Vocabulary: iknow (formely smart.fm)
I like the way to teach words and examples (listening, context, ...)
- Speaking: Weekly practice with a teacher

Grammar... this is a difficult point. Usually it's easy to understand but difficult to remember. I'm planning to use spaced repetition system for this.

I'd like to read and listen to content adequate for my vocabulary level. For example, if my level is Core 2000 (from smart.fm), it would be nice to have texts and listening with only these words (and matching grammar). Currently I listen to japanese dramas, but it's difficult to follow with my current vocabulary level.

Sorry for the long message... by the way, Spain here too! :)