Programme & Speakers
You can apply to speak at the Polyglot Conference Taipei (in-person only) through the following link:
Apply to Speak at the Polyglot Conference Taipei
This year, the in-person event in Taipei will feature 20-minute speaker slots, allowing even more people to share their ideas on the Polyglot Conference stage! Be part of an exciting event that transforms an old colonial tobacco factory into a space that invests in the local population and celebrates the island’s rich diversity.
We’ve planned an exciting agenda for you in Taipei! On Monday 10th November, join us for a day filled with language exchanges and engaging activities from 08:00 – 20:00! After that, there will be a Tandem meet-up too!
Then, on Tuesday 11th and Wednesday 12th November, we’ll have a full programme from starting registrations at 08:00 and running through to 19:00. There will also be plenty of other activities to keep you busy throughout your time with us!
You will have the option of joining tours during the days after the conference and language courses the week before we start the main event! So lots to get excited about and we look forward to seeing you with us soon!
We’re also excited to offer events leading up to the Polyglot Conference in Taipei! The week before the conference, join us for a Creator Retreat, as well as language courses in Mandarin, Taiwanese, and Paiwan.
Speakers
Influence of Mexican Indigenous Languages on Spanish: Linguistic Diversity, Poetry, Dance, and Culture
Brenda Liliana Ruvalcaba Montoya
Mexico has 68 living indigenous languages, and 364 linguistic variants, which have greatly influenced our Spanish language in terms of lifestyle, linguistics, culture, cuisine, music, dress, and art, allowing indigenous peoples to constantly enrich today’s society. This task has not been easy, as unfortunately, many other Mexican indigenous languages have disappeared, but fortunately, there is now a wide variety of institutional, social, public, and private programs to promote the development and understanding of indigenous languages and prevent their extinction. In this talk, I will discuss all of this, how the linguistic diversity of Mexican indigenous languages enriches different aspects of daily life, Spanish, and the various sign languages that exist in my country. As a professional dancer, I will approach everything from an artistic perspective, through dance, poetry, cooking, culture, and linguistics in a holistic and comprehensive way. We will learn that we all know and use more words from indigenous languages on a daily basis than we imagine, something that, as polyglots, should make us proud, inviting and inspiring us to continue rescuing and promoting the indigenous languages of Mexico and the world.
Learning an Austronesian language without textbook: Linguistic fieldwork experience in Taiwan
Rik De Busser
Most people learn a new language by relying on textbooks or other learning materials. However, for smaller and endangered languages, this is often impossible. They might have no, or only very few, educational materials available for those who want to learn or study them. This does not mean that those languages are inaccessible to prospective students, and it can often be gratifying to study languages that are overlooked by most people living around them, or sometimes even by the people who originally spoke them.
Based on personal experience studying the Indigenous languages of Taiwan through immersion fieldwork, I will discuss some approaches to studying, documenting, and learning languages when no language materials are available. Following a brief overview of the historical context, we will explore some fundamental techniques for collecting language data and conducting linguistic fieldwork. We will investigate some of the difficulties that can arise when undertaking this kind of work and explore possible solutions. Finally, we will assess the types of fieldwork that are feasible for professional linguists and enthusiasts. By the end of this talk, I hope to convince you that anyone can do linguistic fieldwork, as long as they are mindful of the pitfalls that can arise along the way.
Overcoming Minority Language Shame: How Emotion, Not Pop Culture, Fuels Fluency and Retention
Stella Guan
For many heritage or minority language speakers, language is more than just communication—it’s tied to identity, culture, and sometimes, shame. Growing up in Mainland China, I distanced myself from Cantonese, my mother tongue, due to social pressures favoring Mandarin. Despite Cantonese having a strong pop culture presence, it wasn’t enough to keep me connected. My turning point came from two unexpected sources: the loss of my grandmother, who only spoke Cantonese, and a foreign friend’s admiration for the language’s creativity.
Through this experience, I realized that emotional connection—not cultural “coolness”—is the key to retaining a heritage language. This lesson also transformed how I approach learning new languages, like Spanish and Italian. As a teenager, fandoms fueled my fluency in English and Korean, but as an adult, I struggled to stay motivated until I fell in love with Medellín, which gave me the deep emotional tie I needed to commit to Spanish.
This talk explores how language shame develops, why pop culture alone isn’t enough to reverse it, and how finding a personal emotional anchor—whether through family, friendships, or meaningful experiences—can be the most powerful tool for both language retention and learning.
Key Takeaways:
1. Understanding Language Shame: How dominant culture pressures lead heritage speakers to abandon their native languages.
2. The Limits of Pop Culture: Why media representation and cultural “coolness” alone don’t ensure language retention.
3. The Power of Emotional Connection: How personal relationships, nostalgia, and lived experiences can reignite fluency and motivation.
4. Applying This to New Language Learning: How finding a strong emotional tie—whether through travel, friendships, or passion—can help learners stay consistent and committed.
5. Practical Strategies: How heritage speakers and language learners can actively cultivate emotional connections to reinforce learning and fluency.
Chatbot-Based Language Revitalization: The Case of Ladino and Estreyika
Dr. Carlos Yebra Lopez
Today, AI-powered digital tools are becoming essential for slowing the decline of minority languages and fostering global linguistic inclusion (Zuckermann, 2020). This is particularly urgent for languages with limited intergenerational transmission and a predominance of heritage speakers. One such case is Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), the language of the descendants of Jews expelled from the Iberian Peninsula in 1492. Now classified as “severely endangered” by UNESCO (2003), Ladino has fewer than 30,000 speakers spread across diasporic communities (Yebra López, 2024).
In response, the nonprofit organization Ladino 21 partnered in 2025 with the Catalan cooperative Col·lectivaT to create Estreyika, a multilingual chatbot based on Claude Sonnet 3.5. Available through the Telegram app, Estreyika enables users to learn and practice Ladino for free.
This presentation outlines the development of Estreyika, from the construction and preprocessing of a trilingual corpus (Öktem et al., 2023) and implementation of a Spanish–Ladino translation system, to its integration with Claude Sonnet 3.5 and Telegram. Performance is evaluated through fluency, coherence, and cultural adequacy metrics, alongside human review.
We present sample learning tasks designed for heritage speakers at varying proficiency levels and languages of origin, as well as experiences using Estreyika in university courses at California State University and the University of Oxford. The talk concludes with a reflection on its broader potential in academic and community-based revitalization efforts.
How Code-Mixing Redefined My Identity
Diana Liu
Being born and raised in Costa Rica to Taiwanese parents, I have always thrived in multicultural and multilingual environments. Yet no question has haunted me more than: “Where are you from?” As a Taiwanese-Latina, my sense of identity has been complex, layered, and at times, conflicted. But after living in my parents’ home country for the past decade, I have come to realize how my lifelong habit of code-switching and code-mixing has not only shaped the way I speak, but also shifted my own perspectives on identity.
In this talk, I will share my personal journey through three life stages and in my three dominant code-mixing languages (Spanish, English, and Mandarin), as well as my findings on how code-mixing has steadily influenced how I communicate and connect with others.
Part I – Childhood (Spanish)
• Taiwanese diaspora and the emergence of organic code-switching/code-mixing
Part II – Adolescence & Early Adulthood (English)
• Reinforcement of code-mixing and fresh take on loanwords/borrowing from English
Part III – Adulthood & Future (Mandarin)
• Code-mixing in Taiwan, dealing with cultural stereotypes, language loss and preservation, and reflections on building a multicultural/multilingual family
Cracking the Code: How Asian Scripts and Tonal Systems Can Be Made Teachable
Stuart Jay Raj
In 1999, I began working with journalists, diplomats, and UN staff in Bangkok who had given up on learning Thai. Most weren’t lacking motivation—they were simply never shown how the system worked. Concepts like tone class, consonant aspiration, and vowel placement were either ignored or poorly explained. I developed Cracking Thai Fundamentals to address that, and over the years it expanded into a broader framework for teaching tonal and non-Latin script languages.
In 2024, I rebuilt the platform from the ground up using modern web technologies and integrated AI. It became Cracking Language Fundamentals (CLF)—a modular system that supports tonal languages across Asia, including Thai, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, and over 300 Tai varieties.
CLF connects learners to the structural systems that underpin these languages—tone rules in Thai mapped against 平上去入 in Chinese and Vietnamese; Hangul’s origins in Phagspa and Brahmi; the Qieyun system’s role in Chinese character classification; and the abugida patterns found across Indic-derived scripts.
The system also helps revive lost literacy. The Khom script—used historically to write Thai and still seen in religious texts and temple inscriptions—has become unreadable to most Thais. With CLF, native speakers are now relearning how to read Thai in Khom.
This talk will show how the platform makes these systems teachable, reusable across languages, and relevant for both endangered and mainstream language instruction. I’ll also show how the tools are used by educators, linguists, and native speakers alike to bring forgotten systems back into practical use.
The Persian of Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan: How Geopolitics and Cultural Dynamics Shaped the Dialects of Modern Persian
Claire Astrid Fuchs
Geopolitics and cultural dynamics of the Middle East and Central Asia have drastically impacted the Persian spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. In September 2025, I am undertaking a course at the University of Central Asia in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, that will explore this topic.
This talk will seek to explore how influence from the Soviet Union, France, Great Britain, and the United States across these four countries altered the vernacular and even at points the structure of the modern Persian language. The countries geopolitical and colonial involvement in this region forever altered the dialects of Persian. From vocabulary words like “bicycle” or “car” to verb conjugation patterns changing across the dialects, this presentation seeks to bring to light the dynamics of one of the oldest languages in the world, spoken since at least the 500s BC. Additionally, I will focus on the importance of preserving languages in the midst of colonialism and geopolitical shifts in order to maintain identity through language.
As a geopolitical analyst, Oxford student, and polyglot speaking 9 languages to various levels, I’m excited to share my knowledge on this crossroads of geopolitics, history, and the Persian world.
Public Speaking in a Foreign Language: Strategies for Multilingual Communicators
Elizabeth Freund Larus
Speaking in a foreign language is challenging enough—doing so in front of an audience or on live media adds a new level of pressure. My presentation is designed to help multilingual speakers manage that pressure and become more confident, effective public communicators in their non-native languages.
As a university professor and business owner, I am frequently invited to speak on international affairs. For years, I gave interviews only in English, my native language. With the help of a Mandarin tutor, I began submitting written responses in Chinese and am now preparing for live broadcast appearances. This process has taught me valuable strategies for balancing language precision, confidence, and cultural nuance under pressure.
I will present a structured, repeatable method that combines subject mastery, language rehearsal, and audience adaptation. This approach helps speakers organize their ideas clearly, reduce anxiety, and engage audiences across linguistic and cultural boundaries.
Participants will learn how to:
• Prepare adaptable speaking outlines in a foreign language
• Practice effectively without scripting every word
• Modify tone and delivery to suit cultural expectations
Tools I will introduce include:
• A customizable preparation template for speeches and media interviews
• A checklist for multilingual public speakers
• Techniques for responding to spontaneous questions
The template will be shared with attendees after the conference.
I will deliver this presentation in Mandarin and invite follow-up discussion in English or Mandarin.
Reaching C1 in Language Learning in the Age of AI
Yi-An Liao
The rise of general language AI models has transformed the way we learn languages. Drawing on 15 years of experience studying over 20 languages—and having reached C-level in 9 of them—Yi-An will review the latest online tools available today. The presentation will also provide tailored strategies for different languages (including minority languages), helping you achieve C1 proficiency in the languages you learn.
The Dong Qing Dialect of Orchid Island's Tao Language
Cheyenne Maechtle
Orchid Island off the southeast of Taiwan, known as Lanyu in Mandarin, is home to the Tao language, spoken by nearly 3000 people. Most studies and published material have concentrated on the speech of Hong Tou Village, the largest and most prominent community. Despite the small size of the island, however, each village has its own special linguistic features. In Dong Qing, where the use of the language is moderate, and in neighboring Ye Yin, where more young learners are found, Tao has a distinctive intonation as well as showing various other features that differ from the Hong Tou dialect. These include the phonology, especially of vowels. There is also free variation in both vowels and consonants, sometimes even with the same speaker, which is rarely indicated in publications. Differences in grammar are seen in the use of the numerous affixes in which Tao abounds. Dong Qing shows some unique prefixes such as one for counting and another for family members. Finally, there are vocabulary differences as well, for example the standard potao cio for ‘wine’, borrowed from Mandarin, versus Dong Qing saki from Japanese. It is astonishing what differences are found in speech communities just a few miles apart. Researchers need to recognize and record these features to help preserve the linguistic diversity of Orchid Island and of Taiwan.
How Real-Life Connections Help Children Become Multilingual in Japan
Yoko Reynolds
What if children could naturally acquire multiple languages—without studying grammar or going abroad?
In this session, I’ll introduce Global MOM to MOM, a parenting community in Japan where over 700 families—local and international (53nationalities)—connect through real-life interaction.
We host online events three times a day, but we never “teach” languages. Instead, children do things in English and other languages—craft, dance, cooking, Minecraft, and storytime sessions. These feel like play, not lessons. Language comes naturally through joyful experiences.
We also offer in-person events like cultural exchange picnics and family camping trips, where Japanese children bond with peers who speak English—and increasingly, other languages too. Some families speak French, Spanish, Chinese, or Korean at home. Our goal is to support these multilingual families and eventually provide more activities in other languages as well.
Many Japanese children, even from fully monolingual households, now confidently use English—and are becoming curious about other languages. Some have started to learn greetings in friends’ home languages or show interest in multilingual communication.
This presentation will explore how the community was built, why it works, and how it can be a model for creating playful, multilingual learning environments for children. Whether you’re raising bilingual or trilingual kids, or looking for real-world, connection-based strategies, you’ll leave with practical ideas—no passport or textbook required.
Quiet or Misunderstood? Cultural Participation Gaps in Global Classrooms
游皓雲 Yu Hao Yun (Yolanda)
Asian learners are often labeled as introverted, shy, and quiet.
Western learners? Outgoing, expressive, confident.
So, many language teachers say it’s hard to get Asian students to interact.
But—is that really true?
I’ve taught languages for over 20 years, with students from 75+ countries.
My Spanish classes are mostly Taiwanese; my Chinese classes include Latin Americans in the Dominican Republic, multicultural groups in Taiwan, and classes made up entirely of Japanese or Vietnamese learners.
Across these settings, I’ve seen a consistent pattern:
When we change how we structure participation, student behavior changes too.
Earlier this year in Spain, I joined several Spanish classes taught by local teachers. The interaction styles were clearly tailored to Western norms. Many Asian students barely spoke.
After class, I talked to them privately—they understood the content and wanted to engage, but simply didn’t know how to participate in that setup.
This talk isn’t about who learns better.
It’s about asking a better question:
Are we designing classroom spaces that align with different cultural logics of participation?
I’ll share how I helped Taiwanese students become confident, engaged learners—
and how I guided Western students to thrive with structure and balance.
Because the key isn’t in the students.
It’s in our design, our methods, and above all—our mindset.
Languages through Music: How can music transform the way we learn languages?
Desta Haile
In this interactive talk, I’ll share the story behind Languages Through Music (LTM) — a method I’ve developed over 10 years of teaching, playlist curation, and working with learners in more than 120 countries.
Building on my TEDx Luanda talk, this session explores how music connects memory, emotion, and identity — and how rhythm and lyrics can boost vocabulary, improve pronunciation, and deepen cultural understanding. I’ll also draw on personal insights from learning languages and my 20 years of experience in education and intercultural training.
Participants will get a first look at the new LTM cards — a fun, creative tool designed to bring music-based learning into classrooms, self-study, and community spaces. Together, we’ll create a playlist and explore how songs can open doors to new cultures.
Whether you’re a polyglot, teacher, or language lover, you’ll leave with practical tips, fresh inspiration, and curated resources to make language learning more playful, memorable, and connected.
The Polyglot Migrant Worker: The Languages that Transformed My Life
陳業芳 Charis Chen
I was born in a remote town in Kalimantan, where bartering was still part of daily life. I spoke Indonesian, Dayak, and Hakka before I could write my name. When foreign missionaries and engineers visited, I longed to speak their language. My mother couldn’t afford lessons, so she bought me a dictionary. I carried it to find foreigners, learning English one word, one laugh, at a time.
After the 1998 anti-Chinese riots, speaking Hakka became dangerous. I left for Taiwan, working on construction sites where Taiwanese-Hokkien rained down in scolding. I made a notebook, memorized five words a day, and within six months, became the bridge between Australian engineers and Taiwanese workers.
Marriage led me to Mandarin, starting from ㄅㄆㄇ(, typing with Indonesian spelling on my keyboard, scavenging second-grade textbooks, and eventually passing the Employment Service Technician Class B certification.
Each language changed me: Hakka rooted me, English opened the world, Hokkien earned respect, Mandarin gave me a voice. Today, as a migrant consultant, award-winning author, and columnist, I know every language I learned was not just words, but another life I got to live.
Voices of the Land: Phonology, Syntax, Scripts and Survival in U.S. Indigenous Languages
Dave Huxtable
This 20-minute talk explores the rich linguistic diversity of Indigenous languages in the United States, focusing on phonological and syntactic features, writing systems, and ongoing revitalisation efforts. Over 300 Indigenous languages were once spoken across what is now the U.S.; today, fewer than 150 remain, many critically endangered. Yet these languages offer profound insights into the nature of human language.
Phonologically, Indigenous languages display remarkable variation—from glottalised consonants and uvular fricatives in Salishan languages to the tonal and nasal systems of Athabaskan and Muskogean families. Syntactically, many exhibit polysynthesis, where complex ideas are expressed in a single word, and ergative alignment, challenging familiar subject-verb-object structures. The talk will highlight examples from languages such as Navajo, Mohawk, and Cherokee.
In terms of writing systems, the diversity continues. While many Indigenous languages have adopted Latin-based orthographies, others use unique scripts—for example, the Cherokee syllabary, invented by Sequoyah in the 19th century. Writing plays a crucial role in both preservation and cultural identity.
The final section will focus on revitalisation: immersion schools, community-run workshops, language-learning apps, and partnerships with universities. These efforts reflect both the urgency and determination of Indigenous communities to reclaim linguistic sovereignty and pass on ancestral knowledge.
Rather than relics of the past, these languages are living systems with relevance today. This talk invites listeners to appreciate their complexity, support their survival, and recognise them as vital parts of the linguistic and cultural heritage of the United States.
Echoes of Empire: Persian Influence on Middle Eastern Languages and Beyond
Mahya Mirsadeghi
This talk explores the profound and far-reaching influence of the Persian language on Middle Eastern languages and beyond. From Arabic and Turkish to Urdu and Central Asian languages, Persian served not only as a medium of poetry and diplomacy but also as a cultural and intellectual bridge for centuries. Through historical context—from the Achaemenids to the Safavids—we’ll examine how Persian vocabulary, literary forms, and administrative language permeated neighboring languages. The talk also highlights Persian’s continuing legacy in modern linguistic identity, offering insight into how one language helped shape the linguistic and cultural landscape of an entire region.
My Life with Taigi
Chiong bîn hong/ 做伙講台語, 耍kah o͘-mà-mà好無
I grew up in a home and community where everyone spoke Taigi. Even through middle school, I spoke Taigi with my classmates. It wasn’t until I went to high school in the city that I stopped speaking Taigi with my peers.
For me, the language someone uses often defines the kind of friendship we have. People who speak Taigi are closer to me, compared to Mandarin speaking friends.
I originally thought that if I married a Taioanese man, I would raise my children speaking Taigi. But since I married a foreigner, I ended up using Mandarin, the more dominant language, with my first child. This was partly because I wanted my husband to be part of the conversation. Still, I would switch to Taigi when talking about our children with friends, so they would not overhear what we were saying about them.
My friend Sió Ngá showed me what it means to be a true Taioanese person, Taigi should be one’s primary language. I immediately followed her example. I explained to my husband why this was important to me. Since his own country had been colonized by Europeans, he fully understood my perspective.
Older generations always praise us when they hear my children speaking Taigi. Our family became a kind of example that encouraged others around us to start using Taigi with their children too. Eventually, we gathered like-minded people and founded a nonprofit to help parents raise true Taioanese children. On the negative side, younger people often show hostility toward Taigi speakers. For example, clerks at convenience stores sometimes treat me poorly simply because I am speaking Taigi, making no effort to understand me. If I were a foreigner speaking English, they might also have trouble understanding, but I doubt they would treat me the same way.
From Zero to Connection: My Language Leap
Wilfred Mkhatshwa
I grew up in Eswatini with a love for words but no real exposure to foreign languages. That changed at 18 when I moved to North Cyprus, Turkey, for university. Days before my flight, I downloaded a language app and learned a few Turkish phrases out of curiosity, not confidence. The sounds were alien, and I doubted they’d be useful. But at the airport in Istanbul, something magical happened: I spoke those “weird” words, and people understood me. They smiled, praised my effort, and showed kindness.
This moment lit a fire in me. I started using Turkish everywhere—on campus, in supermarkets, in dorms. Speaking Turkish transformed how people treated me, from indifference to warmth. That basic knowledge of Turkish changed everything. I spoke a few simple phrases, people lit up, they encouraged me, and suddenly I wasn’t just a foreign student, I was a welcome one.
I began collecting languages like souvenirs, learning just a few phrases from the international students around me. I tried this method with Arabic, Russian, Igbo, Urdu, Swahili, and many more languages. Each one gave me access to new friendships, ideas, and insights. It became a passion, a lifestyle, and then a science.
Later, a psycholinguistics lecture in my psychology degree gave scientific clarity to what I was experiencing. This talk is the bridge between personal experience and scientific principle. I’ll share my insights and how this method reshaped my entire approach to learning languages.
Introduction to dxʷləšucid and other Salishan languages
Kevin Fei Sun
The Pacific Northwest of North America is notable for the diversity of its indigenous languages, and is home to several language families including the Salishan languages, which are famous for their complex phonologies as well as a number of interesting grammatical features.
Since moving to Seattle this year, I have been attempting to learn more about these languages, with a focus on the Lushootseed (or dxʷləšucid) language of the Puget Sound region where Seattle is located.
In this talk, I will discuss the history of and interrelations between indigenous languages in this region, the impact of contact with colonial languages (mainly English and French), as well as efforts to preserve and revive Lushootseed and other Salish languages. I will also introduce the sound system of Lushootseed and the most significant aspects of its grammar, in particular verb argument structure and derivational morphology. I will also share resources for further study of these languages as well as examples of media produced in Lushootseed.