Alo Japan
Travel

We Tried to Learn Europe’s Oldest Language in 7 Days



In a moment of stupidity, we thought it would be a good idea to try and learn a language in a week.

It was a gruelling challenge and we owe a debt of gratitude to many people. This would have been a very different (and less interesting) week without the input of Eider, Maite, and Aitor who helped us immeasurably.

Also, thanks to Mikel and Gurutze at the Euskararen Etxea. We recommend it thoroughly.

Finally, thanks to the wonderful Basque band Skabidean for letting us their song ‘Betirako’.

Basque is a jewel that has survived thousands of years and is now thriving especially among the youth. It was an honour to study it and we hope other people decide to do the same.

Music:

Cruising by Vendredi https://soundcloud.com/vendrediduo
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/_cruising
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/TWeRJdrpxEU
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Cold Funk by Kevin MacLeod http://incompetech.com
Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/cold-funk
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/Vhd6Kc4TZls
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Payday – Jason Farnham https://youtu.be/-96SMUqYA1k
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Blue Skies – Silent Partner https://youtu.be/5kDO8hLu9iI

33 Comments

  3. José S.

    The end got me surpised haha
    It proves to me that the other people who claim to "learn" a language in only "7 days" are liars, or most of them
    Others even want to achieve fluency in that short period of time, others select languages that they already know properly, others learn for a month or more but it was "7 days" (cutting parts in their videos and changing date on their devices), even I found a Mexican guy who was learning Spanish in 7 days but lol, every time he spoke in English, he had a Spanish-native speaker accent from Mexico and no, I'm not exagerating, my native language is Spanish and I know overly well how people sound when they speak English :/

    Tho, you learned more than one could do in a week, you were vey honest with it
    You guys are such an inspiration for me, I really like your content btw 😀

  7. Andy Teale

    Another great video lads! Very informative, especially as I never knew about this language! The video also reminded me of some of the best elements of travelling, like meeting up with a variety of new people quickly in different settings, and often randomly!!

    Top effort on learning the language as well – impressive effort for seven days. You're both clearly very good linguists! Nice touch at the end too, making the point on just how hard it is to learn a language, appreciated that! 😀

  9. moussedexoco

    I really enjoyed your video, guys! It is incredible what you have achieved in only seven days. I am Catalan and currently studying Basque. Badakit euskara oso hizkuntza zaila da baina egia esan hizkuntzak maite ditut eta arrisku handiak ere bai.

  10. Mr.C

    Amazing, it just goes to show that if someone really puts themselves into learning something it can be done, great content again and inspiring.

  12. GARIKOITZ

    Gora euskal herriaren askapena. Noizbait aske izango gara. Jo Ta Ke independentzia lortu harte.

  14. Α. Ν.

    I wonder; if we don't know the origin and the age of a language, how we know that is the oldest in Europe? In the other hand, we have found Greek writings from 21st century BC (till today at least) hence we assume is much older.

  15. Α. Ν.

    Regardless the age of the language, I like Basks and their country. I couldn't believe that during Franco's dictatorship this beautiful language was forbidden!

  18. Asier Sanz

    Astonished. Good job and great respecto for our language, culture and land. Mika esker eta jarraitu ikasten!

  20. manuel iradier

    You guys got a better level in seven days than some of my friends in their lives learning in school (without much ineterest sadly) Mila esker eta horrela jarraitu, ikaragarriak zarete!

  24. Arantxa Egurza Donado

    Good job boys! the best way to learn a language is to practice, comunicate and not have same. Txalo handi bat zuentzat, lan ederra egin duzue. Since I was very young I wanted to learn English, finally with more than fifty I did it. Egunero landu behar da. 👏👏👏

  25. Albert Kundrat

    Methinks, they had to have migrated from legendary ATLANTIS, as recorded by Solon, when visiting ancient Egypt and Plato, in his Dialogues! Something WARNED these Proto-Basques to very-hurriedly get out of there, before it sank below the ocean waves! But who knows? Maybe these very Atlanteans thought these proto-Basques as SO UNLIKE Them as well!

  26. Aitor Larrazabal

    I was very pleasantly surprised by your progress in such a small amount of time, from someone who has been speaking Basque all my life I invite anyone who is interested to give it a try, there are many people here ready teach whoever they can

  27. Cristian Lonardi

    I've known about the existence of Basque language and location….. But never in my deepest thoughts I've says it was extremely difficult to study because it is not related to any other language known….. It is horrific 😐 I've learned Italian from Romanian ( both Latin) in 3 weeks and perfextiones accent in 2 months…. But holy shit this is too much

  30. John D

    Kaixo! I enjoyed my time working for a company near Loyola. Spent a whole summer there. Quickly learned, "Beste bat/bi." As an Asian American dude saying egun on, eskerrik asko, iz horriegotik, and other small greetings/gestures, the joy/pleasure from the locals was just priceless, and I feel like they saw me more then just someone visiting.

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