About Asiaglot

Philipp was convinced the world would lean on apps more than ever, and that people would use them to learn languages alone. That is exactly what happened. But something was missing when everyone learns by themselves: community, real conversation outside pre-defined topics and structures, and culture. Language is cultural exchange. Why not swap notes on how we learn? Why not have fun together at a language festival?

With that rough idea, Philipp travelled through Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand looking for the right place, and told anyone who would listen.

Taiwan turned out to be the best fit. Philipp had organised free language exchanges there decades earlier, so the ground was familiar. A new friend mentioned something similar already existed: the Polyglot Gathering. That year a first group came together to work on the plan, and Asiaglot was submitted as a proposal.

Philipp attended the Polyglot Gathering. It was indeed similar, and also different from what he was setting up. The core team formed that year, and at the Gathering he told more people from Taiwan about the plan, among them Mischa, Annie, Fulan, Daniel and others. Many became strong supporters.

Planning was finalised and Asiaglot was announced for March 2025.

A great success and a failure at the same time. Many people absolutely loved it: music by Chris and Band and by Laura, talks from Prof. Karen Chung to Matt vs. Japan and A-Hua, and workshops from Flirting in Taiwanese Sign Language to knitting. There were too few people, and too much stress for the team. That same month, the Polyglot Conference announced it would come to Taiwan, without a venue or specifics yet.

Many Asiaglot participants attended the Polyglot Conference in Taipei. It showed the different focus and the deeper academic level of the Conference.

Attendance grew a little and the festival ran smoother, without many schedule overruns. Yolanda, one of our biggest supporters and an absolutely iconic keynote speaker, delivered a speech again. We added speeches in Polish, German, Spanish, French and many other languages, plus strong workshops, speeches and language tables in Bahasa Indonesia, Tagalog and more. Japanese ran through the whole weekend: speeches by native speakers and by many learners, plenty of Japanese tables, and lots of Japanese-speaking visitors. We also started Asiaglot Club, and a queue of people wanting to take part formed straight away.

About 15 Asiaglot participants made it to the Polyglot Gathering.

The community met again between festivals.

Some of us will head to other events first: greetings to Poliglotar and the Polyglot Conference! We will soon unveil what we have planned for 2027. We want to grow, and we want to keep it community-focused.