Then, you can practice your accent with a native speaker (or a smartphone app like iTranslate).

BBC: Nine must-learn local phrases

But Fumiko was only too happy for an occasion to practice her French with a native speaker.

NEWYORKER: Sweetheart Sorrow

Next door, a native speaker of the Irish language, Thomas Gildea, won by campaigning for his constituents' right to watch British television without paying for it.

ECONOMIST: Ireland

K. spoke, just as no native speaker of German, or one who does know this language would titter if someone said, Ich bin ein Wiener or Hamburgeror Frankfurter.

FORBES: Did JFK Claim to Be a Donut?

Other pluses were quizzes, the option of clicking on every Japanese phrase to hear it read by a native speaker and a dictionary function that had about 660 words.

WSJ: Mobile Apps for Foreign Languages

One particular hard-to-make clicklike sound, a voiceless uvular ejective affricate, has been found in only a few other languages, including the Caucasian language Ubykh, whose last native speaker died in 1992.

NEWYORKER: Utopian for Beginners

The scammer claims to be a native-born American citizen, but uses poor grammar indicative of a non-native English speaker.

FORBES: Whatever Happened with Manti Te'o, Online Dating Scams Are Real

Dritan is a fascinating and well-read guy, a native Albanian speaker, someone with significant on-the-ground experience running political campaigns in Eastern Europe, and (in the interests of full disclosure) a fellow Harvard alum.

FORBES: Various Matters

Mary, a charming and gently-spoken woman who speaks English with the soft lilt of the native Gaelic-speaker - has a photograph of them all in Edinburgh: some haven't seen one another since.

BBC: Jubilee tour diary: Western Isles

Pansieri, a fluent speaker of English, German, French, Spanish and Chinese, in addition to her native Italian, holds doctorate degrees in philosophy from Milan University and in Chinese language and literature from Venice University.

UN: Secretary-General