I was at the NALLC conference this weekend and found it an interesting and worthwhile occasion.
The first talk was by Klaus-Dieter Rosade. He emphasised the joy of language learning and also argued that there is a clear link between the senses and language learning. For example, he described how he had strong associations between smells he associated with Mexico (eg corn tortillas and beans) and the Spanish language. At first, I felt sceptical about this as the smells are associated with countries rather than languages but perhaps there is a sensory link between certain smells and certain varieties of languages. For example, I would associate certain smells with Qinghai province in China - perhaps chilli and mutton and different smells with Guangzhou - perhaps soya and oyster sauce and a more vegetal smell. This might link to the different languages and varieties of Chinese spoken in these places.