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Why it’s better to learn a language from children when abroad

written by Guest Author

In continuing the summer series of guest posts, today’s is from Emily, who blogs over at The Babel Times. Her interesting suggestion is about how she learned German from children while living in Switzerland! People often complain that you feel like you are being judged when with adults, and while this is simply not the […]


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Reading time: 6 minutes

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The Oslo Challenge: being able to interview natives on camera in just a few months!

written by Guest Author

Today’s guest post is from Mariola Czupowska, who blogs at the Language Wanderer. She is from Poland and was recently inspired to learn Norwegian! She set herself an interesting challenge of recording videos in the language, and used a trip to Oslo to motivate her to make even more progress. I found her story interesting […]


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Reading time: 9 minutes

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The Art of Making Mistakes – How and why mistakes help you to learn languages (Guest post by Luca)

written by Guest Author

“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure.”

—Thomas J. Watson, founder of IBM

Making mistakes is a fundamental part of every cognitive process, whether solving a math problem, making important decisions, or trying to convey meaning in a foreign language.

What’s more, making mistakes and learning from them is not simply a human skill. According to scientific research (link: http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2012/08/monkeys-mistake-detector/), animals not only learn from their own mistakes, but they can learn by observing their peers messing up. In the animal world, avoiding blunders may dramatically improve one’s chances of survival. Both humans and animals learn to live and live to learn. Human beings, however have a unique skill: the ability to process and ponder their mistakes.

This can be an advantage as well as a disadvantage. Let me explain why.


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Reading time: 12 minutes

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Sound Rehab: A 5-Point Program for Kicking Your Visual-Addiction

written by Guest Author

(Note: Flow courses are currently discontinued, you can learn about my new courses here) I’m a musician, and I advocate learning language with your ears instead of your eyes. But I often get pushback for this view: “You can’t just assume that everyone is an auditory learner like you. Personally, I’m a visual learner so I […]


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Reading time: 13 minutes

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Why focus will get you much more than talent ever will

written by Guest Author

Shortly after I started blogging on Fi3M, I came across another site about learning and improving your ability to learn and made contact with the author. A few months later, Scott Young and I met up while I was passing through Paris briefly. (He’s the one who took that photo of me in front of […]


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Reading time: 8 minutes

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How to speak French like a Quebecker - Le québécois en 10 leçons

How to speak French like a Quebecker – Le québécois en 10 leçons

written by Guest Author

As you all know, I’m a huge fan of Quebec and especially of its French dialect (here’s a video of me in French, interviewing a Quebec girl about the differences) and the wonderful people there. Because I genuinely tried to speak like them while living in Montréal, rather than rigidly sticking to the French I […]

How I learned more Italian in London than in Italy

How I learned more Italian in London than in Italy

written by Guest Author

One of the most prominent myths in language learning is that you have to go to the country to successfully learn it. This is so untrue!! I have always said that it depends on your attitude not your latitude and moving to the country may not help at all in some cases. This topic will […]