Unconventional language hacking tips from Benny the Irish polyglot; travelling the world to learn languages to fluency and beyond!
I’ve been in Austin a few days and I can already see that it’s going to be a fun month here!! I have actually intentionally not been out so much, in order to do some writing and ASL learning in preparation before the city explodes into a social frenzy from next week when the immense […]
Learn Tagalog with a clear guide to Filipino, Taglish, pronunciation, aspect, voice and practical speaking, backed by current Philippine sources.
It’s easy to look at someone who already speaks a second language and just think that it comes naturally to them. Perhaps if you see something like the video of me sharing my salsa learning experience in pretty good Spanish, you might think that speaking Spanish was just my destiny. I’m “naturally talented” with languages […]
You see the native speaker of your target language, that girl/boy you like, an important person you admire or you could be moments away from clicking “send” on an important e-mail or job application, or pressing that last digit to make an important phonecall. And then it starts: the self-doubt, the reasons you’ll fail and […]
As an engineer with a scientific background, I am quite sceptical to wild claims, in life, explaining how the universe works, and in language learning. Even in the days of ebooks and smartphones we still apply backward centuries-old thinking to concepts that should have died out long ago. While some would call it closed mindedness, […]
This is a guest post by the author of Language is Music: Over 70 Fun & Easy Tips to Learn Foreign Languages, by Susanna Zaraysky. She speaks seven languages (Russian, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Serbo-Croatian) with perfect or almost perfect accents because she used music, TV, radio and movies to supplement her language […]
Already speak Spanish? Learn what transfers to Brazilian Portuguese, where pronunciation and grammar differ, and how to keep the languages separate.
If your end-goal is to speak then having a silent period to prepare (while you study, listen, or brace yourself for the glorious coming of your ready day foretold by language learning prophets) is nothing more than a comfortable way to waste time. It’s amazing how much this is promoted by various methods I see […]
Explanations of foreign body language / gestures is one of the many many things you won’t find in grammar books and typical courses. And it’s something you’ll never pick up from audio based passive learning. The vast majority of non-verbal communication is actually universal – it would just seem strange to list them. But then […]
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