When asked try out The Staircase Method for a review, I was both curious and hesitant. Why curious? Partly because The Staircase Method was created by Léa, whose claim-to-fame is teaching internet polyglot Benny Lewis (founder of this website) for three years, getting him to C1 (advanced) level in French. And partly because The Staircase […]

Today I’m doing a review of Amikumu, which is an app for language learners. I’ll share what I liked about Amikumu, and what could be better. I want to help you decide if it’s right for you. Now, many of us language learners like to travel. We travel to see new things, get an inside […]

Recently, I’ve spent more and more of my language learning time on my phone. It’s convenient. I almost always have it with me and there are loads of apps that are available. Even with just five minutes to spare, I can squeeze language learning into my day. And because I’m doing so much language learning […]

Most people take an approach to learning new words in another language that, frankly, I find weird. It doesn’t work well for me, anyway. I should say I’ve learned 10+ languages to a conversational level. Not to boast, but to show I know what I’m talking about. And this weird way of learning new words? […]

What is the Magnetic Memory Method and does it really work? In this review, I give the method a try for a specific project to help with my Spanish. I wanted to see whether it really works. When I joined the course I was interested, but a little skeptical of the big promise to make […]

Kids these days don’t know how good they have it. When I was a child studying French in school, the most advanced language-learning technology available was an audio cassette player. These days we have Skype, Anki, and a zillion other apps and gadgets that make learning a new language easier than ever. One such app […]

There’s only one way to get better in a foreign language: practice. If you’re not having regular conversations in your target language, ideally with a native speaker, you will struggle to make progress. Books, apps, games, and all the other hacks and tricks can help, of course, but they’re only supplements. To rely on them […]

I first discovered Scott H. Young’s work several years ago when he shared a post on his blog about how to overcome plateaus. At the time, I was experiencing a significant plateau in music and I was desperate for advice to help me work through it. Scott’s article gave me the inspiration I needed to […]

Innovative Language’s Pod101 courses are one of the most talked-about language tools at Fluent in 3 Months (Fi3M) – you’ll find them mentioned on the recommended resources page for most languages. I’d seen Benny and other Fi3M writers mention it on the blog many times, but it wasn’t until the Fi3M team was given the […]

The Mimic Method is an approach developed by language trainer Idahosa Ness to teach language learners the sound system of their new language. Idahosa has learned Spanish, French, Portuguese, German and Mandarin Chinese – all as an adult – and he’s found that the most effective way of learning a language is “by ear”. The […]

Assimil is a dialogue based learning course popular amongst language learners. This is clearly illustrated by the 4+ star reviews on Amazon for the majority of the available courses. Assimil has a range of courses available in a variety of languages, but is geared primarily towards French speakers. Dubbed “The Magic Books” by NPR, Assimil […]