My US travels continue for a few weeks, so I am happy to accept guest posts with interesting or inspiring stories! If you have a cool idea message me on this page (but please read the guest post criteria first). This one was a story that is all too familiar from successful language learners, but […]
MORESound Rehab: A 5-Point Program for Kicking Your Visual-Addiction
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 can’t learn a language unless I can see it.” This seems like a reasonable […]
MORESolving specific problems rather than trying to learn everything: My first ever video in Arabic (reading)
Here it is – my first ever video in Arabic, a week after starting to learn it! Subtitles are provided in original Arabic, English and Portuguese for all videos of this project. In this video, I read a script written entirely in Arabic (no romanisation) about how I’m in Rio and just starting the mission. To make it more interesting, I’ve thrown in some nice views of the city at various points in the video, but there is no editing out of my pauses and hesitations.
MORETaking CEFRL tests for quality European language certificates with no classes
Now that I’ve sat three of these diploma examinations (French, Spanish and German), I feel like I can give a useful summary for those curious! When I introduced my current mission, I only quickly mentioned some details about the exam and what it exists for. They do indeed serve much more of a purpose than […]
MOREWhy studying will never help you speak a language
This post has been a long time coming. Teachers and linguists are going to hate me for this, but it has to be said: You can never speak a language by just studying it, no matter how much you study Yes, you read that right. Studying is the wrong thing to do if you want […]
MOREHow to make time if you are too busy
There are lots of excuses people make for not progressing in a language; I’m not smart enough, it’s too hard, I can’t remember any words, etc. But the one I’ll almost always hear is I don’t have any time. Time is a funny thing. It can fly, run out, and be up. It can be […]
MORETravel phrasebooks: a serious language learner’s best first book to study
Please note: this article was written in June 2009. Those who know me, are aware that I can actually take a lot with me on cheap flights, but I still have to decide what is and what isn’t coming with me for my next 6 months on the road! (Czech Republic, then likely somewhere in […]
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