Motivation
25Feb
25 Feb 2020
Constant Improvement in Language Learning
I have talked in the past about some of the major technical advances that have improved language learning, for example, mp3 technology. Fifty years ago I would listen to an open reel tape recorder in my room in Hong Kong when I was learning Mandarin Chinese and now my telephone has become a super […]
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26Nov
26 Nov 2019
The Definition of a Polyglot
As people who speak multiple languages, polyglots like to use those languages; we like to see how we do. But there is an element of performance. Are you better than me? Am I better than you? For some people that’s fine. I think a lot of us are very happy, in fact, when we hear somebody speak better than we do.
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12Sep
12 Sep 2019
Learning Several Languages at the Same Time – And Keeping Them
I want to talk about learning three languages at the same time or several languages at the same time. How do we keep them, how do we not forget them and what do we do when we do forget them? I finished my three months of Turkish. I went from zero to the level that […]
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10Sep
10 Sep 2019
Language Learning Is Not a Race
Today I’m going to talk about the pace — the amount of time, with what intensity we study languages and things that influence that. I’m going to start by confessing that I haven’t been doing much Arabic learning the last little while. First of all, the reason for that is I had a new floor […]
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03Sep
3 Sep 2019
Language Learning is Getting Easier All the Time
Today I want to talk about how language learning has become so much easier today and how it’s going to continue to become easier. First of all, LangFest was a great four or five days for me in Montreal. It’s such a wonderful bilingual city, multilingual city. The people at the conference, of course, there’s […]
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27Aug
27 Aug 2019
Why I Enjoy Learning Languages
Because learning languages is a big part of success, people who don’t enjoy learning languages are less likely to be successful. You can’t force yourself to do something that involves your emotions, involves a commitment to sort of imitating another language and culture and getting outside of the comfort of your language, one that you’re […]
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01Aug
1 Aug 2019
Let the Language Come to You
This morning I played hockey. I play Old Timers Hockey three times a week. Monday and Friday we have like a pickup situation. We have a blue team and a gold team. One of our members makes up a lineup and we go there and we find out whether we’re blue or gold. Ten on […]
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11Jul
11 Jul 2019
The Language Learning Tripod: Attitude
Today I want to talk about what I’ve call the three keys of language learning. Let’s call them the tripod, the tripod of language learning. It’s ‘A’ – Attitude, ‘T’ – Time and ‘N’ – the ability to Notice. You could also call it attentiveness, but it’s the ability to notice, which is something we […]
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28May
28 May 2019
3 Stages of Language Acquisition: How Long Does It Take?
3 Stages of Language Acquisition was uploaded onto Steve’s YouTube channel on May 13, 2019 Hi there, Steve Kaufmann. Today I want to talk about something that I think is very important, a question that I get all the time, and that is how long does it take to learn a language. I want to […]
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16May
16 May 2019
Return on Investment: Language Learning Efficiency
Return on Investment: Language Learning Efficiency has been transcribed from Steve’s YouTube channel. The original video was published on May 10, 2013 Hi there, Steve Kaufmann here. Today I want to talk about return on investment or efficiency in language learning. What do I mean by return on investment? Well, when we learn a […]
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