Techniques

***   This post is a transcript of a video on my YouTube channel.   Studying English? Here’s the transcript as a lesson to study on LingQ.   Hi there, Steve Kaufmann here. Today I’m going to talk about vocabulary, words, the most important thing in language learning. Remember if you enjoy these videos, please […]

I hear all the time that Google Translate doesn’t work. It’s not accurate. It’s this and that. I think Google Translate is a tremendous resource and not only for language learners. It’s not 100% and it’s better for some languages than others, but I find it extremely useful.

  ***   This post is a transcript of a video on my YouTube channel. Studying English? Here’s the transcript as a lesson to study on LingQ.   It doesn’t really matter whether you’re at a school or entirely on your own, to my mind, to be a successful language learner you have to be […]

I often get asked the question, how do I maintain my languages? You know, I've learned so many languages, more or less up to 21. I don't know them all equally well, obviously. So how do I maintain them?

So how do we get to good pronunciation in the language? Well, I think there are three elements. One is the attitude towards the pronunciation and I'll explain that. The second thing is the most important things that we can do that will give us good pronunciation and the third thing is remedial things. If we have what we consider to be poor pronunciation, what can we do?

A lot of this content, as in the case of our mini stories, has a lot of high-frequency verbs. You're certainly going to come across the high-frequency words and verbs often and, therefore, it's easier to get to know them. As you listen to this stuff whereas when you started everything was just noise and you think you'll never learn this language, particularly if it's written in a different [...]

I'm driving up here with my wife and we're listening to a podcast about the Byzantine Empire. So I'm enjoying the drive. I'm enjoying listening to the Byzantine Empire podcast. Why am I listening to a podcast about the Byzantine Empire? Because I've been learning Arabic, Persian and Turkish, so I'm kind of exploring that part of the world. I've read books now on the history of Persia or of [...]

What is CI? What is meant by comprehensible input in language learning? Stephen Krashen uses this term, as well as the term compelling input, to refer to the kind of language exposure we need in order to learn a language. The term CI, in language learning, can apply to both. What do they mean?  Comprehensible […]

  Today, I’m going to talk about speaking like a native, sounding like a native, because it’s a discussion that showed up sort of in response to my latest video, which I did in Japanese.      Sometimes I study on LingQ using the computer. Mostly, however, I use my iPad because it’s more comfortable […]

  Some people will say, geez Steve, you used to say you should focus entirely on one language. I did used to say that, but a number of things have changed.   I have come to realize that the more you focus on one thing, you try to nail one thing, you stay with one […]