Swear words

I normally say that non-natives speakers should stay away from swear words. They just do not realize how bad they can sound. Nang Pan has asked me if Russian and Arabic have particularly powerful swear words. I think they do but I am not a speaker…

Radio program

On Wednesday I will start a 13 week radio program in Mandarin on Fairchild Radio 96.1 FM in Vancouver. I will try to encourage the many Mandarin speakers in Vancouver who need to improve their English and in most cases do not work on it in a conce…

Radio program

On Wednesday I will start a 13 week radio program in Mandarin on Fairchild Radio 96.1 FM in Vancouver. I will try to encourage the many Mandarin speakers in Vancouver who need to improve their English and in most cases do not work on it in a conce…

Travel to the interior

A person on the Chinese language Forum Westca www.westca.com asked about what to do around Salmon Arm and I gave the following answer which I though might be of wider interest. There are lots of places worth visiting. You may drive the Coquihalla …

Taoism and business

Cliff asks me about the influence of language learning on my business, as well as the influence of Taoism. I discovered the thought of Zhuangzi somewhat late in life. However, Toaism can help both. I believe it is important to follow your interest…

To Tariq Saeed

I really appreciate your kind words. I am happy that people are interested in languages, all languages. That brings the world closer together. I respect the fact that you are a teacher. I respect the fact that you are such a generous person that y…

More on audio learning

This is from another Forum where a language learner talked about the overwhelming influence of her native language on her ability to remember what she had read in English. She recommended that the learners try to explain what they have just read i…

Audio learning

I am happy to see two comments, one from Mark and one from Leo. Mark has provided a source of info on the transliteration of foreign names into Chinese. Thanks to Mark for the information. I look forward to the day when, in Chinese texts, most for…

Scenarios

The other day someone asked me if we had scenarios at The Linguist. He meant do we have scripted scenarios of dialogues at the bank, at the train station etc.. I said no. The scenario approach is like so much else in language training; a vain atte…

Travel notes

I was in Europe for much of June, in Sweden, London and then attending a conference on Language Instruction and the Corporate Sector in Duesseldorf. I also attended a wedding in Le Havre. France and then took it easy in a 500 year old house in a s…

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Steve Kaufmann about LingQ

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