The Linguist

10Mar

10 Mar 2022

The Seven Secrets to Language Learning Success: Part 1

People often ask me how I learned 20 languages. I will tell you what works for me; you’ll have to decide if this can work for you. Here are the first four secrets to language learning success...

24Feb

24 Feb 2022

You DO NOT Need to Be Perfect

Techniques

Why do I want to talk about perfection? First of all, I am a dilettante learner. I also recognize that there are people who need the language for professional reasons because they want to get into a school so that they're not just dabbling in the language, exploring, having fun like I like to do, they actually need it. So how good do they need to be in the language?

17Feb

17 Feb 2022

Ser Vs Estar in Spanish

Learning Spanish

Every language has some issues, often grammar issues, that cause learners difficulty. In the case of Spanish, one thing that gives people special trouble is the existence of two forms of the verb “to be”. Both ser and estar translate into English as “to be”. Ser vs estar, here’s how to get them straight. […]

03Feb

3 Feb 2022

How to Learn Chinese: My Top 6 Tips

Learning Chinese

I studied Mandarin Chinese 50 years ago. It took me nine months to reach a level where I could translate newspaper editorials from English to Chinese and from Chinese to English, read novels and interpret for people, I did this in the age of the open-reel tape recorder, long before the age of the Internet, […]

27Jan

27 Jan 2022

How to Learn Vocabulary

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. I have said in the past that the best and simplest judge of where you are in the language, of what you have achieved, of your potential in that language is […]

20Jan

20 Jan 2022

Levels of Language Proficiency: What Is Fluency?

Learning Techniques

I recently watched a video which features polyglots Luca Lampariello and Anthony Lauder. In it they make the point that you don’t need to have a large vocabulary in order to be fluent. Anthony has said in the past that even with a few hundred words you can be fluent, or you can be fluent at a relatively low level of proficiency in a language. I don’t agree at all.

14Jan

14 Jan 2022

Don’t Just Learn Business English

Learning English

*** 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. So many people I know listen to my videos and podcast to improve their English. English is, whether we like it or not, the most widely used international language. So there […]

07Jan

7 Jan 2022

Google Translate Doesn’t Work? Google and Language Learning

Techniques

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.

29Dec

29 Dec 2021

My Language Learning Motivation

Motivation

I want to talk about history. Why history? Because history fascinates me. I realize that people watch my videos either because they're working on improving their English or because they find my videos in some way motivating and encouraging and therefore encourages them to continue with learning languages, which in turn motivates me to make more videos.

21Dec

21 Dec 2021

Is It Hard to Learn Japanese?

Learning Japanese

Japanese, simply in terms of the vocabulary, the structure being very different from say English, if you're an English speaker, is going to be more difficult. However, there are a number of things that make Japanese easier, in my opinion.