Comprehension questions are a staple of traditional language learning. You read a passage, listen to some audio, and then you answer questions to prove that you’ve understood. Sounds logical, right? Well, I…
When it comes to learning a new language, some learners like dictionaries. They read them. They treasure them. They worry about getting the best possible dictionary. I don’t like using dictionaries. Using them is like one-way love.
Of course, we want to speak, we eventually want to speak a lot. Our goal is to speak. We want to speak well, but the emphasis should be on listening and reading because it’s something we can do whenever we want, on our own and it really does help our brain become familiar with the language.
Everywhere you look, people are selling the dream of instant progress in a new language. There are plenty of videos out there claiming that fluency can be achieved in three to six…
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.
The truth is simple: anyone can learn a language. It doesn’t matter if you’re 20 or 70, whether you think you have a knack for languages or not. Learning is a natural…
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.
Muchos profesores insisten en la necesidad de dominar lo básico cuando estás aprendiendo un idioma. Sin embargo, yo propongo que esta lógica no es correcta ni productiva. Sí, puede parecer sorprendente o…
Many of us are watching the Olympics in Brazil. Despite all of the bad reports that we always get in the lead up to any Olympic Games – some British newspaper called the 2010 Vancouver Winter games the worst Olympics in the world ever, then there were all the problems with toilets in Sochi and now pollution in Rio – it looks like actually things are proceeding swimmingly, so to speak.
People ask, if I go to Brazil, can I communicate? What language do they speak? First of all, some may not know that Brazilians speak Portuguese. There’s no Brazilian language, there is Portuguese.
Reading plays a crucial role in success, both in language learning and in general. In fact, studies have shown that individuals who read well experience greater socioeconomic success. To put it briefly,…
