The Linguist

29Sep

29 Sep 2021

Experience Is The Best Teacher

At the age of 55, I decided to learn Cantonese. I had studied Mandarin and could read Chinese characters, but I needed to develop the ability to understand how Chinese characters were pronounced in Cantonese. I went through a period of six months of intensive listening. That was when I discovered the minidisk player. For […]

22Sep

22 Sep 2021

Don’t Speak in Your Target Language

Techniques

I think very often in the standard classroom there's a tremendous emphasis placed on producing the language, speaking the language, which is fine because that's what people want to do. But what I think is more important is what will I be able to do with the language in a year from now? And from that perspective, I'm not tremendously motivated to speak.

15Sep

15 Sep 2021

English Grammar 101

Learning English

In order to speak English well you need to learn how words are used and how they come together to form phrases and sentences. Only a lot of listening and reading can help you learn this. You need to train yourself to notice how the words are used when you listen and read.

08Sep

8 Sep 2021

Morning Routine for Language Learning

Motivation

If you can get stuff done in the morning, first thing that kind of sets you up for the day so that even if it's not a very active day, from a language learning point of view, at least you've taken that first step. So typically what I do in the morning is I might, first of all, review a couple of lessons on my iPad from the day before in whichever language I'm learning. Nowadays it's either [...]

01Sep

1 Sep 2021

Tips for Learning Russian

Learning Russian, like

I wanted give some important tips for learning Russian. First I'll explain about the writing system, then some interesting things to remember about Russian verbs of motion, aspects of verbs and cases.

25Aug

25 Aug 2021

The Importance of Repetition in Language Learning

Techniques

First of all, obviously when you start in a language, whatever you're listening to is not comprehensible. So you can't begin with comprehensible input. You'll begin with input, which is not comprehensible, but which gradually becomes more and more comprehensible. However, if you have access to the text, so you can look up words, then you have a chance. And if you can use LingQ for example, [...]

19Aug

19 Aug 2021

All You Need to Truly Ace the TOEIC Test

Learning Techniques, Traditional Instruction

TOEIC, the Test of English for International Communication, is probably the most widely taken test of English language proficiency in the world. TOEIC is taken by around seven million people every year, according to this article in the Wall Street Journal. It is my observation that most people who take TOEIC, especially in […]

11Aug

11 Aug 2021

Why Many People Fail at Language Learning

Education, Motivation

Right now I've been at my Arabic for three years and my Persian for two, I can't say that I speak either language particularly well. I really struggle. My Farsi is now better. I've had the opportunity to use it a bit here and there around Vancouver, North Vancouver, especially West Vancouver. I'm now exploring Egypt in Arabic with Mohammed, my tutor, and I do struggle in our conversations, [...]

02Aug

2 Aug 2021

5 Tips to Help You Learn Japanese

Learning Japanese

If you are going to learn Japanese, you need to decide why you are learning the language. I learned Japanese because my work took me there in 1971. I lived there for nine years, mostly during the 1970s. I learned in Japan, surrounded by the language, on my own, largely by listening and reading and using […]

28Jul

28 Jul 2021

How To Improve Your Listening Skills

Techniques

Reading helps you acquire more words, but listening gets your brain used to the language. And of course listening comprehension is a tremendously important skill because if you're speaking to someone, and we all want to speak in the language, if you can't understand what the other person is saying, then it's very uncomfortable and you can't have a very meaningful conversation.