For people who love languages, or would but were discouraged.
- Believe in yourself and have the right attitude
- Put in an hour a day
- Use a system that works... like LingQ

14Dec
How Should Languages Be Taught in School?
It's not a good idea, in my opinion, to demand grammatical accuracy from language learners in school, because so few of them end up speaking the language. What does it matter whether they are able to nail niceties of grammar at the age of 12? To me, it doesn't matter. If there's some way of making them enjoy the process of language learning so that they expose themselves to the language, they [...]
Read more How Should Languages Be Taught in School?02Dec
Common Language Learning Problems
What are the main problems that I see amongst language learners? First of all, most people don't realize how long it takes to learn a language. So people get frustrated. They get particularly frustrated when they get to that first level where all of a sudden they know a bunch of words and they realize just how little they know of the whole language.
Read more Common Language Learning Problems24Nov
Quanto tempo se levar para aprender uma língua?
A aprendizagem de línguas depende principalmente de três fatores: a atitude do aluno, o tempo disponível e a atenção do aluno à nova língua. Se assumirmos uma atitude positiva, uma atenção razoável e crescente por parte do aluno, quanto tempo levará para aprender uma língua?
Read more Quanto tempo se levar para aprender uma língua?17Nov
The Importance of Reading
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.
Read more The Importance of Reading10Nov
Introverts Vs Extroverts in Language Learning
The myth is that there exists a battle in language learning: introverts vs. extroverts, and that extroverts are the better language learners. I do not believe at all that you need to be an extrovert to learn a language. Language learning comes down to the three keys: number one, attitude. You have to be interested in the language. You have to like the language. You have to believe you’re [...]
Read more Introverts Vs Extroverts in Language Learning03Nov
Pour Parler Une Langue il Faut D’abord L’écouter
*** This post is a transcript of a video on my YouTube channel. Bonjour, ici c’est Steve Kauffman. Aujourd’hui je veux parler de “l’écoute” dans l’apprentissage des langues, parce que pour moi, c’est, disons, “la tache” dans l’apprentissage des langues. Et pour ceux qui ne me connaissent pas j’en suis à ma 19ème et [...]
Read more Pour Parler Une Langue il Faut D’abord L’écouter27Oct
スペイン語の学習に必要なヒントやコツ
何度も言ってきたことですが、言語の学習で重要なのはやる気です。何度も繰り返し言い続けているのは、言語の習得は才能でもなく、クラスや教師や勉強の仕方でもなく、主にやる気が関係しているからです。タスクに費やす時間、そして気づくこと。その言語がどうなっているのかに気づくことです。優秀な言語学習者は気づくのが上手になっていくと思うんです。言語に何が起きているのかをより意識し、それにより敏感な学習者が上達も速いですね。 私個人の意見ですが、 [...]
Read more スペイン語の学習に必要なヒントやコツ20Oct
How to Become a Polyglot
Part of becoming a polyglot is accepting that you're going to be less than perfect. That means you're going to speak with mistakes. Your pronunciation may not be perfect, but you have this sense of achievement and the intellectual stimulus of discovering a new world, yet another new world with all of the people, and as you learn another language, then the people of that language come alive, [...]
Read more How to Become a Polyglot05Oct
Learning Languages with Netflix & YouTube
Language learning as we know is about motivation. That's the driver. That's the smart plug that triggers your interest, your curiosity. Content, which feeds that curiosity and those interests, is extremely important. Content that you like, content that has resonance for you.
Read more Learning Languages with Netflix & YouTube29Sep
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 […]
Read more Experience Is The Best Teacher