15Aug
Self-Empowerment Through Learning: Take Charge with These 4 Steps
Human beings are learning machines. We spend our lives learning. We can’t help but learn. The only question is what we will learn and how it will affect our lives.
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13Jun
How to Get the Most out of Language Immersion
Language immersion is often used to describe a perfect form of language learning. The term implies a situation where if we dip ourselves into water, we will come out wet. In the case of language learning, we come out of immersion able to speak a new language, so to speak. In fact, language immersion is a […]
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10Apr
Use TPRS to Accelerate Your Language Learning
Storytelling is a powerful engine of language acquisition. Apparently Blaine Ray, the originator of TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling), was also the first person to create these circling stories that are at the core of the three-part mini-stories that we are now developing both for LingQ and the language learning community in general. […]
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24Mar
Reading Stories: The Gateway to Authentic Content
A few weeks ago I started learning Greek. Greek will be my seventeenth language, and the eighth one I have started since the age of 60. Greek has relatively few words, far fewer than I expected, that I can recognize from languages that I already know, at least so far. The Greek alphabet is related […]
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22Feb
Finding the Time to Learn a Language
“I just don’t have time.” This is one of the most common reasons people give for not being able to learn languages. I am now retired, but I am still quite busy. I play sports, make time for my family and I have a number of tasks that I perform as part of LingQ. They include […]
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15Jan
Learning a Language Means Acquiring Words
People often say to me, “Steve, you’ve obviously got a talent for languages, that's why you’ve learned so many. Good for you, but I could never do it.”
To which I say, to myself at least, why don’t you try doing it the way I do it? Maybe, rather than a question of talent, it’s a matter of the method that I use. What is my method? It’s really quite simple. It’s the relentless pursuit of words [...]
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01Jan
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Language Learners
In Stephen Covey’s famous book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People he gives advice for people in many aspects of their lives: advice for managers, for business people and for people generally. His advice can also be applied to language learners, and here’s how.
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20Nov
Having Language Difficulties? It’s Time to Believe in Yourself
Many of you have heard me say before that the three keys to language learning are motivation, the time you spend with the language and your ability to notice what’s happening in the language.
Some language learners aren’t motivated, so they don’t spend the time or develop the ability to notice and they don’t learn. That’s to be expected. But there are many people who are motivated, who do [...]
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