20Mar
20 Mar 2018
Monolingual or Bilingual Dictionaries for Language Learners?
Which is better for language learners, monolingual or bilingual dictionaries? This question often comes up.A monolingual dictionary explains the meaning of a word in the language that you are learning. A bilingual dictionary provides a translation...
Read more Monolingual or Bilingual Dictionaries for Language Learners?17Oct
17 Oct 2017
Effective Language Learning: Listening and Reading
I want to cover the issue of input-based learning that I have spoken about in two past YouTube videos in Chinese and Japanese. It goes by different names but basically amounts to spending most of your time on listening, reading, working on your vocabulary and becoming familiar with the language rather than on output-activities or grammar-focused activities.
Read more Effective Language Learning: Listening and Reading15Aug
15 Aug 2017
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.
Read more Self-Empowerment Through Learning: Take Charge with These 4 Steps13Jun
13 Jun 2017
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 […]
Read more How to Get the Most out of Language Immersion10Apr
10 Apr 2017
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. […]
Read more Use TPRS to Accelerate Your Language Learning24Mar
24 Mar 2017
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 […]
Read more Reading Stories: The Gateway to Authentic Content22Feb
22 Feb 2017
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 […]
Read more Finding the Time to Learn a Language15Jan
15 Jan 2017
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 [...]
Read more Learning a Language Means Acquiring Words01Jan
1 Jan 2017
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.
Read more The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Language Learners20Nov
20 Nov 2016
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 [...]
Read more Having Language Difficulties? It’s Time to Believe in Yourself