Most language students spend year after year plugging away trying to learn a new language. No matter what the language, it’s expected to take some time to pick it up… and I know this from first-hand experience learning a language “the slow way.”
I sat in language classes and studied grammar books but still arrived in [...]
Posts under ‘Learning’
How to learn a language… fast
Learning Spanish sucks!
Mainly because I’m not doing it, but also because learning new things is difficult and I like to whine!
Too many times have I said I’ll start posting regularly again and it just hasn’t happened. So I won’t promise anything until you see some results. Between you and me, I did come back to post more [...]
Where are my Spanish flatmates?
One of my rules for learning Spanish is to always live with Spanish speakers. This has been a good rule and resulted in a lot of the improvement. While I’ve stumbled off the optimum language learning path by having an English speaking girlfriend, things are about to get much worse.
Currently I live with 2 Polish [...]
English Classes Suck
I came across an article today called “why we don’t like English classes.” Apart from initially amusing me, I found I agreed with a lot of the points in the article. I like to think I’m one of the teachers that are ‘different’, so I thought I’d share a little of my philosophy.
Ok, so as [...]
The best Spanish course
The hands down best way I’ve learnt Spanish has been though my super secret new technique. Curious? You bet!
Now the best way for my technique to work is to be without a current partner. If you have a partner, this technique may cause you more problems than you’d like. Oops, did I give the secret [...]
How young is too young?
More and more parents are enrolling their children, their very young children, into language classes. Parents are starting their children off from the age of 1 in some cases and sometimes with multiple foreign languages as well. In Chicago, there is a school called Language Stars that believes this is the best time for anyone [...]
Free online Spanish lessons
Loquella.com is offering free Spanish lessons using the popular FSI (Foreign Service Institute) teaching method. With a large number of lessons available already, it’s probably worth checking out. It is based on a learning by repetition method which I don’t like 100% because of the boredom factor but it’s free! Plus, learning by repetition does [...]
What learning style do you prefer?
Following a discussion of learning styles with some colleagues I thought it might be interesting to briefly look at the different styles with regard to learning languages. Most researchers agree on the four basic learning styles being: Visual (seeing), Auditory (hearing), Kinaesthetic (moving), and Tactile (touching). You can find more information here and throughout the [...]
Can we learn to mimic like children?
This article points out that a child’s brain is wired to mimic what they hear, hence their ability to pick up a second languages pronunciation very easily. At the age of ten, our brain rewires itself to focus more on learning other skills that become more important in life.
So, is there a way to unlock [...]
12 languages, jealous anyone?
Feel like you can never learn that language? Well, this bright young man has just put us all to shame with his command of 12 languages from self-study.
At the age of 17, Ha Duy Loc, now speaks English, French, Chinese and Russian proficiently and can also communicate fluently in Arabic, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, [...]