When it comes to reading in your foreign language there are two basic roads you can take. Two different techniques that every language learner should be utilising at different times. I’m talking about intensive reading and extensive reading. What’s the difference? Intensive reading is reading a text and taking the time to make sure you …
First off today I have a little announcement – I have a guest post up at the Livemocha blog today! I’m very excited about it, so I’d love it if you went to check it out here. If you’re coming here from Livemocha, welcome! I wanted to share a little trick with you today. Hopefully …
So. You’ve decided you’d like to reap all the benefits of learning a second language. Now there’s just the question of which language you want to learn. For some, this is an easy decision. For others, it can take some time to figure out. Maybe you’re deliberating between two or three languages. If you’re having trouble deciding, …
Hi, everyone. From today I will no longer be posting here at this site – Lingual Life has a new home. Head over to http://www.linguallife.com to check out the new site. Let me know what you think of it! Everything from here has been moved over there, so there’s no need to ever come back here … Continue reading
Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Continue reading
On Saturday we spoke about how translating literally makes things harder when learning a new language. Today I wanted to share one time when I think literal translations can actually be helpful to a language learner. This is mainly useful in the very early stages of a new language, and should only be used when needed. … Continue reading
Okay, so this week’s Wednesday Word is two words. Today is Boxing Day here in Australia, and I believe in most Commonwealth countries. The term originated in England in the 1800s, but the exact origin is unknown. What is known is that people would give presents to their equals on Christmas Day and the lower … Continue reading
With Christmas tomorrow, a lot of people are going to wake up to new electronics and the like. Chances are, these were made for companies who trade in lots of different countries and – see where I’m going with this? – in lots of different languages. If you’re learning a popular language like Spanish chances … Continue reading
When I asked a week or so ago on Facebook for everyone’s struggles with learning languages, Chirag mentioned he had trouble when trying to translate between his native language and his target language. I wanted to talk a little bit about that today. Often when translating from one language to another, the impulse is to … Continue reading
It’s no secret that school language classes suck. I’m yet to meet someone who finished high school and had any sort of proficiency in the language they’d spent the last six years ‘learning’. If I had anything to do with it, the way we go about teaching kids languages would change dramatically. I don’t know … Continue reading
Our Language in Your Hands is a three part series on BBC Radio that concluded yesterday. Its host, Mark Turin, is a linguist and anthropologist who visits different places, studying and bringing awareness to endangered languages. Most endangered languages are indigenous languages that have very few speakers. This makes it very difficult to save these … Continue reading
It’s been about three weeks since I decided to tackle the Swedish language. So far it’s going pretty well. Slowly, but well. I don’t mind at all – I’m not trying to become fluent in three months, or six months, or twelve months. I’m just going to spend as long as it takes and not … Continue reading
You can never understand one language until you understand at least two Geoffrey Willans Continue reading
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