Category Archives: Language
25 Lifestyle Choices for Learning Languages
A little while ago, I wrote about my belief that it may be a better idea to cover the idea of language learning as a lifestyle choice. As a lifestyle choice, the greater the degree of contact per unit of time, the faster you will learn the language.
These are just some of the things I [...]
Also posted in Fun Stuff, Language Learning Techniques, Learning, Learning German, Motivation 51 Comments
Adventures in German – Day #9
Finally got a grip on the hundreds of backlogged German cards.
How, you might ask?
I’m a time-using machine (And if I were a time-machine, that’d be even better). I bring my computer with me to class because I use powerpoint often for presentations (which, if you ever need to do, I highly recommend going all Presentation [...]
Also posted in Language Learning Techniques, Learning German, SRS 20 Comments
Extensive Reading vs. New Cards
Doing some thinking today about priorities of someone going it alone in their language learning. There’s one thing that I feel is a given now, especially after a few years of trial and error (yeah, it only took me a few years):
Take care of your daily reviews before you do anything else.
I got my butt handed [...]
Also posted in Language Learning Techniques, SRS 26 Comments
A Caution Against Using Other People’s Materials
This is a question I’ve grappled with for a while:
Is it better to use our own material or someone else’s material when studying?
This is a general trend I’ve noticed among people, who generally fall into two different camps. The first camp, of which I’m a part of, only uses [...]
Also posted in Language Learning Techniques 15 Comments
Linguistics You Can Actually Use – Morphemes
Full disclosure here. I got my master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. I learned a lot of really complex and interesting stuff. A large portion of that stuff is of no current use to me except in providing me backround knowledge on general linguistics. A smaller portion of that I actually [...]
Also posted in Language Learning Techniques 28 Comments
The Office Learning Environment
I was busy working on a presentation I’m doing for a bunch of students at work tomorrow (looks like I may have an audience of about 100! Nice.), and I took this picture and made it into one of my slides for the presentation (On technology and self-study).
There’s a couple of items here that are [...]
Also posted in Extensive Reading, Language Learning Techniques, Motivation 5 Comments
Don’t Hang Up!
So this is probably one of the more counterintuitive ideas in learning a language that I’ve read about recently. Jennifer writes about teaching her students to not hang up on telemarketers. I had an experience like that where I received a phone call at my office from a marketing person about the OS used on my [...]
Also posted in Language Learning Techniques 7 Comments
Beware of Crocodile!
I happen to know the kanji for “crocodile.”
鰐
This is a fun conversational piece when talking about learning Japanese. Especially with Japanese people. I often describe it to them (if they don’t know it) as “fish” and “signal,” but with two ”mouths” instead of one.
Of course, then they say that I won’t need to write it ever.
. . [...]
Also posted in Fun Stuff, Motivation 13 Comments
Chances aren’t Provided, they are Made
I’m still thinking about the study abroad presentation by Darcy de Lint about students’ study abroad experiences. One of the things we discussed afterwards was how Japanese in particular are usually waiting to be communicated with and often do not create speaking opportunities.
In the English speaking world, children are quickly left to their own devices, [...]
Also posted in Learning 6 Comments
Not for the Faint of Heart