Thanks so much for continuing to read my posts, despite my very long absence. I just wanted to make a quick note that I’m now writing at my new site/blog called Amplifying Curiosity. I’ll still be writing about languages, but I’ve decided to broaden the scope of my writing to include self-directed learning, programming and… Read More Back from the Dead!
I have a lot of books. For those (like me) who don’t quite have the means for frequent travel, L2 books can be difficult to acquire outside whatever country you have in mind. Over the years, I have expertly cultivated the ability to gather foreign books without having to travel to get them. While these steps are… Read More How to Become a Pro Foreign Language Book Hunter
Note: Video games as in regular video games in your target language. Not language learning games like Duolingo and similar things. Obviously, learning languages through reading books is number one for me. But I also love playing video games, and the languages I know best (French and Spanish) owe a lot to the fact that I’ve… Read More Video Games + Language Learning = An Excellent Combination
I’m a huge Tolkien fan, and it’s not just because of his fiction. There’s no doubt that JRR Tolkien was a true language lover. While he is most famous for writing The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, those stories grew out of his avid construction of new languages, like Quenya and Sindarin. Tolkien… Read More JRR Tolkien on Learning Languages
Many of you have probably already seen it, but my guest post was published a few days ago on Lindsay Does Languages. I wrote about incorporating novel-reading into your learning routine. And hello to my visitors from Lindsay’s blog! So, I’ve been learning lots of new languages (although Tamil fizzled out after a couple of… Read More Learning Update + My Guest Post!
So, you’re consuming native materials with the hope of learning a language. You read books, you play video games, you listen to music, you watch TV shows. Maybe you’re okay picking out the words that are familiar to you, but what about the ones that aren’t? Is it dangerous to guess? Nope! Guessing is… Read More No Need to be “Correct” All the Time
Or are they plateaux? Hmm. Whatever spelling you use, a lot language learners stumble when they reach the intermediate stage. There is a wealth of resources made for beginners– tons of fun, colorful flashcards, textbooks, and other courses. And beginners tend to be excited about this new project they picked up. It’s easy to tell… Read More Dealing with Plateaus as an Intermediate Learner
[This is my 50th post! Hot dog!] Old news– back in 2005 (I think) Daniel Tammet, an autistic savant, claimed to have learned Icelandic in a week for a documentary called The Boy with the Incredible Brain. Here’s the video if you haven’t seen it (you can find the whole documentary on YouTube): My Icelandic… Read More Can You Learn a Language in a Week??
Language learners want so badly to quantify their progress. I’ve experienced this, and I still do experience it. The pressure is real, and it’s hard to escape in a culture where it’s in vogue to acquire measurable skills that lead to something useful. I’ve got my gripes with this utility-only mentality. People shy away from certain academic… Read More Speaking and Writing? Not Unless You Want To!
Time and time again, I want to learn the smaller languages, ones that don’t happen to be popular in the U.S. or in most of the world. I’ve been dabbling in Latvian lately, and it’s such an interesting language. At first listen, I thought it sounded similar to Russian even though I was aware it’s… Read More The Unfortunate Inaccessibility of “Unpopular” Languages
the book-bound polyglot 
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