Archive for May, 2010
May
May
Formal subject pronouns in Italian
Not long ago, I talked about the t-v distinction, which is the most common form of formal address in most languages. Italian, however, does things a little differently.
May
May
How I’m using my iPad to learn languages
There has been a lot of talk about the iPad since it’s announcement, but it’s been a lot of reaction and uninformed opinion, and very little helpful advice for using the iPad to learn languages
May
May
Listen to the news in a new language
When learning a new language, it is important to consume as much of that language as possible, in order to help your ears and brain adjust to hearing that language spoken. Outside of actual conversations, one of the best ways to do this is by listening to the news.
May
May
Let your method of learning reflect your goals with the language
A recent discussion between two language bloggers got me thinking about the methods we all use to learn, and what works best for each of us, and I made a surprising realization!
May
May
The pleasures and pitfalls of traveling with an iPad
This weekend I was away traveling, and I made the choice to attempt survival as a daily blogger using only my iPad. I wrote about that from the road on Saturday morning, but now that I’m home I have some additional thoughts.
The world is still not WiFi friendly
The first thing I found was…
May
May
Nobody’s judging you
I often see people who are studying a language pass up opportunities to practice. Maybe they’re trying to learn Spanish, but they never say anything in Spanish to their friends from Argentina. Maybe they’re learning Polish, but they never use any Polish words with their coworker from Warsaw. Or maybe they’re in the same German…
May
May
Frequency lists help you learn what’s important
In general, I hate the idea of lists or any form of measure or statistic when it comes to fluency. I believe that being fluent means being able to communicate on common subjects without a translator or dictionary, not some numerical measure of how many words you know or how many lessons you’ve completed. Remember,…
May
May
Language is music!
Last week, it was my great honor to receive a copy of Language is Music…, a captivating book written by Susanna Zaraysky, about learning languages that seemed to steal the thoughts from my head and the feelings from my heart and pour them all out far more succinctly than I ever could.
About the
May
May
Thanks for the votes
A few weeks ago, this blog was nominated for Babla’s Top 100 Language Blogs. While I certainly appreciated that, I didn’t feel like I deserved it, and I even made a special request for you to vote for Benny instead of me.
I am honored to humbly report that even in spite of my request…
May
May
Lithuanian, first impressions
I have long had intentions of learning about Lithuania, its culture, and its language, since that is an important part of my own heritage. This fall, I finally have plans to travel to Lithuania and start to connect with the culture that has been passed down from my immigrant great-grandparents to my to father, and…