Archive for October, 2010
Oct
Oct
Comings and goings
Recently, I’ve been making a lot of exciting changes in my life. While none of them is directly related to learning a language, clearing out the stresses and distractions in your life is a great way to free up your time and your attention for the things that are important, such as working on your…
Oct
Oct
Progress report entering the last three months
I’m entering the final three months of my Italian year, so it’s a good time for another update on my progress. Today, I’ll talk about where I’m at, what I’ve been doing, and how I plan to finish up my year.…
Oct
Oct
Don’t study a foreign language!
I’ll bet a few of you never expected to see that headline from me. But this isn’t a joke post, and it’s not reverse-psychology. I’m absolutely serious… if you’re studying a foreign language, you need to stop.…
Oct
Oct
Do-it-yourself immersion
I’m traveling this week, visiting huge scenic landscapes and beautiful national parks in the big, wide-open western states. It’s a lot of driving, a bit of hiking, and nights in hotel rooms, and I’m doing it all alone. But I’m not complaining about being alone. On the contrary, I like it, because it allows me…
Oct
Oct
Travel hacking
This week I flew to Salt Lake City and rented a car, and then took a 2,000 mile tour through some of the most beautiful land that America has to offer. Along the way, I also managed to come up with a few travel hacks that I want to share.
Flying
For starters, my entire…
Oct
Oct
Il condizionale – Italian’s peculiar conditional tense
There is still one verb tense which needs to be understood, but which I have not yet discussed here. And the reason I haven’t discussed it yet was because it’s use was still somewhat unclear to me.
In fact, the most common explanation I’ve found online for the conditional tense in Italian was simply: “don’t…
Oct
Oct
You are what you do
This post isn’t just about language learning, but it applies to language learning. The is really a post about everything you do in your life. This is a post about what you are, and what you want to be. It’s about why you’re not there yet, and how you can get there.
Your body is…
Oct
Oct
Getting the most out of Lang-8
One of the most helpful tools I use for language learning is the free, social web site Lang-8. There, you write freely in your target language, as you might in a blog, and then your text is made available sentence by sentence for correction from native speakers.
Getting correction from a native speaker is invaluable,…
Oct
Oct
Taking breaks, and the 10-day Mandarin challenge
There’s something nice about taking time away from the task at hand which helps us to get refocused on it once that break is over. Every time I put something out of mind for a short period of time, I find that my effectiveness is improved once I return to it.
I believe that taking…
Oct
Oct
Learn the words you use
So often, people rigidly follow lesson plans, or course books, or flashcard decks expecting those things to lead them to fluency, only to find themselves unable to say what they really want to say because they haven’t learned the words they use most!
Following programs or courses as they are laid out is a good…