Archive for February, 2011
Feb
Feb
What is yearlyglot?
So what exactly is “yearlyglot”? What is this site about? What do I stand for? Maybe I haven’t been entirely clear. I realized that when something I thought was obvious turned out to be a complete surprise to someone. So today, I’m going to take a moment to explain a few things I stand for.…
Feb
Feb
Inspired by Egypt
I’ve been rather captivated by the events in Egypt since they started. I can’t help thinking that this is really big deal. And every day, the stakes are raised.
Millions of people coming out across the country in protest of their dictator is amazing. Doing so in spite of coverage being hidden from state television…
Feb
Feb
Game mechanics
In 2005, I bought my first iPod. It was the first to use the new click wheel. I didn’t know that, though, and the iPod didn’t come with any instructions. I had used it for two days before finally, by some random chance, I dragged my finger along that wheel and heard the click, and…
Feb
Feb
The triune brain
In the 1960′s, a neuroscientist named Paul MacLean formulated an idea called the Triune Brain…. To tell it in over-simplified terms, the idea describes how the human brain has formed as a result of evolution. Triune Brain Theory describes the brain in three parts: the reptilian brain, the mammal brain, and the human brain.
Feb
Feb
Gear lust
I recently made a comment about photography, referring to a saying I (and many others) have used when people talk about their gear: “nice camera, but now let me see your photos.” This is because people too often get obsessed with their gear and they forget about using it.
For several years, I’ve been a…
Feb
Feb
Italy travel report, part 2
A few weeks ago I gave you all a progress report on how things were working out for me actually being in Italy, using the the Italian language as I had learned it from here at home.
That last update was just slightly past the half-way point in my trip, and it represented two significant…
Feb
Feb
Discover clothing in Turkish
This week I decided to learn about clothing terms in Turkish, and in doing so, to discover more about the Turkish language, grammar, etc.
In order to get started, I needed to know what to search for. I checked Google Translate for “clothes” and it said “giysi…“, but searching Google for
Feb
Feb
Free gift for Twitter followers
I recently did a small, non-scientific survey of polyglots and asked them four simple questions about language learning. I got a lot of responses, and found out several interesting things about polyglots — or at least about those in my network.
But I also found several incredible patterns. In fact, even though all the responses…
Feb
Feb
The most important advice I have to give
When I started this blog, just a little more than a year ago, I was just one of several newbie bloggers who were excited about language-learning and starting language blogs at around the same time. Today, I’m still far from reaching my blogging goals, but my blog is relatively popular, and relatively successful, whereas several…
Feb
Feb
Today I’m going to admit something to you
I’m going to share a personal admission with you all right now. You won’t see many other bloggers admitting things like this. Are you ready for it?
We are almost at the end of a second month this year — one-sixth of my time is already gone — and I still can’t even have a…