Archive for May, 2011
May
May
Fake it ’til you make it
It’s a fairly well-known saying, though honestly, I hate it. The idea of faking anything just doesn’t sit well with me. However I really couldn’t think of a more fitting title for the advice I want to share today.
This weekend I began testing out a new theory about learning. It’s not extremely new, of…
May
May
Good Days Gone Bad
This is a guest post written by Zane the Experimenter. Zane is the author of Life by Experimentation. His blog uses science and self-testing to quantify improving the quality of life, including everything from how to sleep two hours less per night to how to actually save money while traveling.…
It has happened to us
May
May
Repetition repetition repetition repetition repetition
As most of you already know, I live in Chicago. With a Chicagoan in the White House, you may have figured out that basketball is a tradition here in Chicago. You might even remember a guy by the name of Michael Jordan being kind of good at it. When I was growing up, I loved…
May
May
Guest reading: Don Quixote de la Mancha
This week’s guest reading comes to us from Clarence Olivier, a native Spanish speaker from Spain. Clarence is a linguist who speaks four languages (English, Spanish, French, Italian), and is currently learning German and Japanese at the same time, which he write about at his blog, The Fine Apps.
Clarence has chosen to read to…
May
May
Possession in Turkish
Remember when I said there was a lot you could learn from a social network? I wasn’t kidding! I’ve already written two posts about how much Turkish I’m learning from Yonja, and that was without even logging in!
Today, we’re going to change that. I’m going to look at what’s inside, after you log in.…
May
May
Create urgency!
Until last month, all of my travels had been to places where I already spoke the language. But when I went to Poland last month, in spite of the fact that I had learned a lot of Polish in a very short amount of time, I was not fluent and there was a lot I…
May
May
How I used Yahoo! Answers to learn Russian
The concept of Yahoo! Answers is one of the best Google hacks ever created. You let people from all over ask questions, and let people from all over answer those questions, and while doing almost no work yourself, your site quickly becomes firmly entrenched in the first page of Google results for almost every topic.…
May
May
Bu Böyle
Today I’ll be continuing my investigation of the Turkish language with a look at the song Bu Böyle by Sertab Erener. I found this song by clicking the related videos… links along the side of a Turkish video on YouTube. Tools like that are a great way to find new things.
Okay, we’ll start with
May
May
Set the tone
An interesting phenomenon that has often frustrated me as a language learner, and I’m certain is also frustrating to many of you, is how hard it often can be to get people to speak with you in the language you’re learning.
Unskilled conversation isn’t very fun
Let’s say, for example, that you’re learning Spanish. You’ve…
May
May
Best Language Blogs of 2011
I am proud to be taking part in the Best Language Learning Blogs 2011 Competition!
I need your votes.…
Please take a moment to click over to the survey page and cast a vote for “The Yearlyglot”. It will only take a moment, and after you’ve done it, you can click through all the links