Brian Powers

Why Public Libraries Are a Fantastic Language Learning Resource

It may seem these days that the age of the public library has all but run its course. With Internet access more common than not many – if not most – of us have turned away from this traditional font of learning and education. But when it comes to language learning, it’s important for us…
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OMG! Texting Isn’t Ruining English!

In the past decade the world has experienced a communications boom brought on by an insane amount of increased connectivity; widespread use of the Internet, and of course; cellphones. Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’re also probably aware that these devices and methods often fall under considerable scrutiny for somehow helping to undermine…
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Overcoming Your Fear of Speaking a 2nd Language

Talking to people is hard, there’s no doubt about it. It takes me a deep breath and some pre-conversation pacing just to call about the water bill or order a pizza let alone Skype someone I’ve never met before, halfway around the world, in a language with which I have little experience or confidence. Fear…
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The Real Reason You Can’t Find Time for Language Learning

What do you think the number one cited reason that people give me as to why they aren’t studying or can’t study a foreign language is? If you guessed time you’d be correct. Why is that though? Are we really as busy as we think we are? I’m not, and I assume you aren’t either. It’s…
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When Language Study Sends You Running for Cover

It doesn’t matter how much you love learning languages: sooner or later a time will come when your language study starts to get tough, and you won’t always feel tough enough to keep going. If the hardest part of a language learning project is getting started in the first place, the second hardest is what happens…
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How to Get the Most Out of Memrise

Do you use Memrise? It’s not an especially difficult system to take advantage of but there are many features that I feel the average user tends to overlook. To help you squeeze the most benefit out of your time using Memrise I’ve outlined a few ways that you can use the program’s tools and special…
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