Counting the languages you know When I finished secondary school, I thought I knew two and a half languages – my native Estonian, English that I mostly picked up from the media, and some basic German that I had studied from grade six onward. German was always a grey area, as I’d started from scratch in school…
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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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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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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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Everyone always says that the first thing you need to do with any new long term project is to set goals. Unfortunately they don’t always explain how exactly you’re supposed to do that. One of the most effective methods used for setting goals is the SMART system. “SMART” is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and…
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Even in a digital era in which more people check Facebook and surf the Web with their tablets and smart phones than they do their computers, not everyone is yet sold on mobile language learning. Some cite past experiences using language applications as “less authentic” or somehow inferior to more conventional methods. Still others are…
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