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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How You Can Set Functional Language Goals

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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Your Lifestyle Choices Can Impact Language Learning Success

  So you’ve bought all the books, downloaded all the apps, discovered all the sites. You’ve secured yourself a language exchange via Skype twice per week and are considering paying for a professional tutor to really round yourself out. Great! Sounds like you’re right on track. So what can you do to give yourself the extra…
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