When you first start learning a new language—provided that your language learning is going to last for any real amount of time—there’s almost always something specific about that language that catches your interest. Whether that’s the people who speak it, the way it sounds, the mechanical structure of it, or something else, there’s a kernel … Continue reading The Language Honeymoon
Something fun that gets said a lot in regards to people who know multiple languages is that their language skills improve when they’re drunk. There are very few talents that a person can have that get better when inebriated, and when thinking about it from an abstract angle, I’d be inclined to expect that it … Continue reading Confidence in Language Learning
A topic that I see come up frequently in language learning circles is a back and forth about language dialects. It’s a topic that has stronger application to some languages than others, as languages aren’t exactly created equal in terms of how far they vary between its spoken form and the literary language, or between … Continue reading Language Dialects
It’s kind of hokey to say, but I think of myself as a lifetime learner. I wasn’t exactly what anyone would call a good student back in high school, but I still managed to learn quite a lot while I was attending (the problem being that what I spent most of my time learning wasn’t … Continue reading Learning Languages Vs. Anything Else
I am a rather introverted person. That claim might seem odd for me to make in the context of this blog, where I share large chunks of my life a week at a time publicly, but of course this is a very different venue than normal, day to day life. In practice I’m a rather … Continue reading Introversion and Language Learning
(This blog entry is written in Spanish. There will be an English translation available tomorrow morning / Esta entrada está escrito en español. Habrá una traducción de inglés disponible mañana por la mañana.) Este es mi primer blog que he escrito en español. Empecé a aprender el idioma hace un poco más que un año, … Continue reading Leer para Aprender Español
Motivation is a perennial topic of discussion when it comes to language learning, because so much of what it takes to succeed at the endeavor hinges on a learner keeping their motivation high. Most of the advice that floats around about the subject attacks from two points: advice on keeping your motivation up day-to-day, and … Continue reading The Third Variety of Motivation
As time has gone on in this language learning project, I’ve tried to pay attention to how things have changed and adjusted for me since I first started. A part of that is just to try and keep in mind how I’ve improved, as a means of keeping my confidence up, because remembering how much … Continue reading Patience in Language Learning
So after last week’s blog musing over the idea of switching over to just reading, I decided that even if I didn’t stick with the experiment, it was at least worth a shot. So at the start of the week, I bought the remainder of the Dresden Files books that were available in Spanish (which … Continue reading Adjusting to Just Reading
There’s been an aspect of language learning that I’ve been worrying about in a low-grade way for a long time now, because it’s a common concern/idea that gets bandied about when the subject of language learning comes up, related to the age you are when you start learning a language. It’s commonly said that it’s … Continue reading Reading in a Foreign Language Vs. Reading in one of MY Languages
Fumbling Toward Fluent 