A common topic to cover in language learning circles is finding and making time for studying, because doing that is often the key factor in determining whether someone learns a foreign language or not, all other things being equal. If someone devotes either an hour a week or an hour a day toward language learning, … Continue reading Recognizing When to Scale Back Learning
An important skill to cultivate when setting out to learn a language is something that has nothing to do with languages, and that is time management. Regardless of the learning method you pursue, whether that’s formal classes, tutoring, textbook learning, input-based learning, spaced-repetition flashcards, or anything else under the sun, you will fail if you … Continue reading Time Management and Language Learning
At the start of the year, I wrote a blog establishing my “Yearly Themes” for 2019, the overarching ideas I’ve been keeping in mind for making decisions in my life. I’d originally planned to touch base on those themes at the beginning of July, as a mid-year point of reflection, and as you can see, … Continue reading Reflections on Yearly Themes
While I don’t normally preface these blogs with the disclaimer I gave in the very first one, this blog feels like it’s especially important for me to open with the statement that I am not an expert on language learning. I am not a professional tutor, I have no formal education in teaching languages (or … Continue reading Why Foreign Language Classes Fail: Introduction
I can hardly believe that I’ve been running this blog for a full year now. A lot of the time I’ve spent has really flown on by, between real life and putting in the hours to work at improving my Spanish. I’ve come a long way in the year, from my stumbling first few steps … Continue reading Looking Back on a Year of Progress
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
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
A big topic of discussion when it comes to language learning is the goal of efficiency. Efficiency comes in lots of forms for language learning, to varying effect. It’s obviously something to strive for in general, because if you’re working hard, but on something that isn’t efficient, you’re going to have less to show for … Continue reading Efficiency in Language Learning and What it Doesn’t Mean
At the start of the new year, I outlined some of my yearly themes that I’m keeping in mind, not resolutions per se, just general courses of action I’m trying to take for both this language project and my life in general. The theme of The Year of Striving was the new one I added, … Continue reading Reevaluating Methods
2018 has come to a close, which puts us in the time of year when a lot of people talk about new year resolutions. I’m not fond of resolutions myself, I feel like it’s more or less starting off with a handicap and setting yourself up for failure. A lot of the things people resolve … Continue reading Yearly Themes
Fumbling Toward Fluent 