by Andrew | Feb 5, 2020 | Articles/Posts (go here to start learning Spanish!), General Language-Learning
Don’t do this: it’s unnecessary, unpleasant, and not even the best way Shortly after beginning to learn a language for the first time (few weeks, couple of months, something like that), you’ll figure out which of the activites you’ve been doing... Read more
by Andrew | Feb 4, 2020 | Articles/Posts (go here to start learning Spanish!)
Have you ever tried using flashcards with a foreign word on one side and the English translation on the other or, even worse, repeatedly reading a list of vocabulary and each word’s translation over and over again, attempting to memorize them by rote? Most of... Read more
by Andrew | Feb 1, 2020 | Articles/Posts (go here to start learning Spanish!), General Language-Learning
This is a series of posts I decided to do explaining my reasons for so heavily emphasizing the use of popular media such as movies, series, songs, books, etc. in order to learn a language. I want to say from the outset that I believe the single most efficient... Read more
by Andrew | Apr 27, 2019 | Articles/Posts (go here to start learning Spanish!), General Language-Learning
This is what I consider to be the single most important concept you must apply when learning a language, or any complex subject. You have to be persistently consistent. What does that mean?MemoryIn order to learn something, you must be exposed to it repeatedly. ... Read more
by Andrew | Apr 20, 2017 | General Language-Learning, Spanish, Telenovela Method
This is a simple technique I developed on my own as part of the Telenovela Method years ago and I’ve just never gotten around to writing about it because it never occurred to me how much trouble most people have learning Spanish pronunciation (note: this... Read more
by Andrew | Sep 20, 2015 | General Language-Learning, Spain
Ok, so I’ve been here two weeks now, I’ve done nearly ten face-to-face language exchanges so far (all with native speakers), I’ve interacted with other natives quite a bit (buying groceries, ordering food, etc.), and I’ve got some insight I... Read more
by Andrew | May 14, 2012 | General Language-Learning
I just finished reading a fascinating and concise report from the U.S. Department of State’s FSI (Foreign Service Institute) entitled “Lessons learned from fifty years of theory and practice in government language teaching” that distills what FSI... Read more
by Andrew | May 10, 2011 | General Language-Learning, Spanish
I want to quickly tell you guys about a fantastic resource that’s available to you and is especially good for beginners and even those at an intermediate level: children’s books. They’re fun to read (how could you dislike a story about a talking... Read more
by Andrew | Mar 25, 2011 | Friday Linkfest
It’s back! Friday Linkfest actually got a bit of attention the last time I did it, and I think it’s an excellent idea because, as I stated before, it gives you, the reader, a short little list of interesting language-learning stuff to look at that you may... Read more
by Andrew | Mar 18, 2011 | Friday Linkfest
This is something new I’m going to start doing if for no other reason than to make myself start posting more frequently and consistently, plus I read all sorts of cool language-learning related articles every day on the dozen or so blogs I’m subscribed to,... Read more
by Andrew | Mar 3, 2011 | General Language-Learning, Guest Posts
And today I’ve got my first guest post ever! From J. over at Polyglottally, he addresses something that every language-learner has done at some point and then had to deal with… Oh dear, you’ve fallen off the language learning wagon. You were tired,... Read more
by Andrew | Dec 1, 2010 | General Language-Learning, Spanish
I just saw this via Ramses’s twitter feed and although I could’ve just retweeted it I felt compelled to at least make some short comments on it that would be too long for twitter, so I’m turning it into a short blog post. What I’m referring to... Read more