10 Essential Questions to Kickstart Your Language Learning Success
You’ve decided to learn a language. Before you take that life-changing first step on the path to language mastery, it is essential that you prepare yourself for the journey. (If you’ve already started,...
View Article101 Ways to Fall in Love with Your Target Language
If you’re looking to learn a language for the long haul, then you’ve got to fall in love. I’m not talking mere infatuation, or puppy-love. I’m talking the deep, intimate, battle-tested “you’re a part...
View ArticleThe One Simple Step to Getting Endless Value Out of Skype Language Lessons
You know the expression “in one ear, and out the other?” The feeling that what you’re currently doing just isn’t sticking? That whatever you’re doing, whoever you’re listening to, and whatever you may...
View ArticleNever Feel “Good Enough” in a Foreign Language? Here’s What to Do
Like many skills, acquiring a new language does not come equipped with a set end point. You cannot “max out” or complete a language. There is no finish line. Instead, you must continually strive to add...
View ArticleWhy You Should Wear Your Language Like a Badge
“I’m not ready” The famous last words of many a language learner. No matter how much practice or study we’ve put into a language, there is always the temptation to utter the above phrase, to wait for...
View ArticleWhat You See is What You Become: The Role of Vision in Language Learning
At this very moment, you are fighting a war. Not a war between countries, religions, or differing ideologies. But a war within yourself. Or within your selves, I should say. You may have never taken...
View ArticleThinking of Quitting Language Learning? 5 Things to Try Instead
They say quitting is never an option. I disagree. As much as I love language learning, quitting is always an option, particularly if you’ve decided that language learning as a general enterprise is not...
View Article50 Actions You Can Take In The Next 5 Minutes to Boost Your Language Learning
The path of the language learner is often viewed as a line. We’re standing at one end, while fluency (or whatever other goal we’re aiming at) is at the opposite end, some distance away. It’s no fun to...
View ArticleHow to Avoid Forgetting the Languages You’ve Already Learned
Has this happened to you? Have you spent a serious chunk of time in your past on language learning, only to set it aside and forget nearly everything? I have. For a decade and a half, I made an art...
View ArticleThe Problem with Fluency
Fluency. Everybody wants to achieve it. It’s cool. It’s chic. It’s that certain something that all beginners strive for, and all those who’ve attained it want more of. And that’s great. But before you...
View ArticleAre You Asking For Failure?
Let’s try an experiment. In a moment, I’m going to ask you to close your eyes. Before you do so, please take a few seconds to read ahead, so you know what I’m asking of you. When you close your eyes,...
View ArticleHow to Stay Positive in the Face of Language Learning Difficulties
This is never going to work. Have you ever had that thought? Have you ever been so frustrated with some aspect of a language or language learning that you were absolutely, one-hundred percent sure that...
View ArticlePain & Perseverance: A Primer for Struggling Language Learners
No pain, no gain. It’s one of the more heavily used sayings in the motivation industry, especially across the fields of fitness, athletics, and yes….language learning. I’ve written before about my...
View ArticleHow a Language Learning Routine Brings Peace of Mind
“So, how’s your language learning going?” It’s a simple enough question. So simple, in fact, that one would expect the answer to be equally so. However, when I was asked the question the other day by a...
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