General language learning

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Learn foreign words and phrases with a chessboard The biggest problem with learning a language is discipline. To actually sit and learn vocabulary words. Here is a technique to learn a language. I love chess and have a number of chess board, mostly beautiful wooden chess boards from Poland. Here is a method to learn [...]

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Most economically valuable languages to learn Conventional wisdom says if you are are looking for the most economically valuable language to learn, learn Spanish. Why? Spanish is gaining momentum and the line between the English and Spanish world in the Americas is blurred. However, the most economically valuable languages to learn is not Spanish at least [...]

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Language books I have taught many students over the years and I never really had a student learn from language books, alone. That is buy a book and start with page 1 and finish the book and speak the language. It can work, in theory, but you have to be very discipline. I have one [...]

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Why taking language classes do not work Language classes can work but more times than not, do not teach the student the language. Why? Most people sign up with high expectations, some people even go away to immersion camps, these are all good, but often do not yield results. The reason is simple. Diffusion of [...]

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Translation method to learn The translation method, about a hundred years ago, was the method of language learning in vogue which died out with the introduction of the direct method for teaching languages. Arrogant language experts sub the translation method as an artifact from the last paradigm shift. But the reality is a modified translation [...]

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CYA The importance of a proper knowledge of abbreviations Once I (Mirek) was serving as an interpreter during a meeting, rather important to the company that employed me. It was a middle level conference, there were three bosses on our side and three on American/English side. In fact all important topics were already agreed and signed, [...]

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People do not learn languages because they have wrong expectations. Wrong expectations about 1) how a language is learned. 2) how much time is required to learn a language 3) about their only natural abilities to learn a language. The expectation is that they just can just pick up a language. They have heard many stories of [...]

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Techies that learn languages One thing that I noticed when I have been teaching languages is IT or tech guys have unusual language learning abilities. Unusual in a strange, but good sense. Let me explain. Since I have been teaching English in Poland, I noticed that the IT guys have a very rich vocabulary. They [...]

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Language software speech comparison technology Many language learning software programs have something that a user can compare their speech to a native speakers speech. This is based on tone, pitch, pronunciation etc. In theory this sounds great. However, in my experience I have never got one of these devices to work properly. And I write [...]

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TV is often said to be a great way to learn a foreign language Parents often put children trying to learn a foreign language in front of the TV. However, because TV images are not concrete it is known that this does not always help children learn a foreign language. However, the same can be [...]

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