Applications for my new Laser Listening Week are now open. The five-day guided experience runs from Monday 20 to Friday 24 July. If you've ever felt that spoken German starts to slip away from you just when a conversation becomes interesting, this may be exactly what you need. One of the most common frustrations as an upper beginner or lower intermediate German learner goes … [Read more...]

If you’re serious about starting a language, or about moving up a level, it helps to have clearly defined goals. And regular readers of the blog might remember that I like to distinguish between vision goals and path goals. A vision goal is your ultimate aim in the language. Your path goals are the shorter-term staging posts along the way to that personal “promised … [Read more...]

At this busy time of year, I have to admit that the regular daily focussed language study sessions that are usually central to my language learning life have rather fallen by the wayside.  You know the story: work, life, seasonal festivities ramping up.  However busy I get, though, I do keep listening to my languages: German, Basque and … [Read more...]

Earlier this summer, I stood in the pre-dawn dark with a crowd of fellow travellers, waiting for the sun to rise over Angkor Wat. It was the highlight of a month-long trip through Southeast Asia—a trip that began with a two-week work stint in Singapore and Hong Kong (I’m a lawyer by day), followed by time off in Vietnam and Cambodia. But Angkor Wat wasn’t just a visual … [Read more...]