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...]
Language learning as an infinite game
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...]
Christmas YouTube videos to stay engaged with your language
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...]
What Angkor Wat can teach you about learning a language
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...]
Good Friday in 20+ European languages — and a tip for smarter vocab learning
What does Good Friday mean in English? This post first answers that question. Then we'll briefly explain how diving a bit deeper into this or other words help us remember our foreign language vocabulary better. Then, scroll down and you'll find how to say Good Friday in 20+ European languages and find that most languages name the day in one of three ways. But, there are some … [Read more...]



