If you're studying a popular foreign language you'll be faced with a wide choice of potential self-study textbooks (or their electronic equivalent). This post is for you if you've found yourself wondering what's the best language course for you. It's also for you if you haven't! The thing is, there are wide differences in approach out there that you need to be aware of before … [Read more...]
Learning Japanese: back from Japan
"A Japanese learner's first visit to Japan, linguistic aspects". That's the slant in my tenth, monthly report on my journey to Japanese. Back at the beginning of the year, I set my self the goal of studying some basic Japanese before my visit to Japan in October, to attend the Polyglot Conference in Fukuoka. My Japanese study routine took place in a daily study slot of a … [Read more...]
Russian language exams: a guide
In this overview guide to Russian language exams for foreigners, I’ll show you the Russian language exams available for adult independent learners and give you some practical information as to how to go about taking one. You may need a Russian exam as a prerequisite to matriculation at a Russian university. Maybe you want to live and work in the Russian Federation or … [Read more...]
Japan: first impressions
I’ve been posting monthly about my learning Japanese project since the beginning of the year. The immediate reason for starting to learn the language was my first ever visit to the "Land of the Rising Sun". Today, I flew out to Singapore after a week Fukuoka in the south, a day and a half travelling up through Hiroshima and Kyoto and a final five days Tokyo. I thought it would … [Read more...]
How soon should you speak your foreign language?
How soon should you start speaking your foreign language? In this post, two contrasting approaches square up in the ring. In the one corner, "speak from day one" (or pretty soon after that). In the other corner: delay speaking in favour of front-loading input (listening, reading) or study (or a combination of the two). Speaking from day one: how? The "extreme" … [Read more...]