Should I learn Spanish or Portuguese in 2025? Well, I'm sometimes asked in surprise why I've chosen to learn Portuguese instead of its close - and more pushy - relative, Spanish. After all, most people learn Spanish not Portuguese. Unlike Spanish, Portuguese is hardly ever taught as a foreign language in schools in English-speaking countries. It's taken up only by only a … [Read more...]
Mission accomplished as “Add1Challenge 4” draws to a close
How do you learn a language on the internet? For three months from the third week of July, I was taking part in the fourth run of Brian Kwong's collaborative online language learning "Add1Challenge" (2023 update - the Challenge no longer exists but I've kept this post as it's still valuable to show how the "group challenge" model can work in language learning). With the … [Read more...]
Reflections on the June 2014 Polyglot Gathering, Berlin
German "hyperpolyglot" Judith Meyer and other well-serious language learners were inspired to organise the "Polyglot Gathering" (Berlin, 15-18 June 2014) by their experience of the Polyglot Conference in Budapest in May 2013. I only found out about the 2013 Conference late in the day and was unable to attend, so I made darn sure to sign up in good time to the Gathering and … [Read more...]
Basque Add1Challenge: 3 weeks in….
It's three weeks tomorrow since the beginning of the three-month Add1Challenge, here, later than expected, is the first of my promised progress updates. What have I been doing? The main development in my approach to Basque this summer has been working with native speakers on Skype. I have never done this before but I was keen to keep going during the summer … [Read more...]
A boost for my Basque? The Summer 2014 Add 1 Challenge begins.
Today is the first day of the Add 1 Language Challenge, a group language learning programme created and run by Brian Kwong. He spoke about the thinking behind the programme at the Polyglot Gathering in Berlin in June. His research convinced him that lack of time and maintaining motivational focus were two of the major problems faced by language learners. Kwong's programme … [Read more...]