Hello from Bratislava, capital of Slovakia. I landed in central Europe from London yesterday for this year's Polyglot Gathering. There's just time for an update about how my various long term language learning projects are going. There's also some news about one or two things I've got going on "below the radar". Why do you care? Well, I hope you'll be encouraged in your own … [Read more...]
“Minimmersion” Indonesia 8: Prambanan, the Sultan’s palace and departure
After my five-day project to learn some basic Indonesian came to an end, I had almost two days left in Yogyakarta on the island of Java to explore. The highlights were the Prambanan temple, the sultan's palace and Berinharja market. Here's my final "on the road" report and video. The Prambanan temple On Saturday morning I went on the back of a motor bike to the Hindu … [Read more...]
“Minimmersion” Indonesian 1: the plan revealed
Hi from Singapore! I arrived here four days ago for a work trip straight from the Greek city of Thessaloniki, where I was attending the fourth Polyglot Conference. Look out for my review and videos from that wonderful event later. I've got a vlog on the languages of Singapore in the pipelines too. Now though, I want to tell you about the new project I hinted at in the last … [Read more...]
Six tips for keeping going with your language learning (and an update on my Basque)
You may be several months - or years - into learning a language and it still feels like you're a long way from fluency. You may even be wondering whether you're making any progress at all. If so, welcome to the club! I've been learning Basque two and a half years now. In the last few months, there's been a real feeling of progress, but it's still slow and I was trudging … [Read more...]
Learning Basque in Add1Challenge 5, final report.
It's already over a month since the end of Add1Challenge 5, the on-line 90-day language study group in which I participated as a Basque learner this spring (following on from my time in Add1Challenge 4, last summer). This report may be late, but at least it's timely. The next Add1Challenge, no 8, begins on 1 June. I've just sent off my video application. [Update since this … [Read more...]