Have you ever thought of learning an African language or, if you're African, another one? At last year's Polyglot Gathering I met French international voluntary exchange association employee and podcaster Julia Martin and I was thrilled when she agreed to share her story about how she came to learn Swahili. It's a fascinating language, widespread in east Africa and, as we'll … [Read more...]
Learning Japanese: Month One update
How do you start learning Japanese? I'm finding out first hand thanks to my recently-announced "Learning Japanese" project. My goal is to be able to function at a basic level in the language when I visit Japan for the first time for the Polyglot Conference in October. This is the first of my monthly update posts, where I'll be sharing how it's going and looking ahead to the … [Read more...]
“Dr Popkins Method?” How I got fluent and you could too
What are the elements to success when you’re learning a foreign language? In this post, it’s time to pull together some of the threads that have emerged from telling my own language learning story in the “Dr Popkins Method?” series. I’ve got fluent in French, Welsh, Russian and German and make good progress with several other languages, mainly thanks to independent study as an … [Read more...]
“Dr Popkins Method?” Keeping going at language learning
If your methods are good, or even just ok, keeping going at language learning may be the most important ingredient of all when you want to get fluent. ln a recent post, I looked at the things that fill me with enthusiasm about learning a language. But what about when enthusiasm starts to wane? It's time to move from language learning carrots to things that may work more like … [Read more...]
Group language classes: for, against and what to do
If you failed to learn a language at school, chances are part of the problem was what was going on in your group language classes. Yet many people when they want to start or improve a language think about taking yet more group language classes. Erm, just like at school. Except that, this time, you're going to have to pay for it. Classes certainly do come in for some stick … [Read more...]
Shadowing for language learning, explained
Shadowing is a deceptively simple, little-known language learning technique. You take a native audio recording, with a transcript and you speak along at as close to the same time as you can. That's it. Shadowing is sometimes recommended to trainee conference interpreters, which suggests that it's a well-serious method, worth closer investigation. In this article we'll look at … [Read more...]
“Dr Popkins Method?” How I got fluent in German
To help you better in your language learning, I’m sharing my own story in the "Dr Popkins Method?" series. I’ve told the story of how I got fluent in French, Welsh and Russian. Now, let’s look at how to learn German.....or, at least, how I've done it. This post covers roughly the same German ground - but in more detail - as the second half of the vlog linked at the bottom … [Read more...]
How “to boldly go” when you’re too shy to speak your foreign language
Feeling too shy to speak a foreign language is at times a real handicap for me and many other language learners. This post is packed with actionable tips to help you overcome your language shyness. First, it’s worth taking a moment to get the measure of the enemy! What is shyness? Shyness is awkwardness or apprehension around other people, especially new people or in … [Read more...]
“Dr Popkins Method?” How I learned Russian
This is the story of how I got fluent in Russian. It's post number four in my new “Dr Popkins Method?” series of articles. I got the idea for the series when I was down in Tenerife with some of my fellow language learners and teachers, bloggers and vloggers. They challenged me to help you better by sharing more my language learning journey. If you prefer video, you can … [Read more...]
100 language learning insights
Here, all in one place, are one hundred of the best, brief, language learning insights I've come across in years of language learning and years of learning about learning languages. This is celebratory piece to mark a mini milestone: the one hundredth post published here on Howtogetfluent.com. I hope you'll enjoy my selection. Of course, it could only ever be incomplete and … [Read more...]