It has been a while since I profiled a multilingual person. You might remember Maria “going home” to English instead of Spanish, Jeremy describing the challenges of learning Kyrgyz, and Jordi reflecting on “foreignerisms” arising among non-native speakers. Here
Spanish Fluency in Five Not-So-Simple Steps What does it mean to be fluent in a language? Does it mean that you can read, write, speak, and understand everything in the language with no mistakes? Or is getting by with most day-to-day conversations good enough? This question has been t
I thought it would be interesting and useful to share my approach to tutoring English as an additional language. Potential learners—you can get an idea about what to expect from me. Other teachers—you can compare this with your own approach. A little background This approach has evolv
Easy steps for a successful language exchange experience In my last post I explained how a language exchange works. Maybe you have found a partner, or you plan to find one. Congratulations! Here are some tips for making your language exchange as productive as possible. 1. Prepare for
A Backgrounder on My Next Language Challenge: Punjabi Punjabi (also spelled Panjabi), is spoken by 130 million people and is the 10th most widely spoken language in the world. The majority of its speakers live in Pakistan and in the Punjab state of northern India, as well as large dia
We need to make friends in order to learn This topic is near to my heart – language exchange, also known as tandem language learning. After years of studying, many people fail to become comfortable in a new language. This is because we are thinking about learning in a backwards way: t
Learning a language? Keep going. Hello from the frontier of what I think they call ‘intermediate’ in language learning. Maybe prompted by the change in geography–last week I moved from the dry yellow plains of Mesopotamia to the green mountains of Eastern Anatolia–I recogn
Three steps I use to learn a lot of Turkish vocabulary 1. Old-fashioned pen and paper Every time I hear or see a new word that seems interesting or important, I copy it onto a folded piece of paper that I keep in my pocket dictionary. If I run into a language-interested friend, I wil
One of the hardest things about learning a new language as an adult is that you are forced to sound a bit stupid. Complex articulations are reduced to blunt assessments. You are forever asking people to repeat themselves or speak more slowly. You never fully understand what’s happenin
French vs. Punjabi I hope that one day I can speak fluently in many languages. But my dreams of becoming a polyglot may not be realistic given the other interests and obligations that take up my time. I also find that wherever I am, I want to learn as much of the local language as I c
