The challenge of claiming additional languages “So, what languages do you speak, anyway?” I am always reluctant to answer this question. I have spent time learning French, Spanish, Turkish, and two kinds of Arabic, and even dabbling in German and Mandarin, but I shrug and

Letting go of grades and levels A tutoring client recently asked me how to structure his learning of Turkish. He reads language books, writes grammar exercises, and watches YouTube videos, but he worries that this is too scattered and messy. “I can’t tell if I am making pr

Reading in Second Language to Achieve Bilingual Goals Books, like music, in your child’s second language are great resources to support your bilingual action plan . And  my 4 year old, like most children, loves all books. My wife attended a program with the Canucks Family Educat

A love letter to public libraries One of my favourite shows, Fringe, is filmed in Vancouver, and one of the fun things about watching it is pointing out all the places I recognize. One of the most distinctive is the central library, which in the show acts as an alternate-universe Frin

Staying Excited About Language Learning I look at formal classroom learning as the training wheel stage. There comes a point at which those wheels are taken off and you make your wobbly way down the street by yourself. It’s been five years since I sat in a Chinese classroom, and two y

I adore old school paper dictionaries. They’re especially great for learners of Chinese because they force us to connect with radicals and stroke order. (Plus, hunting for that 16-stroke character with the obscure radical always gets the adrenaline going, no?) But, I know that the sto