The importance of being confident (interview)

A few weeks ago I was asked to do an online interview by the author of a Bulgarian blog called TrueLady.net. I don't speak Bulgarian, and I suspect most of you probably don't either, so I've reposted the English questions and answers here. You can see the Bulgarian version here: truelady.net.



1. What is your daily routine? How do you spend your day?
I don't have much of a routine. I wake up when the sun rises, I go to the office when I feel ready, and I leave when I feel that I've completed... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Why good advice is so hard to follow

When I was young and wanted to know how to get a girl's attention, people always told me "just be yourself". I remember how frustrated I was with this line! I used to complain, "obviously 'being myself' doesn't work, because I am myself and it's not working!" Later on, though, Eventually, I realized I was so focused on getting a girl's attention that I had become "the guy who wants attention from girls", and once I stopped trying so hard and started just doing the things that I liked — when... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Follow the money

It's only May, but already this year I've received several free copies of foreign language-related products, and the only thing asked in return is that I review the products on my web site — and I will give each of them an honest, fair review. But as I see more and more new language learning products, I'm constantly reminded of one of my biggest complaints: everyone is competing in the easy space.

When you look at the offerings of all makers of language learning products, they all start... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Solving the real problem of language learning

It is my firm belief that one of the main reasons why so many people do not learn foreign languages, or why so many people fail at learning foreign languages, is that they simply do not know how to do it. This is the worst kind of problem, because it is a problem whose existence is invisible.

It's easy to find solutions to problems when you know they exist, but when you don't know you have a problem your chance of finding an answer is very small. Not knowing how to learn foreign languages, people... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

What are the first things you learn in a new language?

Instead of a long post today about things I do when I learn, today I'm going to change it up a bit and ask for input from my readers.

When you first decide to learn a new language, what are the things you need to know? What strategies do you use? What tricks do you have for getting started?

Answer in the comment section below.... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Learning Greek through English roots

In my last post I pointed out a number of false friends that make life more difficult for the new learner of Modern Greek. But everything isn't bleak... there are also some not-so-false friends that can be used to your advantage. Today, I'll look at some of the ways that Greek words can be found in the roots of English words.

Note: I have not done any investigation to prove actual etymology, and I am not asserting that these words are directly historically related, though it seems almost obvious... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

False friends - Greek has a lot of them!

One likes to think that with so much influence on the English language, there should be a wealth of cognates in Greek which would make it easier for a native English-speaker to learn — and there are — but there are also a lot of "false friends"... words that sound like cognates, but are not.

When I started learning Greek this year, one of the biggest challenges I had to overcome was dealing with false friends. Right from the start, several of the most commonly used words in the... continue reading at Fluent Every Year