With 2011 in the books, what will 2012 bring?

This year didn't go as well as I had hoped, but it wasn't a total loss. And 2012 starts soon! There's no reason I can't be much more productive next year.

I won't reveal my next language project just yet, but I can say this much: unlike this year, my next language will be one that I can much more easily use to interact with people and things around me.

I truly believe the biggest key to success in language learning is just having easy access to opportunities to practice and use the things... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Not a total bust

As I mentioned in my last post, it's clear that I will not be speaking fluent Turkish by the end of this year - even if I were to be amazingly productive for the rest of this month. But it's still not a total bust. I did learn a lot this year!

First, obviously, I did manage to learn a lot of Turkish. I've been reading tweets in Turkish daily, and understanding a lot of it. I've also learned to read and understand most of what I see on sites like Yonja and Hürriyet. Using music - one of my... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Turkish update

Those of you who have followed this site regularly will have noticed that I haven't been writing much over the last 5 months. It's not a grand coincidence that I started a new job 6 months ago.

I will never be one to make the excuse that I don't have time. My first year on this blog — including almost six months of daily posts — was while I was working full-time. No, a job is not an excuse for not learning... if you are truly motivated to learn. Yes, I did start a new job, and for... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

The Italian e-book has been updated!

It's been a busy few months, but I've finally finished my updates to the e-book for Italian. Any time you really care about your work, it's always under construction and never really complete, but I've finally reached a point where I feel there's a lot of new value included, and I need to get it out so people can benefit from it.

Those on the mailing list already know all about it, though I haven't yet said anything on Facebook or Twitter until today. The Italian e-book itself has been updated... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

A great way to find foreign music

I recently started using Spotify music service. At first, I loved it because almost everything I listen to is already there, allowing me to stop maintaining 40gb of music files on my computer. But now I'm finding it even nicer, not because they have what I have, but because they have what I don't have.

When I begin learning a new language, one of the first things I do is search out music in that language. I've already shared some ways to do that. But today I've just discovered perhaps the easiest... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Vowel harmony

I have alluded to vowel harmony many times in my posts about Turkish, but I have not yet spelled out what it was. Partly, this was because when I mentioned it, I was still working out exactly what it is and how it works. But at this point I feel like I understand it, and there aren't any surprises waiting around the corner, so today I'm going to share a long overdue explanation.

In the simplest of terms, vowel harmony is just a nice way of letting you be a little bit lazy! It allows you to leave... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

An interactive way to learn common vocabulary

In a previous post, I told about my excitement when I found the Turkish web site Hürriyet. Today I will quickly discuss one of the neat things I've been able to do on that site.

Among the many links on the main navigation is one that says Foto Galeri, which I believe should be easy enough to figure out, even for someone who knows no Turkish. When you click on it, you are presented with several photo sets related to news or current events.

Each has a date and a headline, and there's certainly... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

It wasn't meant to be

I see this lousy advice given all the time. People console each other with this nonsense when they fail. They console themselves when they want to give up. The use it as an excuse to others when they quit. "Oh well, it just wasn't meant to be."

Bullshit.

Rocks weren't meant to be stacked on top of each other, but we have Stonehenge. Clay wasn't meant to be a building material, but we have the Colosseum. Mankind wasn't meant to fly, but we rule the air.

It wasn't meant to be. So what? That's... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

How do you keep languages separate?

One topic that seems to come up often in conversations I have with language-learners is the subject of mixing up languages in your head. Often people ask me "how do you keep all those languages separate?" and others ask, almost in disbelief, "don't they all eventually blend together?"

But they don't blend together, and it's actually not at all difficult to keep them separate.

Compared to the average American, I may speak a lot of languages, but compared to many other cultures around the world,... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Set a task every day

Learning a language is a large, and often unclear task. Many people wade into the task without a clear understanding of how much work is involved. But rather than underestimating the amount of work involved, most people actually overestimate it.

One of the lessons our modern society has taught us is that no one is ever rewarded for underestimating a task, and no one is ever punished for overestimating it.

Nature abhors a vaccuum
In 1955, Cyril Northcote Parkinson wrote a humorous observation... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Fluency is not perfection

I see a lot of people talk about "redefining fluency". The irony is, however, that the ones doing the complaining are, in fact, the ones doing the redefining. When pressed to describe fluency, they will often admit to expectations that a fluent speaker have a native-like accent, or a vocabulary of countless thousands of words, or some ability to pass some arbitrary exam.

In reality, none of these things are fluency. I will refer you now to refer you the actual definition of fluency, so that... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Ear training

When you're learning a new language, one important and difficult task is learning to correctly hear and identify the sounds of that language. Their s doesn't sound like your s, their r rolls differently than yours, and their accent and intonation make it difficult to understand what you hear.

When learning a new language, I spend a lot of time and attention on training my ears. Basically, this means listening to the language being spoken, and then making sure that what I heard is the same as... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Do what you love, don't worry about perfection

Recently, a friend posted a recording on Facebook of a song she had arranged and sung, along with the text: "I arranged, performed, recorded, and mixed a pretty song. It ain't perfect, but that's okay."

I played the song, and yes, there were mistakes. Exactly as she said, it's not perfect. But it's still lovely. This friend of mine has possibly the most beautiful singing voice that I have ever heard in person — it cuts me right to the bone every time I have the good fortune of hearing... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Do what you love, don't worry about perfection

Recently, a friend posted a recording on Facebook of a song she had arranged and sung, along with the text: "I arranged, performed, recorded, and mixed a pretty song. It ain't perfect, but that's okay."

I played the song, and yes, there were mistakes. Exactly as she said, it's not perfect. But it's still lovely. This friend of mine has possibly the most beautiful singing voice that I have ever heard in person — it cuts me right to the bone every time I have the good fortune of hearing... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Turkish comparatives and superlatives

It's amazing what you find just by searching for terms in your target language. I don't even remember now what it was that I was originally looking for, but I did my search in Turkish and one of the results that came back was on the web site Hürriyet.

The reason I don't remember what I was searching for is because once I found this web site, I ended up just digging and digging, excited at all the new things I can learn about Turkish without any instruction.

Just look at that home page, full... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

How to make friends in a new language

For the last three days, the Chicago Turkish Festival has been happening in the plaza downtown. Turkish people from all around the Chicago area come to celebrate their culture. There are information booths with travel information about Turkey, and tourism details from Turkish Airlines. Oh, and plenty of great food, too.

I saw this as a great opportunity while I am learning Turkish, so I've been going to the festival — in fact I am there now, as I write this. Sure, I use the opportunity... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Guest reading: Amigos Detectives

This week, we welcome back Paulino Brener for another guest reading. You may recall that he is a native of Argentina, and recently read to us from La Nacion.

Paulino's submission this week is a bit different from previous guest readings. He is very passionate and creative in teaching Spanish, and this is just one of the many innovative ideas he has come up with for that.

The reading is from Amigos Detectives, a book written by Pat Verano using simple vocabulary, for students of Spanish. All... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Best Language Blogs of 2011

I am proud to be taking part in the Best Language Learning Blogs 2011 Competition!

I need your votes.

Please take a moment to click over to the survey page and cast a vote for "The Yearlyglot". It will only take a moment, and after you've done it, you can click through all the links and find hundreds of other interesting blogs to add to your reader.

Thanks for your support!... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Set the tone

An interesting phenomenon that has often frustrated me as a language learner, and I'm certain is also frustrating to many of you, is how hard it often can be to get people to speak with you in the language you're learning.

Unskilled conversation isn't very fun
Let's say, for example, that you're learning Spanish. You've got a friend who is also a native Spanish-speaker, and you hoped to practice with that person. At first, your speaking skills are sure to be much less advanced than your friend's... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Bu Böyle

Today I'll be continuing my investigation of the Turkish language with a look at the song Bu Böyle by Sertab Erener. I found this song by clicking the related videos links along the side of a Turkish video on YouTube. Tools like that are a great way to find new things.

Okay, we'll start with the lyrics, which I found explained here. I cleaned up the translation slightly.

O zor günler solan güller
Eskidendi geçti
O zaman aşık olduğum
Rüzgarlar esti esti geçti

Geriye sadece yarım... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

How I used Yahoo! Answers to learn Russian

The concept of Yahoo! Answers is one of the best Google hacks ever created. You let people from all over ask questions, and let people from all over answer those questions, and while doing almost no work yourself, your site quickly becomes firmly entrenched in the first page of Google results for almost every topic. Brilliant.

When I was learning Russian, I had a lot of questions and I regularly found myself clicking links which eventually led me to Yahoo! Answers. You've probably had a similar... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Create urgency!

Until last month, all of my travels had been to places where I already spoke the language. But when I went to Poland last month, in spite of the fact that I had learned a lot of Polish in a very short amount of time, I was not fluent and there was a lot I didn't know. (There still is.)

Learning in the country
This was an interesting new experience for me, because for the first time, I was able to experience what it is like to learn a language while in the country where it is spoken. People... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Possession in Turkish

Remember when I said there was a lot you could learn from a social network? I wasn't kidding! I've already written two posts about how much Turkish I'm learning from Yonja, and that was without even logging in!

Today, we're going to change that. I'm going to look at what's inside, after you log in. And I'm going to start with the column of action links on the left.

We see a series of links on the left: mesajlarım, bildirimlerim, hediyelerim, ziyaretçilerim, arkadaşlarım, favorilerim, fotoğraflarım,... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Guest reading: Don Quixote de la Mancha

This week's guest reading comes to us from Clarence Olivier, a native Spanish speaker from Spain. Clarence is a linguist who speaks four languages (English, Spanish, French, Italian), and is currently learning German and Japanese at the same time, which he write about at his blog, The Fine Apps.

Clarence has chosen to read to us today from the infamous story Don Quixote de la Mancha, by the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes.

Clarence reads from Don Quijote de la Mancha

Capítulo primero
Que... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Repetition repetition repetition repetition repetition

As most of you already know, I live in Chicago. With a Chicagoan in the White House, you may have figured out that basketball is a tradition here in Chicago. You might even remember a guy by the name of Michael Jordan being kind of good at it. When I was growing up, I loved to play basketball. Just like everyone else I knew, I liked to dream that I was Michael Jordan.

When the Bulls won six championships with Jordan, I was in my teens. Today, I'm 35 years old, and Chicago has a new MVP —... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Good Days Gone Bad

It has happened to us all.  You go out one day and you cannot even manage to get through a basic greeting at the supermarket.  What to do?  Break down and cry?  Give up?

The truth is that humans (and most everything in nature, in fact) are cyclical.  Our bodies operate on circadian rhythms, which means the fundamental chemical balance in our brains changes throughout the course of the day.  In the field of psychiatry it is accepted that mentally ill patients will have good days and bad... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Fake it 'til you make it

It's a fairly well-known saying, though honestly, I hate it. The idea of faking anything just doesn't sit well with me. However I really couldn't think of a more fitting title for the advice I want to share today.

This weekend I began testing out a new theory about learning. It's not extremely new, of course — I've used variations of this in the past, with every language I've learned — but this is the first time I made an attempt to learn from scratch using just this method.

What... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Guest Reading: La Nacion

This week's guest reading was recorded by Paulino Brener, a native Spanish-speaker from Argentina. Paulino lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where is is a school teacher, a performer, and a champion of Latin-American culture, among other things. He is also a good friend.

Paulino has chosen to read a bit of political news from La Nacion, regarding events in his home country.

Paulino reads from La Nación

Randazzo: "Cristina va a asumir el desafío de profundizar el modelo"
El... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

How can you learn when all you do is study?

I recently saw a comment on a friend's Facebook. He was at a coffee shop and saw an old man seated nearby with a Spanish workbook, a huge Spanish-English dictionary, and one of those giant books of 500 Spanish verbs. He guessed this old man was in his 80s, and he found inspiration in this scene. The Facebook comment was, "I hope I'm still learning languages like this when I'm 80."

Yes, it's inspiring to think that you'll still be passionate about the things you love when you get old. But unfortunately,... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

The Turkish past tense

Last week, I talked about several things we can learn in Turkish just by looking at the login page from Yonja, the Turkish social network. I mostly talked about vocabulary, and showed how we can learn to understand a word's meaning and its use just from a login page.

I also mentioned the activity stream at the bottom of the page. That is what I want to look at further today, because it seems to have provided us with everything we need to learn a new verb tense!

If we look at some examples... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Guest reading: Greed is good

Have you ever heard Gordon Gekko’s famous speech “Greed is good” in Latvian? I bet you haven’t so take a few minutes and listen to my Latvian version of this speech!

In case you’re wondering who I am, my name is Robby and I’m a Latvian chap living in Ireland. I also happen to be a blogger and my blog is called English Harmony As you can probably guess it’s got something to do with the English language, and that’s completely correct! Having struggled with spoken English for... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Polish, for Russian speakers

A large part of the reason for my ability to rapidly pick up on Polish was the fact that it is a Slavic language, and as such, it shares a lot of similarities with Russian, a language which I already know quite well. I had already overcome many of the most difficult aspects of learning a Slavic language, such as noun declension and verb aspects. There are still many differences, and plenty to be learned — I myself hope to become fluent in Polish soon — but there's no denying that being... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Yonja: the Turkish social network

As you know, social networks are a large parts of my learning strategy. They're very useful to the learner because they involve realy people using the language in real ways, rather than the formulaic dialogs and robotic vocabulary memorization that you find in books, flashcard systems, etc.

Today, I'm only going to look at the welcome page — there is already a lot that can be learned just from that. Later, I'll go through the process of joining, and I'll write more about how you can actually... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Just get interested, the rest will come

When I was a kid, I remember how excited my family got around the time of the Super Bowl. If you're not from the United States, or just are not into football, you might be able to relate to a similar excitement with the World Cup, or the Stanley Cup, or the Olympics, but the Super Bowl makes a really good example because of the complex rules involved in the sport.

I remember understanding the excitement when the home team crossed the goal line, and the frustration when the other team did it,... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Guest reading: O Rádio Apaixonado

This week's guest reading comes to use from Lucas L Carvalho, a native Portuguese speaker. Lucas is 24 years old, a lawyer, and a singer/songwriter with a few songs available on MySpace, so check those out. Lucas loves the English language, and is also currently studying French and Spanish.

He reads us a short story called O Rádio Apaixonado, by Moacyr Scliar, a respected Portuguese author who recently died.

O Rádio Apaixonado
Rádio de carro aumentou volume sozinho até pifar, afirma... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

What does it mean to learn a language?

What does it mean when you say you want to learn a language? What do you expect to be true before you have learned a language? And what is happening when you are learning a language? That phrase is pretty powerful, and yet pretty vague. Apparently, everyone understands it differently.
A little controversy
A few weeks ago, I made the bold statement that I had learned Polish in just 8 days. I admit that I chose these words because they would be a bit controversial, but they were not untrue.

Upon... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Big goals and long drives

I've done a lot of flying in the past year, but prior to that, most of my travel was done by car. I've made several road trips all over the US, and many of them at night.

When you drive at night, you can't see much. Sometimes you drive through a city and you can see everything around you. Sometimes you are among traffic and you can see all the lights on all the other vehicles around you. But often, you're completely alone, and the only thing you can see is whatever is illuminated in your headlights... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Guest reading: Moab is my washpot

Hey, guys. I'm Roman, a fellow language addict and aspiring traveler, eager to explore the cultures of the world we live in. The first language I acquired was English. It came sort of naturally to me, and only recently I realized what an amazing skill I have, because it allows me to communicate with you all. I really started appreciate the beauty of it when I introduced myself to the works of Stephen Fry. Today, I want to read to you a small passage from Stephen's autobiography called Moab Is... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Turkish progress report - 3 months

It's been 3 months and so it's time for a progress report on Turkish. Since this year's mission involves learning in a completely new way, my usual quarterly targets don't really work. But progress is being made, and therefore it can – and should – be measured!

So where am I at with my Turkish? I'm certainly not as far along right now as I would have expected to be at this point in a normal year. I've only recently learned to make basic conjugations, and at the moment I can only form the... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Learning to hear differently

Did you ever find yourself several months into learning a new language, able to read and write quite well, but still strugggling to understand the things you hear? Even when, and hearing them repeated, you realize you knew all those words?

It can be quite frustrating. But you might be relieved to learn that it's not just the accent that's throwing you off, and it's not that your brain can't process sounds in another language.

In fact, it might be something you've never thought about before,... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Guest reading: from Revista Unidiversidad

This week's guest reading comes to us from Carlos, a native Spanish speaker in Mexico City. Carlos is a translator, among other things, and he has recently started an interesting blog called Overwhelmingly Inspired which I recommend you have a look at.

He reads a fragment taken from Revista Unidiversidad. February, 2011.

Carlos reads Revista Universidad

Materiales. Texturas. Líneas y colores. También ruidos y susurros de tierras y fibras vegetales, aunque a menudo no los escuchamos,... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Diet pills, lottery tickets, and other nonsense

Okay, you're probably wondering what diet pills and lottery tickets have to do with language learning. Or, maybe you're a wise and perceptive reader, and you already see where I'm going with this. Either way, I'm sure you'll get some value out of what I'm about to say.

Magic pills
You know those weight loss pills that are advertised on tv. They talk about a weight loss secret or a glycemic advantage, or some other provokative sales tactic with the illusion of science to back it up.

We all... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

More Turkish with Tarkan

Today is a good day to look at another Tarkan song. This is another one that I've found really catchy, called Çat Kapı. I couldn't find the video for it, so it will just be accompanied by the audio. Also, I started with this translation, but tried to clean up the English grammar a bit so it would make more sense.

Tarkan - Çat Kapı
Aşk...
Bi dahamı?
Tövbe
Yasak ettim ben onu bu gönüle

Tadı tatlıdır önceleri
Ama sonu sancılıdır
Gelmem oyununa
Kaç kez yandı dilim
Bu... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Guest audio: Евгений Онегин, chapter 31

This is the second installment of my new weekly feature, based on non-English speakers reading in their native language. You can hear native pronunciation, while reading along, and hopefully it will help you to improve your comprehension.

Today's contribution comes from Natasha, a native Russian speaker who is working hard to improve her English.

She reads to us from one of Russia's most celebrated literary works, Yevgeniy Onegin by Alexander Pushkin.

Natasha - Yevgeniy Onegin
Я к... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

First person conjugations

We've looked at a few properties of verbs already, and already figured out a lot about verbs without using any instruction at all. But we still haven't established even the basic first-person conjugations. After three months, I can't even say "I'm hungry" yet!

Well, it turns out, I can say it. Actually, I can say a lot once I think about it. I just didn't know it! I've had a hunch about these conjugations for a while, and by now I think I'm pretty confident that this is the way it works...

First,... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

The myth of how children learn

There is a popular myth floating around, which suggests that children are somehow more capable of learning than adults are. People love this myth, because as adults it gives them a convenient excuse for not learning.

The myth is particularly popular in the realm of language learning. It's just accepted as true, without any argument, that children have some sort of amazing, otherworldly ability to learn languages, and that somehow that ability is lost as we get older. Really! People believe... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Negation investigation

While browsing through referers to my web site, I found a thread on a Turkish forum. Cool! The thread is a discussion of Russian, and they linked to my explanation of Russian prefixes.

I decided to browse the thread and see if I could find something I can understand. But even better, I found something from which I can learn! Here's the relevant portion:ne xa4u spat = uyumak istemiyorum.
ne xo4etSA spat = uyuyasım gelmiyor.As you know, sometimes I like to use one language to learn another.... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Guest audio: Prawiek i inne czasy

This is the first installment of a new weekly feature I'm going to do here, featuring non-English speakers reading in their native language. You'll hear native pronunciation, and be able to read along and improve your comprehension. I hope you'll find these posts useful!

Our first contribution comes from Ewelina Gonera, a native Polish speaker who is also an accomplished student of English, and writes for English Focused, a blog with a focus on the interesting peculiarities of the English language.... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

That's a beautiful language!

This morning I was talking with David Mansaray about languages that sound beautiful, and about their tendency sometimes to lose their luster. This provides me a great introduction to a related topic that I've been thinking about lately.

How our view of a language changes
I remember when I first started learning Spanish. I was fascinated with it. I thought it was a gorgeous language and I couldn't get enough. But somewhere along the way, I became a fluent speaker of Spanish, any my opinion... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Learning Turkish with Tarkan

If you've been reading this site, you already know that I love using music to learn. Right from the start, one of the first things I do with a new language is find music to help me learn.

At the beginning of this year, I found several Turkish singers, one of whom was Tarkan. Admittedly I haven't found tons of music yet, but out of what I have found so far, Tarkan has been my favorite. And this song in particular really pleases my ear. So... it's time to figure out what he's saying!



Here... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Stop trying to control everything and just let go

You may recognize that title as a quote from the movie Fight Club. As movies go, Fight Club is perhaps over-quoted, but there's a reason for that: people quote things that make sense. In that movie, the character played by Edward Norton learns exactly how fickle the world can be, and how useless it is to try to control everything. Once he lets go, he finally starts to find his way.

I was reminded of this recently when a friend saw me on Skype and opened a new conversation by saying "Dude, really... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Hard and soft consonants – a look at palatalization

When you decide to learn Russian, you're immediately greeted with a few interesting challenges right away on day one. You have to learn a brand new alphabet just to read and write in this new language!

Fortunately, it's really not hard to learn the Russian alphabet, in fact, I think it's easier and better than ours because there is only one sound per letter. But there are two characters in the Russian alphabet that will leave you perplexed for a long time as you take on the challenge of this... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Can you learn a language in eight days?

It's March 8th, so I want to wish a happy International Women's Day to all my female readers today. And this year, it happens to coincide with Fat Tuesday, which means that here in Chicago, we also celebrate Pączki Day. (The Polish actually celebrated this last Thursday.) And speaking of Polish, that brings me to today's topic.

After having discovered the joys of Kindle, I have decided that I no longer need to own actual books. They're cumbersome, inefficient, and really heavy on moving day... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Stop thinking about mistakes.

What would you think if I said the biggest thing holding you back in your progress doesn't even exist? Maybe you'd think I was crazy. Or maybe you'd think I was simplifying or generalizing, or just lying to you to make you feel better. Well, I have a feeling you're going to be surprised.

One of the biggest things that holds people back in a foreign language is a fear of making mistakes. Oh, sure, you'll say it's not a fear. But I don't care what you call it. Whether you're afraid, or averse,... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

How do you create commitment?

Recently I talked about commitment. I said it was the most important adviced I have to give. The topic sparked some unexpected interest and discussion, and it's got me to thinking... I said commitment was the most important thing, but I never really said how to become committed.

The truth is, I'm not completely sure how a person becomes committed to something. But I do have a theory!

I believe commitment comes with what you attach to your identity — how you perceive yourself, and how you... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Huevos Rancheros: learn Spanish while making a tasty egg-based meal!

Having been an avid reader of Yearlyglot for a while now, I've been wanting to do a guest post and when I finally got around to asking Randy about it recently he came up with a very interesting suggestion: do a recipe in Spanish and dissect it the way you do those Shakira music videos. That's actually a spectacular idea — so good, in fact, I might continue the recipe theme in the future on my own site.

He suggested a popular Latin American dish, I agreed it ought to be something popular... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Discovering Turkish conversation online...

When you set out to learn a new language, usually there are books, or tapes, or other learning materials to guide you through the basics — not enough to actually get you to fluency, but usually enough to give confidence to start a conversation.

However, when you're learning without any learning materials, getting to that first conversation can be a daunting task! You have no idea what to say, of course. And unless you move to Turkey (or wherever they speak the language you're learning), you're... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Today I'm going to admit something to you

I'm going to share a personal admission with you all right now. You won't see many other bloggers admitting things like this. Are you ready for it?

We are almost at the end of a second month this year — one-sixth of my time is already gone — and I still can't even have a simple conversation in Turkish!

Yup. That's right. I guaranteed to learn this language fluently in one year, and so far, after two months, I can't even have the most basic of all conversations.

And why is... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

The most important advice I have to give

When I started this blog, just a little more than a year ago, I was just one of several newbie bloggers who were excited about language-learning and starting language blogs at around the same time. Today, I'm still far from reaching my blogging goals, but my blog is relatively popular, and relatively successful, whereas several of those others have faded into obscurity.

What's the difference? I don't think I'm any smarter than anyone else, and I'm sure some of those other bloggers knew more... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Free gift for Twitter followers

I recently did a small, non-scientific survey of polyglots and asked them four simple questions about language learning. I got a lot of responses, and found out several interesting things about polyglots — or at least about those in my network.

But I also found several incredible patterns. In fact, even though all the responses were free-text fields, there were some details that came up in the responses with amazing frequency — several with more than 50% frequency, and one particular... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Discover clothing in Turkish

This week I decided to learn about clothing terms in Turkish, and in doing so, to discover more about the Turkish language, grammar, etc.

In order to get started, I needed to know what to search for. I checked Google Translate for "clothes" and it said "giysi", but searching Google for giysi turned up pages of toys, so that's not right. Obviously there some subtlety here that I'll want to understand later. But for now, I'm not going to worry about it.

When I checked Google Translate for... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Italy travel report, part 2

A few weeks ago I gave you all a progress report on how things were working out for me actually being in Italy, using the the Italian language as I had learned it from here at home.

That last update was just slightly past the half-way point in my trip, and it represented two significant things in my experiences. First, it represented my initial culture shock upon actually being in the country. And second, it represented my experiences with accents north of Rome, as I had spent my time in Pisa,... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Gear lust

I recently made a comment about photography, referring to a saying I (and many others) have used when people talk about their gear: "nice camera, but now let me see your photos." This is because people too often get obsessed with their gear and they forget about using it.

For several years, I've been a serious photography enthusiast. In the beginning there are so many questions. You want to know which is the best camera, the best lens. You look into the power output and refresh rate of lighting.... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

The triune brain

In the 1960's, a neuroscientist named Paul MacLean formulated an idea called the Triune Brain. To tell it in over-simplified terms, the idea describes how the human brain has formed as a result of evolution. Triune Brain Theory describes the brain in three parts: the reptilian brain, the mammal brain, and the human brain.

The reptilian brain — that developed earliest in our evolution — manages repetetive tasks, motor skills, and physical survival. This is the part of the brain... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Game mechanics

In 2005, I bought my first iPod. It was the first to use the new click wheel. I didn't know that, though, and the iPod didn't come with any instructions. I had used it for two days before finally, by some random chance, I dragged my finger along that wheel and heard the click, and I realized this device does more than I thought.

It worked fine without me knowing everything, but it worked even better when I discovered the additional feature. And I was never confused by a bunch of difficult instructions.... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Inspired by Egypt

I've been rather captivated by the events in Egypt since they started. I can't help thinking that this is really big deal. And every day, the stakes are raised.

Millions of people coming out across the country in protest of their dictator is amazing. Doing so in spite of coverage being hidden from state television is more amazing. Continuing to do it after the internet was taken away is still more incredible.

These people participated in peaceful, unarmed protest and managed to get the entire... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

What is yearlyglot?

So what exactly is "yearlyglot"? What is this site about? What do I stand for? Maybe I haven't been entirely clear. I realized that when something I thought was obvious turned out to be a complete surprise to someone. So today, I'm going to take a moment to explain a few things I stand for.

Regarding a year
To start, I know you're all bright readers, so I'm sure you already figured out that "yearlyglot" is a play on the word "polyglot", indicating that I learn one language every year. It's... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Travel report from Italy

My trip to Italy is More than half over now, but it's been quite interesting so far. The experience has been rather eye-opening! Things got off to a rather negative start. In fact, for the first few days, I was beginning to question the entire idea.

Upon arrival in Rome, all of my "romanticized" ideas of Italy were shattered. The city is ugly, dirty, covered in graffiti, and crawling with homeless people — of course you won't see any of that in Eat, Pray, Love, but it's an unavoidable reality... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Using one language to learn another

The very first thing I learned about Turkish this year was actually an interesting revelation about languages and translation tools.

On New Year's Day, I commented on a friend's Facebook photo, and decided to do it in Turkish, since this is my Turkish year. However, since I began the year knowing no Turkish, the only way I could leave that comment was by first getting the words from Google Translate.

I first typed the phrase I wanted in English, and got a Turkish translation. But keeping... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Ongoing action: -iyor

Today, I'm excited to share my first grammatical observation about Turkish, which I've learned without studying at all!

As I mentioned recently, I changed my iPod to Turkish on new year's day of this year, and since then I've been interacting with the device in Turkish and learning things as I do.

When I'm checking my email, the status bar says Denetleniyor. I'm sure that means "checking email", or something like that, and I'm sure I could verify that in Google Translate.

When I go to... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Discovering a new language from afar, part 2

I've already told you how I'm getting myself accustomed to the Turkish language by watching videos of narration while reading along. Today I'm going to share another thing that I did in preparation for my trip, so that I could be learning Turkish even as I'm wandering through Italy.

Okay, so I've shown you a way to find videos even when you don't know the language. Now I'm going to show you how I find music! It's acutally quite simple.

All I do is go to Google Translate and try phrases that... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Russian vowel reduction

A few months ago, I showed you how easy it is to learn the Russian alphabet. If you've been through that, you should already be able to read Russian text, sound out words, and even recognize several cognates. Today, I want to take a look at the really interesting phenomenon of Russian vowel reduction.

In spite of having a much more user-friendly alphabet than we're used to in English (and please, don't try to tell me Cyrillic is hard!), Russian is not a phonetic language. That is due to unpredictable... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Discovering a new language from afar, part 1

I've spent several hours this week on planes, in airports, in stations, and on trains, but during all that time I'm already learning Turkish. And I'm doing it without and language books or lesson CDs, and without access to the Internet.

How? I'm glad you asked!

I did several things in preparation for my trip, to make sure that I would be able to start learning Turkish — without study materials — even as I spend a month wandering through Italy. Today, I'm going to share one of the... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

At last, the Italian eBook is here

There were a few occasions when I thought the moment would never arrive, but it's happened. The Italian e-book is available.

This is my first time writing any kind of book, and as a perfectionist it was hard to ever reach a point where I felt like it was "ready." But after a lot of hard work, I've gathered some really good information into a book that I'm proud to share.

This is the culmination of a year of learning Italian, as well as learning about learning. There is a lot of information... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Discovering a language with my iPod

This year started with me settling into a new apartment, frantically working to finish my Italian eBook, and then leaving the country! I'm away from home, away from my computer and all the things that I use to learn, but that's not stopping me. I'm already learning some interesting things about Turkish, thanks to my iPod!

The first thing I did to start the new mission this year was switch the interface language on my iPod to Turkish. And that has allowed me to make several interesting discoveries.

The... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Setting clear expectations

Just as I did last year, I am going to get my year started by setting some goals and laying out a clear set of expectations with the language. It is always important to do this with big projects, and learning a language is definitely a big project.

Saying you want to learn a language is too vague. Even using the word "fluently" isn't clear. When half of the alotted time is over, you need to be able to look at your list and feel confident that half of your expectations have been met, and determine... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Why no language-learning products?

Judging by the number of page views and retweets I've had, this year's exciting new plan for language-learning has got a lot of people interested! However, judging by many of the comments and emails I've received, I haven't done a good enough job of explaining my intentions and my purpose. I will try to clear that up today.

Challenging assumptions
The first, most important aspect of this year's new strategy is that it challenges the popular assumptions. I think today's assumptions are mostly... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Why learn Turkish?

Before I get into the details of how I'll be learning Turkish this year, I want to first take some time to explain why I made this choice. People often have no idea why they should learn a language or which one they should learn. Maybe after seeing my reasons for this choice, perhaps some of you will begin to make your own choices differently.

Useful language
Turkish is, obviously, a Turkic language. In fact, as you can probably guess, it's the most well-known of the Turkic languages, in... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

A brand new plan for this year

This year, I'm going to take on the task of learning a new language in a brand new way. I'm going to try something that I don't think anyone has tried before. Or perhaps it has been done, but not in a way as public and visible as this blog.

Just as I did last year, I'm going to learn to speak a new language fluently in one year. But this time, I'm going to do it without any of the traditional language learning tools. No lesson books. No vocabulary building software. No instructional CDs. No... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

It’s a new year and I have an exciting announcement!

Today begins the new year, and that means it's time for me to finally reveal a secret I've been keeping for a few months. As you already know, with the arrival of a new year, my attention will be shifting to a new language.

My year of Italian is over, but that doesn't mean I'm going to just forget everything I've learned. It's important to maintain each language even as I shift my attention to a new one.

It's also important to remember why I learn these languages. This has never been about... continue reading at Fluent Every Year