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

Learning to read (in other languages)

If you asked me to choose the one language-learning activity that I think provides the greatest increase in knowledge and ability, for the smallest investment of energy, I would always say the same thing: learning to read.

For those of you who don't know Aaron Posehn, check out his new language blog, "For the Love of Languages". He recently wrote a piece entitled The Advantages of Knowing How to Read Foreign Languages, making several points that I agree with, and also pointing out a few great... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

The big move!

It's been a while since I updated here. Rest assured, that's not because I've given up. There's a good reason for the recent silence — I've moved!

I've hinted in recent posts that I wanted to find an apartment near my office, and thus near Greektown. Who could have imagined I'd find the perfect place? Not only is it only a 1-block walk from the heart of Chicago's "Greektown", but it's also in the building directly adjacent to my office!

My commute to work is less than fifty steps (I... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Is language learning difficult?

Yesterday morning, I woke to an email from David Mansaray, asking me "Is learning a language difficult?" Part of my response was quoted in his latest blog post, but I found the topic very interesting, and it inspired me to give a lot of thought to how we use the word "difficult" in relation to language learning, and other things.

It's not learning a language that's hard. Actually, taken at face value, "learning" is easy, and "language" is easy. Then again, exercising is easy too. So is saving... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Brute force Greek

In previous posts, I've already described the process I used for my first month of Greek study, which has been mostly about getting comfortable reading and writing in the new alphabet, learning pronunciation rules, and learning some basic phrases.

I've already impressed my Greek coworker twice this month with the amount I've learned in a short time. And last week, I even had a very brief conversation — basically, an exchange of small-talk — with the man behind the counter at a bakery... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Babel No More

When I recently received a copy of the new book Babel No More: The Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Language Learners, by Michael Erard, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. A few other language bloggers have recently commented on the book, and while I tried to ignore their comments in order to form my own opinion, one can't help developing a few preconceptions.

When I finally opened the book and turned to Chapter 1, I began reading with a bit of a defensive attitude. Even after I'd... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Reading Greek, part II

I've talked about the Greek alphabet in the past, but as I mentioned last week, there are a few more things one needs to know before effectively reading Greek.

Greek is not a fully phonetic language. A few letters can be pronounced in more than one way, and a few sounds can be represented by more than one letter. However, these exceptions aren't very large in number, so it isn't very difficult to figure it out.

In my original post on the Greek alphabet almost two years ago, I explored the... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

The haphazard construction of the human mind

I recently finished reading Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind by Gary Marcus. It's an entire book written just about the brain and how it works, so as you can imagine there's a lot of information in there to help learners. The book even contains an entire chapter about language.

Marcus repeatedly uses the word "context" when referring to human memory, in order to underscore the fact that human memory is not only not perfect, but it's not even well-designed for the purpose of... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Typing in Greek

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm not yet spending any actual time studying the Greek language. I plan to begin studying intensely when February begins, but for now the most important step is comfortably reading and writing in the native Greek alphabet. Once I begin focused study, I don't want my progress to be slowed by problems with the alphabet.

What you see in the photo above is some of my typing practice. I've added support for the Greek keyboard on my Mac so that I could practice typing... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Early steps to learning Greek

For my first month with Greek, the plan has been to ease into the language. The Greek language is written in a different alphabet than any to which I am accustomed, and if I'm going to learn this language it will be necessary to be able to read the words I see in lessons, tutorials, and phrasebooks.

You might remember that during my Italian year, I took a break one weekend and learned the Greek alphabet. I didn't memorize it, and I didn't learn any subtleties, diphthongs, digraphs, or other... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

New language mission for 2012!

As I mentioned in my last post, my first goal in choosing a language this year was that I pick something which I will have many opportunities to use. In that post, I listed out several considerations, and I think it's important to go through a similar process when choosing a new language project for yourself.

In my case, though, there are a few additional things to think about when choosing. Most of my readers probably don't have a language learning blog. And most of my readers probably won't... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Choosing a language that you will use

In spite of the fact that my advice to others has always been to pick a language not for it's features, or interestingness, or uniqueness, or whatever, but rather to choose a language that you will use, I failed to follow my own advice with my choice of Turkish last year and that led to poor results.

Thus, I have resolved not to make the same mistake this year. So when I began thinking about what I want to learn for 2012, the first thing on my mind was to choose a language with many speakers... continue reading at Fluent Every Year