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BRAVE Blog

English (Spanish, Chinese…) as a Magical Language

english phonetic pretty womanBilingual motivations have evolved, as foreign languages became more and more mainstream things to do and use. With some languages, though, curious side effects can be seen. This post is a curious look at the role of certain languages in cultures – and an invitation to discuss some polyglots’ more esoteric approaches. Don’t take it fully seriously – but do join in if you’ve got inspired by it!

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BRAVE Blog

How To Learn a Language From a Hole In the Wall

Okay, let’s start again. One professor with a TED Prize wish tells a hall full of English teachers that sometimes kids learn best with no teachers around. Teachers react differently. Teachers have discussions. Teachers write blog posts, ask questions (the professor answers some of them).
I want to move beyond teachers today. There’s plenty in this conversation for a language learner. And if the whole idea of teacher-less learning is discussed by educators, it should at least be on the radar of some future polyglots.
Here’s a hint before we begin, though: many of us have been doing this for ages.

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BRAVE Blog

Communication Strategies – Live Hangout, Good Articles, Your Stories

Hi all – today’s post is not really full of text 🙂 It’s a quick summary of a live session that took place this morning to supplement my Udemy course. The topic was “communication strategies” and I’d love your feedback on that!

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BRAVE Blog

LOLcats and Language Learners – Free Time, Creativity and Cognitive Surplus

lolcats and language learning: silly things are important for learning a foreign language!It’s too hot today to think about serious stuff. So instead of discussing the deep and profound things that every language course implies, I will turn to something that language students rarely think about.
I want to think about LOLcats. And if you read on, you’ll see that you should, too.

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BRAVE Blog

What to do with language? Coding has all the answers

my Apple II IRC hangout

What’s it all for? What good is learning a language, really? Why should anyone bother, and what should we do once a language is learned and mastered? I found my answers on TED.com – and tonight I’m sharing them here. Feel free to add yours.

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BRAVE Blog

Best Translators and their language learning secrets

Estrenando cabina
Photo Credit: Laura via Compfight

The accepted wisdom is this: when learning a foreign language, translation should be avoided and abandoned early. Tonight, I want to look at the other approach.