Tag: learning

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Portuguese 365 Update 1: Input, Input Everywhere

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This is my first weekly update on my one-year Portuguese learning project. I’m only setting up my workflow right now. There are more interesting things to come, but right now 2 questions on my mind are: how to make sure I can learn Portuguese anywhere? And – what are good sources of Portuguese learning material?

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3 reasons why I hate Weird Al’s “Word Crimes” (and 3 videos to watch instead)

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Weird Al Yankovic is here to educate you in the proper use of language. Well, actually, he’s here to sell you his record, but his “Blurred Lines” parody focuses on English and its improper use. My linguistically-minded friends love it. My English teaching friends love it.
I hate it. Here’s why – and here’s what I suggest language lovers can watch instead.

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Portuguese 365 – Launching a Year-Long Learning Project!

porto where portuguese is spoken
The World Cup 2014 finished but my reasons to be excited about Brazil and Portugal are only just building up. My recent trip to Porto confirmed what I felt long ago: here is a language worth learning today! I’m sharing my plan with you in this post – along with some ideas I already came up with.
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The Multilingual Is The Political: How Language Learners Can Make a Difference

crossroads

There is no way I could write a different post today. The election results made me angry, frustrated and motivated at the same time. The thing I know best – foreign languages – turns out to be a political device, as powerful as any other. If you think you’re only learning a foreign language for fun, move on – but it you agree that things can change when languages are shared and used, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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Language Learners – How Do You Read?

So many books, so little time

One of the greatest joys of language learning is being able to read. Being bilingual means twice as many stories, twice as much joy – from reading in two languages. But the day-to-day practice of this is a bit more complicated. So what does your reading look like, polyglots? And what could it look like?

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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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