Is learning a language more similar to the process of learning to play the piano or to the process of learning history? (About learning fast) Currently, one of the most debated topics in the on-line language-learning community is the amount of the time that is necessary to learn a language “fluently”. The debate was partly…

The plot goes along these lines: Years of German classes at school, painful hours spent learning declinations tables by heart, lot of frustration, and after all this pain not even being able to have a conversation with a German person. It is a common plot, and I think the way to avoid the sad end…

Currently, one of the most debated topics in the on-line language-learning community is the amount of time that is necessary to learn a language “fluently”. The debate was partly stimulated by one of the most popular blogs on language learning where Benny, the author of this blog, is now trying to learn Chinese in three…

In the previous post, I explained why I think that a “less-is-more” approach that focuses on learning well few things may be better than a “more-is-better” approach. In this post, I want to explain a method from improvisation theatre that I use to apply the “less-is-more” approach. I often play an improvisation game with my…

This blog is about learning languages in an effective way with unconventional and non-scholastic approaches. I recently moved to Germany and faced the challenge to learn German. This is the fourth language that I learn and I start to have an understanding of what works better in language acquisition. In this blog, I want to…