Throughout human history, people transmitted and learned new knowledge by means of storytelling, and some scientists argue that the human brain is wired to learn new information and acquire social skills, through storytelling. Furthermore, the brain is all about connections, and memory does work by associating different ideas with each other and […]

This is a simple method that you can use to learn new words. To apply this method you need to be in a country where people speak your target language. This learning strategy is based on these principles: The memory would recall and retain better words when these are associated […]

The author of this post is from Pat Goodridge, he is a senior at the University ofPennsylvania, where he studies linguistics and works for a Russian teaching site, 3ears.com. He loves to study languages and run his Facebook page for linguistics majors, The Linguist Lattice. He hopes to pursue graduate work in Russian Studies. […]

Why language schools are often ineffective? I did about a one-month German language course and found that I was gaining very little out of it. I had different teachers and I noticed that a good teacher can make a huge difference by creating a learning environment that involves students and […]

Strangely, my learning strategy to learn German is heavily influenced by a book about economics and a book written by a martial art champion. In “The economic naturalist” author Robert Frank explains that while he could not learn Spanish and German after years of classes at school, he could learn to speak […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]