The real secret to language learning

The Real Secret To Language Learning

Okay, so I am going to ask you a question about your study habits. Answer the Questions honestly.

It is better to study...

A. Forty Minutes Monday, Wednesday, Friday

B. Thirty Minutes Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday

C. Twenty Minutes Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

D. Three hours every Saturday

The Correct Answer is at the bottom of this blog....

Pancakes are a universal food

Pancakes  Crêpes, Pannkakor, Clătită, Okonomiyaki

This fine Monday morning I decided to write about the adorable rainbow pancakes that I made for my son. (For the recipe, go to the blog).

As I started writing about the rainbow pancakes, I realized that the pancake concept exists in nearly every culture that I can think of. It is a basic, carbohydrate rich food made of grains, water, egg and milk. Thick, thin, fluffy, bubbly, fried, wrapped, or topped – the concept is the same. It is a thin dough fried on both sides in a skillet. Some are served with breakfast, some are served at lunch, and in some parts of the world, they are served at dinner.

Today I am writing about every way we can say pancake ( or pancake version), in another language. Each foreign word will be linked to a website showing you how to make these treats.  FYI – writing this blog made me hungry.

Dawdling along in Mandarin

Mandarin Orange

Today I made it through Unit Three, Mandarin Chinese.

That language is so different from anything I have known or studied. I decided to start out just listening. I am hoping that I will learn the basic words and phrases phonetically. I have been going over the material repeatedly. I do not feel like I am getting it. 


Just to be clear on one thing...I had to go over each lesson MANY, MANY, MANY times. 


I feel like such a retard. I am just not getting it. 

The Fine Art of Note Taking

Regardless if you are teaching yourself a language with Pimsleur, Rosetta Stone, Living Language or you are taking a class, note taking is a fundamental part of the process. Everyone must take notes. There is no way around it.The fine art of note taking is different when you are trying to learn a foreign language. 

One Binder for Each Language

Each language that I studied had its own three ring binders. I have a French binder, Italian binder, Spanish binder, and Swedish binder. Within the three ring binders, I organized my notes by topic, date or lesson. Many of my binders are over ten years old. I still have them packed up in the top of my closet. Every once in a while I will go back and take a look at my earliest language binders. It is good to go back and look at the process I went through to become fluent in French.

I usually follow the same format when I decide to learn a new language. 

Legitimacy of Ebonics

Since Oakland Public Schools decided to pass a measure acknowledging the legitimacy of Ebonics as an English dialect, the controversy surrounding Ebonics has been hotly debated. Linguists have supported Ebonics, while some are very much against it. I do not know if I will add anything new to this discussion. What I will do is discuss prestige languages, what they are and where Ebonics fits in.

For those of you familiar with my writing, I like to jump right into the topic. You will never have to worry about having to read fluff or filler in my essays. So, lets hop to it. 

il peut être difficile voire impossible de l'exprimer dans une autre langue

Un idiotisme est une construction ou une locution particulière à une langue, qui porte un sens par son tout et non par chacun des mots qui la compose. Il peut s'agir de constructions grammaticales ou, le plus souvent, d'expressions imagées ou métaphoriques. Un idiotisme est en général intraduisible mot à mot, et il peut être difficile voire impossible de l'exprimer dans une autre langue.

Find your pace

Find Your Pace

If you are learning another language outside of the structure of a classroom, one important rule to remember is that you should proceed at your own pace. This does not mean that you should not schedule your time and follow that schedule! This does not mean that you should study whenever you feel like it! It means that you should not feel pressured into thinking that you only have one chance to digest the information in the lessons before moving on to the next lesson.

Allow me to explain this in further detail.

Fifteen Simple Rules

Japanese Alphabet and Charts in Photos

 When I was at George Mason University I took a class called Japan at War. My professor was a fifty two year old Australian woman. She had a tramp stamp on her lower back. She was only our teacher for a few weeks because she developed spinal cancer. I do not know what happened to her, but she was a great teacher.

Anyway, what I remember about her was that she first worked as a nurse in Australia. I believe that down under, this was a five year degree. Then, she went back to school and became fluent in Japanese. I believe she earned two more degrees in Japanese. Other than being a professor at GMU, she also ran a consulting firm, helping others do business in Japan.

I learned a great deal from her about Japanese culture. It is amazing how they industrialized, and reverse engineered British, German and French technology. This was how Japan became a super power in Asia - reverse engineering. They would buy something, take it apart, learn how it worked, rebuild it, making it better.

Sverige - Swedish Radio and Television Live Stream

One of my friends from Live Mocha hooked me up with some great websites for listening to Swedish radio. She also gave me some links for watching Swedish television, news, and soap operas.

Thank you Kim!

French Language Materials

Everything you could possibly need to learn French fluently.

Are Bilinguals and Polyglots More Intelligent?

Intelligence and Bilingualism

This is a big topic. I know that the monolingual (Americans and Brits) are going to take offense to this. But there is significant evidence that people who are bilingual and polyglots are more intelligent than monolinguals. 


The research indicates that this difference is not genetic. ( Bilinguals and Polyglots are not born smarter.)  


Remember that IQ is both genetic and environmental. One can be born with great smart genes...yet little drive to improve oneself in this world. How much will they really amount to? Although I do not personally subscribe to the believe that all bilinguals are smarter than monolinguals, I do think that on average, they are smarter.


The choice to be bilingual is a life changing choice. It is a choice that will make you a smarter person. I have made it one of my life goals to encourage and support others who want to become polyglots. This blog entry, however, asks that age old question - are bilinguals and polyglots smarter than monolinguals? Anytime we talk about intelligence, feelings get hurt, so I will look at this question with as much grace as I can. 

Bir çok dil hakkında bilgi edinebileceğiniz eşsiz bir sitedir

Merhaba okuyucular

          Eğer buradaysanız bu iki  veya daha çok dilde akıcı konuşmaya ilgili olduğunuzu gösterir.Kişisel deneyimimden yola çıkarak söyleyebilirim ki, önünüzde zorlu ve uzun bir yol var.Dil öğrenmek zorlu bir süreçtir.Günlük çalışmayı ,elleriniz ağrıyıncaya kadar yazmayı ve bazen utandırıcı hatalar yapmayı göze almalısınız.Kısa bir sürede akıcı konuşacağınızı ummayın.Bir çok dil kursu size eğer onları tercih ederseniz çabucak öğreneceğinizi vaat ederler.Bu bir yalandır,çünkü bir dili öğrenmek yıllar alır.

Hindi (हिन्दी) Devanagari Alphabet Photos

Come view some interesting images concerning the Hindu (Devanagari) Alphabet and Language.  I included not only political maps, but also population density, and religious maps. 

Georgian Words and Alphabet in Photos

Free Foreign Language Lessons For your I-Pod

Good Morning Everyone, I am very happy to share with you all a new website for downloading free foreign language lessons. First, a special thanks must go out to my reader Poliglotismos. He first published this website in one of his blogs. I went to the website and downloaded three languages. Swedish is one of the languages I would like to learn, so it was one of the first set of audio lessons I collected. Second was Chinese. The third lesson is Albanian. You can listen to three short lessons: Swedish, Albanian, and Chinese. I did this to give you an example of what we have on the website, and what you can chose from.

At the end of the blog, I post some language programs which you must pay for. As you know - I believe in making the Free stuff and the Payed Stuff available to my readers. Remember - we need to invest in several different programs when learning another language. There is never any one program that will do the trick.

The Website is HERE. Enjoy the videos language lovers.

The French Trolling Each Other on Yahoo News.fr

Yahoo France - Another Massacre in Syria.  After learning about yet another bloody massacre in Syria I decided to check out the French reports. I do not always trust American media. When I get my news, I like to take a look at different sources from nations with different agendas. I found from the French media coverage that they too think that the Assad government is responsible for these atrocities.

LIVING LANGUAGE - MANDARIN CHINESE I

Students of Indo-European language often say, that if they are going to learn another language, they would like to learn Chinese. It is one of the most spoken, and certainly one of the most useful languages on earth. 

I think that this will be one of the most difficult journeys I have ever been on. It is going to take me many years to be fluent in Chinese. With the two babies, I will not have time to study at home. So, my solution is very simple. I am going to take it slowly. 

FrapaneseGirl - YouTube Polyglot discusses her language learning method

It is a wonderful thing to find other polyglots out there. It is even more wonderful to find other female polyglots. We are a rare breed!

Polyglots are usually men, and they are usually left-handed.

So, I would like to introduce you to FrapaneseGirl. Please Visit her BLOG and her YouTube channel.