Archive by Author
Sorry STEM, Google just made the case for more foreign language education Posted by meaghan on Jan 1, 2018 in For Educators
Science, technology, engineering, and math are not the only (or perhaps even the most) valuable 21st century skills. Even Google says so. In the last decade, American education has been increasingly concerned with promoting STEM subjects. Between 2000 and 2010, the number of students enrolled in STEM degree programs increased 36%. Then-President Obama asked Congress…
Why the Anti-Mistake Culture is Detrimental to Foreign Languages Posted by meaghan on Oct 18, 2017 in Archived Posts
What’s the best thing you can do to improve your language skills? Make mistakes. The Problem With Anti-Mistake Culture In an article on Medium, entrepreneur Catalin Matei describes what he calls the “anti-mistake culture”, the societal expectation that making mistakes is a bad thing, something to punish. One vivid example to which anyone can relate…
Temptation Bundling: For When Motivation Falls Short in Language Learning Posted by meaghan on May 24, 2017 in Archived Posts
Sometimes willpower and motivation alone are not enough. More and more, we find ourselves working with people for whom learning a language is not optional. They need it to do their job well. But even for those motivated individuals, learning a language is an arduous journey. So how does the average learner—whose job isn’t on…
Ch-ch-ch-changes on the Language and Culture Blogs Posted by meaghan on Jun 27, 2016 in Archived Posts
Welcome to the new Language and Culture blogs. If you’ve perused any of our two dozen+ language and culture blogs in the past few days, you’ve probably noticed a few changes. We’ve redesigned our blog experience with you in mind. Experience it on the big screen… or the small screen. Read on your desktop, tablet…
10 Must-Watch TED Talks for Language Learners Posted by meaghan on Jun 6, 2016 in For Learners, Learning + Usage Tips
TED Talks are short, influential lectures from experts in science, technology, design, education, and beyond. If you haven’t visited the TED website, you should. There’s something on there for everyone, and many lectures come with subtitles in other languages, so it’s a great language learning tool to boot! Below is a collection of 10 of…
6 Reasons to Love the Word of the Day Courses Posted by meaghan on Mar 28, 2016 in Archived Posts
If you’re anything like me, you subscribe to one of our Word of the Day emails, but you haven’t actually learned a new word each day. Don’t get me wrong—I open them, every day. I read the phrase and listen to the audio, and it’s a good start. But then I close my email and…
10 Most Read Language News Blog Posts of 2015 Posted by meaghan on Dec 30, 2015 in Archived Posts
Happy New Year, language learners. Whether you’ve been with us since the beginning or you just found our blog in 2015, I hope our posts have been informative, inspiring, and entertaining. By now we all know the importance of reviewing, so let’s review the most read posts of the year! Before we dive in, I invite…