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3 Languages With Surprising Origins Posted by on Feb 17, 2016 in Archived Posts

Itchy Feet: Slavic Inflection

I like to imagine that languages branch off one another like leaves on a tree, growing and growing and then, when the time is right, sprouting new languages of their own. This is an attractive and popular visual metaphor, but we all know that languages don’t evolve along straight paths from singular roots. More accurate would…

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6 Tips For Making Language Learning Fly By Posted by on Feb 8, 2016 in Archived Posts

Nothing worth doing is fast or easy. Language learners know this better than most people, I’d wager. You spend all day agonizing over nuances in grammar, trying to memorize obscure and hard-to-remember vocabulary, and attempting to get as much opportunity to speak as humanly possible so you can make those mistakes and get over them…

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Pushing Past the Language Learning Plateau Posted by on Feb 3, 2016 in Archived Posts

Itchy Feet: Mystery Solved

I gotta admit, lately I’ve been feeling a little out of the language-learning loop. With a new job, my marriage coasting well through its second year, and a cat that gets bothered when I move any furniture around, I feel like I’m settling into a routine. Sadly, that routine doesn’t really involve any new languages…

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Your Results May Vary: How Differently Your Language Learning Will Be Received Posted by on Jan 20, 2016 in Archived Posts

I know, I know; that’s not fair to the French. Not fair at all! But how’s a humorist like me supposed to make an easy joke without sweeping generalizations and broad stereotypes? Actually, it might be true for Parisians, that they look down on you for even attempting their language. I’ve had that experience more than once…

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Better Learning Through Visuals Posted by on Jan 13, 2016 in Archived Posts

Itchy Feet: Coincidence?

I’m a visual guy. This may not come as a surprise to you, if you know that I draw comics and illustrate books and make films and take lots of photographs when I travel. Sight is without a doubt my most precious sense. I would rather be deprived of my senses of taste, feeling, hearing and smell…

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When Your Brain Fights Back Posted by on Jan 11, 2016 in Archived Posts

Sometimes I feel that my brain is fighting back against my insistence on learning new languages. Vocabulary, for example. As far as the logical part of my brain is concerned, the only reason for the existence of words is to describe things that are. What’s this thing called? A fish. Great. File that word on the shelf…

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German and the Rules Posted by on Dec 28, 2015 in Archived Posts

Stereotypes are a funny thing: they’re always true, until they aren’t. One popular cliché of the German people, beloved even by Germans themselves, is that they adore rules, obedience to the rules, and general order. Ordnung is such a common word that the expression “it’s all good” or “all’s well” translates to “alles in Ordnung,” or…

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