Archive by Author
A Brief History of Language Posted by Malachi Rempen on Jun 22, 2015 in Archived Posts
Sometimes it’s hard for us humans to keep time in perspective. I suppose it’s a good thing—after all, if we were constantly thinking about the fact that we’ve been around for about 200,000 years and for 98.5% of that time we never wrote anything down, we probably wouldn’t be able to function in our day-to-day…
What the word for “Spoon” tells you about your language Posted by Malachi Rempen on Jun 15, 2015 in Archived Posts
I’ve made a startling discovery. Much in the same way that the position in the night sky of arbitrarily-determined groupings of stars on the day you happened to be born can tell you everything you need to know about your personality, the tonal linguistics of the word for “spoon” in any language is a perfect descriptor…
Boots, Blokes and Bucks: Is it Bringlish or Ameringlish? Posted by Malachi Rempen on Jun 8, 2015 in Archived Posts
This one’s for all you non-native English speakers out there. Whenever I run into someone learning English, I can immediately tell whether they’ve learned it out of a textbook or simply by absorbing the media. That’s because if you learn English in the classroom anywhere outside the U.S. of A, chances are it’s going to…
Language Learning and the Human Brain Posted by Malachi Rempen on May 27, 2015 in Archived Posts
Part of the reason I love learning languages is that it teaches me so much about the human brain and human interaction. I’ve never studied much neurology or sociology or epistemology or anthropology—I was more of a travelology and daydreamology type of student, myself. But with languages, that social glue unique to humans (at least…
Speak Fearlessly – With a Little Help From Your Friends Posted by Malachi Rempen on May 25, 2015 in Archived Posts
At the end of April I was fortunate enough to attend the Polyglot Gathering 2015, where I heard talks from many luminaries in the language-learning business, made scores of new multi-lingual friends, and for the first time ever, met fans of Itchy Feet in the flesh. Who knew that this goofy little bug-eyed bean-shaped stick…
Losing Your Mother Tongue? Good! Posted by Malachi Rempen on May 13, 2015 in Archived Posts
When I first moved abroad, I’d heard the tales, as I’m sure you have: the stories of foreigners or expats so immersed, so integrated in their new home culture, so saturated by the foreign language that they actually began to forget their native tongue. Now that, I thought, is brilliant! Surely, these talented language learners…
Pain au Chocolat, Jerry Seinfeld, and Forming Good Habits Posted by Malachi Rempen on May 4, 2015 in Archived Posts
When you uproot and move somewhere else, there’s always upheaval in your daily life. Your routines are shattered by change, your habits are broken or turned upside-down, and you may even find yourself falling into bad habits. Creatures of habit are we, and that is the key to success in any endeavor—but especially language learning…