Archive for 'Archived Posts'
Language “Tourists” vs Language “Travelers” Posted by Malachi Rempen on Oct 24, 2016 in Archived Posts
When traveling, you try to stay off the beaten path. When language learning, you try to find it. Or do you? I love travel, and I love learning languages. Luckily the two are quite intertwined, so I often get to indulge in one while working on the other. But there’s one key way in which travel…
Does English Have Tones? Posted by Malachi Rempen on Oct 19, 2016 in Archived Posts
In tonal languages like Thai, Vietnamese and Mandarin, a different tone can often completely change a word. But don’t we also have tones in English? Now, full disclosure: I do not speak a tonal language. This must have been immediately apparent to my readers, who pointed out that intonation in English or other western languages is not exactly…
Picking Your Language Learning Battles Posted by Malachi Rempen on Oct 10, 2016 in Archived Posts
You can’t do everything all at once, even if you’d like to. Better to choose one route and stick to it. This particular comic has a special place in my heart, because it inflamed the passions of people on both sides of this situation. I had commenters saying, “Yeah! This comic is so true. Tourists get…
Translating American English Slang Posted by Malachi Rempen on Oct 3, 2016 in Archived Posts
English learners – ever been to the USA and felt totally lost in a conversation, despite your English being pretty good? Never fear, slang translation is here. It’s possible that “how was your trip to California” is more accurate than “the United States” – I got a lot of comments from readers who had no idea…
3 Ways to Learn a Language with Wikipedia Posted by Jakob Gibbons on Sep 28, 2016 in Archived Posts
What if I told you that the most powerful tool for building your foreign language vocabulary is online, free, and right under your nose? Wikipedia is massive, free, and supports 294 world languages, and even though it wasn’t made with us in mind, language learners should never be without it. It’s the first place we…
Getting a New Perspective on Your Mother Tongue Posted by Malachi Rempen on Sep 21, 2016 in Archived Posts
Culture shock isn’t just when you leave abroad for a new place – it’s also returning home and seeing familiar things with new eyes. The same is true for language learning! You’ll see your native tongue from a completely different perspective. This is my favorite thing about travel: it’s not the culture shock you get…
The Curse of the Englitalianeutsch Posted by Malachi Rempen on Sep 14, 2016 in Archived Posts
When you live in a multicultural context, you start to cultivate curious habits, like speaking a mishmash of languages. And what happens if you raise a kid in that context? The other day my wife and I were with my mom in an airbnb up somewhere in the middle of nowhere, Germany. My mom is American but…