Culture & History / Language Resources
Every language has its own share of proverbs. Knowing a few in your language can give the impression that you’re well-versed in the culture that speaks it. In my studies, I’ve had the pleasure of coming across a wide range of proverbs in different languages. Whether they’re the chengyu in Chinese, idiomatic expressions, some other adage, it’s clear that many of our values are shared across...
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Language Resources
Engaging with the language that we’re learning in meaningful ways is not important to our learning the language, but also to staying motivated, connecting with the language, and learning more about the culture. Discovering music, podcasts, books, tv shows, and movies in Spanish is an amazing way to dive into the language. But how do you know just what native source material to choose? Hopes...
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Culture & Cuisine / Language Resources
Los Angeles is often deemed the cultural hub of the Pacific Rim. Its inhabitants speak more than 224 recorded languages, so it’s no surprise that restaurants in and around the area reflect this diversity. Growing up, I unknowingly ate quite a few Croatian dishes. These were recipes that were passed down and that were just things my dad made when he was in charge of dinner –...
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Language Resources
I’m always the first two write things down, make lists, plan projects out and wait to start until I feel I’m organized enough to get going. I often write down my goals because there’s something about the process that makes them more tangible and I use a variety of apps and systems to track what I’m doing when I’m doing it and how. Writing down...
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Language Resources
When I first started studying languages on my own, I was constantly distracted by the next, new, shiny thing. I’d purchase a coursebook, start to work through it and then stumble across a web-based language learning tool. Immediately, my attention would shift and I’d dive into the new resource, abandoning the first. Eventually, I’d reach the stage where the material grew challenging. I, of course,...
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Language Resources
When I decided to learn Japanese, I kept hearing and reading one complaint from other Japanese learners: “Ugh, Kanji are so hard to learn.” “Just wait until you get to Kanji.” After learning Chinese, I wondered why Kanji was such an obstacle for so many Japanese learners. Was it because it was yet another writing system on top of Hiragana and Katakana? Was it because Kanji...
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Language Resources
Do you want to learn Russian? Perhaps you find yourself struggling to find resources that help you start speaking. When I started out, I certainly did. Many of the tools that I found when I started learning Russian were grammar-heavy textbook style resources and they didn’t offer me a lot in terms of day-to-day conversation. Rather than learning how to say “what did you do...
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Language Resources
I recently announced that I am revising a language that I studied in the past – Korean. My first time around with Korean was a struggle. At the time, I was between Japanese and Korean as my next language project, but when my good friend Lindsay of Lindsay Does Language expressed interest in learning Korean alongside me, I chose Korean over Japanese. During those six...
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Language Resources
I often feel guilty for taking breaks. I feel as though I’m not doing the right thing if I’m not being productive. I also hate to give things up once I’ve already invested a lot of time into them. With Korean I did the first – I took a long break (read: more than a year) and I was afraid I was going to end...
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Language Resources
When we think of verb conjugation, we often think of it from a European language perspective. We run through the verb conjugation tables we learned in school – I run, you run, he runs, she runs, we run, they run… But Japanese doesn’t handle verbs in quite the same way. Rather than needing to figure out how to conjugate verbs based on who is doing...
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