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Simple tips for learning languages

by admin on May 17, 2012

So you’re not from a bilingual family and you live in a monolingual area where there’s no one who speaks the language you’re learning, you can still learn a new language.

Aaron Myers and I had a recorded Skype conversation about how “everyday” people can speak a new language when they don’t have the advantages I did of growing up speaking another language at home and hearing many languages around me. Aaron grew up in a rural area of the United States, far from the big cities where one may hear various languages spoken on one street block.

Listen to his advice on how to learn foreign languages from home.

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La “r” en inglés es distincta a la “r” en español.

Como pronunciar la “r” en inglés mediante la canción “Cry me a river” de Ella Fitzgerald. Canto un segmento de la canción en inglés y en español (Llorame un río).

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La “z” en inglés: no es una “s”

May 1, 2012
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Mediante la canción “Crazy” de Patsy Cline, se puede aprender como diferenciar entre la “s” y la “z” en inglés.

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How to raise kids in a different country and maintain two languages

April 25, 2012
bilingual kids

In this video interview, Aaron Myers, an expat from the US who has been raising two children in Istanbul for over four years gives advice about how to raise kids in a different country and maintain two languages.

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Ai, Se Eu Te Pego! Learn a catchy Brazilian song, learn Brazilian Portuguese

April 12, 2012
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Do you want to know what the Brazilian Portuguese words “nossa”, “balada”, “pegar”, and “galera” mean? Do you want to distinguish the words “mas” and “mais” and not confuse them? You can learn those lessons in the latest music video that Luciana Lage of Street Smart Brazil and I made using the super popular Brazilian pop [...]

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Aprender inglês com música, “For the Longest Time”

April 9, 2012
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Aprendi português ouvindo a radio portuguesa e cancoes brasileiras. Sei que e posivel aprender uma nova lingua sem viver no pais onde se fala a lingua. Eu nunca morei em um pais que fala a lingua portuguesa mas, eu falo o português. Falo 7 línguas (ruso, francês, espanhol, italiano, serbo croata, português e inglês). Nesse [...]

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How to learn Turkish

April 8, 2012
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Here is the second part of my conversation with Aaron Myers of Everyday Language Learner, an expat from the United States who has been living in Istanbul for over four years. We met in November 2011 near in Istanbul, where he told me about some difficulties and advantages of learning Turkish as an English speaker. [...]

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How deaf people can learn foreign languages with music

April 3, 2012
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I often hear these excuses: “I have no ear for languages” or “I don’t have any musical talent, so I can’t learn a foreign language”. WRONG! Here is a very short video I did on Spanish language television (with English subtitles) about how my deaf German friend learned English with the help of the flute. [...]

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Making language learning free and available to all

March 30, 2012
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Aaron Myers and I met in Istanbul, Turkey in November 2011. Aaron Meyers has created his project, I-586, to bring free language learning materials to people in languages other than English since so many language learning materials online are only available in English. Here’s the portion of our Skype call about how he wants to [...]

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How Russian speakers can sound harsh in English without realizing it

March 29, 2012
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Jon Stewart of The Daily Show made a funny and correct assessment of why Russian speakers sound “evil” in English, although they may not have any bad intentions. “I wonder if Russia has been our (US) enemy for so many years because everything they say just sounds evil. Maybe it’s all been a misunderstanding of [...]

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