Sweating to the future subjunctive
How do an exercise bike and a Brazilian Portuguese language book go together? Well, one keeps me from falling asleep because of the other. Problem: I like languages but I fall asleep reading grammar books.
How to learn languages and make them stick
Last week, I did a guest post on Polyglot Dream (Luca Lampariello's popular language learning blog about how to learn languages and attain native-like pronunciation. I internalize the foreign languages that I learn to...
Aprender inglês com música, “For the Longest Time”
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...
What does it take to keep a language alive?
Minde, a Portuguese village of 3000 people, has its own language, Minderico.
DSCN1304Minderico developed as a secret language of the textile merchants in the town of Minde. When I heard it, I couldn’t understand anything even though the language has Latin roots.
Don’t fault innovative musicians!
Instead of criticizing people who are risk takers, we should be applauding their efforts because if we don’t innovate, these languages are going to die.
Polyglots discuss learning languages with music, TV and films
Last month, I was in Poland and was thrilled to speak in various languages with Richard Simcott and Luca Lampariello.
We recorded various videos about language learning. There are more videos in other languages to...
Learn Portuguese: The joy of just “being” in Portuguese and not speaking
(Photo is of Lisbon, Portugal.)
Feeling like I am in Portugal without leaving the United States
I ventured into the Little Portugal area of San Jose, California, where the local immigrant population from the Azores islands...
Brain Power: Repeating sounds
At the gym, I read the Can You Build a Better Brain? article in Newsweek about how to restructure our brains as we take on new things to learn. We need to repeat actions many times ...
Older Students Learn Fake Language Rules Faster. What about real languages?
Although I agree with the premise of the research findings that adults can learn languages, and perhaps even faster than children, I don't like the way language acquisition is measured by creating an artificial...
Video on relationship between Language and Music, “Music, Language and the Brain”
Great video of a lecture by Aniruddh Patel on the relationship between language and music at the Library of Congress. The discussion of how language background can effect classical music from England and...
