The Power of Positive Language Habits
Have you ever set a New Year’s resolution to learn a foreign language? Have you ever sat down and studied a language on January 1st, full of hope for new and bright learning opportunities, only to drop everything after a few weeks? You started off so strong, so passionately, and then, much to your dismay, […]
Continue readingWhy Learning a Foreign Language in School Doesn’t Work (and How to Make it Work)
Hundreds of thousands of people across the globe study one or more languages at school. However, after years of study, most of these same people cannot string together even the simplest of sentences. How is that possible? In this article, I’d like to explore some of the reasons why students find in-school language learning difficult, […]
Continue readingHow to Learn a Language Abroad
Do you need to live in a foreign country to learn its language well? Most people think so. In fact, as soon as people find out I speak multiple languages, they automatically assume that I’ve lived in just as many countries. And that’s not true. Though I have lived in a couple of countries where […]
Continue reading5 Things I Wish I Had Known When I Began Learning Specific Languages
We all make mistakes. In over two decades of language learning, I’ve made my fair share of them. Just like learning a single language is a process, learning how to learn languages is a process, too. Generally speaking, there are no shortcuts to this process. You only get better with time, effort, and deliberate practice. […]
Continue readingHow I Maintain 13 Languages and Still Have Time to Learn More
I’ve been learning languages for over two decades. In that time, I’ve reached fluency and beyond in over a dozen of them. Naturally, this means that the question I get the most is: “Luca, how is it possible to learn all of those languages?” Surprisingly, learning languages is the easy part. You learn one. And […]
Continue readingHow to Watch Movies to Improve Your Foreign Languages
Watching movies is a great way to improve your foreign languages Why? That’s simple. Movies are fun, emotional, dynamic, audiovisual, and use authentic language, in nearly any language you want to learn. You can start watching target language movies at any stage in your learning. However, I typically recommend using movies as learning materials at […]
Continue readingHow Long Does It Take to Learn a Language?
How long did it take you to learn Spanish? How long did it take you to learn Mandarin Chinese? How long does it take to learn a language? I get these questions all the time. As a learner of 13 languages, people often want to know just how long it takes to get it all […]
Continue readingFrom B to C: Part II – 5 Strategies for Conquering the Intermediate Plateau
When learning a language, there is one thing that truly separates the good from the great: the Intermediate Plateau. In the last article in this series, we discussed at length what it means to be fluent and proficient across each of the four major language skills. The intermediate plateau is the gap between those skill […]
Continue readingFrom B to C: Part I – How to Become Proficient in Any Language
Fluency. It’s the biggest buzzword in all of language learning. If you don’t have it, you want it, and if you have it—well, you’ve made it! For some, this word simply means capability, an ability to listen, speak, read, and/or write in a language without much difficulty. For others, the word implies mastery, nothing less […]
Continue readingAn Unexpected Opportunity: My First Book!
“To take advantage of unexpected opportunities, we must leave ourselves available” – S.Truett Cathy My pursuit of languages has taken me on a number of journeys throughout the course of my life. The first journey, which began twenty-five years ago, was to learn how to learn languages, and how to weave them into the fabric […]
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