Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Learning from Others’ Mistakes

Sunday, February 3rd, 2008

In addition to the endless hours of fun and instruction we can get from anecdotes of other foreigner's mistakes, some careful listening and a little intuition can turn your Chinese friends' English mistakes into hot Chinese-language tips. Chinese people often speak English as if it were Chinese, but with English words. ...

Language Learning is Messy V: Celebrate Your Mistakes

Tuesday, November 27th, 2007

If your goal is to learn a language without making any mistakes, I've got bad news for you: I couldn't and I've never met anyone who could. Since making mistakes are an inevitable part of this complex, tricky, and often magical process of learning to speak in a different tongue, what ...

Language Learning is Messy IV: Goals are Bad

Sunday, November 18th, 2007

Ok, that may be a little harsh. Let me rephrase that and say goals can be bad. Specifically, when learning a language, goals can torpedo your motivation. Learning a language is not like learning other things. It's a far more complex and sometimes even magical process that takes ...