You shoot your friend a thumbs-up to let her know she did a great job. You hold up two fingers at a noisy bar to signal to the bartender how many drinks to bring. You clap at the end of performances to show your appreciation, you raise your hand when you’...

1 reply - Last post by Fulminata99 - March 21, 2021

Perhaps you’re dreaming of backpacking through South America. Or maybe you’re hoping to do business in Beijing. Perhaps you’re planning to study spirituality in India or have your eye on becoming an interpreter. Whatever your goal, there’s a language for...

0 replies - Last post by jason-oxenham-ceo - February 4, 2021

Post by guest blogger Jamie McGhee: Jamie McGhee is a novelist, playwright and aspiring polyglot. With 6,500 languages in the world, life is way too short to speak just one. Or two. Or three.   Whether you need to pick up basic Mandarin for a Beijing ...

1 reply - Last post by Msprikim - January 8, 2021

Discover the 6 Hardest Languages to Learn in the WorldWhat is the hardest language to learn? And what makes it so hard? Is it hard because of irregular verbs, or because its spelling has nothing to do with pronunciation? Is it hard because of throaty cons...

6 replies - Last post by devbanana - February 5, 2021

Hi there,We have exciting news! We have just released our brand-spanking-new 2021 Edition on desktop/browser. This edition is the result of a year-long project that involved updating our courses' user interface, functionality, and code base – all with a v...

103 replies - Last post by Peter--252 - March 26, 2021

Even though language exists in order to facilitate communication, learning a language can feel a bit lonely sometimes.   But when you’re struggling to motivate yourself over a plateau, or when you’re cramming vocabulary alone in your room for the third n...

0 replies - Last post by jason-oxenham - July 20, 2020

The best way to learn a language online: A step-by-step guide Set your own goals Take stock of your resources Get creative with your learning Keep track of what works Be consistent Unless you grew up bilingual, your earliest memory of learning a ...

7 replies - Last post by Jo Maynard - January 4, 2021

Love is in the air, and your vocabulary flashcards are in your pocket. Maybe you have a crush on the cute newcomer in your German language exchange. Maybe you’re looking for a sweet way to show your partner how much you care. Or maybe your true love is Ru...

3 replies - Last post by sfpugh - June 15, 2020

Bonjour tout le monde (Hello everyone) I hope that you are all safe and well in these unprecedented times.  If you have been in lock-down then I hope you have taken advantage of the opportunity to hone your language skills! New desktop members area A ...

45 replies - Last post by RobS49 - July 6, 2020

“What is your language proficiency level?”   It’s easy to freeze when someone asks you this question. Maybe you’ve been learning German or Japanese for ages, but you’re not quite sure how good you are. Or maybe you grew up speaking Polish as a second lan...

3 replies - Last post by ClaudiaR-sc5G - April 30, 2020

There’s something wonderfully challenging and wickedly fun about learning a rare language--about wading through vocabularies and grammars spoken by just a few thousand people (like Kujarge, 1,000), or a few hundred (like Satawalese, 460) or even just a fe...

6 replies - Last post by ClaudiaR-sc5G - January 4, 2021

Spanish is easy; Russian is hard. Mandarin is a headache, and French is supposedly a breeze. At least, that’s what you’ve probably heard before. If you tell someone you’re learning Italian, you might not receive the same impressed reaction as if you casua...

1 reply - Last post by ChrisM108 - March 18, 2020

Dialect vs Accent: What's the difference? French accents are romantic. German accents are harsh. Irish accents are musical. When you hear the word “accent,” you might think about the way that non-native speakers sound - but accents are so much more compl...

2 replies - Last post by Matthew-H68 - March 8, 2020

Hi All,I hope that 2020 is going to be a big year for you, particularly with respect to your language learning!Recent changes:As we are already finished with January, I thought I would update you all on some recent changes to the Members’ Area and what's ...

47 replies - Last post by jason-oxenham-ceo - September 19, 2020

You take the train to work every day. You go on long drives to visit relatives. You walk your dog. You hike. Why not multitask?  One thing that you can do to improve your language learning is to listen to podcasts about - well, you guessed it - learning ...

6 replies - Last post by MorganK8 - April 2, 2021

Sure, you could thumb through an old textbook - or you could binge your favorite Netflix show with interactive subtitles. You could struggle to stay awake in a classroom full of students, or you could receive direct tutoring from teachers around the worl...

5 replies - Last post by Alice101 - November 20, 2019

In our last blog post, we started looking at how to use music to master a new language. Specifically, we answered two questions: Which types of songs should you choose when studying a language? And where can you find them? Now that you’ve filled some Spo...

4 replies - Last post by ClaudiaR-sc5G - November 16, 2019

Have you ever gotten a song stuck in your head? Without meaning to, you’ve memorized one or two lines that just play, and play, and play on repeat, refusing to leave you alone. If only your vocabulary list would get stuck too! Why can you remember the ch...

8 replies - Last post by ClaudiaR-sc5G - October 13, 2019

I landed in Berlin with two things: a year’s worth of German and a whole lot of arrogance. I proudly held my own during the cab ride to my sublease, and I chatted jovially with my new roommate while she explained the twelve-tiered recycling system. So ei...

9 replies - Last post by ClaudiaR-sc5G - October 10, 2019

You just saw Anastasia and are dying to learn Russian. You desperately want to read In Search of Lost Time in its native French. A friend invited you to Kyoto and you plan to pick up some Japanese before you go. Whatever your reason for learning a new lan...

12 replies - Last post by ChrisM108 - October 9, 2019

Learning a language is like setting out on an adventure. You will face ups and downs, you will weather unexpected twists and turns, and at the end of the day you’ll be so glad that you did it. Everyone’s language-learning adventure is a little different....

4 replies - Last post by AmyO13 - August 16, 2019

Index cards. Memory palaces. Pneumonic devices. Face it: You’re tired of learning vocabulary the traditional way. If you have to see another flash card or word list, you might even scream. Let’s look at how to improve your vocabulary with 6 methods that ...

9 replies - Last post by Peter--252 - July 18, 2019

What is a polyglot? Have you ever dreamed about speaking two languages? What about four? What about six? It’s not impossible. In fact, there’s a word for it - polyglot. A polyglot is a person who speaks multiple languages. "Polyglot" originates from th...

6 replies - Last post by Yugesh - May 9, 2019

The world is global, interconnected and rapidly changing. Knowing more than one language is the way to get ahead. Maybe you’re starting an online company and want to reach out to investors across the world. Maybe you’re a new hire tasked with an internat...

2 replies - Last post by SheffieldLass - March 1, 2019

Learning a new language can feel daunting. Everywhere you turn, you’ll find a thicker textbook, a faster course, or a more comprehensive set of flashcards. How on earth are you supposed to keep up if you get overwhelmed before you even begin? But if you ...

5 replies - Last post by ClaudiaR-sc5G - February 14, 2019

Some people pick up foreign vocabulary words from songs, while others need to draw diagrams in order to remember grammar concepts. Everyone has a different learning style! In fact, there are four major types of learners—visual, auditory, linguistic and k...

6 replies - Last post by Rachel1597 - January 26, 2019

Life gets busy, and your new language-learning app falls to the wayside.   You hit a language-learning plateau, and no matter what you do, you can’t move forward in Russian.   You accomplish your biggest Spanish learning goal and can’t find the motiva...

12 replies - Last post by Tony-S10 - January 9, 2019

You’re dating a man who speaks Turkish, but you’d like to visit your best friend in Malta. T-Pop has inspired you to learn Thai, but you’ve always wanted to speak enough Navajo to understand your grandmother’s stories. You plan to master Japanese before t...

11 replies - Last post by SLUG-CAT624 - September 12, 2019

Bonjour tout le monde ! As part of our philosophy to provide the most effective language courses that we can, we are always looking at different elements of the learning experience and trying to improve them. A lot of the time these are relatively small ...

32 replies - Last post by Tony-S10 - December 10, 2019

You’ve always dreamed of mastering the delicate curves of Arabic calligraphy. You visited Ethiopia and gazed wistfully at the sprawling Amharic. You stumbled across Elfdalian in Minecraft and now you’re ready to carve out letters like you’re in Lord of th...

0 replies - Last post by jason-oxenham-ceo - November 19, 2018

Textbooks. Lectures. Homework.   What if you could just throw it all away?   What if you could pick up a PlayStation controller instead—and your grammar would actually get better?   It sounds crazy, but it’s true.   Give it a try with our top tips for...

15 replies - Last post by Gabrielle-D - July 6, 2019

When it comes to languages, babies are so talented that it’s not even fair. They seem to just absorb whatever is being spoken around them—without flash cards, memory palaces or even spaced repetition! Not to mention that their accents are flawless. Sure, ...

13 replies - Last post by ClaudiaR-sc5G - March 9, 2020

What do you think of when you hear the words “Native American”?   If you live in the United States, chances are you picture cowboys and Indians, or Pocahontas, or red-painted men carrying a bow and arrow while saying, “How.” You may even think about head...

2 replies - Last post by Erubar - September 13, 2018

Ping! Two new likes. Beep! Cuatro nuevos commentarios. Tweet! Achthundert neue Tweets.   If you’re anything like me, you stay plugged into social media no matter where you go, tweeting and liking, uploading and swiping. Your thumbs are permanently attach...

1 reply - Last post by JeffreyL8 - August 21, 2018

I was ready to conquer Spain.   I had nearly a decade of Spanish lessons under my belt. I’d brushed up on slang in both Castillian Spanish and Catalan. And I’d dog-eared my copy of Folger’s so many times the pages were falling out.   I stepped off the p...

11 replies - Last post by Erubar - July 23, 2019

In college, I was an Arabic major. I was also, hands down, the worst one in my Arabic class.   My first semester, I struggled even though I studied the same way my classmates did. I slogged through Arabic news broadcasts. I toiled over worksheets. I made...

0 replies - Last post by jason-oxenham-ceo - May 24, 2018

I love writing in new languages. Whether it’s a text message or an essay, I love putting words to paper, and I pride myself on my ability to communicate almost like a native speaker… until I open my mouth. To me, the most terrifying part of learning a la...

0 replies - Last post by jason-oxenham-ceo - April 30, 2018

You’ve always wanted to learn French. You dream of strolling through Paris at midnight, you’ve watched La Vie en Rose twelve times, and you can tell a 2003 Cabernet Franc from a 2004 Cabernet Franc just by smell. So you decide to learn. You enrol in a c...

9 replies - Last post by TwilaT - April 26, 2018

Bonjour tout le monde, We are excited to announce a reasonably substantial new release/upgrade! So, what are the main changes? 1. Play it! Our conversational trainer, Play it!, has been upgraded and improved. You will see that it is now positioned towar...

46 replies - Last post by sfpugh - April 23, 2018

I love writing in new languages. Whether it’s a text message or an essay, I love putting words to paper, and I pride myself on my ability to communicate almost like a native speaker… until I open my mouth. To me, the most terrifying part of learning a la...

1 reply - Last post by KellyMJara - March 30, 2018

“English doesn’t just borrow words from other languages. English follows other languages down dark alleys, beats them unconscious and goes through their pockets for loose vocabulary.” —James Nicoll, writer. Word Etymology: The study of the history of word...

1 reply - Last post by Matthew-H68 - March 2, 2018

In the village of Ayapa, Mexico, the once-vibrant language Ayapa Zoque is about to die. Only two speakers remain—elderly men named Manuel and Isidro—and they refuse to speak to each other. For years, linguistic anthropologists have been trying to get the...

2 replies - Last post by KelllaurBailar - February 14, 2018

My best friend speaks six languages. Yes, six. She has rented an apartment in St. Petersburg, Russia; set up shop in Frankfurt, Germany; fallen in love in Nice, France; and spent years speaking Creole with her relatives in New Orleans, Louisiana. To top ...

7 replies - Last post by rocket ron - February 23, 2018

Last November, I got trapped in Senegal. After spending a few months traveling through East and West Africa, I was eager to get home, cook Thanksgiving dinner and finally sleep without a mosquito net. But when I arrived to my flight, the attendant tore u...

12 replies - Last post by ClaudiaR-sc5G - March 8, 2019

The modern world is more globalized than ever. You can eat breakfast while Skyping a CEO in Hong Kong, email English marketing executives over lunch, and conference call an entrepreneur in Qatar before dinner. Given our globalized reality, you’ve probabl...

3 replies - Last post by MatthewS42 - February 7, 2018

If you slip into my study, you’ll crash into a mountain of Spanish textbooks. You’ll have to step over Advanced Spanish Step-by-Step and Complete Spanish just to reach my desk, where it will take you more than an hour to sift through the half-scribbled wo...

5 replies - Last post by Dan-H24 - April 30, 2018

Riddle me this. One person has studied French for two years. One person has studied French for ten days. Who’s the better French-speaker? The answer? It’s impossible to tell. Maybe the person who studied French for two years only shows up for class once...

3 replies - Last post by junalynbadua-17 - January 19, 2018

This is part 1 of a series on common language learning myths. Congratulations! You know 103 languages. Or, at least, you basically do. With the magic of Google Translate, you can communicate flawlessly and fluently in everything from Afrikaans to Zulu. ...

4 replies - Last post by joseph-schmo - December 30, 2017

Pop on a pair of headphones before bed and learn Italian in your dreams. Play Vietnamese radio while you cook and absorb vocabulary while chopping onions. Turn on an Arabic TV show without subtitles and let the colloquialisms wash over you. In no time, yo...

6 replies - Last post by joseph-schmo - December 20, 2017

Hi all I wanted to point out a few changes that we have made to the members area interface on desktop computers and laptops, just so no-one gets confused! These changes are part of our roll-out for the 2018 Edition. Over the next few months we will be r...

68 replies - Last post by jason-oxenham-ceo - November 23, 2017