How to Never Forget the Gender of a Noun (And Also Blow Things Up)

Do you have trouble remembering certain word categories in your target language? This memory trick is quick, simple, fun and will imprint what you’re trying to remember into your mind so well, you’ll never forget it.

This Question Is Sabotaging Your Language Learning—Please Stop Asking It, My Friend

“HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE FOR ME TO LEARN (insert language here)?” We’ve all heard it. “A person can learn Italian in X amount of time.” “You need X amount of hours to reach conversational fluency in Russian.” “It takes X years to master Japanese.” I’ve been teaching languages since 2015 and I’ve been learningContinue reading “This Question Is Sabotaging Your Language Learning—Please Stop Asking It, My Friend”

How Learning a Language is Like Climbing a Mountain

“In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.” John Muir My wife and I love to be in the mountains. Recently on a hike on Mt. Rainier I thought to myself “Self: You know, learning a language is really a lot like climbing a mountain.” In what ways? No Two MountainsContinue reading “How Learning a Language is Like Climbing a Mountain”

A Day in the Life of a Polyglot

This week I decided to go with an easy subject for me to describe: a typical day for me as it relates to language study. In later posts, I’ll go into more detail about each method I use, how to make it work, and why it works. But for now I’ll give you a generalContinue reading “A Day in the Life of a Polyglot”

Duocon 2021 Recap and Highlights

On Friday August 20th Duolingo hosted their annual Duocon. This year it took the form of a free event on YouTube. You can watch the whole thing on YouTube, or just skip to the talk you’re interested in by going to duolingo.com/duocon. When I heard about Duocon, I wasn’t really sure what to expect fromContinue reading “Duocon 2021 Recap and Highlights”