• Remember to Remember

    The main reason that people give up on a goal is because they don’t remember it. I recall as a child writing down goals I wanted to accomplish for the upcoming year and sealing them in an envelope to be opened in 1 year. All I did was write down goals on a piece of paper and put them in an envelope. I forgot about the experience a few hours later and re-opened the envelope one year later. Do you think I did well on my goals? Nope, I really hadn’t done much to accomplish the goals I had written down one year earlier. Recently I set a goal to wake up and stay up each morning when my alarm went off. It is especially difficult for me to wake …

  • Why Can’t Learning Be Fun?

    Why can’t learning be fun? When I look back at my K-12 and college days, I think about a lot of sleepy, boring classes. At the same time, I think about some of the great things that I have learned and creative ways in which they have been taught. There have been plenty of fun games that have reinforced lessons learned. I’m not saying that education is going to be a party all the time. Sometimes it’s going to be boring and you have to power through and do the best you can. Here at LearnALanguage.com we aim to keep you awake, alert, having fun and learning as much as possible. We don’t want you to be saying ‘how boring’ in Italian out loud when you are learning Italian. The …

  • Best Way to Learn a Foreign Language

    The best way to learn a foreign language is to live where that language is spoken so that you are completely immersed in the language. That means that you speak and listen to your new language all day everyday. There is NO better way. When a language website or company tells you that they have the best way, understand that they’re saying that it’s the best way other than complete immersion. Most people do not have the opportunity to be completely immersed in a new language by living in a foreign country. The good news is that there are other ways you can learn. Before I tell you about a few of those other ways, I’d like to tell you something important:  For MOST people, language acquisition does not come …

  • Learning a Language : Our Mission

    Every organization needs to have a mission.  This is the purpose, the overriding goal behind everything that we do.  We here at LearnALanguage.com had a very long, intense discussion over what our mission would be.  We think that you’ll be excited about this: Our Mission: To make language-learning a convenient and social habit through modern technology.  Pretty simple, right?  Let’s break it down together, just to see exactly why we’re here and what we’re doing. Language-learning: We operate based on the assumption that everyone is interested in learning a second, third or fourth language (or ought to be so).  The benefits are enormous and let’s face it – no one will ever regret learning another language.  We all have our own reasons, and that’s good enough for us. Convenient: We know that …

  • Flash Card Apps

    When I first began learning Spanish, it was important for me to consistently review and reinforce what I was learning. In fact, that is still very important today and will be forever. I reviewed reading, computer and audio materials and would take notes of a few concepts I was learning and  glance at them throughout the day. Before smartphones, I used index cards for review. Now I do virtually everything on my PC or my iPhone. I recently had a need for a flash cards app and away I went to the app store. In my research, one particular website about flashcards apps was very useful. I suggest you visit flashcardapps.info to view information about 167 flashcard apps for the iPhone and iPad. That website owner gives a few features …

  • Reasons to Learn a Foreign Language

    What does Friday mean to me?  It means that the weekend is only a few hours away and that it’s time to give my brain a well-deserved break.  Learning a language is important, and we’ve all been working hard.  We deserve a break – check out this video from Mr Jake Beus of LearnALanguage.com and have yourself a good laugh to start off the weekend: Jake Beus on Learning – Click Here We’ll see you on Monday!    

  • How to Turn Motivation into Celebration

    What gets you motivated? What gets you super-pumped and excited? What events cause celebration in your life? Take a moment and really think about those questions. It may even be helpful to write down your answers. I’d like to take a moment and answer those question for myself, and together I hope we can learn how to turn motivation into celebration. What gets you motivated? For me, the answer to that question depends on what the goal is. In my life, I usually see or experience something that motivates me and gives me the desire to set a goal and achieve it. For example, I have seen a healthy transformation in my father. For years, he could not sleep in a bed because he would get heartburn every night due …

  • Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award Winners

    One great way to immerse yourself in a new language is by watching TV or movies in that language. If movies are your choice, you should consider picking from the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award winners. Every year since 1956 non-English films that are made outside the United States are nominated for the award. These nominations and awards make a great resource when looking for the best foreign language films. The winner at the 2012 Academy Awards was “A Separation” directed by Asghar Farhadi. The film is in Persian and marks Iran’s first win since the award began. Some other notable nominees from this year included “Bullhead” in Dutch, French and Limburgish; “Footnote” in Hebrew; “In Darkness” in Polish, German, Yiddish and Ukrainian; and “Monsieur Lazhar”  in French. Yes, speaking is …

  • Learning a Second Language….. and a Third….. and a Fourth…..

    Do you know who Ioannis Ikonomou is?  I didn’t either – that is, until I ran across an article about one of the smartest living human beings.  Most of us would consider speaking a second language as a great feat.  A third language? Incredible.  A fourth language?  Impossible.  Not Ioannis Ikonomou.  This 46-year old Greece-born, world-citizen “feels comfortable” speaking and communicating in 32 languages.  That’s not a typo – 32 (as in thirty-two). As a native Grecian, his mother-tongue is Greek.  He began learning English when he was 6 years old.  After English came German…  Then Russian…  Italian…  Turkish…  Arabic…  And so the story goes.  Ioannis is now employed as the only in-house translator for the European Commission of the United Nations.  He spends about half the year in Beijing, China as …

  • Habit Psychology

    We’ve all heard it before: 21 days to make a habit.  21 days.  It sounds easy.  It sounds short.  It sounds simple. But is it? 21 Days.  3 Weeks.  504 Hours.  30,240 Minutes.  1,814,400 Seconds. It turns out that 21 days really is a long time, but we can get around that.  Believe it or not, we are constantly going through the full 21 day-cycle to start new habits – The only problem is that these habits aren’t always the ones that we want to be starting.  It seems that bad habits are easy to start and easy to feed, but the good habits are hard to grow (just like flowers & vegetables take a herculean effort and grandmotherly patience, but weeds grow for free…). After scouring the web for legitimate advice on …

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