Self-Affirmations

My first contact with positive self-affirmations was with the fictional character Stuart Smalley, created by American comedian Al Franken. This fictional unlicensed therapist would look at himself in the mirror with a strangely gleeful smile and say, I’m good enough; I’m smart enough and, doggon’ it, PEOPLE LIKE ME! Needless to say, my perception [...]

Tips for Raising Bilingual Children

Although I didn’t grow up bilingually I had friends who did. I always felt a twinge of jealousy when I heard them speak Spanish, Laotian or Tagalog so I decided that if I learned to speak another language I would raise my children to be bilingual. After getting married I devoured about four books on [...]

Luca the Italian Polyglot

I think it is interesting how some of the best language learners I have come into contact with are mostly self taught. My friend Luca is no exception. Luca is causing waves on youtube right now because of a nearly six and a half minute video he made of himself speaking in eight languages. See [...]

Being Interviewed by Steve the Linguist

Steve the Linguist’s blog is one of several that I subscribe to. Steve is Canadian and speaks nine languages. His command of Mandarin and Japanese is particularly impressive. A little while ago he decided to start interviewing language learners who had succeeded and failed to learn their target languages to get an idea from [...]

Building Nations with the Cunning Use of Foreign Languages

The British comedian Eddie Izzard once said that Great Britain built up her empire with the cunning use of flags. I thought this over simplification was not only pretty funny but that it also had a ring of truth to it. Thinking it over myself, I also found that many nations seemed to have built [...]