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Monthly Archives: March 2005
Book excerpt: Creating your own language world
Exploring Languages at Home Without going outside, you may know the whole world.Without looking through the window,you may see the ways of heaven. – Laozi It is always easiest to learn a language when you are living in a society that speaks that l… Continue reading
The Linguist book: Excerpt
I am going to post a few random excerpts from my book over the next few days. This book is entitled ” The Linguist, A Personal Guide to Language Learning.” The book is available in print form in English and Chinese and in e-book version in French,… Continue reading
More on making mistakes
We now have another comment on making mistakes supporting Pako’s view that we should not make mistakes. I suspect we are not really in disagreement. The important points are: 1) You should not be afraid to speak for fear of making mistakes. Your m… Continue reading
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Why you should make mistakes
Pako writes in his comment here that we should avoid making mistakes in our English learning. He also encourages English learners to spend more effort on input rather than on output, and on that point I do agree. The more you prepare yourself with… Continue reading
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Making mistakes
I am happy to receive comments and this morning there are three, two from Pako and one from Blinger. Blinger recognizes the need to make mistakes in learning a language. Blinger points out that language learning can be like playing the piano. Blin… Continue reading
The bottom line
In this blog I have touched on a variety of questions that relate to language learning. I have talked about learning techniques. I have talked about the importance of choosing content of interest to learn from, about the importance of repetitive l… Continue reading
Language mistakes
Making mistakes when speaking or writing a new language is not the same as making certain other kinds of mistakes, at least to me. Making mistakes in language learning is not only necessary, it is a good sign. If you are not making mistakes you ar… Continue reading
On learning many languages
The following is an exchange on The Linguist Forum. a question from your book Posted: Mar 12, 2005 12:22 PM Reply Hi,My name is Zhen-ting. I bought your book about six months ago and found your language-learning journey fascinating! I read your bo… Continue reading
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Why I am against teaching grammar
I am hoping to get some feedback on these views. I often hear learners say that they want to know why a certain structure or sentence is wrong. They are disappointed when a native speaker cannot tell them “why”. There are all kinds of teachers who… Continue reading
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Diary – Tired
I attended a dinner two evenings ago. It was the Wood Works gala dinner. The wood products industry gave out prizes to engineers and architects who had used wood in the most creative ways. I have long been a promoter of wood, an ideal building pro… Continue reading
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Ling Test 1 