It is commonplace in pedagogy that the teacher should create a friendly atmosphere in the classroom so that students feel comfortable asking questions. Questions are important for many reasons: they help the teacher to see what should be explained better, what topics students haven’t comprehended fully, what issues students are struggling with and why. At
One of the joys that comes with learning foreign languages is reading books in their original language. Some people may even start learning a new language solely for this purpose; they hope one day to enjoy their favorite books in the language in which those books were originally written. It is easy to find a
This is a guest post by Jamy Russel from learntherussianlanguage.com What do you think is the most important thing for learning Russian? If you’ve guessed talent, following a specific program, or a good teacher than you’re partly right. These things can certainly help, but I think the most important thing is putting in the time
In English, I have achieved a certain level of fluency that is sufficient for functioning efficiently in society, but still does not represent my personality adequately. Hence, I constantly work on expanding my vocabulary. A couple of weeks ago, my English-speaking friend mentioned the word “laborious.” I figured out that it derived from the word
We live in a wonderful, exciting time. With so many language exchange platforms available today, everybody with a smartphone may learn any language at no cost. Yet, along with LE applications and websites, language learning marketplaces for private tutors and students are booming. Who wants to pay for a tutor, when everybody can practice any
The Russian alphabet scares a lot of people off from learning Russian. This is sad, because the language itself is no more difficult than any other language in the world. Russian children have a little advantage over speakers of languages that use the Latin script, because Latin characters surround Russians everywhere – from vitamins, to
Every language learner knows that feeling: desperate helplessness when trying to produce a sentence in a target language. You may have advanced to the degree where you enjoy sophisticated books and movies in the language you are learning, but when it comes to speaking, you feel like a beginner – lost, panicked, and embarrassed. No
Summer is probably the best and the worst time for language learners. Summer breaks and vacations give you a lot of spare time. Nobody tells you what to do—no busy office schedule, no boring one-size-fits-all (or rather, one-size-fits-none) curriculum. You are finally free to do what you want, for example, start to read books in
When I was working on my master thesis in the university, I found a very interesting book that cardinally changed my perception of speech and language. The book, written by language philosopher and linguist Boris Gasparov was titled rather vaguely: Language, Memory, Image. Behind those three words was the whole new concept of human speech.
The best news a teacher can hear from her student is that the student has successfully passed important exams. That is exactly what happened to me last Friday: I woke up, grabbed my smartphone and found an email from one of my students with the good news inside. My student worked hard and received a
