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 […]
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Start Writing in Your Target Language Right Now
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 […]
How To Keep Learning In Summer
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 […]
How to Get Most Out of Language Exchange
It has never been easier to learn languages. The internet has made many language resources accessible for everyone. Language exchange platforms went even further: they facilitated the hardest part of the learning languages online. I’m talking about finding a language partner for speaking practice. Many websites and mobile applications dedicated to language exchange have been […]
How To Make Most Out Of My New Podcast
At the end of this February, I launched a podcast for students of Russian. The podcast is in Russian. Each episode lasts five minutes and is dedicated to one selected topic. I think the podcast would be most helpful for intermediate and advanced students, but beginners can also enjoy it. How can one work with […]
How to Deal with Long Russian Words
Often enough, my students get frightened by long Russian words. A student, who normally reads fluently, stops in terror upon seeing a four-syllable word and approaches it like a horse face-to-face with a tall hurdle. I found that explaining what the long word consists of helps to disassemble or lower the hurdle. Compare two words: […]