Reading, listening, speaking and writing.

As a language teacher, I’m supposed to tell you that they’re all equally important (a bit like not having a favourite child).

Between you and me, I have a favourite. One that’s more important than

Imagine this.

You’re walking along the streets of Paris and you see a delicious croissanty thing in the window of a boulangerie.

You don’t know what it’s called, but you know you want one.

So you let the sweet smell

You know that dream where you're standing in front of lots of people and you suddenly realise you're naked?

Everyone’s staring at you.

Panic squeezes your chest and makes your hands and voice go all wobbly. You want

In August 2008, I had an Italian lesson that changed my life.

I'd already taken two years of Italian classes, but I still couldn't have a basic conversation. Back then I hated languages (and wasn't any

Guest post from learntherussianlanguage.com

A day barely goes by without hearing about Russia on the news. Often you see an interview with a Russian official – do you understand what they’re saying without the subtitles/translation?

If you don’t

Guest Post by Ermy Pedata

Once my English friend invited me to a karaoke night. I accepted straight away.

I love karaoke so it was going to be fun for sure, I thought.

Little did I know that at

I know, I know, it's not a very sexy title.

I thought about something more tantalising like: "Learn Chinese in 5 minutes a day" or "speak Chinese like a native in 8 weeks".

But those would be false promises

¿Qué?

Listening to native Spanish speakers is a humbling experience.

They blurt their words out so fast, sometimes it's impossible to keep up. And it can be discouraging - after all that studying, shouldn't you be able to understand

Have you ever spoken to a non-native speaker of your language and been blown away by how well they spoke it?

Aside from good pronunciation, there's one thing that always makes my jaw drop when I hear foreign

Ever tried reading in a foreign language?

It sounds like a lovely idea.

Fix yourself a hot drink, dive under a blanket and snuggle up with a translation of Harry Potter.

What it actually looks like when I try reading

Be honest.

There are lots of things you probably should be doing.

Exercising more. Eating less junk. Learning that language faster.

You know who laughs in the face of should?

The French.

French people don’t do gyms. They wash croissants

A few months ago, I had a plan.

The idea was to try and get fluent in Spanish by this summer. But as often happens with plans, things aren't going quite as expected.

For a while, I’ve had this nagging

You love the country, the culture, the food and the people.

Maybe you’ve already been to Italy on holiday and are planning to go back, and this time you’d like to converse with the locals. Maybe you even dream

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the choice of language learning tools?

Or unsure of where to focus your time?

Maybe, once you’ve finally chosen a resource or activity, a niggling doubt creeps in…

Is this really the best use

Why is it so hard to remember words in a foreign language?

Why is the grammar so confusing?

If you’ve ever asked yourself these questions and wondered how the heck you’ll learn to speak that foreign language, then today’s post

It was supposed to be easy.

Thinking about learning a new language, but not sure which one to choose?

It’s a decision that can have a huge impact on your life: where you go on holiday, the friends you make, maybe even which country you live

January.

You start off feeling enthusiastic about eating salads and end up feeling enthusiastic about… well, nothing really.

Apart from maybe hiding under the duvet until April.

At least that’s what happens to me every year. No matter how motivated

They can’t be serious, can they?

Talking at 200 mph, mushing words together or leaving them out entirely.

It's as if those smug native speakers got together one day and decided to garble their words, just to stop us

¿How do you type that upside-down question mark thingy?

If you’re learning Spanish and you’re planning to write or take notes on a computer, at some point you’ll probably ask yourself this question. You’ll also need to type