Month: April 2016
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Antifragility and Modern Nation States
I’m reading a book at the moment that really has me thinking – Antifragile by Nassim Taleb (as recommended to me by @smn) I’ve found the ideas in the book so engaging that I’m going to write about some of them before I’ve even finished reading it, since I think I’ve got a handle on at least the core of…
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Language Hack 4: Use All Your Senses
There are some of us who learn really well directly from books. But most of us are wired to learn experientially: by doing. Although this applies to other spheres, it’s especially true of language learning. Learning a language isn’t just about the words that we’re speaking, but about the whole culture that those words belong to.…
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Language Hack 3: Telling Stories
Words get caught up in our memory much more easily when they have hooks to hang them on. Stories act as great hooks for these words. I find this particularly true of stories that I know well in my mother tongue. Movies are great for this. Or if you know a lot of Bible stories…
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Language Hack 2: Make It Default
This is where emersion can come in handy, but it’s not essential. The key is to do the ordinary, habitual things that you do, in your target language. If you watch movies to unwind, switch to movies in your target language. If you use Twitter, start an account in your target language and follow people…