Kerstin Cable's Blog, page 18
March 9, 2017
Inside The Tandem Language Exchange App: A Full Review
If you're new to a language exchange, the concept won't be hard to understand: You find a speaker of your target language. That person should want to learn your native language. When you chat to each other, you spend a little time speaking each language, and voilà...it's free, mutual, friendly practice.
Finding those other language lovers used to be a massive pain. Back in the day, you might have to strike up a conversation and exchange addresses with a tourist in the nearest town. Or if you...
February 23, 2017
3 Tutor-Approved Ideas For Improving Your Duolingo Experience
Language learning was so boring before a little owl in a tracksuit came along.
Armed with addictive streak and modern technology, today's smartphone language learning feels more like a computer game than a language lesson. And in many ways, that's a great thing. Did you know that every month, the world completes over 6 billion Duolingo exercises? That's a lot of language learning done voluntarily - no school teacher forcing you, no boss breathing down your neck asking "where are you with th...
February 10, 2017
Which Languages do UK Managers Value?
In the multicultural world of the UK, you can tell that export and trade are not the only reasons to value a language anymore. With Polish in 5th place, it's clear that these days even sales to customers in your own country can be boosted by using a new language.
And managers also know where the money is: Germany, China, Brazil (Portuguese) and Russia are among world's strongest economies.
The University of Manchester's careers service states that "the biggest UK business demand is for German,...
February 6, 2017
Writing: The Magic Skill for Better Memory and Focus in Any Language
Writing is one of the best ways to express yourself and bring some order to a busy mind. The language learning world is all about becoming proficient and confident in your target language, with italki being the most obvious choice to find a partner. In the best language routine, it's time to pick up a pen and start writing, too!
Writing in another language is so deep, focused and beneficial - think Deep Work by Cal Newport. It can be a little difficult to build a writing habit at first, I know...
January 28, 2017
What Gets Easier When You Study More Languages?
When you are learning your first foreign language, everything feels bizarre. Somewhere in your mind, it seems nuts that you might know that language confidently one day.
You start to look around at multilingual people, you watch a few YouTube videos, read a few blog articles. There's clearly people out there who are learning languages. They seem to know more than just one or two - some people know more than 10 languages!
Like most polyglots, people often ask me how many languages I speak. B...
January 13, 2017
How To Learn A New Language With Smart And Useful Goals
For a long time, I had a difficult relationship with goal-setting. As a fully-fledged questioner, I find it hard to take anything at face value, let alone the idea that I must have a goal to achieve anything.
When I was learning languages in full-time education environments like school and university, the goals weren't on my mind. My school sorted that out for me: turn up to classes, write essays, take exams. But since I've started working with independent language learners (and since I became...
A Guide to Smart and Useful Language Learning Goals
For a long time, I had a difficult relationship with goal-setting. As a fully-fledged questioner, I find it hard to take anything at face value, let alone the idea that I must have a goal to achieve anything.
When I was learning languages in full-time education environments like school and university, the goals weren't on my mind. My school sorted that out for me: turn up to classes, write essays, take exams. But since I've started working with independent language learners (and since I beca...
January 6, 2017
My Challenge Results & 17 Tips For Language Learning on Social Media
This is 2017: Social media is more powerful than ever. The next US president is tweeting at all hours. The Facebook algorithm has contributed to shaping public opinion. And over 80% of the population (in the USA) are on some kind of social network.
You'd think we're all a bunch of timewasters, scrolling our life away. But in this world of chaos, a small idea came and brought new motivation: "Use social media for good", it stated. Let's all stop wasting time and turn that naughty Facebook habi...
December 31, 2016
Social Media for Language Learning: Tips for Twitter, Pinterest and Hashtags
Millions of people use apps to learn languages. Duolingo, Memrise, HelloTalk, Skype...all of these apps are made to help you learn languages. But what about the ones you use with your friends?
Can you use a fun social network like Facebook for language learning?
This is the question at the heart of my quest "28 Days of Social Media for Language Learning". I am using materials from the course Social Media Success from Lindsay Dow - a great strategic course to help you learn languages.
Now I'm...December 23, 2016
Public Language Success: Week 2 of 28 Day of Social Media for Language Learning
It's time for my check-in at the end of the second week using social media for language learning, and it was a good one!
The Challenge: Do something for my languages every day using social media.More precisely, I'm following my friend Lindsay's(does Languages) 28 Day Planner from the course "Social Media Success". If you want to join in with the challenge, check out the full details hereor catch up with week 1 here.
Learning a Language When Life is BusyLooking at a calendar, I always knew th...
