For quite a while now, people I know have been going on about how great Duolingo is. I have been told multiple times how addictive it is and how much fun and bla bla bla. Well, that wasn’t my…
Today four more Swedish books arrived. Left to right are Get Started in Swedish, by Ivo Holmqvist (Teach Yourself); Essential Swedish Grammar by Julian Granberry (Dover); Swedish: Essentials of Grammar by Åke…
Swedish has been in my life on a daily basis for a long time. Not the language—the genetic material. Brandt. Husband. My husband, Brandt, is of Swedish descent. He looks it, no? Swedish is a North Germanic language,…
A week has now passed since my return from ACTFL, the annual U.S. language conference for teachers of foreign languages. It was well worth the trip to San Antonio, Texas, even though most people there seemed perplexed (since I…
Over the past two months, I have spent a ton of time on language, but hardly any time writing about language. Oops. Blogs don’t really work if you don’t write. So anyway, I am back. En Route to…
Tonight after months of frustration at the lack of sound in Persian courses on Memrise, I went to the Memrise Madness group on Facebook and expressed my disappointment over my soundless learning experience. George Muresan, a dedicated language learner and…
A couple of days ago while walking through Central Park with my Pimsleur lessons, I was informed in Dari lesson 24, second level, that buzkashi is the national sport of Afghanistan. “It’s somewhat similar to polo, but is played with…
Persian has multiple dialects. I have been focusing on the one from Iran, often referred to as Farsi here in the U.S., but there are only 30 Pimsleur lessons for it. For Dari, the Persian dialect spoken in Afghanistan…
One of my problems as a language learner is that I really like reading books about language and at times have trouble making myself go out in the world. I am reading some eight different books about Persian right now.…
Yesterday my husband, Brandt, and I got on our building’s elevator with a neighbor who was carrying a small rectangular bag over her shoulder. Much Love to Brandt, Who Has Never Once Complained About My Taking Pimsleur Lessons to…
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