by John Fotheringham
On August 28, 1963, The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., an American activist, humanitarian, and pastor gave what would become one of the most famous speeches of all time and a defining moment in the Civil Rights Movement. The masterful address, usually known simply as “I Have a Dream”, was delivered at the Lincoln Memorial in front hundreds of thousands of people who had joined the “March on Washington”. If you haven’t watched the speech in a while, please take a moment now to relive a bit of history and honor King’s memory. And for extra points, read the speech in 12 different languages.
by John Fotheringham
Ellen Jovin is variously described as a “linguaphile”, a “language-crazed writer”, a “grammar freak”, a “former freelance writer”, and a professional trainer specializing in communication skills. On the first of July in 2009, Ellen began a impressive language and culture project called “Words & Worlds of New York” with the goal exploring the myriad languages spoken in The Big Apple.
by John Fotheringham
Susanna Zaraysky is a self-proclaimed “language geek”, a speaker of 7 languages, and the author of “Language Is Music: Over 100 Fun & Easy Tips to Learn Foreign Languages”. She has been featured on CBS, BBC Radio, CNN, NBC, and Univision, and now thanks to me, the world’s most famous podcast! Just kidding. In our interview, we discuss the weaknesses of traditional language education, the power of music in language acquisition, the importance of developing a resonance for one’s target language and culture, and the fact that you can learn any language, anywhere.
by John Fotheringham
From surviving Nazi internment camps to teaching French to Hollywood stars, Michel Thomas was truly an amazing man. Read on to learn more about his life and his unique language learning approach.
by John Fotheringham
In his own words, Dr. Orlando Kelm is “a lucky guy” professionally. Not only does he get to spend his time with two languages (Spanish and Portuguese), but he also the Associate Director of Business Language Education for the UT CIBER (Center for International Business Education and Research, a part of the McCombs School of Business. In our interview, Dr. Kelm shares what he believes to be the 6 most important factors in effective language learning.
by John Fotheringham
Pronounced like the word “link” (not “ling-kyu” as it is often mispronounced), LingQ is an an online and iOS app based language learning system created by Steve Kaufmann. The “freemium” site allows users to easily look up and save unknown words and phrases (what they call “LingQing”, hence the name of the site)m with tools for 11 languages: Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish (which happen to be the same 11 languages Steve speaks).
