Clicky

English

3 Ways Quebec French is different to Standard French (f)

3 Ways Quebec French is different to Standard French

Quebec French or Québécois has always been something of a mystery to me. I first came across it when I met a Québécoise exchange student at university and its different sounds (from standard French pronunciation) intrigued me. In 2016, I finally made it to Montreal (a city I had long wanted to visit) but for one […]

3 Ways Quebec French is different to Standard French Read More »

Do you need local languages to travel successfully in Eastern Europe?

Traveling around ‘Eastern Europe’ is one of my passions as is learning languages. When I travel across this region I normally use Russian as it’s the most useful lingua franca for communication. Now that may surprise many readers, especially those who are used to speaking in English no matter where they travel. For historical and

Do you need local languages to travel successfully in Eastern Europe? Read More »

How different or similar are Spanish and Portuguese?

I love traveling to both Portugal and Spain (and Latin America, of course). Moreover, Brazil is actually my favorite country … in the world! I learnt Spanish while living adjacent to a Spanish-speaking barrio in Washington, DC in the US. My time in Washington, DC also included my first trip to Brazil and the beginning

How different or similar are Spanish and Portuguese? Read More »

Vocabooster Review

Vocabooster Review

Vocabooster Ukrainian is a new course from LanguageBoost. It promises to teach you the first 600 words in your new language. I recently tried out Vocabooster as part of my Learn Ukrainian Mission in Lviv, Ukraine. So I went through Vocabooster and released a video about using it during my Learn Ukrainian Mission. So what was my

Vocabooster Review Read More »

How different are Italian dialects and languages for the learner?

I first started learning the Italian language over 10 years ago and got to a very basic level in standard Italian before going to study in Bologna for one year. When I arrived I was taken aback by the number and variety of dialects spoken on a daily basis by Italians of which I struggled

How different are Italian dialects and languages for the learner? Read More »

How to learn better pronunciation in 7 steps!

As an avid language learner and superpolyglot, I find pronunciation to be my weakest point. In particular, hearing the various sounds that differ from those found in my native language, English, had proven elusive for me when I first started learning new languages. My first foreign language was French. In the beginning, I was tormented

How to learn better pronunciation in 7 steps! Read More »

How Similar or Different are German and Dutch?

Dutch and German: Similar or Different?

German and Dutch are 2 languages from the Germanic family and I’ve had the pleasure of learning them both of them in recent years. I’ve also lived in both Germany (Munich) and the Netherlands (Utrecht) for a little over a year each so I’ve had more or less the same in situ exposure to both.

Dutch and German: Similar or Different? Read More »

Do you really have to learn Grammar for Fluency in a Language?

Studying grammar has never been a favorite task of mine when it comes to language learning. Hundreds of hours spent in an Irish classroom having grammar rules drilled into me (with little tangible results) completely killed my enthusiasm for this part of language learning. Yet studying a new language’s grammar to an encyclopedic level is traditionally viewed

Do you really have to learn Grammar for Fluency in a Language? Read More »