We Don’t Speak English Here

TweetAt my very first dinner in São Paulo, I asked the waiter if he spoke English. He replied ‘não’ with a cold face, as if I was ordering something off the menu. There was nothing wrong with him, just me. Most people in São Paulo don’t speak English, and they are not ashamed of it. [...]

Best Way to Improve Writing

TweetThe best way to improve writing is … to read more. This morning someone from Taiwan pinged me in Skype. I could not remember why she was on my contact list. I probably added her a few years ago when I was trying to improve my Mandarin. She told me she wanted to improve her [...]

Speaking Practice Amongst Learners

TweetToday, I had a chance to speak over Skype with Milan, the die-hard Cantonese learner. It must have been more than 3 years since we last talked. Back then we spoke in English and Cantonese. This time our conversation was purely in French and it lasted for more than an hour! When Milan proposed this [...]

Speak Only When Ready – But When Will You be Ready?

TweetThere was an interesting exchange between Steve the Linguist and Benny the Irish Polyglot. I downloaded the podcast more than a week ago but only managed to get through it on a red-eye flight back from Seattle yesterday. In brief, Steve thinks that we should first immerse ourselves into a lot of input activities and [...]

No More Skypecast

TweetOver the weekend, another free on-line service was gone, not only the “free” part, but also the service itself. Skypecast was launched in 2006 to host public conference calls up to 100 people at a time. It was since being established as a meeting place for many to get to know others and talk about [...]

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