(This is a revised version of an older post) At some point when you learn English (or any other language), it is important to listen to “real English,” not just to small pieces or excerpts from language textbooks and manuals, even if you do not understand everything. There are many easy ways today to listen […]
How to Improve your English
3 questions Listening Reading Speaking Writing Vocabulary Grammar How do you keep on learning a language during the lockdown? How do you improve your English when you can’t go to classes, conversation tables, private lessons? More generally, how do you get your language skills up by yourself? Though some of this information might be useful […]
A Year in Books 2019
I did not really start reading books until I was a teenager. My father subscribed to the Reader‘s Digest (I didn‘t even know the RD was still around until I checked for a link). I loved reading Astérix, Tintin, and some children books. I do remember that I enjoyed thumbing through our encyclopedias. I went […]
Two Tips to Learn a Language with YouTube
The use of YouTube to teach or learn a language is pretty much a given today. Yet, speaking with colleagues and students, I realized that not all of them were aware that there are some features available that are really useful for language education. Here are two of them: Subtitles (or closed captions) and the […]
Best Reads of 2018
After a survey of my best readings of 2016 and 2017, time has come for the 2018 edition. Once again, I had meant for this to come out in a timely manner in January. Maybe next year. After a less than lackluster literary 2017, 2018 proved to be a richer crop: more diverse and with […]
Learning a Language? Improve Your Pronunciation with the International Phonetic Alphabet
You’ve done it (or you had no choice). You’ve decided to learn another language! But then, quickly, the frustration builds up. Reading and writing is going along ok, but the speaking … the pronunciation. The bane of many language learners: how to actually speak that language without making a complete fool of yourself. Two quite […]
Hardware and Software Tools of the Trade 2018
After several years, time has come for an update of my 2015 Tools of the trade post. These are the hardware and software tools I work with in 2018. Computers and other hardware I’m still a Mac person (an old 2009 IMac and a 2010 MacBook Pro 13 inches, still reliable, albeit a bit slow). […]
Best Reads of 2017
After a pretty heavy semester, I finally have some time to follow up my 10 best reads of 2016, with my best reads of 2017. Having changed jobs to teach modern languages, I have been busy reading a lot of professional literature the last year or so, which has given me little free time for […]
How To Pronounce the English “th”
“ze mozer of ziz boyz iz tirti-tree” A standard problem of English pronunciation: the English “th”. It involves sounds that many languages do not have. With a little help and practice, this is actually not very hard. (Since this is written mostly for my students or ESL students, this is written in a somewhat simpler […]
My Ten Best Reads of 2016
If Emma Watson can do it, so can I. So after Emma’s year in books, here are my ten best reads of 2016. Be forewarned, these are not the best new books of 2016, but my favourite reads of the year, meaning some of these go back quite a while.