It has been a while since I’ve posted and I just wanted to give a quick update on what we’ve been up to. As we’ve talked about before, our passion is helping families learn languages. Our own experience has taught us that finding curriculum suitable for small children is often difficult. Because of that, we […]
Say What Now? Orality, Literacy, and How We Should Be Learning Language
An Unexpected Encounter My family and I were in Tbilisi, the capital of the Republic of Georgia, several years ago. Tbilisi is one of those hidden gems of the world. Nestled in the foothills of the Caucasus mountains, the city is filled with beautiful sights, warm, welcoming people and, in my humble opinion, the most […]
Total Physical Response
Get your move on! Perhaps one of the best methodologies I have encountered for language learning is Total Physical Response, or TPR. As the name suggests, it really gets you up and moving! TPR is a method of language learning that began developing in the late 1950s as a way to both decrease stress in language learning and increase […]
What is your motivation: Grades or friends?
A right thing for a wrong reason. I remember one day when we heard our three-year-old son washing his hands. We’d had talks with him about germs and the need to wash up after using the restroom, and thought, “Oh good, he’s starting to get it!” We even decided to reward him to reinforce this […]
I speak un poquito… under the right circumstances…
I this really communication? “Hello, my name is Sergey, and I forgot 500 English words.” I can’t even count how many times I heard my Ukrainian friend say this. Sergey, who is a brilliant, highly educated man who studied English all throughout school and college, has now, at the age of 45, found himself unable to say […]
The Language Journey
The Journey Begins If you are checking out our site for the first time, odds are you have some desire to learn another language or learn about another culture. I (David) remember the first time I started learning another language. I was about ten years old, and it was a hot, boring summer day on […]