Advice on Language Learning, Travel, and Living Abroad
A recent study suggests that aerobic exercise can boost children’s vocabulary.
Previous studies have shown that adults have increased brain activity after exercising. The increased blood flow helps them learn new words more easily.
But does the same memory-boosting effect also occur in children?
Researchers Madison Pruitt and Giovanna Morini (both from the University of Delaware) set out to find out.
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Yabla is a language immersion tool that helps you learn a new language through videos.
It’s a fun way for intermediate and advanced learners to improve their skills in their target language. It’s especially good for boosting your listening skills.
You don’t just watch the videos, but you also learn from them by playing games that feature the videos’ content.
Years ago…
2014 to be exact…
I gave the Magnetic Memory Method a test run.
I used the method to try to learn 127 new Spanish words.
I then tested myself and the results were surprising.
This post is a recap of my case study. At the end of this post, I’ll share if my initial positive conclusions still hold up more than six years later.
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Gamification…
It is almost impossible to find a language learning app today that does not put it at the forefront of the learning process.
Gamification can certainly help when it comes to motivation, but it also disguises what the real reward of learning a language is.
The real reward is not a stupid looking hat for your childish avatar, or collecting coins that ultimately prove useless.
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Ever since the days of Julius Caesar, people have wondered how long it takes to learn a language. (Don’t Google this, I made it up.)
The most sensible answer is:
It depends on so many things!
Like how close your target language is to your native language, or how many hours a day you will devote to the learning process.
So it depends is probably the most accurate answer, but that’s NOT the answer I’ll be giving you today.
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