Foreign Languages, 2017 Alice . Foreign Languages, 2017 Alice .

Swedish Made Easy

This—my friends—is an awesome course. If you are interested in learning Swedish, I highly recommend it. The Swedish Made Easy, 6-day course is very easy to follow and the instructor, Felix Lättman is a joy to listen to and watch.

In this engaging course, he scripted the lessons and selected one candidate, Shien Zutshi from Canada, to learn 1-on-1 with him for 30 hours.

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Foreign Languages, 2017 Alice . Foreign Languages, 2017 Alice .

SwedishPod101

I took a two-week break from Swedish language and now I'm back! I joined SwedishPod101. The most recent module I completed is called Getting Started with SwedishPod101.com and it contains 10 lessons.

What I like most about SwedishPod101 are its audio lessons, notes and transcripts, which are all downloadable if one is a “Premium” subscriber.

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Books, 2017 Alice . Books, 2017 Alice .

My 31 Practices

I’m currently reading MY 31 PRACTICES by Alan Williams and Steve Payne (illustrated by John Montgomery), and have just finished the chapter Habit. At the start of the said chapter, the authors are talking about the Hook Model (Trigger/Action/Variable Reward/Investment) and the Habit Loop (Cue/Routine/Reward). Towards the end they provided an illustration of the approach.

I decided to “test drive” the concepts by adapting them in the context of my Swedish language learning with Duolingo.

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Books, 2015 Alice . Books, 2015 Alice .

Some Thoughts About Foreign Languages

I started reading COLLINS EASY LEARNING ITALIAN CONVERSATION a moment ago and loving the “Introduction.” Here are some of my my thoughts (emphasis mine).

”Becoming proficient in a foreign language means being able to use and understand a number of different aspects—vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and so on. However, it takes a while to be able to put all these elements together and be sure that what you are saying sounds like natural Italian.”

Or, any language for that matter. […]

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Foreign Languages, 2015 Alice . Foreign Languages, 2015 Alice .

How I Learn a Foreign Language

I have done a few posts in the past about how learn Italian; however, for this post I’d like to revisit my methodology and summarize what had worked for me right from the beginning. Using Italian as an example, I did the following without attending any classes.

Listen to the sound. Like a child learning to speak, hearing and mimicking sounds are important. The main resources I use are: [...]

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Personal Projects, 2014 Alice . Personal Projects, 2014 Alice .

How I Got Involved in “@MarcoPolo_Pinocchio a Gedda” Project

In October this year, I was privileged to be invited by Maristella Tagliaferro to participate in the @MarcoPolo_Pinocchio a Gedda Project. I'm elated to be able to use my knowledge of Italian to translate one of my favorite childhood stories: Pinocchio! The whole experience has been gratifying and I love interacting with the group members, and getting to know more new Italian friends. I dedicate this post to you—my dearest Maristella. More about the project below.

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Foreign Languages, 2014 Alice . Foreign Languages, 2014 Alice .

How I Learn a Language by Reading Foreign Magazines

I find leisure reading a fun way to learn a foreign language and for those I’ve already mastered, it’s a great way to reinforce. An example of leisure reading is reading magazines IN the target language, and this is what this post is about.

I don’t indulge in fashion but I like reading about fashion. I transfer that interest to reading the subject in Italian (my target language) and have gone on to include Spanish and French.

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