Polyglossia

notes from learning languages the fun way

The Compound Interest of Language Learning

Why no effort you put in is ever wasted

Taking up a new language feels like a lot at first. Everything is just noise, and the learning process is really just our brains working their way through that noise. How do we do that exactly? By ...

Listening: The Overlooked Way to Learn a Language

Why short, bite-sized reels beat grinding through long videos

Alongside reading, listening is the other receptive skill that we need to focus on to receive language and build our linguistic bank of words, grammar, and pronunciation. Remember how we learned la...

Start Small: Why Quotes Are the Best First Step in Reading

The most manageable reading material for a beginner is one you're already scrolling past

In a previous post, I talked about how we know we’ve mastered a language: by mastering the four basic skills — reading, listening, speaking, and writing. Today, we’ll focus on reading. Reading is ...

Multiple Languages at Once

What juggling three languages has taught me about the polyglot life

Learning a new language is one of the best choices you can make in life. Aside from becoming conversant in a second language, it does great things for your brain. But can you really do it — learn t...

How Do You Know You've Mastered a Language?

Functional control is a milestone, not the finish line

How do you know you’ve mastered a language? Passing a 10- or 15-minute multiple-choice test online isn’t a good indicator. It could just mean your brain has begun to comprehend the patterns of your...

Find What Motivates You to Learn a Language

Why intrinsic motivation is the one that actually lasts

Motivation is where it all begins. I’m well on my way to being proficient in four foreign languages, and if you can believe it, that wasn’t the result of waking up one day and deciding to learn som...