Category Archives: Learning a second language

Little Things

As I was walking out today, I passed a secondary school advertising Mandarin lessons. I noticed the Chinese characters on the sign first and because I’m studying the Japanese language, I could read some of the sign. Admittedly it was only the words ‘Chinese’ and ‘September’, but I was quite pleased to encounter and understandContinue reading “Little Things”

Teaching in a Different Language-Part 1

Hello everyone, this post is a sort of companion piece to my recent podcast where I spoke about teaching Danish to Japanese people. It will all make sense in the end (sort of). Let’s start at the beginning, which is probably best. Over twenty-five years ago, I started a temp job in the London branchContinue reading “Teaching in a Different Language-Part 1”

Learning a Different Language-Part 3

I have been using an app called Quizlet for quite a few years to assist me in learning languages. I’ve introduced it to my Japanese students and trainees. They found it quite useful, saying the pronunciation of Japanese is not perfect, but OK. Another useful educational service is TeacherTrainingVideos.com website. On this site it mayContinue reading “Learning a Different Language-Part 3”

Learning a Different Language-Part 2

I found when learning other languages, I started to learn more about my own language. Certainly when you start to train for teaching a language, the constant analysing opens your eyes about the structure of your own. In my school English language lessons, we learnt about the main parts of speech such as nouns, verbs,Continue reading “Learning a Different Language-Part 2”

Learning a Different Language-Part 1

I first started learning a different language in the last year of primary school. I was quite excited by the promise of these lessons whereas some of my classmates probably groaned. I took to French quite quickly and became very good at recognising the vocabulary and being able to translate from one language to another.Continue reading “Learning a Different Language-Part 1”