I like analogies, they help us understand. An analogy I thought of recently was how our knowledge of a language is like an iceberg: what we can produce or think we know at any given moment is just the tip of the iceberg and there is deep familiarity with the language underneath.

When do we know a word? Who cares? Just keep pumping words into your brain. Keep on actively pursuing words. That’s what we measure at LingQ. How many words you have grabbed and thrown into your brain. How many stick or when they stick is largely out of our control.

Language immersion doesn’t depend so much on where you are, although it can. It depends more on your attitude towards the language you are learning, and your actions as a learner.

Some people are afraid to speak in their target language. It needn’t happen. We can prepare for speaking. We can recognize speaking as a part of our learning process, not a performance to be judged by others.

The journey is the reward. As long as you are actively engaged with your target language, listening, reading, speaking or writing, in ways that you find meaningful and enjoyable, you will achieve your goals.

Travelling around Poland has made me realize that there is always more to a place than initially meets the eye. This is true for cities and also languages. When we start exploring a language we see that what we thought was the big picture was only a part of it. I love this about the language learning journey!

We need to be patient when learning languages. We will learn and forget, learn and forget over and over again. This isn’t a sign of failure but rather the natural way we learn new things. Relax into it and you will be successful.

I have always been interested in the origins of languages and the differences between languages. In my latest video I explore some world languages that share a lot in common and try to answer the question “what is a language?“.

Beginner material needs to contain lots of high frequency words and these words should repeat many times within one lesson. There should also be many lessons. The Mini Stores at LingQ check all these boxes. Watch my latest video to find out more about this fantastic beginner course and why I use it when I start out in a new language.

It’s easy to get caught up in negative thinking when learning a new language: I make so many mistakes, my speaking is so unnatural, I don’t understand when people speak to me, etc. What if we chose to break away from that thinking and believe instead that these things are part of the process and nothing to worry about? What if we chose to focus on the good instead of the “bad”?