• Reasons to Learn a Foreign Language

    What does Friday mean to me?  It means that the weekend is only a few hours away and that it’s time to give my brain a well-deserved break.  Learning a language is important, and we’ve all been working hard.  We deserve a break – check out this video from Mr Jake Beus of LearnALanguage.com and have yourself a good laugh to start off the weekend: Jake Beus on Learning – Click Here We’ll see you on Monday!    

  • How to Turn Motivation into Celebration

    What gets you motivated? What gets you super-pumped and excited? What events cause celebration in your life? Take a moment and really think about those questions. It may even be helpful to write down your answers. I’d like to take a moment and answer those question for myself, and together I hope we can learn how to turn motivation into celebration. What gets you motivated? For me, the answer to that question depends on what the goal is. In my life, I usually see or experience something that motivates me and gives me the desire to set a goal and achieve it. For example, I have seen a healthy transformation in my father. For years, he could not sleep in a bed because he would get heartburn every night due …

  • Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award Winners

    One great way to immerse yourself in a new language is by watching TV or movies in that language. If movies are your choice, you should consider picking from the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award winners. Every year since 1956 non-English films that are made outside the United States are nominated for the award. These nominations and awards make a great resource when looking for the best foreign language films. The winner at the 2012 Academy Awards was “A Separation” directed by Asghar Farhadi. The film is in Persian and marks Iran’s first win since the award began. Some other notable nominees from this year included “Bullhead” in Dutch, French and Limburgish; “Footnote” in Hebrew; “In Darkness” in Polish, German, Yiddish and Ukrainian; and “Monsieur Lazhar”  in French. Yes, speaking is …

  • What Are Some Useful Language Tools?

    Every day, Google gets asked hundreds of thousands of questions about how to study better, what are the best tools to learn a language, what are the short-cuts, what advice do professionals offer, where are the great resources, the list goes on.  We all know it – Learning a language is a very difficult thing.  So why make it harder?  Every single tool that we come upon should be used to the fullest benefit possible.  It has been said that ‘life is a game of inches.’  Here at LearnALanguage.com, we have another tool to help you ‘get those inches.’ You can find our toolbar all over our site.  Download the bar that has each language (by selecting the image to the left), or you can go to the Learn Spanish …

  • Self Motivation Quotes

    It’s not easy to be self-motivated. We realize that learning a language is not an easy task. It takes self-motivation and hard work. In order to help you when you may not feel very motivated, I have compiled a list of some of my favorite self-motivation quotes. Many of the quotes come from the community of Mindbloom.  “One learns the most about writing once their pen is moving.” “You can’t fly if you never jump!” “Your breakthroughs will come when you do what you’ve been afraid to do.” “The principle is competing against yourself. It’s about self-improvement, about being better than you were the day before.” -Steve Young “If you find yourself getting nervous, stop and relax for three full breaths. Then take one small step, then another. That is …

  • Learning a Second Language….. and a Third….. and a Fourth…..

    Do you know who Ioannis Ikonomou is?  I didn’t either – that is, until I ran across an article about one of the smartest living human beings.  Most of us would consider speaking a second language as a great feat.  A third language? Incredible.  A fourth language?  Impossible.  Not Ioannis Ikonomou.  This 46-year old Greece-born, world-citizen “feels comfortable” speaking and communicating in 32 languages.  That’s not a typo – 32 (as in thirty-two). As a native Grecian, his mother-tongue is Greek.  He began learning English when he was 6 years old.  After English came German…  Then Russian…  Italian…  Turkish…  Arabic…  And so the story goes.  Ioannis is now employed as the only in-house translator for the European Commission of the United Nations.  He spends about half the year in Beijing, China as …

  • Spanish Speaking Countries

    There are too many people in the world who think that the only Spanish-speaking countries are Spain and Mexico. In addition to that, people often assume that all latinos are Mexicans. This is simply not true. There are 21 Spanish-speaking countries in the world, and here is a list of those countries and their capitals: Argentina – Buenos Aires Bolivia – La Paz, Sucre Chile – Santiago Colombia – Bogotá Costa Rica – San José Cuba – Havana Dominican Republic – Santo Domingo Ecuador – Quito El Salvador – San Salvador Equatorial Guinea – Malabo Guatemala – Guatemala City Honduras – Tegucigalpa Mexico – Mexico City Nicaragua – Managua Panama – Panama City Paraguay – Asunción Peru – Lima Puerto Rico – San Juan Spain – Madrid Uruguay – Montevideo …

  • Spanish Love Poems

    There is something about October that seems to make people fall in love. Here in Utah, the weather starts to cool down for the autumn/fall season and makes all the summertime singles want to settle down with someone for the winter. My grandpa told me that if you can make it through the winter with your favorite gal, then you ought to continue to court her through the spring and marry her in the summer. Good ‘ole grandpa. Maybe it has something to do with Major League Baseball? Either way, it’s time to get romantic on this blog with some Spanish love poems. I have scoured the internet for some of the best Spanish love poems and Spanish love phrases, and I’ll post my favorite and include some links to …

  • French Loanwords

    Did you know that there are around 200 words in the English language that are actually French loanwords? In fact, English shares words with a variety of other languages (and the same goes for many other common languages). This should be encouraging news for anyone considering learning a new language! But first…what are loanwords? Loanwords are words and phrases that one language (English, in this case) borrows directly from another language (French) in everyday conversation, such as the word cliché. English includes loanwords from many different languages but has gained a significant number directly from Latin-based and Germanic languages. Some of these include French, Spanish, Italian, German and Dutch. Again, this is great news if you want to learn one of these languages. Can’t think of any examples of French loanwords? …

  • How Will You Spend $350-2,000?

    Have you ever wondered why it costs so much for language-learning software programs? You could pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars to learn a language through software, the classroom and/or tutors. For the most part, spending money to educate yourself is a good thing. Realize, however, that the internet can transform the way you learn and how much you pay for your learning experience. I encourage you to take a moment and browse LearnALanguage.com and discover what you can learn for free in 8 languages. Since you may not need to spend so much money with software and classes anymore, how else would you spend $350-2,000? This could be the difference between you having a good vacation and a GREAT vacation. Use the money to travel to a foreign …