Tuesday, March 24, 2020
How to Study for the Quantitative Reasoning Section of the GRE
How to Study for the Quantitative Reasoning Section of the GRE When you first begin preparing for this portion of the exam, the seemingly endless variety in math problems may overwhelm you. Such a wide array of mathematical concepts are covered, making it seem impossible to digest them all. That is why committing a substantial amount of time to them is key. In fact, the Quantitative Reasoning section of the GRE may be the most time-consuming in terms of studying. But dont freak out just yet not all of these problems are going to be foreign to you. In fact, youre likely to remember a lot of them, or at least recall the processes relatively quickly. This is because the math on this exam represents a very lengthy time span in the your academic history. Problems you will face will range from recognizing prime numbers to identifying permutations to solving for x in complex equations.Although you wont be able to predetermine which of the many possible problems youll need to solve on the exam, you can adequately prepare yourself for what ways these pr oblems will be presented to you. This wont be like past math tests youve taken; there are very specific forms that these questions will take that if you make yourself familiar with, the exam will go far more smoothly for you.One question type you will see will ask you to compare two quantities. These two quantities wont be given bluntly, however. One or both of them will be some sort of equation that youll need to solve, i.e. 3x/4y. There will often be a side note of given information necessary for you to know in order to solve the problems, i.e. x y, or something along those lines. Every problem has different circumstances, but you will always have the same set of answers to choose from for this question type. You will either choose that one of the quantities is greater than the other one, that they are equal, or that it can't be determined with the given information. So when it all comes down to it, the definitiveness in the answers of this question type is quite simple. Study up on the tricks to determine just enough to figure them out.Once youve made yourself familiar with the comparison of unknown quantities, all you have left to worry about is prepping yourself for direct problem solving and data interpretation. The remaining questions will range from word problems to breaking down equations to comprehending various graphs and charts. The tricky part is re-learning all of these things. If you majored in something that kept you studying these concepts every semester, then you probably wont have as much intense reviewing to do. However, if math hasnt been kept as an integral part of your curriculum, youll really need to sit down and vigorously go through a lot of material so giving yourself plenty of time to study before test day is absolutely crucial. A lot of these things will probably come back to you easily, such as concepts like y-intercepts and the Pythagorean Theorem (a^2 + b^2 = c^2). But there will inevitably be a ton of equations and methods yo u havent thought about in a long time that will definitely require some work to comprehend once again. You will face complex geometry, large ratios, percentage-fraction conversions, and much more. The best thing to do is practice the problems extensively. More importantly, determine right away what sorts of things the on-screen calculator will allow you to do this calculator wont be able to do everything. Look into the details about this specific calculator so you will know which concepts it can help you with and which ones it cant so you will not be dependent on it for the wrong things. Additionally, youll know which concepts you dont have to waste time figuring out how to solve by hand.Get yourself well acquainted with these ideas and this section should be yours to work through like a champion!
Friday, March 6, 2020
How to Get Started with Meditation
How to Get Started with Meditation The Best Techniques for Learning How to Meditate ChaptersWhat is Mindfulness Meditation?Why Should You Meditate?How Can You Start Mindfulness Meditation?How Can You Practise Mindfulness Meditation?âDonât let behaviour of others destroy your inner peaceâ - Dalai LamaMeditation is often seen as a religious or spiritual act performed by those in closed yoga circles.However, anyone can meditate and itâs useful for personal development as well as helping people manage their stress and become happier.So how can you learn how to do it when you donât know the first thing about meditation?Hereâs our advice for anyone wanting to get started with meditation. While there are many types of meditation, we're going to be mainly focusing on mindfulness meditation.Being Aware of Your EnvironmentWe often say that you only focus on yourself during meditation. However, during mindfulness meditation, arenât you also aware of your environment? Focus on your surroundings and let your senses feel every moment of your meditation as it happens in the present.What can you hear? What can you smell? What can you feel across the different parts of your body?All you have to do is observe. Donât force yourself to hear something if youâre in complete silence. Let the sounds, smells, and feelings come to you and notice them.Calling a FriendTo help you practise meditation, you can also practise with another person. Even though you tend to practise on your own, starting to meditate with another person can motivate you to do it, help you learn new techniques, and make you more willing to do it.If you can't get another person to join you, then you should look for guided meditation practice on YouTube. There are plenty of videos to get you started and they're really useful if you're in the habit of getting easily distracted when trying to silently meditate.You can also find simple meditation tips like counting as you breathe in and out to help you concentrate on your breathing, music to help you gently fall asleep, and, in some cases, some really profound wisdom that will help you gain a deeper understanding of yourself and meditation.Now see how runners benefit from yoga...
Derivative of Absolute Value
Derivative of Absolute Value To understand the derivative of absolute value, first we need to understand the meaning of absolute value. Absolute value is defined as the non negative value of a number. Suppose y is any positive number then absolute value is represented by the |y|. Even if y is any negative number then also |y| = y. The absolute value of any number whether number is positive or negative, is always positive. Derivative of absolute value help us to find the derivative of the absolute value of any function. The formula of derivative of absolute value is as follows:- Derivative, d/dx |x| = (x. dy/dx) / |x|, x shall not be equal to zero This can be more clarified by the following below mentioned examples:- Question 1: Find out the derivative of the function y = |x-2| Solution: Given y = |x-2| Now dy/ dx = d |x-2| / dx|x-2| So, dy/dx = ((x-2). (d(x-2)) / dx) / |x-2| Hence dy/dx = (x-2). 1 / |x-2| Therefore, dy/dx = (x-2) / |x-2| Since denominator becomes 0 at x =2 So derivative of function dy/dx does not exist at x = 2. Question 2: Find out the differentiation of y = |x^2| and find the value of dy/dx at x = 2. Solution: Given, y = |x^2| Therefore by definition, dy /dx = (x^2. d (x^2) /dx) / |x^2| So dy/dx = (x^2. 2x) / |x^2| Now at x = 2, dy/dx = (2^2. 2(2)) / |2^2| Therefore at x = 2, dy/dx = (4.4)/ 4 = 4
Thursday, March 5, 2020
How can I insert an image into Blogger from Wikimedia Commons
How can I insert an image into Blogger from Wikimedia Commons Students tend to be familiar with MS Word and some features of social media websites, but blogging platforms and anything involving HTML can be a challenge for them. This blog post is intended to help anyone writing a blog on Blogger.com to add free images to their next blog post. Add images to Blogger Find an image on Commons.Wikimedia.org 2. Click on one of the results 3. Find the URL by clicking on More Details 4. Click on Use this file 5. Copy the image URL 6. Click on the image icon on the toolbar 7. Click From a URL 8. Paste the URL 9. Click on the picture to make adjustments 10. In Blogger, click on the picture icon in the tool bar. Please follow and like us:
Notetaking Tips for Students
Notetaking Tips for Students Maybe youve encouraged your students before to take good notes, but do they know what that means? Here are a few tips to help your students improve their notetaking skills: Take down key ideas. Your students should write down information that is obviously significant. You can help by pointing out during class work or lectures when something is important. Paraphrase, dont replicate. Remind your students that notes are for summarizing big ideas. Trying to write down every word you say wont help them remember it. Bullets and abbreviations are better. Jot down terms/formulas/definitions. Have your students write down words/formulas that they should study or memorize. Record questions. Putting down questions in a margin is a great way for students to remind themselves of topics to clarify later. These cues can serve as a useful study guide. Explore notetaking apps. Your students are digital natives. They might like using a notetaking app that allows them to store their notes and sync them across multiple devices. Check out GoodNotes, Microsoft OneNote or Evernote. Keep notes organized. Teach your students to date their notes, label sections, use a highlighter or different colored pen to call out important information, and use visual cues like boxes to highlight key words or arrows to connect ideas. Notetaking isnt finished when class is over. Your students need to get into the habit of looking over their notes each evening to fill in any blanks, add or correct information, and neaten things up. Adopting a good notetaking system will help your students retain and recall information you cover in class. Done right, notes can enhance your students learning and make studying easier. But dont assume your students inherently know how to take notes effectively. Give them some guidelines and in-class practice! See how Huntington can help your students succeed.
Help Your Child be a Great Writer - ALOHA Mind Math
Help Your Child be a Great Writer Who is the 2nd most quoted writer in the English language? How do you think this person got started? How could you encourage your child to become a great writer? Letâs explore. How does your child feel about â¦? Being able to describe in words is a key fundamental of good writing. Being able to share the five senses and feelings in writing will enable the reader to potentially feel the same emotions that the writer felt. Ask your child to describe their favorite food activity or event. How did it taste, feel, smell, look, sound? What were the emotions that were felt? How did an event take place? Ask your child to write out the steps of an event or a task as if they were attempting to teach the reader how to perform that task. Perhaps have your child retrace the steps of an activity â" First weâ¦then weâ¦then weâ¦. Finally we⦠resulting in⦠This builds confidence as they can share their expertise to the newbie. Does your child have a âpen-palâ? Even if it is a family member, ask your child to write a letter to someone that they do not see regularly. Ask them to share their experiences with the person. Tell the recipient about a vacation or day-trip or how they felt about a movie they saw or a book they read. This lets them practice not only descriptive writing, but the non-fiction style of writing â" expository. How persuasive can your child be? When your child would like to do something like stay up late to watch a movie, or purchase a new gaming item, or stay at a friendâs house overnight, ask them to write a persuasive essay to help you make up your mind. It helps the child develop their point of view, provide data or facts to support their argument for allowing them their wish. These are just a few of the ways you can help your child explore their writing skills and become like the man who introduced almost 3000 words to the English language, wrote 37 plays, used up to 884,429 words in his plays. If you havenât guessed who our mystery writer is by now â" it is William Shakespeare. Watch as we explore a few more writing skills avenues in other blog posts.
Work Smarter, Not Harder The Most Efficient Way to Learn a Language, Summed Up in 4 Steps
Work Smarter, Not Harder The Most Efficient Way to Learn a Language, Summed Up in 4 Steps The Most Efficient Way to Learn a Language, Summed Up in 4 Steps Raise your hand if you hate wasting time.Now keep your hand up if you want to not only learn a language quickly but actually be able to speak and use it in your daily life.While there are nearly as many learn a language fast hacks as there are language learners, one factor learners should be considering alongside speed is efficiency.If you learn your target language in four quick weeks of vocabulary drills and memorization exercises, you havent spent awful much time on the language. Youll almost certainly have little or nothing to show for those four weeks you did spend studying.By the same token, as much as we want to be able to actually use and speak our languages, nobody is relishing the idea of five years of classes and daily practice to reach fluency.To learn a language well, learning should be fun, focused and, most importantly, it shouldnt be wasting a minute of your time.This is where efficiency comes in.Efficient, according to Oxford Dictionaries Online, means: (Especiall y of a system or machine) achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense, and as language learners, its what we should all be striving for.If you want to not only learn a new language fast but also impress the natives with your mastery of it, youve got to stop wasting your time on counterproductive attitudes and activities now.Four steps can take you from frustrated aspiring bilingual to efficient multilingual machine, and it all starts with attitude. The Most Efficient Way to Learn a Language, Summed Up in 4 StepsStep 1: Boost Your Language Learning Efficiency with a Quick Attitude AdjustmentLanguage learning is literally all in your head, so to do it right, youll need to make sure your head is screwed on straight.All the research tells us that attitude is one of the most important factors in language learning, and that yours can make or break your language learning aspirations.Most of the stumbling blocks that trip up learners on their linguistic journeys come from being misinformed or making inaccurate assumptions about language learning and languages in general. Getting started learning a new language can seem like an impossibly daunting task at the outset, especially if you havent mentally prepped for it.For that reason, before you start any kind of learning routine at all, touch base with yourself on attitude.Let these four fundamental facts of language learning orient you when youre feeling lost or overwhelmed:1. Multilingualism is individually and societally normal and anyone can achieve it.Too many language learners have this odd idea that speaking multiple languages is something reserved for geniuses and savants, but if thats true then well over half of Earths population is incredibly gifted.In most countries you see on todays map, the majority of people speak multiple languages, whether theyre local dialects, world languages learned in school or other important regional languages.Furthermore, youre born with all the eq uipment youll ever need to learn a language. Your brain is designed to keep learning and learning! Its just a matter of learning how to tap back into those parts of your brain when you havent used them in a couple decades.2. Its impossible to learn anything well without assigning purpose to it.Your short-term memory can retain data for a little while, but itll never convert information to long-term memory without giving some kind of meaning or purpose to that data.This means that you can repeat your second person future subjunctive verb endings every day, but until your brain recognizes what those endings mean, theyre probably not sticking very well. Its why youll always remember an elephant named Butterfly, even when basic verb conjugations seem impossible to get down.But once youve started using that second person future subjunctive in Portuguese to wish your Brazilian colleagues a nice evening, your brain can start working with these curious verb endings, their relationships to things going on in the real world around you and how they might apply to other verbs.3. Language isnt a finite thing that you can learn and have; its an infinite process in which you can learn and participate.Theres no magic number of vocabulary words that together, when all memorized, add up to completely learning a language.As the eager learners we are, we get so caught up in progressing from simple present to past to perfect tenses that we start to think that compiling enough of these pieces will eventually make us perfect at the language, but every language is much greater than the sum of its parts.Instead of thinking of a language as some concrete thing with black-and-white boundaries and hard-and-fast rules, think of it as a living process by which its speakers communicate and accomplish tasks socially. Instead of trying to collect all the pieces, focus on using the pieces you have, watching how other speakers of the language mix and match their own pieces, and then pick up new pieces from other speakers as you learn them organically in context.4. Native speakers pay way less attention to your mistakes than you do.Foreign language anxiety is real and it can be crushing.The first few times trying to speak a new language in front of people feels like singing naked in front of a room of strangers, and for many this results in failure to launch.While anxiety is natural and all of us deal with it, youll be glad to know that youre usually the only one in the room judging your every word and your pronunciation. Natives arent looking at the language like you are; instead, they see through it as they use it to communicate with you.Try paying attention for a couple of hours to your own odd grammar mistakes, slips of the tongue and not-quite-right word choices in your native language, and youll realize that you hardly ever notice these sorts of things from yourself or anyone else.These four ideas are crucial for clearing away the mental stumbling blocks that y ou didnt even see lying in wait.Countless would-be polyglots doom themselves to eternal monolingualism when they think its too hard, when they force themselves through tedious classes, when they mistakenly think that a language can be memorized or when theyre simply too afraid to make mistakes.The efficient language learner doesnt waste their time, and once theyve got this pro-learning attitude down, theyre ready to move on to the second step.Step 2: Tap into Your Brains Natural Capacity for Statistical LearningDespite the seemingly stuffy name, statistical learning is generally the most enjoyable and easiest part of learning a new language.If youve ever tried to learn a language by immersing yourself, by watching TV or any other input-based language learning strategy, youve used statistical learning methods. But what is statistical learning, and how do you apply it to learning a new language?Whats statistical learning?Statistical learning is the process by which your brain compile s mass amounts of data and then uses this enormous sample to extrapolate super accurate and nuanced patterns within the data.As it relates to language learning, statistical learning basically means soaking yourself in a language and literally filling your head with countless numbers of observations and examples.Were talking data so numerous youve never met the computer that can handle them, but thankfully your human brain comes factory-ready for this kind of information gathering.When babies are born, they almost immediately start compiling linguistic data on speech sounds and frequencies, words and meanings, and eventually sentence structures and grammar rules. But babies arent the only ones who can exploit this process.When, for example, a speaker of English as a second language has spent enough time interacting with other users of the language, their brain will start to compile countless instances of phrases like I had fun and I had a good time. Eventually (usually subconscio usly), the learner picks up on the pattern that phrases like I had a fun are never used by native speakers, while phrases like I had fun are.Alongside all the other countless examples of different kinds of nouns, some that can be counted (like one time, two times) and others that cant (like two funs), all this data can be generalized into rules about not only how the words fun and time work, but how other words like them in the language might work.How does focusing on statistical learning enhance your language learning efficiency?Think of it as the sponge factor: The vast majority of statistical learning activities can be either seamlessly integrated into your daily routine or practiced from your couch in sweatpants and a ratty t-shirt.Statistical learning is easy because you dont have to take any special time to do it. Listening to your target language from a radio app on your phone while you wait for the bus or integrating it into your relaxation time with a TV show or movie means that the language isnt disrupting your day but instead blending into it. All those hours you would have been spending in class (and on getting there and back) can instead be your chilled-out linguistic osmosis time.Its also a more effective approach because it focuses on the language as a whole instead of memorizing its parts in the hopes of later building them up into something useful. Simply observing a language in its natural state is much more efficient than isolating single words and rules and isolating yourself to study them.Productive ways to practice statistical language learningThe goal of statistical learning practice is building up that corpus of data youre carrying in your head, and anything you do to that end should be focused on exposing yourself to natural instances of the language at a level at which you can understand part or most of it. An Oscar-nominated thriller with lofty, poetic language will be a waste of time for many beginners, but that doesnt mean you cant find something at a level youll understand and flesh out your sample of the language.Like we said, statistical learning covers almost any activity in which youre exposed to a language. That said, the possibilities are limitless, but here are a few suggestions to get you started:Read a familiar book in translation. Your familiarity with the storyline will give you a huge comprehension boost, allowing you to retain even more from the text.Watch a TV series thats right for your level. Challenge yourself with a Netflix binge, or tune into a plain and slow-talking kids show.Read a Wikipedia page about a familiar subject in your target language. Wikipedias a language learning goldmine, with millions of articles in dozens of languages. Just like reading a familiar story in a foreign language, this is one of the easiest and most efficient vocab-building exercises.Watch a Disney movie dubbed in your target language. Got an animated film youve seen a hundred times in English? Chances ar e youll understand a lot of it in your target language too.Eavesdrop in a park. Stake out on a bench and actively listen to passersby, seeing what you can understand and what you notice about their language use.Have a focused conversation. As soon as youve got your basic conversational vocabulary down, you can get some of your statistical input from real, live natives. Ask about subjects youve recently read about and observe how the speaker talks about them.Statistical language learning is an efficient way to cut out the memorization drills and start seeing and hearing what your target language really sounds like and what you can do with it. Its organic, effective and costs little or no extra time out of your busy day.But youre not gonna get very far without actually using what youre learning.Step 3: Apply the Statistics with Social LearningRemember all those formulas you learned in high school algebra?yeah, didnt think so.Data gathering is all well and good (and necessary), but if you dont make that data matter to you somehow, its gone as soon as the exams over.During and after all your data compiling, the real magic happens right here in the use-it-or-lose-it phase of efficient language learning.Whats social learning?More or less, its exactly what it sounds like.Social language learning is putting to use all that linguistic material youve been soaking up by using it for its intended purpose: socializing and communicating with others.If statistical learning is data gathering, then social learning is applied statistics, using effective repetition to make organic connections between the words youre learning and how they relate to the world around you. Its how you take the lessons and patterns youve drawn from all that data and convert them into new synapses and strong, deep, lasting connections in your brain.Remember fundamental fact #2 above: to learn anything well and retain it, you have to give it a use or purpose. And with language learning, that purp ose normally broadly falls into one of two categories:Using language to accomplish a task socially, from discussing where to go for lunch to explaining your problem to the computer repairman.Developing social relationships through which you experience the language, including those with friends and significant others, but also the postman who visits your home abroad or your overseas business partners.These two different kinds of activitiesâ"accomplishing tasks and building relationshipsâ"give you meaningful investments in the language.By getting important stuff done in another language, your use of that language will be more focused on practical things, like setting up the Internet in your new apartment and getting to know your new friends better.In short: Youll learn it because youll have to and youll want to.Whats so efficient about social language learning?In a nutshell, its unavoidable: No human being will ever learn a language without social interaction.The perfectionist w ill struggle with the urge to stay home and study their noun declensions for just one more hour before going to their language exchange, but most of the time thats a super inefficient use of time. Once youve gathered a decent statistical sample of the language, your time is best spent on the ground, playing trial and error with all the new rules and patterns your brain is testing out on the data.Furthermore, just like with statistical learning, most of the ways you practice it are fairly normal everyday activities for most of us, thus saving the time of constructing a big, artificial, inefficient study routine.Productive ways to practice social language learningThe secret is simple: Talk and listen.Heres a list of suggestions to get you started:Make a new friend. Meeting a person is always a good chance to chat, but the real social learning goldmine is investing in friendships and relationships that lead to important social, personal and emotional bonds in the language.Go on a dat e. You use your native language differently with a significant other than you do a friend or parent, just like you will in a second language. Dating gives you chances to explore the language from different angles while also adding an important social tie to your repertoire.Cook a meal together with someone. Organizing to accomplish a focused task is mega practical and also mega social. Join your new housemates in the kitchen and explore not only how you use the language to communicate with each other, but to talk about and interact with all the ingredients, dishes and appliances in your environment.Play a game with other speakers. Playing games for language learning is not only fun, its super efficient.Remember that social learning by definition is always going to involve another person, and that learning implies youll need to think about things at least a little bit.Something like going to a café or restaurant and repeating the phrase youve memorized to order your food, or even just rehashing the same get-to-know-you conversation every weekend, isnt learning so much as memorization or parroting. You need to get more flexible and spontaneous than that.As a rule of thumb, if a parrot can do it, it probably doesnt count as social language learning!Step 4: Achieve Maximum Language Learning EfficiencyOnce youve updated your attitude and learned a bit more about learning, youre already well on your way to a super efficient language learning routine.But heres the catch: None of these previous three steps does much good all by itself.Instead of finishing one step, wiping your hands clean and moving on to the next, think of efficient language learning like a big circle, a continuous process just like the language youre learning.This final step requires you to combine your can-do attitude with both statistical and social learning. This means that you now need to integrate all three of the previous steps!Statistical learning builds the foundation and supplies the fodder for your social learning endeavors. Those social encounters will often give you new data which send you back into the statistical learning zone, leading you to give a closer listen to something you thought you understood or learning new ways of talking about or doing the same thing. To support your ongoing statistical and social learning, youll need to frequently check your attitude, ensuring that you stay sailing smoothly and efficiently forward.Every now and then in your efficient language learning cycle, take a minute to revisit your attitude and put those four fundamental facts from before into action:1. Squash I cant thinking. You can do it and anyone can.2. Understand your purpose. What kind of communicative tasks do you want to accomplish with your language, and how can you best train for those tasks? Let the answers to these questions guide your learning.3. Dont expect to learn a language by memorizing the magic number of vocabulary words. Instead, learn how nat ive speakers use the language in their daily lives, and learn how to participate in that process.4. Never let fear of failure keep you from speaking. Nobodys paying enough attention to your language use to notice most of your mistakes, and if they do notice, they dont care!Use these principles to guide how you think about and approach your language, and make efficient decisions based on them. You know what you want out of your language, and you can decide what kind of practice and studying works best for you.Here are some examples of how you can combine statistical and social strategies with your good attitude in your language learning endeavors:Join a book club. Online or in person, find a book (or magazine, or newspaper) to read and discuss what youre reading with other speakers of the language. Go out of your way to use new words and structures youve learned from your reading, and pay attention to how others are using the same words of structures.Watch a romantic comedy or two a nd hop on Tinder. Pay attention to how the characters use language to flirt and get to know each other in your movie, and try imitating it a bit in real life. Youll probably sound corny at first, but if youre lucky itll make you seem even cuter.Watch a new series with a friend. Find a series you want to watch, or better yet, ask natives what theyre watching and join in. Observe the characters speech, and try some of it on for size as you chat with your friend while the credits go by.Combine an online study tool like FluentU with language exchanges and real-life meetups. Need a bit more structure? FluentUs massive library of video content is perfect for statistical learning, and you can use it in the way most efficient for your own language learning needs.Remember, everyone loves to learn quickly, and perfect grammar is never a bad thing, but dont lose focus of what really matters: Efficiency.Learning a language is a huge commitment, so you want to spend your time and energy wisely.S oak your brain in your target language, use it fearlessly in social situations and never lose focus on having a positive attitude.Do all that, and youll never waste a minute of your time on your journey to fluency.Jakob is a full-time traveler, obsessive language learner, and dedicated language teacher. He writes about language, travel, and the many places they meet on the road at his blog Globalect.
The Ultimate List of Blogs for Learning Languages
The Ultimate List of Blogs for Learning Languages The Ultimate List of Blogs for Learning Languages Textbooks only contain what can fit between two covers.Videos come to an end.Even your favorite language teacher eventually runs out of breath and stops talking.All your standard learning resources are finite.But realizing the limitations of your language learning tools doesnt have to fill you with existential dread.You can enjoy unlimited learning resources forever! Because language learning blogs exist.Blogs offer a huge array of material for anyone learning any language at any proficiency level, making them a flexible and awesome learning option.Below, well look at more than 25 diverse blogs for language learning. Well also link you to additional resources depending on what language youre learningâ"all in all, were talking well over a hundred blog recommendations with something for everyone.So bookmark, get comfortable and enjoy. Why Use Blogs to Learn a Language?Blogs often offer huge amounts of learning material in their archives. This means that even if the latest posts don t suit your learning needs, all you have to do is peruse the archives to find lots of material that might be more appropriate for your current level or goals.Plus, since new posts usually are added often, blogs are a self-replenishing resource. Youll never run out of material again!Finally, blogs are typically free. You can use as many as you like, mix and match or just look around to see which you like best without spending a dime. Some of the content offered by blogs is just as high-quality as textbooks and courses. This makes blogs the deal of the century.Types of Blogs You Can Use to Learn a LanguageGeneral Learner/Multilingual BlogsGeneral learner and/or multilingual blogs usually focus on learning languages in general. Common posts include information like learning tips and tricks, general resources and information on different languages.Language-specific Learner BlogsLanguage-specific learner blogs focus on helping you learn one particular language. These typically offer vo cabulary lists, posts on specific grammar rules and information on resources to learn the target language.Authentic BlogsAuthentic blogs are those blogs that are intended for native speakers of the language in which theyre written. For language learners, authentic blogs serve as terrific real-world reading practice.For best results, mix and match using all of the above. In the list below, well cover all three of these blog types, including learner and authentic blogs for 10 different languages.The Ultimate List of Blogs for Learning LanguagesGeneral and Multilingual Learning BlogsLanguage TsarLanguage Tsar is run by a world traveler who has studied 10 languages. As such, posts cover travel, general language learning tips, differences between languages and more. For instance, any language student can benefit from How to learn better pronunciation in 7 steps! while some will benefit from more specific posts like How different is Russian from Ukrainian?Plus, if youre looking for re ading practice in your target language, Language Tsar also offers posts in Catalan, Dutch, French, German, Irish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish and Ukrainian.FluentU Language and Culture BlogsYes, youre reading a language learning blog right now! Pretty meta, when you think about it. And FluentU blogs have a lot to offer language learners. There are frequently new posts on topics ranging from resources to learning tips to the latest language learning technology. For instance, you might enjoy our post on virtual reality language learning.In addition to the General Learner blog, which youre currently reading, FluentU offers a number of other blogs dedicated to specific languages, including Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. An additional blog helps anyone learning business English.There are even blogs designed to help speakers of Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Turkish learn Engl ish. And, if you happen to be a teacher, you might like the General Educator blog or blogs dedicated to educators of specific languages.Why, yes, that is a lot of helpful language blogs. Thank you for noticing!Subscribe to our weekly newsletter using the field at the bottom of the page and well send you free weekly updates with links to all the latest posts, along with information about exciting new FluentU features.If youre a FluentU user, its even better, because we make flashcard sets that correspond to blog posts for our video learning program. FluentU takes real-world videos (think news, commercials, movie trailers, music videos and vlogs) and turns them into personalized language learning lessons. Flashcard sets from vocabulary-based posts are focused around specific themes, but pull material from videos all across the platform so you can see words and phrases in authentic contexts.Start using FluentU on the website with your computer or tablet or, better yet, download th e FluentU app from the iTunes store or from the Google Play store to access material on your Android and iOS devices.The LinguistThe Linguist is run by Steve Kaufmann, who claims to speak a jealousy-inducing 16 languages. While the website also promotes some learning products you can buy, the blog routinely posts helpful free information. Some posts focus on providing guidance for learning specific languages, but most focus on tips that you can apply when studying any language. For instance, the post on how to learn vocabulary fast offers some helpful personal insight on vocabulary acquisition.Many of the posts mention LingQ, Steves own program, a platform that focuses on bringing authentic materials into the language learning experience. LingQ also offers tracking features and ways to socialize with a language learning community for support and information.Lindsay Does LanguagesLindsay Does Languages is targeted at inspiring independent language learners + online teachers. And with so much great material out there, who wouldnt want to be an independent language learner? Lindsay herself is an avid language learner and teacher.There are usually a few new blog posts each month. Most posts focus on lessons you can apply across languages, like how to stay motivated. However, there are also a number of beginner-level posts for specific languages, such as 9 Reasons to Learn Swedish (spoiler alert: for greater ease in acquiring pickled herring did not make the list).Fluent LanguageFounded by a native German speaker who has studied at least six languages, Fluent Language offers courses, toolkits and a podcast. But lets get to the good stuff: the blog.New posts are added about once a week. Some posts focus on specific language advice, like 9 of the Best Podcasts for Learning German, but most focus on more general topics that can apply to any language learner, such as Network Your Way to Better Language Skills and a Better Life.In addition to the blogs above and below, you can find more general blogs for language learning here, and more general, multilingual and language-specific blogs here.ArabicThe Arabic LearnerIf youre looking for a great Arabic blog, The Arabic Learner is a good place to start. While it sadly hasnt been updated in a while, there are plenty of older posts to help you learn Arabic. Topics include resources (like apps and classes) and tips and tricks for interacting, maintaining your enthusiasm and learning effectively. For instance, Arabic vocabulary how to increase it will give you tips for learning more words.7iber7iber is an Arabic organization based out of Jordan that focuses on multimedia journalism. Because different laws apply to news organizations and blogs, there has been some debate as to 7ibers status, but whatever you call it, its a great tool for Arabic students.7iber produces original content covering news and current events, so reading the blog is a helpful way to learn about culture along with practicing your language skills. Plus, some articles are also available in English. For instance, this Arabic article about cyber crime law is also available in English.Looking for more Arabic reading material? Heres a list of 15 Arabic blogs that starts with bilingual blogs and increases in difficulty.ChineseHacking ChineseThe Hacking Chinese blog is terrific for anyone looking to learn the language. The blog features challenges, games, resources and learning strategies to help students get the most out of their study time. There are even some particularly unique posts that you wont find elsewhere, like this one in which the narrator plays a Chinese video game while describing it in English to help viewers understand whats going on.If youre learning Chinese, there are more great Chinese learning blogs out there.Sina blogSina blog is a Chinese blogging service run by a large Chinese technology company. A number of different bloggers use this platform, so blogs cover a huge array of topics , including entertainment, sports, history, food, education, fashion, parenting and so much more.One blogger Chinese students might want to follow is Chinese actress/director Xu Jinglei, who China Daily once reported was the worlds most popular blogger, though shes no longer adding new posts. Astrologically-minded learners might also enjoy reading their daily horoscope in Chinese.There are plenty more authentic Chinese blogs available for learners, including some that are conveniently bilingual.FrenchFrench TodayIn addition to their French audiobooks and audio lessons for learners, French Today offers a variety of articles on both French vocab and grammar as well as French culture. Posts are divided into helpful categories for easy navigation. The blog is updated every week and you can subscribe to a newsletter to be notified of new articles.While posts are written by multiple bloggers, a good number are by Camille and Olivier, the founders of the French Today products and site, so there are sometimes tie-ins with specific lessons or books. You can access the blog and peruse their collection of audiobooks here.And dont worry about running out of material. More great French learning blogs are readily available for learners.Le Monde (The World)There are lots of great authentic French blogs out there, but if youre looking to stay up-to-date on the latest news, Le Mondes blogs might be your blog soulmate.Le Monde is a daily newspaper based out of Paris. There website offers a section specifically dedicated to blogs. Every day, several posts related to news and culture appear on this page. For instance, science-minded French students might like this article about an astronomical event.Here are some more incredible blogs on a variety of subjects for advanced learners, and learners of all levels can benefit from checking out more French news resources.GermanGerman is easy!If you love yourself some German blogs, this is one youll want to add to your arsenal (pe rhaps daily, even).The website address might be a bit misleading because it isnt updated daily, but new posts do appear every few days. Most of these posts are word of the day-style posts. But dont be fooled! You wont get a new vocabulary word and a simple definition. Instead, each post offers plenty of information on the word, its possible meanings, related words, several example sentences and even audio examples. For instance, this post on treten (to tread) will provide you with an in-depth discussion of the verb.You can check out more blogs for German learners here.Mit Vergnügen (My Pleasure)If authentic German blogs are more your speed, Mit Vergnügen may, in fact, be your pleasure.Mit Vergnügen focuses on events and culture in Berlin, including nightlife, restaurants, theater, music and more. This gives you the opportunity to practice your German while learning about all the coolest things and places in Berlin. For instance, German students traveling solo to Berlin might like this post on bars where you can drink alone.And this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are lots more blogs in German that are perfect for learners.ItalianCyber ItalianItalian blogs and gelato are impossible to resist. And while gelato may taste better, Italian blogs offer way more learning opportunities. Take, for instance, Cyber Italian.Cyber Italian is updated about once a week, providing listening exercises, dual-language readings, cultural information, grammar rules and more. For instance, this post offers some brief geographic information, maps and a quiz in Italian.Csaba dalla Zorza (Csaba from Zorza)Csaba dalla Zorza is a lifestyle blog dedicated to food. Italian food is amazing, so reading about Italian food in Italian is next-level awesome.Blog posts cover travel, kitchen items, food trends and recipesâ"yes, recipes. For instance, you might want to read this post on New Years recipes for festive treats that youll want to enjoy way more than once a year (with a side of language learning, of course).Here are some more cool Italian blogs (both authentic and learning-based) for your enjoyment.JapaneseTofuguIn the world of Japanese learning blogs, Tofugu reigns supreme. Tofugu is dedicated to discussing the Japanese language and culture.Language-related posts cover topics like resources, translators, study techniques and more. One helpful post for independent learners is 12 Ways to Answer Your Own Questions About Japanese, which provides some helpful ideas for how to find answers if you dont have a teacher.Check out more top-rated Japanese learning blogs, and youll be well on your way to fluency.??????? (Doing Nothing)Authentic Japanese blogs are a great way to strengthen your reading skills like youre in training for a language sumo match.??????? is a personal blog that focuses on the writers life in a small, rural town. Not only will this help you practice your reading skills, it will familiarize you with everyday vocabulary and teach you about small-town life in Japan. For instance, this post discusses the weather and the writers work, lunch and cat.More Japanese blogs about travel, food, culture and lifestyle await you.KoreanLearn Korean through K-POPWhen you need a fun Korean blog, Learn Korean through K-POP will always fit the bill.Learn Korean through K-POP is a blog dedicated entirely to helping you learn a language with the international music phenomenon. Each post contains a video of a song and then breaks down the lyrics one line at a time, sharing the Korean and its English translation. Theres even a quiz at the end to help you see how much you learned. For instance, if you want to improve your Korean with a danceable beat, you might look at the post on Bad Boy by Red Velvet.If and when you decide to venture outside of K-pop in your learning experience, there are a variety of quality Korean learning blogs available to teach you the language.?? (Heopop)Authentic Korean bloggers also provide a great learni ng tool to Korean learners. ?? is one addicting option.?? is most known for antics and stunts. Posts often relate to general topics. The blog also contains video content, so you can get both reading and listening practice. Do note, however, that you need to log in to access this content.PortugueseStreet Smart BrazilPortuguese blogs like Street Smart Brazil are just the thing you need to take your Portuguese skills to the next level.Street Smart Brazils main focus is Portuguese lessons, but their blog offers up some unbeatable free learning content. There are usually one or two posts per month, and they focus on useful topics like vocabulary, phrases and culture. For instance, if you enjoy a good beverage, you might want to read the post Heres How to Order Your Soft Drink in Brazil.Check out other Portuguese learning blogs to cover even more of the language.O Antagonista (The Antagonist)If you like your Brazilian bloggers to teach you language skills while serving up the latest n ews, O Antagonista has your back.O Antagonista is a news blog created by two journalists from Brazil. The blog covers current events, politics, culture and more. For instance, Portuguese students might like to read this brief article about a politician saying that Rio de Janeiro wasnt ready for Carnival.Best of all, there are several new posts each day, so youll never run out of content (unless youre a super fast reader).Check out more excellent Brazilian bloggers here.RussianExplore RussianRussian learning blogs are as beautiful as new fallen snow, and Explore Russian is no exception.Explore Russian combines video and text for a well-rounded learning experience. While it hasnt been updated recently, its archives are home to plenty of great learning material. Posts include on-location videos, word lists, grammar lessons and more. For instance, in Russian Cases on the Street, the host asks everyday Russians to explain Russian cases. The blog post also comes with a helpful list of examples.If you want more of the crème de la Kremlin of Russian learning blogs, look no further than this list.??????? ????????? (Alexei Navalny)Though controversial, Alexei Navalny is one of the most well-known Russian bloggers. Navalny is a prominent lawyer and political activist who has been critical of Putin. His blog, to which new posts are added almost daily, focuses primarily on politics and corruption, so its a helpful way to learn more about political conflict in Russia while you brush up on your reading skills. One article Russian students may enjoy is this one that discusses a historical photo and how it relates to current situations.Heres a variety of blogs for further reading to teach you about the Russian language and culture.SpanishLearn Spanish a little at a time!This is one of the most approachable Spanish learning blogs out there.Its a Tumblr that focuses primarily on resharing brief posts that will be useful to Spanish learners. These include posts on vo cabulary, expressions, learning tips and more. While its updated less consistently, youll find some great posts if you scroll through the archives. For instance, the post New Years Resolutions in Spanish is a fun and festive way to learn vocabulary related to changes you might want to make in your life.If you think this blog looks pretty awesome for your Spanish studies, theres plenty more where that came from.Vivir al Máximo (Live to the Limit)Sure, there are plenty of authentic Spanish blogs, but few are quite like Vivir al Máximo. Vivir al Máximo is a blog out of Spain dedicated to living life to the fullest. Posts cover entrepreneurship, travel, work, self-help topics and more. For instance, Spanish learners might enjoy a post that discusses some of the adventures the author has enjoyed along with why hes tired of traveling.Here are a few more blogs in Spanish for your reading practice and enjoyment.These 25 blogs will keep you rolling in language learning resources!
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