The last post celebrated the benefits of rereading texts. This post delivers the promised rereading activity that you can use on your own or with a small group if you are an autodidact, or, if you are a teacher, can conduct in class or assign to students. If you’ve tried adding a bunch of different sounds […]
Tag Archives: habits
Don’t Read, Reread
It wouldn’t be unfair of you to ask why I read a letter this morning written to someone other than me, or why I did so twice, once silently and once aloud, or why these were the fifth and sixth times this week that I had read this same letter. “Curiously enough, one cannot read a […]
Rando Mitem, Your Friend and Mine: using random items to spark conversations
Note: this article is for both teachers and learners. If you are learning on your own or in a small group, you can easily adapt the ideas for your purposes. How many things can you say in your target language about the item in the first picture? What kinds of things can you say? What […]
Party Tricks
I don’t have the best party tricks. My elbows and one thumb are double-jointed (see GIF), but I haven’t parlayed that into on-demand entertainment. I don’t do any good impressions. I can’t fold my tongue into a swan shape, although I can fold a hand towel into something like a Cornish game hen (picture below, video […]
Spare No Tupperware: Erasmus on living in the language
Like most people, I read some Erasmus this morning. A friend had asked for a particular passage in Erasmus’s booklet De Ratione Studii (roughly, “On Study Habits”); after finding the passage, I was intrigued enough to read the book from the beginning. Several pages in, I found a delightful, Indwelling-Language-evoking passage in which Erasmus discusses internalizing […]
This Day In History: A quick, expandable source of language and culture
Yesterday’s #indwelli was about using a Today in History list in your target language to get bite-sized pieces of both language and culture. In this post we want to expand on the value and uses of Today in History for acquiring a language. As a language learner, you should always be on the lookout for input […]
Driving With Dido: How I Came To Read Latin Extensively
NOTE 1: Although the texts are Latin, the 50 principles outlined in this article apply to any language. Don’t let the title deter you! NOTE 2: This article is jam-packed with suggestions for specific texts and specific habits. As a result, it is, well, extensive. If you prefer to read offline or want to be […]
On the Go, In the Language: Introducing #indwelli
You’re stuck in line at the DMV. (In other words, you’re at the DMV.) How do you you use the time? Maybe you check Facebook. That’s fine—probably better than checking it when you’ve got time to do something else. Maybe you make a shopping list. Maybe you don’t “use” the time at all; maybe you […]