What is comprehensible input? Here's what language learners need to know
Comprehensible input is anything in your target language that you can mostly understand. And …
Continue ReadingElise Cutts
Elise Cutts is the geek behind Monoglot Anxiety. A former geobiologist, she traded her pipette for a pen in 2022 and now writes about science instead of doing it. She started learning German kind of by accident in 2019 and has been nerding out about languages ever since. She speaks English and German, and is learning Spanish and Italian.
You can follow Elise on Twitter and Instagram, or subscribe to her newsletter to get a new recommendation for German songs, podcasts, YouTube channels, and other media every week.
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How I self-taught German to C1 using immersion — despite being busy and disorganized
As one reader put it, teaching myself German took “2 years of not really doing much …
Continue ReadingLanguage Diary 3: Now with tracked time data!
Lots of German! Also: I finally found a way to track my language learning time consistently.
Continue ReadingWhy I don't like to "gendern" in German — and why I do it anyways
As an English native speaker, explicitly calling out that I’m female all the time feels more …
Continue ReadingHow to automatically track language learning time using iOS automations
You can use iOS automations to automatically start and stop time tracking apps like Toggl when you …
Continue ReadingScience of Language: Newborns learn speech sounds using same brain regions as adults
A new study found that newborns start recognizing vowel sounds just hours after birth using a …
Continue ReadingWho needs language laws?
Last weekend, thousands of people assembled in Belfast, Northern Ireland to march through the …
Continue ReadingLanguage Diary #2: Italian Crosstalk
Welcome back to my language diary. Which is apparently biweekly now with posts appearing on either …
Continue ReadingBook Review: The Language Secret by John Stedman
If you’re a language nerd like me, you probably waste hours reading books about languages that …
Continue ReadingHow I Passed the Goethe B2 German Exam With a Nearly Perfect Score
Last week on Monday I officially went from monoglot to… duo-glot? Bilingual sounds wrong. I …
Continue ReadingHow to make better language flashcards by combining writing practice with spaced repetition
Writing is one of my favorite ways to actively study German. It is great for vocabulary building and …
Continue Reading10 Great German Science Youtube Channels
German science videos were some of the first “real” German media that I could …
Continue ReadingThe best German Anki template ever. Probably.
After almost a year of experimentation, I’m finally satisfied enough with my German Anki …
Continue Reading11 ways to practice writing in your target language
Learning to write in a new laguage can be intimidating, especially if you’re learning alone. …
Continue ReadingA candid review of Pimsleur Danish
I received a lot of reccomendations of the Pimsleur language programs from family members back when …
Continue ReadingIs Duolingo bad?
Is Duolingo bad? You’ve probably heard a lot of criticisms of this popular app if you’ve …
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