Blog

For a language teacher deciding where to work, the choice comes down to one tradeoff. A marketplace like Preply or italki brings you students, but it takes a commission on your lessons and owns the relationship with them. Running your own online language school means you keep your students and your revenue and set your own rules, [...]

A language curriculum is the ordered plan that turns scattered lessons into a course: a set of goals, a sequence of units and lessons, the materials students study, and the checks that show they are learning. Developing one well is the difference between teaching a pile of words and building lasting ability. The good news is that [...]

You can create your own online language school by turning your lessons into flashcard decks, organizing them into a curriculum, and inviting your students to study on their phones - with no website to build, no marketplace taking a cut of your income, and no separate tools to stitch together. With a [web app for language learning] [...]

To teach a language online you need three things: a way to turn your lessons into something students can study on their own, a way to deliver those lessons and see who is keeping up, and a steady way to find new students. You do not need a website, a video studio, or a pile of separate apps. A single set of [language teaching tool [...]

The best all-in-one language learning app is the one that keeps everything you need - vocabulary, review scheduling, audio, and real speaking practice - inside a single place, so you stop copying words between tools and start actually learning. Most people do not need five apps. They need one app that covers the whole loop: meet a [...]

A spaced repetition learning system is a study method that brings each word or fact back for review right before you would forget it, with the gap growing every time you recall it correctly. It tracks how well you know each item, returns the hard ones sooner and the easy ones later, and retires what you have mastered, so vocabular [...]

The best free flashcards app depends on how you study: Anki offers the most control and a deeply configurable spaced repetition engine, Quizlet offers the biggest library of ready-made sets plus classroom tools, and Lingocard is a languages-first app with built-in audio, frequency dictionaries, and offline study included for free. [...]

When you finally feel ready to open your mouth and speak a new language, one question comes up fast: should you practice with native speakers or with other learners like yourself? The honest answer is that both have real advantages, and the people who progress fastest usually combine the two. This guide compares both modes plainly [...]

A common question that most language learners eventually ask is a version of the following: “Which is more important, grammar or vocabulary?” The answer to this question is that it depends on your needs. Certainly, early on it is necessary to learn basic words and phrases – such as, “Hello,” “Goodbye,” “Thank you” – but while it [...]

Before I get into the details of how to go about finding language exchange friends, let me share an anecdote from when I was learning Korean. ### An Anecdote When I lived in Korea (South Korea, that is), I was very fortunate to find a language exchange group almost immediately upon emigrating to the country. At the group, I was [...]

Receptive skills are listening and reading: the ways we take in language (input). Productive skills are speaking and writing: the ways we create language (output). Both matter. Input builds understanding and leads toward fluency, output reveals your gaps so you can work on them, and interacting in your target language lets you pra [...]

In this blog, you will find a framework for developing a study plan. While the details and the examples are all set in the context of second & foreign language learning, the main points are transferrable to other skills. You could, for example, use the same advice to train for sports, become more virtuosic in your musicianship on [...]

As a busy working father with full-time job responsibilities, there are not that many days when I have long periods of free time to spend on language learning. However, I still have a surprising number of small ‘hidden moments’ in my daily life – gaps which I can use to engage in microlearning my target language. In his inspiring [...]

The four core language skills are speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Listening and reading are the receptive skills you use to take language in, while speaking and writing are the productive skills you use to express yourself. Balanced daily practice across all four is the most reliable path to real fluency. When you want [...]

English phrasal verbs are expressions made of a verb plus one or more particles, usually prepositions or adverbs, that change the verb's original meaning: give up means stop trying, and look after means take care of. Native speakers use them frequently in everyday speech. Below are 205 meanings, each with a short definition and an [...]

In today's fast-paced world, effective communication skills are more important than ever. A robust vocabulary acts as a gateway to articulate thoughts, express ideas with precision, and connect with others on a deeper level. But how can we enhance our word power in a captivating and enjoyable way? Enter the realm of cloud-based vo [...]

Spaced repetition is an effective memorization technique based on the repetition of educational material according to certain programmable algorithms with constant or variable time intervals. Although this principle can be applied to the memorization of any information, it is most widely used in the study of foreign languages. Spa [...]

A frequency dictionary lists the words a language uses most often, ranked by frequency. Learning them in that order pays off fast: studies of English show the 1,000 most frequent words account for 85 percent of speech, and the 4,000-5,000 most frequent cover up to 95 percent of written text. That makes it the best starting point f [...]

To learn a language with flashcards, put a word on one side of each card and its meaning or translation on the other, then work through the deck, setting aside the cards you know. With the Leitner system, cards you recall move to groups you review less often, while missed cards go back to the first group. Flashcards for learning [...]

The best way to improve your vocabulary is to combine seven proven methods: listen to and repeat new words, use flashcards, attach images, memorize whole sentences, practice pronunciation, learn synonyms and antonyms, and watch films in the language you are learning. Then review each word with spaced repetition, right before you w [...]

The easiest way to find native speakers to practice with is to offer them something in return: practice in your own language (a language exchange), a skill you can teach, or payment for their time. The fastest free option is a speaking practice community that matches you with native speakers and fellow learners by language, level [...]

The fastest way to learn English is to beat the three problems that slow most learners down: remember new words with flashcards and spaced repetition, starting with the most common ones; turn spare minutes into study time with audio; and start speaking with native speakers early. Here's how I solved each of them. I asked myself h [...]