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Learning a language is like having a pet.  You need to feed and water it everyday.  You can’t miss days.  Many people who try to learn a language do really well at first.  They are really motivated.  They daydream about being a master of their target language and it gives them all this purpose and [...]

My Japanese teacher back in college spoke perfect English. I wanted to speak perfect Japanese someday, so talking with her was always motivating to me. One time I asked her if she could remember what got her interested in English in the first place. She said yes, she remembers the very day [...]

I need to make a confession. Over the past month or two, I’ve not been studying Spanish or any other language as I should. I found myself neglecting my SRS for up to a couple of weeks at a time. I was not studying any new material. I was not playing My Spanish Coach on [...]

Recently Khatzumoto over at All Japanese All The Time wrote a great article comparing language learning to boiling water. Khatzumoto’s metaphor reminded me a lot of one used by my favorite Thai forest monk Ajahn Chah. He said:
Nothing happens immediately, so in the beginning we can’t see any results from our practice. This [...]