The biggest difficulty I had when learning Spanish was, perhaps surprisingly, speaking French. I had learned French to conversational fluency before learning Spanish. However, as my Spanish got better, I found it made speaking French much harder. The problem got so bad, that after only a week or two in Spain, I could speak better […]
Should I Have Done the MIT Challenge Over 4 Years?
One critique I got of the MIT Challenge was that I should have taken the classes over the normal four years, instead of twelve months. The naïve version of this critique was to argue that I should do the classes the way MIT students do—full time over a period of four years. But this criticism […]
How I’m Learning Spanish
I’m reaching the halfway point in Spain, the first of four countries, in my year without speaking English. I wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on what I’ve been doing to learn Spanish, what’s worked well and what hasn’t. I want to stress that this article is intended to be descriptive rather than prescriptive. […]
Why You Shouldn’t Learn a Language the Way Children Do
Now entering the fourth week of my year without English, I’ve seen a lot of different advice for learning languages. Some people believe in huge amounts of listening and reading. Others say take classes or dive into conversations immediately. I won’t comment on those strategies (yet), but I will point out one common suggestion: you […]
I'm a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, podcast host, computer programmer and an avid reader. Since 2006, I've published weekly essays on this website to help people like you learn and think better. My work has been featured in The New York Times, BBC, TEDx, Pocket, Business Insider and more. I don't promise I have all the answers, just a place to start.