Turkish Foods: 19 Must-Try Dishes & Essential Vocabulary
Discover the best of Turkish foods with our guide to 19 must-try dishes, from kebabs to baklava. Learn essential food vocabulary too!
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Perfectionist paralysis
Perfectionism is usually thought of as a desirable quality to have. You can’t get better than “the best”, right? Well, in my opinion perfectionism is among the worst possible attributes a person can have if they really want to achieve anything in life. Yes, high standards are important, and yes, if what you do is […]
Unleash your confidence
People know I feel that confidence is an absolutely crucial part of generally improving your life and especially for being able to speak languages well, but it’s been pointed out that I have a somewhat insensitive way of telling people to be more confident. I feel that the slap-in-the-face approach of telling people not to […]
Settling in, first impressions of American Sign Language & video tour of my house
I’ve been in Austin a few days and I can already see that it’s going to be a fun month here!! I have actually intentionally not been out so much, in order to do some writing and ASL learning in preparation before the city explodes into a social frenzy from next week when the immense […]
Challenges in the Philippines + video in Tagalog
I’ve already settled into Austin and am well into my ASL mission (first impressions & hopefully another video in ASL coming on Saturday!) but I thought I should wrap up the story of my time in the Philippines first! The last time I updated I had just moved into the cottage on White Beach in […]
Next mission: American Sign Language!
Hello from Austin, Texas! 😀 It may seem like there aren’t that many options for an English (and Spanish) speaking Irish guy to learn a new language in the United States of America, but I see opportunity everywhere and here is no exception 😉 You can always learn a language no matter where you are, […]
Tagalog: a fun language to learn in the Philippines!
In this post, I’d like to give a summary about some cool features of Tagalog and my impressions of it for those of you curious! Best news: Encouraging locals When describing features of a language if you leave out context of how it’s spoken and who’s speaking it and focus just on grammar and vocabulary, […]
Why my destiny was to never speak Spanish and how I did it anyway
It’s easy to look at someone who already speaks a second language and just think that it comes naturally to them. Perhaps if you see something like the video of me sharing my salsa learning experience in pretty good Spanish, you might think that speaking Spanish was just my destiny. I’m “naturally talented” with languages […]
The most important thing to think about before doing something important or nerve-wrecking
You see the native speaker of your target language, that girl/boy you like, an important person you admire or you could be moments away from clicking “send” on an important e-mail or job application, or pressing that last digit to make an important phonecall. And then it starts: the self-doubt, the reasons you’ll fail and […]
The importance of experimentation over blind faith
As an engineer with a scientific background, I am quite sceptical to wild claims, in life, explaining how the universe works, and in language learning. Even in the days of ebooks and smartphones we still apply backward centuries-old thinking to concepts that should have died out long ago. While some would call it closed mindedness, […]
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